Coronavirus
The Case for Lockdown: in Italy’s Lombardy, It Can Reduce Covid-19 Potential Fatalities from 160,000 to 25,000
According to an analysis by Bocconi University professor Carlo Favero, the number of people infected with the coronavirus in Lombardy, Northern Italy, is 120,000, while...
Testing People and Targeted Isolation: How to Save More Lives (and the American Economy)
Nobel laureate Paul Romer's model shows that if we use a test to determine who gets put into isolation, the fraction of the population...
A Special Capitalisn’t Episode: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Economic Shutdown
One of the prominent economic debates to emerge during the coronavirus outbreak has been whether to continue with shelter-in-place measures that are hurting the...
Chile Reaches Its Greenspan Moment
"I am in a state of shocked disbelief," former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan said during the 2008 crisis, before confessing: "I found a...
From Most No-Brainer to Most Complicated: A List of Policy Proposals to Mitigate the Virus’ Impact
Policymakers need to figure out which sectors we wish to keep up and running (food, health care), which sectors we want to contract rapidly...
America’s Broken Health Care System Is the Biggest Obstacle to Containing the Coronavirus
Over the past few weeks, it has become abundantly clear that the US health care system is uniquely ill-equipped to deal with a crisis...
Please, Don’t Use Taxpayer Money to Bail Out Investors Like Me
When we invested in stocks and bonds, we knew we might have to face a storm or two. The high returns we received on...
Economics, Law and Finance Professors from Major Universities Write to Congress : “Bail Out People Before Large Corporations”
"Bailouts allow investors to keep all the profits in good times without bearing the losses in bad times. Instead, bailouts impose losses on taxpayers, including those...
The Covid-19 Bailout That Big Business Is Lobbying for Could Make America Unrecognizable
Supporting industries is necessary to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic. But using the coronavirus as an excuse, Boeing and other companies are...
Stick, Carrot, and Evergreen Loans: A Policy Proposal to Save Small and Medium-Sized Firms
Restaurant owners, retailers, and the like employ more than 50 percent of the US workforce, yet neither have cash buffers nor access to Federal Reserve support. In...
