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New column for @Marker on the way a lack of demand, not shutdowns, is what's now holding the economy back. https://marker.medium.com/forget-shutdowns-its-demand-shock-that-s-killing-our-economy-3062e94c122e
You still hear people saying we need to "Open up America." But while there are still places, like CA, that have tight restrictions in place, in most of the U.S., the economy is open. That hasn't translated, of late, into the kind of job growth we need with 10 million unemployed.
That's not because of capacity restrictions. It's because many Americans now don't have money to spend (now that the stimulus payments have ended), and lots more Americans are wary of spending the money they do have in places that seem high-risk: restaurants, theaters, gyms, etc.
The basic problem we face is that we have an economy in which close-contact personal services account for a lot of jobs, and particularly a lot of working-class jobs.
That's an economy that's poorly set up to handle a pandemic, in which close contact with strangers is risky.
That's an economy that's poorly set up to handle a pandemic, in which close contact with strangers is risky.
