I spoke to a number of economists and federal policy experts, who told me there are some extremely good and extremely bad ideas on the table. The first is spending aimed directly at stopping the spread of the virus: buying masks, producing a vaccine, paying for testing and so on. “I can think of nothing worse,” Claudia Sahm, director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, told me. ADGiving money to people directly enables them to make economic choices that limit the spread of the virus. “The response should be fast and aggressive,” says Chye-Ching Huang, senior director of economic policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Source: Washington Post March 12, 2020 17:32 UTC