So what's it feel like as an economic historian to be living through a moment that's plainly historic from an economic perspective?

It is sort of mind blowing. I remember back from the 2008 recession. I had said to myself, I never thought in my life I'd lived through a bank run.

And here were people lining up outside banks. Now I'm living through a pandemic. It is just really hard to fathom.

That is Christina Romer. I'm a professor at the University of California Berkeley.

She is a scholar of economic catastrophe, the Great Depression in particular.

She was also chair of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers at the start of his first term during the darkest days of the global financial crisis. She had been surprised to get that job.

And several months later, I was talking to Rahm Emanuel, the President's Chief of Staff, and I said, by the way, just tell me why I got this job.

And he said, you were an expert on the Great Depression and we thought we might need one.

It did take several years, but the US and global economies recovered from that catastrophe, recovered pretty well at least.

But now, the COVID-19 pandemic has produced an economic threat that borders on the existential.

In the first quarter this year, the GDP shrank by 4.8%.

Nearly 46 million jobless claims have been filed in the last three months.

Some advisors to the President are warning of unemployment numbers straight out of the Great Depression.

This is way worse than anything we saw in the Great Depression.

And so, with everything going on right now, we thought it'd be good for us to consult a Great Depression expert if only to help us make sense of it all.

Today on Freakinomics Radio, Christina Romer tells us the valuable lessons we can draw from the past.

I still feel we should have done even more.

She lists the current priorities.

It is the single biggest thing that needs to be done very quickly.

And whether we'll make it out okay on the other side.

I mean, the history of this country is rising to challenges.

From Stitcher and Dubner Productions, this is Freakinomics Radio.

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