A Nobel Prize Winner’s Suggestion for Fixing the Economy

Deep Background with Noah Feldman

Pushkin Industries

News Commentary, Government, News

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Paul Romer, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at New York University, argues that we can keep the economy from tanking during the coronavirus pandemic without risking people's health. We just need many, many more tests.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin.
0:08.7	It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?
0:13.8	Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.
0:17.6	In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examine an unmistakable turning point in American politics, the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most controversial rulings in Supreme Court history. So if you're trying to make sense at the present moment, check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore. Listen on theHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:40.9	From Pushkin Industries, this is deep background, the show where we explore the stories behind the stories in the news.
0:48.6	I'm Noah Feldman, and we are still talking about coronavirus. In particular, we're going to talk today about the interaction between the virus and the economy.
1:00.0	How soon can we go back to work?
1:02.5	How safe will that be?
1:04.1	How unsafe will we be if we don't look out for the economy?
1:07.9	To discuss these very difficult issues, I spoke to Paul Romer, a Nobel-winning
1:13.4	economist at New York University. He used to be the chief economist of the World Bank, and he's
1:18.7	been thinking hard about this subject.
1:22.8	Paul, thank you very much for joining me. I want to start with a very influential essay that you and
1:29.5	Alan Garber, the provost at Harvard published in the New York Times, where you were the first,
1:35.3	I would say, serious people to put in a major public venue, the economic concerns about what we do
1:42.1	about coronavirus on a par with the public health concerns or in relation
1:45.8	to the public health concerns. Describe to me, if you will, your current thinking on that
1:50.9	very challenging question. Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I think there were a lot of people who
1:56.2	were recognizing the size of the economic cost that we were going to bear.
2:01.6	I think what was distinctive about our op-ed was a very specific proposal about how to craft a middle ground,
2:10.6	where we get out of this trap where we either have to kill the economy or kill lives.
2:16.6	So if I can, let me just try and explain the basics of the challenge here.
	...

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