Welcome to a special Friday Dispatch Podcast.

I'm your host Sarah Isger joined by Steve Hayes.

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Today is a real treat for me personally.

We are talking to Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Romer about his plan to reopen the economy

safely amidst the pandemic.

He was the chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank and is now what

I can only imagine is the favorite professor at New York University's economics department.

I really think you're in for something special today.

Let's dive right in.

Paul Romer, you are the man with a plan.

You have been making the rounds discussing your plan.

Just give us your explanation of your plan to reopen the economy, get people back to work

as an economist.

So I find it it's important when you face a complicated problem to strip things down

to the essence and ask what's the key here?

The key is we've got a small number of people, a few percent of the population who are

infectious and pose a threat to others.

We want to isolate them to keep them from infecting others.

The problem is we don't know who they are.

...