The U. S. COVID Economic Recovery Plan

Abstract

We tend to abstract from the conventional economic wisdom that “bouncing back” to the economy that existed prior to March 17, 2020 is a great idea.

The economic structure in America was already deeply flawed and damaged from 20 years of economic integration with the rest of the world and particularly China. (Vass, Laurie Thomas, U.S. National COVID Economic Collapse and the Collapse of the U.S. Dollar. (April 14, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3575761.

We argue that the 70% of the U. S. economic structure that was locked down resembles the shambles of the German economy after May 8, 1945.

Part of the German economy that was connected to large global corporations was still functioning, but the domestic economic structure in Germany had been reduced to rubble.

The full extent of the U. S. economic damage has not been experienced yet, because the commercial rental market and the mortgage loan market have not reflected in the number of citizens who no longer have an income to pay rent or mortgages.

We argue that the contemporary U. S. COVID recovery plan must also prevent the spread of Chinese communism, which entails a policy response to limiting the damage caused by the promotion of the China trade deals by crony corporate capitalism, such as the members of the Business Roundtable and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.

Keywords: covid lockdown, neoclassical productivity school, free enterpreise entrepreneurial economics, technology innovation

JEL Classification: O21, O31, O35