THE BEST IS YET TO COME
the economy was in an exceptionally strong state when the virus hit. If the economy had been in a state of depression or recession, the impact would have been a whole lot worse. Second, the medical facilities in the U.S. were also up to the challenge of a pandemic and responded quickly and effectively. In early 2020, the U.S. economy was in as good a shape as could be hoped. The unemployment rate was at its lowest level since 1969, and the economy was experiencing its longest period of uninterrupted economic expansion in history, lasting 128 months from June 2009 to February 2020. And as long as the expansion had lasted, there still was no sign that it was slowing down. On the medical front, the U.S. was better prepared than most other OECD countries, as illustrated by the number of ICU hospital beds per 100,000 of population.
COVID-19 Everyone knows how much damage the coronavirus pandemic has caused worldwide. But from my perspective, the U.S. has done an amazingly good job given how dangerous this virus is. The story of the coronavirus pandemic and the economy is not one of whether things have been bad or not. Things have been bad... But as of today, the U.S. is way off its earlier lows from both an economic and a health perspective. The real story revolves around just how bad the coronavirus’s impact has been on U.S. health and on the economy, and how quickly both are recovering. And here again, the news is positive. The impact of the coronavirus on both U.S. health and the economy could have been a lot worse than it was for two reasons. First,
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151.1
150
U.S. Total Nonfarm Payroll Employment
145
140
135
130
130.3
125
72
November 2020
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