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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I say this without hint of hyperbole: This is worse than 2008 by many multiples.

2008 could be addressed because it stemmed from one thing: MBS. Fix banking, fix the problem.

This is a health disaster which will metastasize through not only all elements of the economy, but also the social fabric of the country (which is already frayed).

The only way to deal with this is a nuclear option. Forced shutdown of all but essential services.

Now.

And we needn't take that economic pain, which would be distributed unfairly. We needn't say, "Oh well, it's always a bad idea to own an eatery" or "Well, bricks and mortar retail was already fading," or "Find another gym." No. We can and must save those people because It's Not Their Fault.

And the way to do that is to freeze time. Sixty day national forbearance.

(Adder, don't tell me why this is cumbersome, or impossible. It's not. It's totally doable. If we can pass that sick leave bill - which as structured will do very little to help any workers - we can freeze payment obligations for 60 days.)

Atrios:

Good Guys And Bad Guys

Maybe there are a couple of possible mechanisms, but the only thing to be done for the economic situation right now is to give a lot of free money to people. It would be at least mildly encouraging if we had one political party arguing for that and another political party arguing the other way and then who knows it might even happen. But that's mostly not what's going to happen (prove me wrong!) and we're at best going to get one side arguing for half measures that are complicated and get watered down and screwed up even more by the other side.