Economist Stephen Moore said during an interview on Sunday that the U.S. could be headed to into another Great Depression if the economy isn’t restarted by May amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“At some point soon, we’re going to have to make some real decisions about what kind of a calamity we are causing through the lock-down of our economy. I’m not saying we should be inattentive to the public health concern.… But at some point, we have to worry about what we’re doing to our society, and what kind of economy we’re going to have after this is all over,” Moore, who has advised President Trump on economic issues in the past, said on John Catsimatidis’s radio show.
“If we go much past May 1, we are facing a potential Great Depression scenario,” Moore added. The economist also said that the country’s unemployment rate could get as high as 23 percent. The Great Depression saw the highest unemployment rate in the country’s history at around 25 percent in 1933.
In the past two weeks, an unprecedented 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment. Some have estimated the the unemployment rate has already spiked to about 10 percent, with one economics professor saying that it could be as high 13 percent.
During the Great Recession, unemployment peaked at 10 percent in October 2009.
Trump has continuously repeated that he wants America to get back to work as soon as possible, but earlier in the week, the White House extended its social distancing guidelines until the end of April, as COVID-19 continues to spread across the country.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have gone to small businesses and lagging industries in the recently passed $2 trillion stimulus package. However, some lawmakers are unsure that the mammoth package will be enough to mitigate the economic fallout caused by the virus. Some lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans have signaled that they are willing to pass a fourth coronavirus relief bill, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Friday confirmed that there will be a fourth bill.
John Catsimatidis is an investor in The Hill.