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Audio Interview

Government response and economic impact during COVID-19

Published on May 31, 2020   25 min

Other Talks in the Playlist: Interviews with business leaders and scholars

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Interviewer: Professor Galbraith, thank you very much for speaking to us today. I'd like to record that today is the 14th of May because we're talking about what we think should happen in the future, and therefore I think it's important that listeners should know when we're having this conversation. So Professor Galbraith, let me ask you straightforwardly: what do you think governments should do given the pandemic that we're experiencing, and what do you think the consequences will be of governments doing what you think they should do? Prof. Galbraith: The first thing that governments should do is to pay careful attention to what the public health authorities believe to be necessary, and what the best scientific evidence is for containing and indeed suppressing the pandemic itself. That is essential and it is the phase that we have been struggling with in the United States, and also I believe in the UK and in Europe for the last several months. That's not my professional area, but it's obvious I think to many people what that largely consists of at the present time, at least it's fairly well known, and the deficiencies of the public response are relatively clear. Of course I'm professionally an economist, so my emphasis has been on the question of how to handle the economic implications of what has been happening. If I had to point to the single most important thing, I would say it is essential to understand that this is not a short-term problem, it is not a problem
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Government response and economic impact during COVID-19

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