Table of Contents
Nobel Prize Winner: Paul Krugman
- Lockdowns will continue: In India and Across the World.
- Even countries such as Singapore and Japan, which seemed to have contained the pandemic in the early days, have introduced harsh lockdown measures over the past week.
Coronacoma-Paul Krugman
- “Coronacoma”- economic equivalent of a medically induced coma.
- The economic response to the crisis will have to include two parts:
- One, an immediate disaster relief component that ensures survival of both firms and workers who have been rendered idle.
- And, two, a stimulus component that aims to repair and restart production lines during the exit phase of the lockdown.
- Thailand, whose PCI is a little more than two times that of India, has announced a package that is 10 times bigger.
- Malaysia, whose PCI is four times that of India, has announced a package that is 16 times bigger.
- Even poorer neighbour Pakistan has a much larger covid-19 response package (as share of its GDP) compared to India.
EBI (emergency basic income)- A Way forward
- It is like a Universal Basic Income, but one that is subject to a rollback when normalcy returns.
- It can inspire the confidence of both ordinary citizens and bond markets, and help resolve the trade-off between lives and livelihoods that the country is now staring at.
US Stimulus Plan
- “The stimulus plan on the table calls for $2 trillion in spending. Cash transfer included in that plan is a one-time $1,200 payment to individuals,”
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