Debt Wars
The unprecedented fiscal spending that many governments unleashed in response to the COVID-19 crisis has fueled an increasingly heated debate over the risks posed by public debt. But the debate is far from new, and history holds important lessons that should inform it.
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Transcript
Elmira Bayrasli: Welcome to Opinion Has It. I’m Elmira Bayrasli.
The COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t just a public-health crisis. It also pushed the global economy into the sharpest downturn since the Great Depression.
Archive Recording: We’re going to begin with the economic consequences of this escalating outbreak.
Archive Recording: It’s put Wall Street into that steep slide and it’s threatening main streets across the country now, from big companies to small mom-and-pop shops.
Archive Recording: Schools, work, even iconic institutions like Broadway and Disney world are shut down.
EB: To limit the fallout, governments opened the fiscal floodgates.
Archive Recording: To begin with breaking news at this hour, the US is now headed toward a wartime footing in the fight against the pandemic.