As states slowly experiment with reopening their economies, there is a deep sense of frustration in policy circles about the lack of a clear national response to the coronavirus.

Part of this has to do with the United States having a system in which many key decisions, such as the closing of businesses or opening of schools, are left to state and local governments. Part of it has to do with mismanagement at the highest levels of the federal bureaucracy. Part of it has to do with having a president with a limited attention span. And part of it has to do with American suspicions of central planners.