Amid the pandemic, universal basic income is needed more than tax and rate cuts

Published March 16, 2020 3:19pm ET



With a second rate cut in nearly as many weeks, the Federal Reserve has depleted its traditional monetary tools to grant the public fiscal stimulus during the coronavirus crisis.

And despite the Fed and Congress’s best efforts, markets simply haven’t responded. Within seconds of opening today, the Dow plunged 10% and the S&P fell 8%. Such a crash would be expected during any new pandemic of coronavirus’s magnitude, but even more so when the solutions fail to solve the underlying problems. A fatal and infectious pandemic with no vaccine creates both a supply and a demand shock, but the immediate issue at hand is simple: the majority of workers who cannot do their jobs from home.

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