Episode description

With the highest Covid19 death toll in the world, and 26 million Americans claiming unemployment insurance, the US economy has taken a massive hit. But how quickly can it bounce back?

Will America’s economy will be strong enough to pull its weight in the global economy? Economist Jim O’Neill explores the current scale of the problem and asks how resilient are US businesses and the country’s economy.

In Business hears how Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer has devised A Roadmap to Responsibly Re-opening America, which seeks to balance the health priorities with the pressure to open up the economy again.

The story of a small bakery in Brooklyn, which has had to lay off its workers, is illustrative of the damage that has been inflicted on businesses across America. Has the fiscal response from the authorities been sufficient to protect businesses so that they can recover once lockdowns end?

Is American manufacturing sufficiently flexible to pivot and adapt to the changing circumstances of the Covid health crisis? And will one of the longer term consequences of the crisis be a re-thinking of the character of American capitalism?

The answers to these questions will shed light on whether American will still be able to play its traditional crucial role in the global economy.

Presenter: Jim O'Neill Producer: Philip Reevel

Picture Credit: Getty