No V in sight for the global economy. Societal despair in the US partly due to a health system sold out to rent-seekers. Perhaps telemedicine might help, walking almost certainly can.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We are now projecting a deeper recession in 2020 and a slower recovery in 2021.” –  Gita Gopinath, IMF chief economist

Neil Pane and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, What Economists Fear Most During This Recovery
(FiveThirtyEight, 23 June 2020)
This article is based on a survey conducted with 34 American quantitative macroeconomic economists. What do they see? The same as us: a reverse radical (i.e. a mirrored version of the square-root symbol) recovery: a steep drop followed by a quick partial recovery and a longer period of slower, mixed growth. Their forecast applies to the US, but we think it is also valid for the G20 world: it will make the global bounce back from this recession much bumpier than previous recessions. Interestingly, none of the 34 saw a V-shaped recovery (reads on 7-9 min).
Click here to read the full article.

Anne Case and Angus Deaton, “The Despair Is Smoldering in Society”
(Der Spiegel, 24 June 2020)
In this interview, the two famous economists (husband and wife, Angus is a Nobel laureate) explain why the US health-care system is partly to blame for the millions of Americans who’ve seen their wages stagnate for decades. In their opinion, the health-care industry is responsible for the fact that the US has the lowest life expectancy of any rich country while spending more on health care than other (17% of GDP). They go on to explain why COVID-19 is now highlighting the broader dangers American society is facing (reads in 7-8 min).
Click here to read the full article.

John Seabrook, The Promise and the Peril of Virtual Health Care
(The New Yorker, 22 June 2020)
During the pandemic, telemedicine has expanded dramatically. It now looks like the future of health care, but is it a future that we want asks this article?  The response is more nuanced than we might think. Long, dense and rich – interesting throughout (10 min+).
Click here to read the full article.

Alon Harel, Private gain, public loss
(AEON, 22 June 2020)
An interesting argument put forward by a lawyer. Putting public services in private hands is bad economics. Worse, it undermines our bonds as a political community. Let’s imagine a world where all parks, public museums, prisons, forests, health services and other institutions are private. Citizens wouldn’t be able to affect how these services operate and would be unlikely to feel responsible for these institutions. They would therefore lose their very sense of belonging to a political unit, whose future they should control through collective effort (reads in about 10 min.).
Click here to read the full article.

Gloria Liu, Walking Is Making a Major Comeback
(Outside, 8 June 2020)
Walking will emerge as one of the big winners in the post-COVID era. Many have long dismissed this gentle, approachable activity for more adrenaline-pumping forms of exercise. They’ve been missing out—big-time! This comes as no surprise to us: coping with COVID could perhaps be our 11th reason (reads in 7-8 min).
Click here to read the full article.