Robert Reich Says ‘There Is No Reason to Bail Out Big Companies’

We’re trying to stimulate the economy in the traditional way, but this is not your typical recession, not like after 2008. This economic crisis is entirely because we have an unprecedented public-health crisis. We need to shut the economy down so people can be home and safe, rather than spreading the virus if they’re not.

The public needs to understand that this is kind of a giant extortion game: Businesses saying if you don’t pay me off, I’m going to fire all my workers and shut the economy down. But in this game the real cards are being hidden. In this game the economy has to be shut down—that’s the way to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.