Hubbard was involved in that discussion in Washington. As policymakers addressed the greatest economic crisis in nearly a century, Hubbard warned them that it was more dire than they imagined. “I and other economists had been worried about a doom loop since the beginning of the pandemic,” Hubbard recalled. A doom loop is a term in modern economics that means a cycle of negative feedback. When the pandemic hit, the world suffered a supply shock: trade was disrupted, factories closed, stores shuttered. If workers didn’t start earning again soon, the supply shock could turn into a demand shock,
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