Can governments escape prolonged recession?

Data analysis from the New Statesman

One of the striking features of the novel coronavirus outbreak is that it triggered near-unanimity among economists about how to tackle it. But now that unanimity is beginning to fracture: not over what should be done to weather the recession, but over whether the economy can in fact rebound. Initial hopes of a “Cape Cod economy” seasonal recovery have been replaced in some quarters by something far gloomier.

With that in mind, the New Statesman’s political editor Stephen Bush examines the possibilities of the optimists’ V-shape recovery against the more recent concerns of a deep and profound crash.