The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the economy into a deep recession. The crisis will also create lasting economic damage from the jump in debt as a result of higher federal spending and lower federal revenues.

The economic crisis has highlighted reckless fiscal policies and a lack of foresight by our political leaders.

The economics news is dismal with reports every day of shutdowns, layoffs, and furloughs. More than 16 million Americans have been thrown out of work so far, and we have entered the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The White House and FEMA are swooping in to grab masks, thermometers, and other items in a secretive process with apparently little recourse.

Federalism should underpin disaster preparation and response, and emergency supply systems should be mainly based on distributed stockpiling, markets, and horizontal cooperation.

Disasters usually prompt calls for a top‐down response led by the Commander in Chief and guided by the supposedly higher expertise in Washington.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the safety of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, foods, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The agency also regulates the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco.

Some pundits are blaming the slow federal response to COVID‐19 on budget cuts and supposedly shrunken federal bureaucracies.

The economic damage from COVID-19 business shutdowns could be massive. We’re starting to see the effects with initial unemployment claims spiking to a record 3.3 million last week.

President Trump is eager for businesses to reopen, now setting a goal of the end of April. Former Vice President Biden is pushing the opposite way, saying he wants an immediate nationwide stay‐at‐home order to slow the spread of COVID-19.