Business Professor Gives Insight on Economic Impact of COVID-19

By Chelsea Boyd

With growing awareness of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, there has been an impact on the economy and stock markets in the United States and around the world.

“My short answer is I’d be an arrogant fool to think I know what’s going to happen to the economy and to the markets,” business and economics professor at NDMU Larry Beyer said about the economy and markets’ impact due to the health crisis.

“The only thing that I would suggest is this isn’t the Great Depression. It’s not going to last twelve years. So, when you hear people say ‘Great Depression’,” he said. “It might be a deep recession; [depending on how many jobs are lost] and how bad the stock market gets, but I think we can count on that this is a temporary problem.”

In order to promote the economy, some individuals suggest the United States should “open up” the country again. However,  “I think it’s a terrible idea,” Beyer said.

The belief comes from those like Dan Patrick, Republican Lieutenant Governor of Texas, who, in an interview with Fox News on Monday, March 23, proposed that the United States should go back to work. He argued saying grandparents like him don’t want to sacrifice the country’s economy during the coronavirus crisis.

Patrick claims that the elderly population, one of the higher risk populations according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can take care of themselves and suggests that grandparents wouldn’t want to sacrifice their grandchildren’s economic future.

Patrick made these comments only hours after President Donald Trump stated he wanted to reopen the country in weeks, not months during a White House press conference.

“The markets are going to come back,” Beyer said. “Unless the United States changes its legal system and suddenly takes away the profit incentive that people have to have businesses, the economy is going to come back. So why risk lives?”

“I mean, I’m not far from retirement age myself,” he adds, “Does this mean my retirement age might increase by one year? Sure. Is that worth letting somebody die so that’s not the case? Heck no.”

Photo Courtesy of Forbes.com