A Nobel-prize winning economist has said Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus in the United States has caused it to become like a “third world country.”
Joseph Stiglitz launched a scathing attack on the president in an interview with The Guardian, where he claimed that the county could possibly be heading towards a second Great Depression.
“The numbers turning to food banks are just enormous and beyond the capacity of them to supply. It is like a third world country. The public social safety net is not working,” he told the newspaper.
“The inequality in the US is so large. This disease has targeted those with the poorest health. In the advanced world, the US is one of the countries with the poorest health overall and the greatest health inequality,” he added.
When asked if the US could face a second great depression as a result of the continued failure in the handling of the virus Mr Stiglitz affirmed that yes was the short answer.
“If you leave it to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell we will have a Great Depression. If we had the right policy structure in place we could avoid it easily,” he told The Guardian.
Mr Stiglitz laid the blame of cuts to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention funding, shortages or testing, and personal protective gear at the Trump administration’s feet.
Republican economists have consistently defended Mr Trump’s efforts to combat the virus and his eagerness to reopen the American economy.
“I think it’s really important to balance out the economic consequences with the health consequences,” Republican economist Art Laffer told Reuters earlier this month. He also argued to the outlet that increased poverty from an extended shutdown could mean lower life expectancy, more suicide and a jump in child abuse.
An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll at the beginning of April showed that 52 per-cent of voters disapprove of Mr Trump’s response to the global outbreak.
Mr Stiglizt has consistently taken aim at Donald Trump throughout the pandemic, and has maintained a longstanding critical opinion of the president.
Last week, the professor said that the president has “blood on his hands” as a result of his handling of the crisis.
Source: The Guardian
