The Government uses certain leading indicators like Construction and New Permits to forecast the future economic heath. As someone working in commercial A/E and Land Planning, this month’s contracts are next month’s work and the new permits for the month after that and new construction three months after that. So I get a 6 month peak ahead at the rate of growth in the business sector.
I just hope that “most people, in the real world” also realize that the economic damage is also real. While I will be the first to admit that NOBODY knows how bad it is, I can tell you that it is declining much faster than the 2008 crash. I can also tell you that people who were mildly concerned in 2008 are flat out terrified right now. Small businesses are fragile things and employ 70% of the workforce. They cannot survive paying rent and loans while not generating any revenue for weeks or months. The money allocated to help businesses in trouble is already gone. We have weeks left in this month and then many more weeks of a slow start.
It may, in fact, have been necessary. However I think “most people” are going to be surprised by just how high the bill for this really is.