Maxwell School News and Commentary

"I believe individuals are being prudent concerning risks they take and risks that others are subjected to because of their decision making," says Dean David Van Slyke. "Because many faith communities are now streaming online, individuals are acting appropriately to guard their health and the health of others."

"Suppliers may not have been able to supply as much as was demanded because they needed to provide it to the local economy, and the Chinese factories were simply not operating," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely. "Workers were not at work. They were at home. They were quarantined."

A tariff rollback to encourage cooperation with China "would make sense, but I don't think it will work if the framework is, we're suspending them till January, while we try to get [the two economies stabilised], and then we're going to put them back in again," says University Professor James Steinberg.

"At its core, this is about an aircraft carrier skipper who sees an imminent threat and is forced to make a decision that risks his career in the act of what he believes to be the safety of the near 5,000 members of his crew," says University Professor Sean O’Keefe.

"Partisanship is determining how citizens respond to COVID-19, and this divided response puts every American at risk," Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science, and her co-authors write. "If America’s political elite cannot come together, the costs of COVID-19 will be disproportionately felt in those places where Republicans did not act." 

"If you don't have online access, the only alternative presumably will be to call the Social Security Administration national number and hope for the best," says University Professor and Dean Emeritus John Palmer.

Most of the time...America’s military forces have remained in the background, waiting for direction from civilian leaders to respond to crises and then only in limited ways," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "That’s by design. We train soldiers to fight and win wars and deter threats overseas."

"We're looking at a labor market catastrophe right now here in the United States," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely. "What we seem to need right now is employment support to keep these people attached to their employers and able to get back to work relatively quickly when the economy comes back." 

James E. Baker, director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law talked to the New York Times regarding the federal governments, authority over the security of our medical supply chain, amid urging by State and local authorities.

"Tariff rollbacks signal a desire to reduce mounting U.S.-China trade tensions, offering a much-needed model of global cooperation at a time of shared crisis," writes Mary Lovely, professor of economics.