Trostel Zoom’d with WABI regarding unemployment, Covid-19, and the economy.
On Thursday, Phil Trostel, professor in the School of Economics and the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center virtually sat down with WABI via Zoom to discuss Maine’s unemployment numbers and to speculate what will happen to the economy when Maine “reopens for business” after the Covid-19 lockdowns are eventually lifted.
He said that while we are watching the unemployment numbers skyrocket around the country, he’s optimistic about what will happen when the country starts to reopen. “I think that we should rebound pretty quickly once the business can resume as normal. Once we are relatively safe from the spread of the virus, I think the economy should start to bounce back pretty quickly, mainly because I think there’s going to be a lot of pent up demand.” Professor Trostel qualified his statement by recognizing that a lot depends on how long the lockdown lasts.