Did anyone see this one coming?

 When I said flattening the curve doesn't accomplish that much if you lower the line, I was wrong. It certainly does something.

Perhaps this points to problems in GDP.

We stopped elective procedures to preserve capacity for covid patients. Creating covid capacity is productive and important.

If the government had paid hospitals to do this, it would count toward GDP. It didn't, so it doesn't count as GDP

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) April 29, 2020

If you had told me we would have a massive pandemic I would have predicted an increase in health spending.

Shows why you shouldn't listen to me.

Health spending down 4.9% in Q1 (not annualized). Responsible for nearly 1/2 of the overall GDP decline. Likely down much more in Q2.

— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) April 29, 2020