I don’t believe the stimulus bill was intended to stimulate. It’s just easier to sell an act with that label than one tagged “bail-out.” The world runs on credit, as it should. Yes, people get over-extended, but this bug is threatening loans that no sane underwriter would have rejected. We cannot allow this bug to let people with solid jobs and 20% down on their mortgages lose their homes. Better to just print the money to pay the mortgages. And the car loans. And the student loans. And the rent so that the landlord can afford to keep the heat running.

Expect to hear a lot more about Modern Monetary Theory. MMT says that a government can print as much money as it wants so long as the result is not too much inflation. MMT answers the question “Where will the money come from” with “Money is just a reflection of the goods and services it can buy.” If there is excess capacity, then there is room to print more money. In this context, it is important to understand rental space as “capacity” that becomes “excess” when the tenant can’t make rent because his restaurant is empty. That excess capacity can be bought by the government and made available to someone who can use it, namely, the tenant who will run a restaurant in it as soon as this damn bug has been dealt with.