The COVID-19 pandemic is at once threatening American lives, the sustainability of our nation’s health care system, and our economic prosperity. Our paramount concern at this moment should be to slow the spread of this virus and equip our health care system to effectively respond. Saving lives and saving the economy are not in conflict right now; we will hasten the return to robust economic activity by taking steps to stem the spread of the virus and save lives.

Public and private sector actors must work together to provide more tests, more ventilators, more personal protective equipment, and more support for hospitals and health care facilities. Only when we have made progress on these fronts will US businesses and consumers be able to resume normal economic activity without inducing a resurgent spread that leads to even more severe health and economic effects.

We are deeply troubled by the prospect of a sustained recession that would erode the economic livelihood of millions of Americans. While Americans practice social distancing and medical professionals work to save lives, policy makers should put measures in place to support households and businesses through this difficult period. These collective efforts will allow more businesses to get up and running again as soon as possible and minimize the severity of the economic hardship on the American people.

Signatories

Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

74th Secretary of the U.S. Treasury; Co-Chair, Economic Strategy Group

Erskine Bowles

President Emeritus, The University of North Carolina; Co-Chair, Economic Strategy Group

Melissa S. Kearney

Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics, The University of Maryland; Director, Economic Strategy Group

Adewale Adeyemo

Former Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics

Ben Bernanke

Former Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Joshua Bolten

President & CEO, Business Roundtable; Former Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush

Sylvia Burwell

Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Former Director, Office of Management and Budget

Lanhee Chen

David and Diane Steffy Research Fellow, Hoover Institution

Dave Cote

Executive Chairman, Vertiv Holdings

James S. Crown

Chairman and CEO, Henry Crown and Company

Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann

Senior Advisor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Diana Farrell

Founding President & CEO, JPMorgan Chase Institute; Former Deputy Director, National Economic Council

Jason Furman

Former Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers; Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Timothy Geithner

75th Secretary of the Treasury; President, Warburg Pincus

Austan Goolsbee

Former Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers; Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Douglas Holtz-Eakin

Former Director, Congressional Budget Office; President, American Action Forum

Glenn Hubbard

Former Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers; Dean Emeritus, Columbia Business School

Neel Kashkari

President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Former Assistant Secretary, U.S.Treasury

Edward Lazear

Former Chairman, U.S. Council of Economic Advisers; Davies Family Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Maya MacGuineas

President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

N. Gregory Mankiw

Former Chairman, Council on Economic Advisers; Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Janet Murguia

President and CEO, UnidosUS

Michael Nutter

Former Mayor, City of Philadelphia; Professor of Practice, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs

James W. Owens

Chairman and CEO Emeritus, Caterpillar Inc.

John Podesta

Founder and Director, Center for American Progress

James Poterba

Mitsui Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Penny Pritzker

38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Chairman & Founder, PSP Partners

Bruce Reed

CEO of Civic; Former Chief of Staff, Vice President Joe Biden

Robert E. Rubin

70th Secretary of the U.S. Treasury; Co-Chairman Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations

Margaret Spellings

Former U.S. Secretary of Education; President and Chief Executive Officer, Texas 2036

Gene Sperling

Former Director, National Economic Council

Robert K. Steel

Chairman of Advisory, Perella Weinberg Partners; Former Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Domestic Finance

Lawrence H. Summers

71st Secretary of the U.S. Treasury; Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus, Harvard University

Janet Yellen

Former Chair, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Jeffrey Zients

Former Director, National Economic Council; CEO, Cranemere