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This is like war

“We must act like any wartime government and do whatever it takes to support our economy,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said yesterday. He is far from alone in using martial metaphors, as governments around the world unveil enormous spending plans unlike anything seen during peacetime.

A $1 trillion U.S. stimulus package is in the works, including hundreds of billions in funds that will be sent directly to Americans, according to reports. “We want to go big,” President Trump said at a news conference yesterday. The Fed also unveiled another emergency lending program, this one meant for companies struggling to raise cash.

What does a “wartime” economy look like? Britain yesterday announced more than $420 billion in emergency spending and loans, which is worth about 15 percent of its G.D.P. It follows similarly expansive packages in France, Germany and Spain, which have pledged around $1 trillion in fiscal stimulus combined. As a share of the U.S. economy, federal spending on the same scale would be in the region of $3 trillion to $4 trillion.