For example, the U.S. government approved $1 trillion fiscal stimulus (about 4.5% of GDP) and the Federal Reserve announced its commitment to supply hundreds of billions in liquidity. In contrast, the Ukrainian government announced a modest fiscal package and there is even a discussion of how to balance the budget. (On the bright side, the National Bank of Ukraine uses reserves to tame the excess demand for dollars and constantly communicates to the public that their deposits are safe and there are dollars for everybody.) The difference in the scale of the responses is stark and begs the question what response is right. Do we need a fast, super-aggressive response to the crisis? Or do we need a piecemeal reaction?
OP-ED
Yuriy Gorodnichenko: How to respond to the economic crisis?
A woman wearing a protective face mask walks at Kyiv's Independence Square on March 17, 2020. Ukraine late on March 16, 2020, announced shutdowns of public transport, bars, restaurants and shopping malls to stem the spread of the coronavirus after President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to act "harshly, urgently, perhaps unpopularly".
