Economists advocate for increased public spending to combat the crisis during the coronavirus pandemic.
Economists who have always favored fiscal austerity are now arguing, amid the coronavirus outbreak, that the most important thing is to save lives and that the way to do that is to increase government spending.
247 - Neoliberal and austerity policies are temporarily falling apart as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. With the goal of helping small businesses, workers who have lost income, and even the state, economists have begun to argue that the time has come for the state to act, abandoning austerity policies.
Economist Marcos Lisboa, former Secretary of Economic Policy at the Ministry of Finance during Lula's first term and current president of Insper, observes that the spending cap rule does not prevent the government from increasing spending in a calamitous scenario, such as the current one.
Another defender of the dogmas of fiscal austerity, former Finance Minister Maílson da Nóbrega, is in favor of increased spending during the current crisis.
The same viewpoint is defended by sociologist José Pastore, a specialist in labor relations, who now considers it necessary to release resources without restriction so that the population can get through this critical moment.
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