The president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, who once claimed the Federal Reserve was flush with cash, called for a nationwide lockdown to fight COVID-nineteen.

In an op-ed in The New York Times, Neel Kashkari and co-writer Michael T. Osterholm of the Middle for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota said a more restrictive lockdown of up to six weeks is necessary to fight the virus and salvage the economy.

Kashkari and Osterholm said the U.Southward. "gave upwards on our lockdown efforts to control virus transmission well earlier the virus was under control." For them, there is no trade-off between health and the economy, just, for a lockdown to truly piece of work, just truly essential workers must be allowed to work.

They said the problem with the earlier lockdowns from March to May was that some states deemed a large portion of its population essential workers. Merely the Economic Policy Institute said only 39% of workers in the U.S. are essential.

"If we aren't willing to take this action, millions more than cases with many more than deaths are likely before a vaccine might be bachelor. In addition, the economic recovery will be much slower, with far more concern failures and high unemployment for the adjacent twelvemonth or two. The path of the virus will determine the path of the economy. There won't be a robust economic recovery until we get control of the virus."

Kashkari previously said the Fed had infinite cash. Equally Cointelegraph previously reported, this kind of quantitative easing strategy provides long-term benefits for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The pandemic and economic recessions commonly offering people ample opportunities to invest in non-traditional assets such as crypto.

Lockdowns due to COVID-19 vary state by state. For instance, New York entered Stage four of re-opening as of July 20, allowing the opening of zoos, resumption of sporting activities sans spectators, and the resumption of film production activities. Some states, yet, paused reopening.