My preferred option would be debt restructuring that leads to substantial debt reductions to the most highly indebted member states, combined with greater enforcement of deficit limits in the future. This would avoid the patchwork of having to deal with a similar situation every decade. However, the Greek debt reduction in the previous crisis indicated that debt restructuring realilstically only leads to minor reductions in the country's debt burden. Given this, the EU will need to play a far more direct role. The crisis has shown that the greatest challenges to our civilization know no borders and enhancing the EU budget will be a good precedent for the future as well.

Perfectly managed, the economic crisis could be short lived with the economy roaring back to its original condition after the health crisis is contained. Poorly managed, this short episode could have scarring effects on the economy that could last years. The latter would occur because of mass unemployment and business failure due to temporary closures of large portions of the economy. Some combination of transfers to (smaller) businesses and credit to (larger) businesses is the most direct way to keep them alive. I would make the transfers conditional on retaining staff at pre-crisis levels, which would also contain the damage to labour markets. Unlike in regular recessions, broad-based fiscal policy (tax cuts or transfers) or monetary policy (QE) won't be effective. Parts of the economy are shut down, so that consumption isn't possible or discouraged for health reasons. A visit to your local supermarket will illustrate that there is no lack of consumer spending in other parts of the economy. The multiplier effect of broad based policies will be very limited at this point and more targeted policies are necessary for this very unusual recession we are approaching. UK government debt was above 80% of GDP at the onset of the crisis. The government’s fiscal package combined with the slowdown of the UK economy may bring public debt to over 100% of GDP. The third question asks you about deficit concerns arising from the size of the fiscal responses currently considered.