Past Crises Have Ratcheted Up Leviathan. The COVID-19 Pandemic Will Too

"As crisis followed crisis—World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the multifaceted turmoil of the Johnson-Nixon years, the 9/11 attacks, the Great Recession that began in 2008—the ratchet effect ensured that government's growth trajectory was displaced upward, time after time. The displacement was not always transparent or immediate, but precedents established in particular episodes reappeared again and again, sometimes after a lag of decades. In this way, government responses to short-run difficulties became lodged in the process by which rapid long-run growth of government became the norm."

Past Crises Have Ratcheted Up Leviathan. The COVID-19 Pandemic Will Too.