Whether or not the coronavirus turns out to be as deadly as stated — and I certainly think its ravages are blown horrifically out of proportion — there will have to be a cogent plan to pick the economy up after this societal shutdown.  The economy may be in critical condition — and that condition will have been self-inflicted.

Some suggestions:

A TARIFF ON OIL — Some major world oil-producing nations have decided to get into a price war.  Such a war has the potential to do severe damage to America's growing oil production from fracking.  This has been aggravated all the worse by the corona panic, where there is a fear that an oil glut will force some producers to actually pay customers to take excess oil off their hands.

There is no way that America should sacrifice its burgeoning oil wealth to this crisis.  A tariff on any crude oil that comes into the U.S. that is under $55 a barrel should be instituted.  Crude oil was roughly $53 a barrel on February 21, 2020, before this national overreaction to the coronavirus occurred.  Fifty-five dollars is a reasonable cutoff price.

Any monies earned should go to paying off part of the horrendous debt that has been incurred.

A CALL TO RELOCATE FOREIGN MANUFACTURING — This cannot be done overnight, but there should be a call to return manufacturing back to America, or at least to non-authoritarian countries that play by the rules.

No one believes China's coronavirus numbers.  It is folly that we vest so much production there.  Now is the time to get those factories out.  Tax incentives can be used.

From ASME:

An increasing number of American manufacturers are coming back to the U.S. from lower-cost countries — a trend known as reshoring.  They recognize that the cost advantages of manufacturing in a foreign country are diminishing as other risks are increasing, including unstable supply chains, poor product quality, shipping delays, and potentially long-term global trade wars.

China is going to be severely hit by this crisis.  Production will move to India, Vietnam, even Africa, etc.  Some of those manufacturers should be encouraged to come to the USA.

A LESSENING OF CLIMATE CHANGE IDIOCY — Already government interference in life has prompted calls for a similar approach to climate change.  These Chicken Littles will get away with it if someone does not speak up.

Now is the time to nip this in the bud, before the public gets used to this much control.

It should be stated clearly that climate change is a hoax and that any attempt to enforce a Green New Deal will only worsen the recovery.  If the decision is placed before the public of JOBS vs. CLIMATE HOAX, the public will be in a mood to finally ditch this idiocy.  Now is the time to put paid to this stupidity.

Finally, and most controversially ...

OUR MONETARY SYSTEM HAS TO BE REVAMPED — There are those — myself included — who feel that a large part of our systemic debt problem was started in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank — which, despite its name, is a private institution.  Contrary to common opinion — and what I was taught in school — the Federal Reserve is not a benign moderator of the economy.

I am of the opinion — and I am not the only one — that World War I could never have reached the horrible levels of destruction that it did had not the Federal Reserve Bank been created a year earlier.  It cushioned the risks of American loans to European powers, which were handed out so liberally that American prosperity became unwisely conditioned on an Allied victory.

Without those loans, Britain and France would have been faced with bankruptcy soon into the war, as American credit would have dried up.  No one would have assumed the risks.  The British and French would have been forced into negotiating a peace with Germany rather than insisting on a total victory over the Kaiser as they did.  Fewer lives would have been lost.  Germany and Eastern Europe would not have collapsed into catastrophic decay.  Hitler could not have risen to power under the "stabbed in the back" slogan.

No Nazis.  No communism.  No World War II.

Yes, the Kaiser was a loopy autocrat.  But what replaced him was worse.  Before the war, the Germans had been starting to liberalize, and a negotiated victory — returning the world to the status quo ante — would have been preferable to the chaos that ensued.

Germany would have still been faced with a growing Polish militancy for independence.  Austria-Hungary was already on the verge of centrifugal collapse into competing ethnicities.  And the Ottoman Turks already had issues with the Arabs — especially the Lebanese — who were already restless.  There was a Pan-Arab Congress held in 1913.

A negotiated peace would have left Germany, Austria, and the Ottomans in unenviable positions.  By comparison, on the Allied side, the only issue was Irish separatism, which Britain might have conceded had there not been recalcitrants in Ulster.  The Irish finally revolted in 1916 when it became apparent that the British were more interested in placating the Ulster minority than treating honestly with the Irish.

That being said, a negotiated peace in 1916 would have left Western civilization wounded but still strong and intact.  The authoritarian Central Powers were far more internally weak than the Allies and would have eventually liberalized.  Germany was already well along the path.  There was no need to destroy them.

The only downside to that negotiated peace would have been no Balfour Declaration in 1917, but Israel would have come about anyway in another, arguably less problematic, fashion.  Zionism was established before WWI and did not really need Balfour's declaration to begin with.

Such destruction of Europe could not have occurred without the Federal Reserve propping up the Allies.  Moreover, the Great Depression of the 1930s would not have occurred without the Feds tightening currency.

I don't have enough space to go into the 2008 disaster.

Rather than incurring more debt, may I suggest that President Trump do what Lincoln did and issue the equivalent of greenbacks?  European bankers wanted Lincoln to take out atrocious loans, but he did not want to submit Americans to debt slavery as the price to keep the Union together.  Rather, Lincoln printed greenbacks — to the horror of European bankers.  Moreover, at the end of the war, the North refused to honor Southern debts, and the Europeans were stuck with the bill for the insurrection.

A century later, President Kennedy temporarily issued United States Notes, and this is what President Trump should do.  These can be slowly withdrawn from circulation as the economy picks up.  They would be debt-free.

Economic classicists will howl that this is just printing money!  But isn't that what the Constitution authorized the government to do — rather than the private Federal Reserve?

While the United States Notes are in circulation, Federal Reserve bankers could be put on notice that their currency monopoly is on limited time while a new system is being set up.  The U.S. government should not be paying interest to borrow its own money.  Perhaps, instead of withdrawing U.S. Notes, Federal Reserve notes should be slowly taken out.

If done wisely, the economic shock of this present overreaction could be strongly attenuated.

President Trump, who acts outside the box, should consider it.