Economist Herb Stein was famous for a great many things, but most prominent among them was “Stein’s Law.” It is elegant in its simplicity: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
Stein’s Law is particularly appropriate these days as we discuss plans for reopening the economy. There is a small but growing portion of mostly Republican governors who seem intent on opening up sooner rather than later. There’s also a group that insists on opening up slowly, with Ezekiel Emanuel suggesting “conferences, concerts, sporting events, religious services, dinner in a restaurant, none of that will resume until we find a vaccine, a treatment, or a cure” while concluding that “[w]e need to prepare ourselves for this to last 18 months or so and for the toll that it will take.”
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