The long-term outlook also has deteriorated, he
added, in ways that could hurt the recovery.
“Working from home is creating a collapse
in investment,” Bloom said. “All firms I have
spoken to have cancelled training, new product
introductions and R&D projects, while at U.S.
universities and laboratories unless you are
working on COVID-19 you have stopped work.
So innovation — the main driver of long-run U.S.
growth — has stopped.”
Bloom has personally responded to the
decline in an ominous way. He said he pulled
his retirement funds and college savings from
the stock market and placed them in interest-
bearing accounts to wait out the storm.