i’ve been catching up on stuff in the US. New York is having a terrible time right now and Trump wants everyone back to work by Easter?
As we say in England “ ‘ave a word”
It's called "anchoring", he uses this technique so often that I'm baffled that people don't recognize it at this point. Oldest trick in the book. You make an insane and unacceptable first offer, and let the other party sit on it for a while, fuming. Then you make a more acceptable offer for what you wanted in the first place, and they breathe a sigh of relief and let you have it. If you asked for what you really wanted right off the bat, there's no way in hell you'd get it.
Epidemiologically the US does not behave like a single country. I'll be more like 50 different countries, and it should be treated as such. If they ramp up testing by a ton (and that seems to be happening already), and perhaps find a therapeutic that alleviates the most severe cases (which also
might happen), there will be no reason not to lift
some of the restrictions outside the epicenters. Or, to be more precise, there will be a reason, but economic reasons will outweigh if hardly anybody is dying. You can't shut down indefinitely.
But it requires preparation, hence the initial "unacceptable" offer. Watch this play out over the next 2.5 weeks.
And if the situation gets markedly worse, he gets to just
not do it at all and look like a prudent and reasonable guy who listens to his advisors. 2 ways to win, no way to lose.