> our economy has weathered this better than anywhere in the world, and we will likely come out of this crisis even stronger, with even more global power, than

> our economy has weathered this better than anywhere in the world, and we will likely come out of this crisis even stronger, with even more global power, than we went in Incredibly optimistic and I don't see the evidence for it. The US economy isn't out of the storm yet. Bear Sterns fell in March 2008 and the US economy kept "whistling past the graveyard" until September before it fell off a cliff after the smoke had somewhat cleared. Let's check back in 3-5 months. The only national institution in the US that didn't take a perception hit so far is the Federal Reserve, but that's because it threw $8+ trillion at the problem and made big promises early (too soon to tell if that massive injection will be problematic). I see a national USA government who chose not to take a significant role in either helping the states (and never told the states that this would be the policy) or other nations (as we normally do during every natural disaster and health epidemic since WW2). I don't think I am alone in that view. S Korea and Italy (yes, that Italy) sent PPE to assist other countries early in the first wave while the US federal government was intercepting shipments which were legally purchased by (entities in) other countries and diverting them to a federal government stockpile (not the states where civilians needed them). It's worth looking at how well S Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore reacted to the outbreak. Their emergency health systems acted as if it didn't matter if "China lied" or not and set up useful policies and procedures just in case the disease made it there. China has started to donate the medical equipment (PPE, ventilators) they didn't need to use after the first wave and they are sending medical staff around the world to assist other countries. The US is exporting some hastily-made ventilators, but it's not yet clear if that will make a difference in the perceptions other nations have of our response. I think the US has lost significant soft power as we failed to provide the worldwide leadership we have since we became a superpower and China stood up to fill in the vacuum for very low cost to them.