When it comes to the economy, there’s no going back to normal after COVID-19 trauma

In his most candid moments, Ali Modarres doesn’t talk about the mounting economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of a recession, even if you put an adjective — like “great” or “super-duper” — in front of it.

Rather, Modarres likens it to a collective trauma.

“We need to go through the stages of grief and be with this,” Modarres, the director of urban studies at University of Washington Tacoma, said last week.