Staff photo by Erin O. Smith / Mary Fortune poses for a photo in the Chattanooga Times Free Press photo studio Friday, Sept. 27, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.In the good old days (three months ago), business writers routinely crafted headlines about record low unemployment and unprecedented economic expansion. Now we try to remember to get “coronavirus” or “COVID-19” into the headline so the story stays outside of our paywall.
We talk to entrepreneurs who are struggling to decide whether to reopen and risk spreading the virus or remain closed and risk financial ruin. I talked this week with people who have been called back to work but are afraid to go. What should they do? It all depends on who you ask.
Anyone who has lived through a few economic cycles knew we were due for a downturn, but the agonizing human toll of this simultaneous health and financial catastrophe is beyond imagining. There’s no playbook. There is only the daily struggle to do the next thing. And the next. To step as gingerly as possible into a future we can’t confidently predict.
Covering this story, sharing the voices of the people making these impossible choices, is both a privilege and a challenge. Maybe one day I’ll get to write another headline about low unemployment or economic expansion. Until then, we will be here with you, looking for answers and telling this story.
Mary Fortune covers business news for the Chattanooga Times Free Press and is editor of Edge magazine. Contact her at mfortune@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow her on Twitter @maryfortune.