At 9.26am on Wednesday 18 March 2020, Tim Leunig was cycling to Wimbledon station when he got a text from his boss, Rishi Sunak, urging him to work “at pace”, on a scheme to protect UK workers from the looming Covid lockdown.
For the rest of his commute, the economist mulled over what he knew about the furlough schemes that existed in Germany and the US, to protect workers during temporary shutdowns.
