Coronavirus: Rewriting the economic rulebook – Capital Economics

FXStreet Team FXStreet

The crisis caused by the coronavirus has upended conventional economic thinking. This is evident in several different ways, as Neil Shearing from Capital Economics notes.

Key quotes

“The role of governments is being rethought. One of the legacies of this crisis will be higher debt burdens, but now is not the time to worry about this. The immediate priority is to cushion the collapse in demand.”

“The spirit of individualism that has prevailed for the past thirty years is being supplanted by a new spirit of collectivism. Public health is, after all, the ultimate public good.”

“One lesson for the future is that we should resist the temptation to view new economic shocks through the prism of previous shocks.”

“The road ahead is unusually uncertain. What we can be sure of at this stage is that the slump in output over the coming months will be huge and the virus will leave a complex set of questions in its wake.”

Author

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