PIDE COVID-19 Blog (no. 19) : Assessing the economics of pandemic-the politics of national response in times of global chaos

Abstract

“In the art of policy and statecraft making, one of the maxims that have always fascinated me is this: Think tragically to avoid tragedy. In simpler terms: those who prepare for the worst possible scenarios are better able to face the tragedies and disasters in the business of governance. As governing becomes more complex because of the global systems and challenges, national policies face a twin challenge: Their relevance can be wiped out on the face of global catastrophe (COVID-19; climate change) but they still matter for their citizens who reside in the respective borders (think aggressive monetary easing in the face of rapid global slowdown). In other words, it is an issue of the domestic grid not being powerful enough to either resist the global grid or too small to be overwhelmed by its failure. What started out and remains as a global health challenge, is now a full-blown economic mess. Unemployment and defaults have risen across much of the world and sectors such as tourism, retail and hospitality have taken a major business and output blow where in some estimates, between 30-45 percent of the activity has stalled and much worse is expected in these sectors.”