Coronanomie: Covid-19 trekt diepe sporen in de economie

This column, written in mid-March 2020, anticipates that the demand rationing necessary to fight the coronavirus will seriously hit the global economy. The question is to what extent there is a parallel with the previous credit and debt crisis of more than ten years ago. In both cases the concept of contagion plays a role from the perspective of economic analysis. It seems evident that this concept is relevant to the corona virus, but the way in which the banks and then the international financial markets infected each other was also an important part of the explanation of the emergence of the credit and debt crisis. The corona crisis will certainly have a lasting adverse effect on global welfare as trade and services will come to a complete standstill. It should however be noted that this is in principle a temporary shock and it is therefore important that government policy remains focused on absorbing that temporary shock as well as possible