The Economist Risky procedures

Pin Tweet Share Share
From: The Economist this week - Thursday Apr 23, 2020 06:13 pm
In response to the pandemic, some governments have been granted emergency powers while others have accrued debts. Once it is over, both may have disastrous consequences
   
April 23rd 2020 Read in browser
   
  The Economist this week  
 
  Highlights from the latest issue  
   
 
 
   
  cover-image    cover-image-two   
     
  We have two covers this week. In our Asian and European editions, we look at a pandemic power grab. All the world’s attention is on covid-19. Perhaps it was a coincidence that China chose this moment to arrest the most prominent democrats in Hong Kong. More likely, as with autocrats and would-be autocrats all around the world, it spied an unprecedented opportunity. This is an emergency like no other. Governments need extra tools to cope with it. No fewer than 84 have enacted emergency laws vesting extra authority in the executive. In some cases these powers are necessary to fight the pandemic and will be relinquished when it is over. But in many cases they are not, and won’t be. Unscrupulous autocrats are exploiting the pandemic to do what they always do: grab power at the expense of the people they govern.
In our American and British editions we analyse the looming problem of government debt. As the economy falls into ruins, governments are writing millions of cheques to households and firms. At the same time tax revenues are collapsing. America’s government is set to run a deficit of 15% of GDP this year. Across the rich world, the IMF says gross government debt will rise by $6trn, to $66trn at the end of this year, from 105% of GDP to 122%. Long after the covid-19 wards have emptied, countries will be living with the consequences. What should they do? 		 
 
  Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-In-Chief  
     
Must-reads from the current edition
 
  Editor’s picks  
 
   
 
 
 
Vulnerability and the virus
Dixie in the crosshairs

The South is likely to have America’s highest death rate
Graphic Detail
 
 
 
The crisis in carmaking
From 60 to zero

The world’s car giants need to move fast and break things
Briefing
 
 
 
Politics in Hong Kong
The long arm of Beijing

Democrats are detained; a hole is carved in the Basic Law
China
 
 
 
By invitation: Bill Gates
Learning to fight the next pandemic

The novel coronavirus will hasten three big medical breakthroughs. That is just a start, says Bill Gates
By Invitation
 
 
 
Hedge funds
Back in the game

Once the kings of capital markets, hedge funds have become a sideshow. Now many hedgies hope the slump will make them relevant again
Finance and economics
 
 
 
Schumpeter
Minting it

Netflix will remain a blockbuster hit beyond the covid era
Business
 
 
 
The solace of Tolstoy
Unhappy in the same way

Readers across the world are seeking comfort in “War and Peace”
Books and Arts
 
Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has dismissed covid-19 as “sniffles”, spoke outside the army’s headquarters at a rally against lockdowns. Some of the protesters called for a shutdown of Congress and the Supreme Court and urged the army to take control of the pandemic response. Mr Bolsonaro has said: “Really, I am the constitution.” He also sacked a health minister who supported lockdowns and replaced him with one who favours a return to business-as-usual “as quickly as possible”.
 Oil prices tanked amid forecasts that demand will tumble this year. Brent crude dropped below $16.50 a barrel, a two-decade low. May contracts for West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for American oil, fell into negative territory for the first time, plunging at one point to -$40 a barrel, meaning traders in effect paid for someone else to hold the commodity. Concern that storage facilities at a key delivery point were full, just as the contracts were due to be settled, added to the panic. Prices surged later in the week after Donald Trump stoked tensions with Iran.
 
  The world this week
  
     
   
     
  More from politics this week  
     
   
     
  More from business this week  
     
See full edition
One of our most popular stories from the past seven days
 
  In case you missed it  
 
   
 
 
image of
 
The great PPE scramble
Why countries can’t meet the demand for gear against covid-19

A host of efforts are under way to unblock bottlenecks
 
 
  From Economist Films  
 
 
 
Film
Covid-19: Why is America’s death toll so high?

America's covid-19 death toll is higher than anywhere else in the world—and is continuing to mount. What’s behind the country’s coronavirus pandemic failings?
 
 
This e-mail has been sent to: newsletter@gmail.com
If you'd like to update your details please click here (you may need to log in).
Replies to this e-mail will not reach us.

If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, unsubscribe here.

       
 

 
 
 
Advertising Info | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Help

Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2020. All rights reserved.
Registered in England and Wales. No.236383
Registered office: The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HT
 
  
© Copyright.