Welcome to the newsletter highlighting The Economist’s best writing on the pandemic. We have two covers this week. In Asia we look ahead to the monster listing of Ant Group, China’s largest fintech firm. By cash raised, it will probably be the biggest initial public offering in history and portends a transformation of how the financial system works—not just in China but around the world.

In our other editions we look at the economic consequences of the pandemic. In February covid-19 struck the world economy with the biggest shock since the second world war. The crash was synchronised, but during the recovery the spread of growth rates across 50 economies has widened to its greatest extent for at least 40 years. We sort through the winners and losers.

Our leader is backed by a special report in which our economics editor argues that covid-19 marks a once-in-a-generation turning-point that has set a new course for the world economy. We also have a myth-busting package about Sweden. It has supposedly pursued a mask-free, lockdown-light strategy that will create herd immunity without bankrupting the economy. The reality contains a different—and more useful—lesson. We report on how Britain is preparing for a vaccine and how covid-19 has set back the effort to eradicate polio from its remaining hideouts, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We also ask whether the loss of well over 1m people to a new virus will change attitudes to death.

Our mortality tracker uses the gap between the total number of people who have died from any cause and the historical average for the time of year to estimate how many deaths from the virus the official statistics are failing to pick up.

We have been covering the pandemic in Economist Radio and Economist Films, too. On Wednesday The Intelligence, our daily current-affairs podcast, had a segment on how the virus is spreading as Iraq spirals downward.

As the pandemic has spread it has become increasingly clear that the world will not simply snap back into shape. I hope our coverage helps you think about how some changes are here to stay.