‘Helicopter money’ everywhere

Lin See Yan: True, early lifting of lock-downs is unlikely to bring the economy roaring back to life if the disease is still prevalent. Worse, a re-opening followed by a wave of rising infections and a further lock-down, or even a cycle of re-openings and lock-downs, would devastate the economy – quite apart from the credibility of policymakers. As I see it, there are too many obstacles to an early return to normality:

GLOBAL recession is here. The global Covid-19 pandemic changed everything. Lockdowns imposed by governments the world over have pushed the global economy into the sharpest downturn since the Great Depression.

Indeed, the economic and social impact of the coronavirus pandemic, with the world in virtual standstill, is much worse than the 2008 global financial crisis.