Covid-19 market crash: What happens now?

IN the world of fickle, forward-looking financial markets, some of the top news headlines over the past week were not at all unexpected.

In particular, news reports about the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the Covid-19 outbreak a "pandemic", and economists fearing that a global recession is looming, were a bit like being informed of inclement weather over the deafening roar of thunder and blinding flashes of lightning.

To be fair, events have been moving very quickly. Covid-19 reared its ugly head less than three months ago, and it is generally accepted that a recession is represented by two successive quarters of declining GDP. So, I am not accusing economists of sleeping on the job.