Nine policy taboos overturned by Covid-19
In tackling pandemic-driven slowdown, pragmatism has ruled in countries across continents irrespective of ruling party affiliation
Add BT as a preferred source
AN ECONOMY is defined as a "circular flow of income" - one person's spending is another person's income. National income is the sum of everyone's spending, and loosely speaking, growth comes from increased velocity of that spending. Social distancing or lockdown is a deliberate interruption in that flow of income.
A circuit breaker for the virus is necessarily a circuit breaker for the economy. The pandemic-driven slowdown of 2020 is not an ordinary recession represented by a slower pace of spending; it is a proactive attempt to freeze large parts of the economy into a standstill. To that extent, policy responses could not come from any ordinary toolkit; they had to be focused on immediate pragmatism, not philosophical tribalism.
It is encouraging to see that when it came to the crunch, pragmatism ruled in countries across continents irrespective of the affiliation of the ruling party. And at least nine taboos are confronted in the policy response to Covid-19 so far:
Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
