Without limits, allowing a government to finance itself by creating money can lead to hyperinflation. But these risks can be manageable: the quantitative easing of the past decade, despite predictions, has not lifted inflation above the main central banks’ 2 per cent targets.
The economic consequences of the lockdowns put in place to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus will stretch well into this century and the way money is created, distributed and spent will, for better or worse, never be the same.
The European Central Bank has ditched a cap on how many bonds it can buy from any single euro zone country, clearing the way for potentially unlimited money-printing as it scales up its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Lockdown is a form of quarantine, a practise used to try to stem the spread of disease for hundreds of years by controlling humans.
The Overseas Development Institute's SET (Supporting Economic Transformation) examines the vulnerability of countries to the coronavirus outbreak, the economic impacts and policy responses in a wide-range database of selected sources and other articles.
The virus communizes us because we have to face it together, even if by isolating ourselves. It is a chance to really experience our community, argues Jean Luc Nancy.
The era of peak globalisation is over. For those of us not on the front line, clearing the mind and thinking how to live in an altered world is the task at hand.
Are we approaching a global state of exception? Have Giorgio Agamben’s analyses gained new actuality?
A collection of various articles and commentary by philosophers and how their work relates to the pandemic
Beyond the immediate emergency, a radical change in European policies is needed. European fiscal policy should be based on a large common budget and greater autonomy for national governments.
