The Economic Consequences of the Pandemic

From the author of Zombie Economics, a plan for creating a postpandemic economy that is more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable than the one preceding it

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the global economy and revealed glaring inadequacies and injustices in many parts of our social and economic systems. The prepandemic world was defined by globalization and the free movement of goods, people, and capital. It was also a world of ever-increasing concentration of wealth held by those at the very top.

Showing how the coronavirus exposed the weaknesses of a system that had us on the path to entrenched inequality and environmental disaster, John Quiggin argues that a "return to normalcy" is neither possible nor desirable. With an astute historical perspective that takes into account the outcomes of the economic strategies employed following the devastation of each of the two world wars, Quiggin shows how the pandemic offers the opportunity to discard outdated models and embrace new ideas in order to create a broadly shared prosperity.