ABSTRACT
Rarely in economics does the field see such unambiguous causation as in the case of the COVID-19 shut-down of the global economy. Pretty well every economist would agree to this proposition and while they are in tune with each other about the nature of the viral lockdown and its unemployment and GDP effects, they are uncertain about of measures to treat the problem-current policies are seen as part humanitarian disaster relief and part recession stimulus. The emphasis has been on ‘cash flow and confidence’9 but nobody has yet addressed the significant probability of a shutdown of all financial institutions, especially banks, already at lending at historically low interest rates. There are fundamental differences to both the Great Depression and the Global Financial Crisis. The Development Committee of the World Bank released their Communique emphasizing ‘that the development community increasingly faces global challenges requiring decisive, collective action and innovation.
