ABSTRACT
The economic crisis caused by biosecurity raised the prospect of total economic seizure, as a simultaneous collapse of demand and supply was also engulfing finance. This prospect caused panic in states and supranational economic institutions, and demanded drastic intervention. The IMF undertook to advise and coordinate nation-state efforts to manage the crisis. It recommends a three-phase approach: during the pandemic, the state should combat the crisis with heavy fiscal interventions — it should do “whatever it takes” to preserve the tissue of the economy while biosecurity restrictions last. In the second phase, the state should enhance the recovery of the injured economy by undertaking productive investment. At the third phase, the state should withdraw from the, now healthy, economy and focus on repaying the debts it has accrued. The IMF instructions represent a break with economic orthodoxy: they depart from neoliberal dogma to recommend heavy counter-cyclical state involvement. But, this “Keynesianism” is employed strictly as a means to rescue a neoliberal economy.
