Neoliberal economic model and austerity have made us helpless in the face of the COVID-19 crisis

At the start of 2020, according to all available data, more than ten years after the collapse of the Lehman Brothers sparked the greatest financial crisis and economic downturn since the Great Depression, none of the underlying contradictions of the world economy have been resolved Even before the recent trade tension, growth rates were slipping in parts of the emerging world because of falling capital inflows - following announcements of monetary tightening by leading central banks - which have in some cases already turned negative, compounded by falling commodities prices [ ]came the coronavirus, which has plunged the global economy into a new phase of uncertainty Since emerging in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, the coronavirus disease has spread to almost all countries and territories in the world According to the figures from the US labor department more than 36 million people have filed for benefits since the beginning of March (The Guardian, 14 May 2020)