Iikka Korhonen Comment on Comparing COVID-19 Control in the Asia-Pacific and North Atlantic Regions

Thus, the assumption in this paper of a “temporary closure” of the economy, followed by a recovery, may be inappropriate for the United States and other advanced economies. While middle-income consumer-goods-producing countries may return to their previously normal economic activities reasonably soon, even without large-scale public-sector “stimulus” packages, in the wealthiest countries large infusions of cash are required merely to keep the financial sector (and the landlords) from a meltdown over the inability of householders to pay their debts. But such measures will not succeed in reviving demand, neither for the advanced investment goods that must sell on world markets, nor for the amenities and frills that have come to dominate the employment prospects of ordinary workers. The West, therefore, is in for a rough ride.