No desaprovechemos esta crisis

The collapse of world GDP, the blockage of production and trade, countless people plunged into poverty and unemployment. This is the result of the COVID-19 pandemic from an economic point of view. The challenge facing governments around the world is enormous: the need to apply measures to support citizens and help companies in difficulty, the strengthening of health services, an unprecedented level of collaboration between nations, from the race for vaccines to managing screening tests and tracking infections. Unfortunately, for the past half century, the predominant political message in many countries has been that governments cannot -and therefore should not- govern. Politicians, business leaders and experts have long been guided by an ideology that focuses on static efficiency measures to justify spending cuts, privatizations and outsourcing. This is the reason why governments now have fewer tools to respond to the crisis. And this is precisely the lesson of COVID-19: the power of a State to manage a major crisis depends on what it has invested in the ability to govern, do and manage, that is, in shaping markets that produce a sustainable and inclusive growth oriented to the general interest.