The Coronavirus Crisis Is Political

The last time we faced an economic crisis anywhere near as severe as the one we are about to encounter was in 2008, when the global banking system began to collapse under the weight of its own excesses.

When the US government’s decision to allow Lehman Brothers to fail sent financial markets into freefall, world leaders realized it was time to step up. At first, they provided trillions of dollars worth of short-term liquidity (effectively short-term loans) to the world’s biggest banks, but they soon realized that the banks were not simply illiquid (out of cash), but insolvent (completely unable to pay their debts). At this point, they threw their weight behind their financial systems with bailouts that saw states becoming significant shareholders in many of the world’s largest financial institutions. Read Full Article »