In normal times, a report by the UN’s International Labor Organization predicting that 1.6 billion people, whose incomes support fully half the world’s population, are on the verge of losing their livelihoods would be the only thing anyone on Earth would be paying attention to. But in the Covid-19 moment, such extraordinary predictions become mere footnotes.
Take a deep breath, however, and ponder what is being said here, for it is, without a doubt, today’s Signal. Half of the world’s population is at imminent risk of economic devastation: hunger, endless debt, closed schools, the collapse of entire social systems.
In normal times, the US president would be coordinating a global response to mitigate this disaster—coordinating distribution of medical supplies, shoring up global food distribution systems, working with the IMF and other agencies to extend desperately needed credit and aid to countries whose economies risk complete system failure. The alternative is a cascading economic crisis that could send much of the world back into the Dark Ages.
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