- Eurozone existential crisis: ‘To put it crudely, Italians will not work as productively as Germans, and Germans will not agree to pay off the debts of Italians.’
- Trans-Pacific tensions: ‘...the process of “deglobalisation” - more of what we consume being made closer to home, even if it is more expensive - will accelerate.
- Greater rise of the Asian tigers: ‘[Asia] was already going to account for 90 per cent of new middle-class people in the next decade. Perhaps we can revise that up to 95 per cent now.’
- Oil price volatility: ‘Countries dependent on oil production already faced forecasts that petroleum demand would peak and fall before 2030.’ We have in recent days seen negative oil prices.
- Politics of inequality: ‘It will push to the forefront of politics fundamental issues about the taxation of wealth, the case for basic incomes provided by governments, and the responsibility of companies for their employees.’
- Debts: ‘Political parties will campaign for debt forgiveness and write-offs, and for the cancelling by central banks of money borrowed by governments, with inflationary consequences.’
- Data: ‘Once we are all carrying around an app on our phones to show where we have been and who we have met, pressure will grow to use that information for other purposes.’
- Crisis as the mother of innovation: ‘More optimistically, they have one positive companion - the massive incentive this crisis provides for innovation’
Read here (The Age, April 21, 2020)
