The problem ofpolicies aimed to return the economyto what it was beforethe virus hit is this: Globalcapitalism, by 2019, was itself a major cause of thecollapse in 2020. Capitalism's scars from thecrashes of 2000 and2008-2009 had not healed. Years of lowinterest rates had enabledcorporations andgovernments to "solve" all their problems byborrowing limitlessly at almost zero interest rate cost. All the new moneypumped into economies bycentral banks had indeed caused the fearedinflation, but chiefly instock markets whoseprices consequently spiraled dangerously far away from underlyingeconomic values and realities.Inequalities ofincome andwealth reached historic highs. In short, capitalism had built up vulnerabilities to anothercrash that any number of possible triggers could unleash. The trigger this time was not thedot.com meltdown of 2000 or thesub-prime meltdown of 2008/9; it was avirus. And of course,mainstream ideology requires focusing on the trigger, not the vulnerability. Thus mainstream policies aim to reestablish pre-virus capitalism. Even if they succeed, that will return us to a capitalist system whose accumulated vulnerabilities will soon again collapse from yet another trigger.
