What Happens After the
Pandemic
After
the pandemic has passed and the dead have been counted, a new wave of economic
victims will emerge.
by The Duran
April 1, 2020
00
Paradoxical though it might sound, to the
Western political and economic establishments, COVID-19 is a gift. The pandemic
will invariably have devastating economic consequences, but a financial crisis
was inevitable and imminent even before it emerged. The start of this crisis
was evident back in September 2019. The pandemic will now serve as a convenient
cover-up of this fact, whilst inconvenient questions will be swept under the
rug.
In this way, the new financial crisis will not
be blamed on the economic model of the West, which has not changed one iota
since the Big Recession of 2008/2009. Nor will it be blamed on brutal austerity
measures, nor on the stagnating incomes of the majority of workers. Nor on the
shameless neglect of the astronomical rise in inequality. No, the system is
working perfectly – it’s this new virus, see, that’s to blame.
Western nations, as well as those aspiring to
their example, will now have the perfect excuse to continue implementing their
destructive economic and social politics for another decade, at least. People’s
endurance will be tested to its limit, as we are manipulated into believing
that the sole purpose of existence now is merely staying alive, and little
more. There is a systematic whipping up of hysteria which has brought the world
into a state of collective paralysis, thereby enabling every totalitarian
experiment to be carried out with no resistance.
All big economic crises, since the triumph of
neoliberalism in the 80s through to today, have been brought about the same way
– a combined and unchecked massive increase of public, state and corporate
debt. In the second half of 2019, global debt reached an incredible $350
trillion and surpassed 320% of global GDP. Both figures are far higher than
they were in 2008 when a crisis on an unprecedented scale occurred.
The system has been practising short-termism
for a decade now – money is constantly being printed, whilst interest rates are
being held lower than ever before seen in modern times. Debts can only be paid
off by incurring new ones, however, the unsustainable growth of corporate debt
is beginning to collapse the financial system from within. In the US, a serious
cash-flow crisis last September catalysed yet further printing of money on an
enormous scale. International organisations, as well as global media, feigned
ignorance. And then the virus came. Unlike previous crises which were
essentially crises of demand, the one we are experiencing today is
simultaneously a crisis of both demand and supply because a large part of
industry (particularly services) has ceased. That particular combination is
usually seen only in periods of economic sanctions and wartime.
Many countries in the West right now intend to
print several trillion dollars, euros, pounds, etc. – and that’s just for
starters. No one will question this enormous injection of new money. No one
will notice that during crises, money inexplicably seems to appear and is
always available for bank and corporate bailouts. It is always available for
acquiring weapons, for carrying out military exercises and brutal military
interventions. It is only ever unavailable for social welfare, for medical
equipment, for health- and care-worker salaries, for academic research and
education. Western systems are excellent at „creating“ financial derivatives,
tools for time-wasting by way of social media and various Hollywood-branded
brain-washing, soul-destroying materials. They only falter when it comes to caring
for human beings – when they need protecting with facemasks, ventilators,
increased hospital capacity, medicines and other tangible remedies.
After the pandemic has passed and the dead
have been counted, a new wave of economic victims will emerge. Big banks and
corporations will be bailed out, but everyone else will be reeling from
irreparable damage. Unemployment will soar and the most vulnerable will be
hardest hit – the millions who have neither health nor social insurance, nor
savings – only debt. No one will count the victims of poverty, nor will we see
daily tolls of the affected and dying as a direct result of it.
This crisis will yet again impoverish small
and weak economies. Capital, which is already fleeing developing countries,
will withdraw even faster. Developing economies will be on their knees as they
become incapable of rescuing their own citizens and industries. No one will
notice how powerful countries that are subsidising their own companies with
trillions, using the pandemic as a cover, are plainly breaking the basic market
rules – rules that they created.
And then these same countries, along with the
IMF, will offer „aid“ in the form of credit, thereby handing already indebted
countries a new financially obliging noose. In exchange for “coloured paper” –
dollars and euros – developing countries will continue trading their tangible,
real assets – manufactured goods, property and resources. Domestic experts,
lovers of the small state and a free market, will painstakingly explain that this
is by no means daylight robbery, no, this is merely the West magnanimously
investing its hard-earned savings. Unfortunate and incompetent governments will
fall for the same old tricks and trust the same advisors. As for the lowly
citizens, they will be grateful just to have survived and still be breathing,
albeit suffocating financially. I’m afraid that those kind souls who believe
that we will learn something from this pandemic and experience a sort of
catharsis or rebirth, are fooling themselves. After the pandemic, the world
will be even more ruthless and cruel.
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