The Economist this week – Highlights from the latest issue
▻https://view.e.economist.com/?qs=848ca2a68e4e79b600b07cf246fb78a9cd6ffb2fdc33acd04444d68722bf3f
We have two covers this week.
In our Asian and European editions, we look at a pandemic power grab. All the world’s attention is on covid-19. Perhaps it was a coincidence that China chose this moment to arrest the most prominent democrats in Hong Kong. More likely, as with autocrats and would-be autocrats all around the world, it spied an unprecedented opportunity. This is an emergency like no other. Governments need extra tools to cope with it. No fewer than 84 have enacted emergency laws vesting extra authority in the executive. In some cases these powers are necessary to fight the pandemic and will be relinquished when it is over. But in many cases they are not, and won’t be. Unscrupulous autocrats are exploiting the pandemic to do what they always do: grab power at the expense of the people they govern.
In our American and British editions we analyse the looming problem of government debt. As the economy falls into ruins, governments are writing millions of cheques to households and firms. At the same time tax revenues are collapsing. America’s government is set to run a deficit of 15% of GDP this year. Across the rich world, the IMF says gross government debt will rise by $6trn, to $66trn at the end of this year, from 105% of GDP to 122%. Long after the covid-19 wards have emptied, countries will be living with the consequences. What should they do?