The covid-19 pandemic has plunged the world into the worst economic crisis in the history of capital. Forty million people lost their jobs overnight in the United States; at the nadir, its gdp shrank by 32 per cent compared to 2019. Swathes of the global economy were decimated, from airports and airlines to taxis, ‘hospitality’ and the entertainments sector. Countries that possessed some degree of monetary sovereignty, notably the us, ran up huge debts largely funded by printing their own money at a frantic pace. The rest of the world—from Brazil to Turkey and Nigeria—had to borrow up to the hilt in us dollars. Private creditors are already on record for trying to extract blood from a stone in interest payments.footnote1 Demand plummeted, as incomes crashed with the lockdowns. Supply chains worldwide were instantaneously disrupted, illustrating inversely the ease with which the virus went global.
The few silver linings were mostly short-lived. Extractivism was put on the back foot—a halt to fracking in the West Texas Permian Basin, for example. Greenhouse-gas emissions fell and air quality improved: it was possible to breathe again in Delhi and Wuhan. Destructive forms of tourism disappeared, but then so did the revenues. The social value of a whole class of workers who provide the labour power to keep minimal services functioning was starkly foregrounded (without any improvement in their pay or conditions). Meanwhile,
— source newleftreview.org | David Harvey | Nov/Dec 2020