Advertisement
Could a global coronavirus pandemic trigger an economic depression, forcing us to reckon with the downside of globalisation?
- Since the last pandemic, globalisation has ensured a world more interconnected than ever, from supply chains to mass air travel. With the world on the cusp of a coronavirus pandemic, the drawbacks of a tightly linked global economy are becoming clear
3-MIN READ3-MIN
Daniel Wagner is the CEO of Country Risk Solutions and has more than three decades of experience assessing cross-border risk.
The world experienced three global pandemics in the 20th century, in 1918, 1957 and 1968. All were the result of influenza, two of which originated in Asia. The deadliest was the 1918 flu, during which up to 100 million people are believed to have died, most of them in just four months.
Of course, that was before mass air travel, through which a deadly virus can travel from one corner of the globe to another in just 24 hours. That was also before the modern era of globalisation, in which supply chains and consumers are intimately linked to one another across the world.
The world’s populations and economies are now completely interdependent as a result of cross-border flows of goods and services, investments, technology, information and people. With the global pandemic of Covid-19 possibly upon us, we must reckon with the interconnectivity we have so willingly embraced over the past several decades.
Select Voice
Select Speed
1x
AI-generated voice