Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy

by Adam Tooze

The Biden presidency’s first order of business is to attempt to restore coherence. That is a tall order, and, given the lack of guardrails, the precarious balance of party politics, and the uncertain future of the GOP, it is a gamble. With Trump as president, pluralism and incoherence were a saving grace. In light of the experience of 2020, it is not obvious whether America and the world have more to fear from a unified American government subject to risk of capture by the nationalist right, or a more incoherent American regime in which key levers of power remain the purview of functional elites, globalized interests, and modernizing coalitions in key centers like New York and Silicon Valley. The polite way of framing this, for instance when conversation turns to the latest impasse in American climate policy, is to argue that a progressive future for the United States depends on the dynamism of “subnational actors.”38 For all the enthusiasm surrounding the early months of the Biden administration, the haunting question remains: Is the United States as a nation-state capable of responding in a coherent and long-term fashion to the challenges of the great acceleration?