Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy

by Adam Tooze

But there was also no hiding from the fact that it is normally desperate dictators in their last-ditch fights who count on miracle weapons for salvation. In 2020, thanks to the failure of our public health policy, that was us. This long-shot gamble on a state-backed technological development program was disconcerting not only because of its historical resonances. It was disconcerting also because it went against the prevailing dogma of economic policy. Since the 1980s, the idea of pursuing an industrial policy based on “picking winners” had been anathematized by advocates of the market revolution in Europe and the United States. It was better, it was argued, to leave research and development priorities to the market. In practice, of course, in many corners of academia and the economy, government-supported research went on. Corporations