This unprecedented recession did more than just dislocate production and wipe out jobs; it also shook the system of credit. Businesses, governments, and households rely on loans. On the other side of the balance sheet, those loans appear as assets of other businesses, governments, and households. Power and inequality, risk and return are encoded into who owes what to whom and on what terms. The massive and fragile edifice is conditioned on expectations about the future. When those expectations shift as radically as they did in March and April 2020, the whole building may collapse.
