The Guardian view on the market meltdown: a wake-up call for Westminster | Editorial
As coronavirus has spread globally since February, a tenuous balancing act has been attempted in Britain and much of the rest of the world. Governments have assured populations that necessary precautions and preparations are being undertaken to deal with the potential pandemic. The media has, by and large, resisted the temptation to sensationalise and overdramatise the crisis. Most of the rites of early spring have been observed: at the weekend, London train stations thronged with English and Welsh rugby supporters. A dachshund called Maisie won Crufts.
This approach has been understandable, as efforts and hopes are concentrated on containing the virus. But this strange state of pseudo-normality was shattered on Monday. Following a Cobra meeting - chaired for the first time by Boris Johnson - the government's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, said that coronavirus in Britain will soon spread "really quite fast". Meanwhile, global stock markets collapsed at a rate that recalled Black Monday in 1987. Increasingly, the sense is one of queasily living on the brink of a crisis that will be both lethal and transformative. Monday's market meltdown suggested it will shine a pitiless light on some of the economic assumptions and complacencies of the post-crash decade.
Continue reading...