Coronavirus recovery – the new economic thinking we need

The record rates of unemployment and the dramatic decline in economic growth are direct outcomes of policy choices promoted by the dominant economic paradigm the world has had since the 1980s – one that says free markets are the best way to organise our economic lives. Today’s economic policies have their roots in the thinking of the 1980s, which blossomed in the 1990s. It is based on the idea that, in the short run, the economy is characterised by market imperfections.