The Economist UK - 28.03.2020

The EconomistMarch 28th 2020 3

1 Contents continues overleaf

Contents

The world this week

6 A summary of political

and business news

Leaders

9 The state and covid-

Everything’s under

control

10 The next calamity

Covid-19 and the

emerging world

11 America’s $2trn rescue

Mixed medicine

11 Iran and covid-

Get serious

12 Videoconferencing

etiquette

Through the keyhole

Letters

14 On Taiwan, Myanmar,

primaries, elephants,

Freeman Dyson,

congenital diseases,

house names

Briefing

19 The pandemic and

the state

Creating a coronopticon

22 Economic policy and

the virus

The pillars of state

Special report:

The African century

After page 44

Britain

25 The great divider

26 Slow off the mark

28 National Covid Service

28 Coke out, weed in

30 Life in London

30 Life in a village

31 Saving jobs

31 Alex Salmond is not guilty

32 BagehotThe new politics

Europe

33 Spain’s crucial week

34 Italy, Germany and the

virus

35 Germany goes red

35 Swearing in Dutch

36 Russia’s economy

38 Charlemagne Aesop’s

euro zone

United States

39 A $2trn bazooka

40 The virus and the young

41 Love under lockdown

41 The virus behind bars

42 Teen sexting

43 The Green Party

44 LexingtonUS-China

relations

The Americas

45 BolsoNero

46 The world’s busiest

border closes, sort of

48 BelloThe economic cost

of covid-

Middle East & Africa

49 Covid-19 in Africa

51 Arab states clamp down

52 The virus reaches Gaza

BartlebyThe challenges

of concentrating during a

lockdown, page 66

On the cover

Big government is needed to
fight the pandemic. It may not
shrink again afterwards:
leader, page 9. How modern
data infrastructure can help
fight covid-19, page 19. Rich
countries are experimenting
with radical new economic
policies. History suggests that
the effects will be permanent,
page 22. A new era of
sovereign-debt management:
Free exchange, page 75.
America has a $2trn rescue
package, page 39. Its design is
less than perfect: leader,
page 11

• Covid-19 in the emerging
  worldThe virus threatens to
  devastate poor countries:
  leader, page 10. Africa is woefully
  ill-equipped to cope, page 49.
  India and Pakistan try to keep a
  fifth of humanity at home,
  page 56. Latin American
  governments scramble to save
  their economies: Bello, page 48.
  Africa is changing so rapidly that
  in the decades to come it will be
  hard to ignore, says Jonathan
  Rosenthal. See our special
  report after page 44

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