The Economist USA - 28.03.2020

The EconomistMarch 28th 2020 3

1 Contents continues overleaf

Contents

The world this week

5 A summary of political

and business news

Leaders

7 The state and covid-

Everything’s under

control

8 The next calamity

Covid-19 and the

emerging world

9 America’s $2trn rescue

Mixed medicine

9 Iran and covid-

Get serious

10 Videoconferencing

etiquette

Through the keyhole

Letters

14 On Taiwan, Myanmar,

primaries, elephants,

Freeman Dyson,

congenital diseases,

house names

Briefing

15 The pandemic and

the state

Creating a coronopticon

18 Economic policy and

the virus

The pillars of state

Special report:

The African century

After page 40

United States

21 A $2trn bazooka

22 The virus and the young

24 Love under lockdown

24 The virus behind bars

26 Teen sexting

27 The Green Party

28 LexingtonUS-China

relations

The Americas

29 BolsoNero

30 The world’s busiest

border closes, sort of

32 BelloThe economic cost

of covid-

Asia

33 Japan, the Olympics and

covid-

34 Politics in Bangladesh

34 Sexual abuse in South

Korea

35 BanyanTaiwan and

covid-

36 Locking down India and

Pakistan

China

37 Going back to work

40 ChaguanOpportunity

amid crisis

Middle East & Africa

41 Covid-19 in Africa

43 Arab states clamp down

44 The virus reaches Gaza

BartlebyThe challenges

of concentrating during a

lockdown, page 59

On the cover

Big government is needed to
fight the pandemic. It may not
shrink again afterwards:
leader, page 7. How modern
data infrastructure can help
fight covid-19, page 15. Rich
countries are experimenting
with radical new economic
policies. History suggests that
the effects will be permanent,
page 18. A new era of
sovereign-debt management:
Free exchange, page 67.
America has a $2trn rescue
package, page 21. Its design is
less than perfect: leader,
page 9

• Covid-19 in the emerging
  worldThe virus threatens to
  devastate poor countries:
  leader, page 8. Africa is woefully
  ill-equipped to cope, page 41.
  India and Pakistan try to keep a
  fifth of humanity at home,
  page 36. Latin American
  governments scramble to save
  their economies: Bello, page 32.
  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 40

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