Page 38 - BNE_magazine_05_2020

38 I Central Europe bne May 2020
Building a better post-COVID world order
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
How the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is handled, both now and when lockdowns are lifted, will determine whether we are heading for a greener economic future and a shift away from populism – or something altogether darker.
A panel of economists organised by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and London School of Economics (LSE) and broadcast live on Facebook on April 16 discussed the possibility of building a better world (not least in terms of humankind’s relationship with the environment) post-COVID-19, but
also warned that governments and international institutions could get things very wrong.
www.bne.eu
Highlighting the scale of the global crisis we now face, several panellists likened the situation to making plans during and after the world wars of the 20th century – and the importance of making the
a year before the war finally came to an end. “They were thinking about the economic order after the war; we must think now about the economic order after COVID-19,” said Javorcik.
“They were thinking about the economic order after the war; we must think now about the economic order after COVID-19”
right plans. EBRD chief economist Beata Javorcik referred to the Bretton Woods conference in July 1944, when delegates from Allied nations hammered out plans for a post-war international monetary system, though it would be more than
Nicholas Stern, professor of economics and government at the LSE and one of three former EBRD chief economists on the panel, outlined three phases: rescue (where we currently are), recovery and building a better world that is strong,