The FT is required reading, not on the basis it has great wisdom, rather that it embodies the opinion of “The Powers That Be (TPTB).

The economics of shutdown will undoubtedly go into the history books, but so will the psychology and the politics, as well as the psychology of the politics.

While the short term uncertainties around not only the virus itself but also the assorted governments’ response to it remain the same, the medium term risk profile for markets continues to shift away from potential instability of illiquid markets towards real instability of Geo-politics, in particular the ratcheting up of Cold War rhetoric from the US towards China.

This is of course almost exactly the situation in the NHS with Personal Protective Equipment. (PPE) The irony is that the procurement side of the NHS has historically been seen as the gold standard globally since its very size means that it is able to strike a very hard bargain on drug pricing.

Things That Won’t Be Coming Back…– for a while at least