After the 2008 financial crisis, governments bailed out big banks and stuck taxpayers with the bill. They don’t have to repeat the same mistake in response to the pandemic, writes Mariana Mazzucato in a new essay. Governments’ efforts to rescue companies and develop a vaccine present “an opportunity to right this imbalance through a new style of dealmaking that forces bailed-out companies to act more in the public interest and allows taxpayers to share in the benefits of successes traditionally credited to the private sector alone.”

If governments miss this chance, she warns, “the economic growth that follows ... will be neither inclusive nor sustainable. Nor will it serve businesses interested in long-term growth opportunities. The intervention will have been a waste, and the missed opportunity will merely fuel another crisis.”

Read more from Foreign Affairs on pandemic economics:

“The Pandemic Depression” by Carmen Reinhart and Vincent Reinhart
“Can a Pandemic Defeat the Politics of Austerity?” by Sven Steinmo and Mark Blyth
“The Great Unequalizer” by Mohamed A. El-Erian and Michael Spence
“The Pandemic Exposes Dangers of the Informal Economy” by Pascale Joassart-Marcelli
“A Job Guarantee Costs Far Less Than Unemployment” by Pavlina R. Tcherneva
“The Age of Magic Money” by Sebastian Mallaby

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