Writing again

As everybody tries to adapt to the coronavirus crisis (in Barcelona, staying home), I have decided to reopen my blog to better communicate with… well, anybody who cares. In the next few weeks, I expect to post the English version of an interview I published in Catalan with Branko Milanovic, and also the translation of my book review in Catalan of Piketty's last book (with a special emphasis on what he had to say about Catalonia). I will also post some notes I took for a roundtable I could finally not attend (and was canceled) in London about regulation and institutions for climate change. For the time being, here is a selection of recent writings about the economics of the current pandemic.
I especially recommend this site put up by CEPR:


-Vox/CEPR coronavirus policy portal: https://voxeu.org/debates/economics-time-covid-19.


Some prestigious economists have published short articles asking for massive public intervention both to stop the disease, to alleviate the social consequences, and to revive the economy:

-De Grauwe: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/ecb-needs-to-embrace-covid19-monetary-financing-by-paul-de-grauwe-2020-03?

-Mazucatto: https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/18/the-covid-19-crisis-is-a-chance-to-do-capitalism-differently?__twitter_impression=true

 -Zucman/Sáez: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/17/governments-crisis-coronavirus-business

-Marimon et al., “A Proposal for a COVID credit line”: https://voxeu.org/article/proposal-covid-credit-line


There are also very interesting articles with lessons from history:

-Coping with disasters: two centuries of international response: https://voxeu.org/article/coping-disasters-lessons-two-centuries-international-response

-Torsten Bell about previous warnings: https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/22/economists-pandemic-predictions-covid-19?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true

-Previous epidemics: https://www.nber.org/wp_covid19.html



And I have spotted at least three manifestos by economists and social scientists asking for a variety of instruments of public intervention:

-Manifesto in favor of Eurobonds: http://www.newpoliticaleconomyeurope.eu/news/body,488994,en.html

-Manifesto for a Universal Basic Income: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_hCGectgHT-aY4xQnhte5ZpesMqZ6-l2Eo5c33iee94/mobilebasic

-US economists’ manifesto: http://www.columbia.edu/~wk2110/Corona/Statement.html

All these contributions have a variety of ideas. Not all of them will survive, in a climate of high uncertainty. But they have something in common: massive public intervention will be needed, at a very large scale. 
Stay safe, and be in touch.