Two promising #COVID19 vaccines, with immigrants to thank for both.
BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine has been developed by a Turkish migrant to Germany.
Moderna was co-founded by Canadian biologist and Lebanese-born scientist and investor.
So much for nativists who claim immigrants have nothing to contribute.
Read my latest for Foreign Policy
How will society change after the coronavirus pandemic?
The adoption of digital technologies has advanced in leaps and bounds, but it is still implausible that this spells the end of the office or the demise of business travel, let alone the decline of cities, which may rather become younger and more liveable. Perhaps the biggest question mark is how politicians will respond to post-crisis demands for a fairer society.
Read my latest for Brussels Times.
It’s economically significant and politically beneficial, but it leaves the eurozone’s deeper problems unresolved.
Read my latest for Project Syndicate
Eurozone finance ministers have finally agreed a package of measures to respond to the coronavirus crisis. But in the face of an unprecedented medical and economic emergency, it is inadequate. What the eurozone needs is a large, temporary coronavirus Marshall Plan, funded by common debt that the ECB would buy and hold for the foreseeable future.
Read my latest for Project Syndicate.
As Europe faces an unprecedented coronavirus crisis that is so far hitting Italy and Spain particularly hard and is straining the EU to breaking point, an exceptional “corona bond” would provide the fiscal firepower to support stricken businesses and workers and demonstrate European solidarity. If not now, when?
Read my latest for Brussels Times
My piece was quoted by Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington Post as follows:
The coronabonds, wrote economist Philippe Legrain, would “give the eurozone greater geopolitical reach and provide greater protection against President Donald Trump’s abuse of the dominance of the US dollar for harmful political ends.” It would also prove that “European solidarity exists,” according to Legrain.
What might the coronavirus crisis entail for the future of globalisation?
Philippe Legrain, founder of international think tank the Open Political Economy Network and a former economic adviser to the president of the European Commission, is not confident the current crisis will lead to any renewed commitment to globalization.
He believes the international response has been much less coordinated compared with that to the global financial crisis, when the G20 came up with an unprecedented rescue package.
“There has been very little international cooperation during this crisis. Most governments have acted unilaterally. Even within the European Union, countries have failed to respond to Italy’s urgent request for medical supplies, although China did,” he said.
“The closure of borders, the restrictions on trade－such as India’s with pharmaceutical exports－and the perception of foreigners as vectors of disease are all creating more national economies and more nationalistic politics.”
Later, I discuss the potential for new forms of globalisation.
“Globalization exists in a political context. In the 19th century, it largely took place within European empires. In the 20th century, it took place through US-backed international institutions, and in the 21st century, it may exist within China-centered institutions such as the BRI,” he said.
Read the piece.
Until recently, most policymakers and investors remained complacent about the potential economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
Now they realise that it is generating a global shock, which may be sharp—but which most still expect to be short.
But what if the economic disruption has an enduring impact? Could the coronavirus pandemic even be the nail in the coffin for the current era of globalisation?
Read my latest column for Foreign Policy.
It is quoted by Marc Saxer in International Politics and Society.