The Pandemic Isn’t Changing Everything

… The coronavirus hit at a time when the world was already turning inward, largely in reaction to the global financial crisis of 2008. Nations have been erecting barriers to the free flow of people, money and goods, even as the flow of internet data has continued to rise rapidly.

There is evidence that all these trends are now speeding up, particularly in countries led by populists, who are exploiting the pandemic to erect barriers that they wanted to raise anyway. And as lockdowns force people to work, shop, study and play at home, internet traffic has spiked 50 to 70 percent in developed nations — creating new habits that to varying degrees could outlast the pandemic. …

The pandemic is in effect telescoping the future. Trends that might have taken five or 10 years to play out have unfolded in only five to 10 weeks, and all point in the same direction. To a world turning further inward. CONT.

Ruchir Sharma (Morgan Stanley), New York Times


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