Jerome Roos is a fellow in international political economy at the London School of Economics, and author of Why Not Default? The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt. He is currently working on a history of global crises.
The devastation brought by the coronavirus has been hugely magnified by an irrational system that measures human life in terms of profits and loss. Faced with collapse, states have already had to intervene in the markets — now, we need them to plan to rebuild our societies for the future.
Debt-stricken countries like Greece have continued repaying their creditors even though it’s hammering workers’ living standards. They should stick it to the banks and default instead.