German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds a news conference at the Bundespressekonferenz after discussing with her cabinet new measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease , in Berlin, Germany, November 2, 2020.
The belief that governments should get out of the way of business was already out of date before Covid-19. Mass privatisations of utilities and postal services often failed to deliver promised improvements in efficiency and service. Taxpayer-funded bank bailouts in 2008 ended the swagger of financial institutions.
The pandemic accelerated this shift. Authorities from Hong Kong to Paris have sunk public money into grounded airlines and other flailing firms. Advanced economies committed more than 10% of GDP in the form of equity, credit, and guaranteed loans, the IMF calculates. Much of that debt may convert into equity, leaving taxpayers holding stakes, probably for years.