Interviews Lea Gekle: The Great Fear of 2020 by Karl Heinz Roth, in: Endnotes (May 2022; Interview conducted on March 10, 2022). “Below we publish Lea Gekle’s interview with Roth, in which he presents his analysis of these measures, as well as his criticisms of the Zero Covid platform defended by some on the German left. Today, when the severe lockdown in Shanghai is producing desperate hunger riots, Roth’s book is a timely intervention. We hope, as he suggests, that it can be the beginning of a serious debate on the return of what he and his comrades in the […]
Monthly archives: February 2022
15 posts
David Adam: Die wahre Zahl der Coronapandemie-Toten. Übersterblichkeit wegen COVID-19 [The true number of corona pandemic deaths. Excess mortality due to COVID-19], in: Spektrum.de (January 24, 2022). According to official estimates, more than 5 million people should have died as a result of COVID-19 by the beginning of 2022. This estimate does not take into account the number of unreported cases. As the author of this article has pointed out, according to The Economist magazine, the number of actual deaths is two to four times higher than the official figure. Meanwhile, a determination of the actual number of Covid-19 fatalities, […]
Kasper Staub et al.: Historically High Excess Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain, in: Annals of Internal Medicine (February 2022), M21-3824, online in: https://doi.org/10.7326/M21-3824. Abstract Background: Excess mortality quantifies the overall mortality impact of a pandemic. Mortality data have been accessible for many countries in recent decades, but few continuous data have been available for longer periods. Objective: To assess the historical dimension of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 for 3 countries with reliable death count data over an uninterrupted span of more than 100 years. Setting: Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain, which were militarily neutral and […]
Paul-Ehrlich-Institut: Sicherheitsbericht. Verdachtsfälle von Nebenwirkungen und Impfkomplikationen nach Impfung zum Schutz vor COVID-19 seit Beginn derImpfkampagne am 27.12.2020 bis zum 31.12.2021, Langen, February 7, 2022. The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), as the Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedical Products, reports on suspected cases of adverse reactions or vaccine complications reported from Germany in temporal association with vaccination with the mRNA vaccines Comirnaty (BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH) and Spikevax (MODERNA BIOTECH SPAIN, S.L.) and the vector vaccines Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca AB) and COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen for protection against COVID-19 from the start of the vaccination campaign on Dec. 27, 2020, to Dec. 31, […]
Paul-Ehrlich-Institut: Sicherheitsbericht. Verdachtsfälle von Nebenwirkungen und Impfkomplikationen nach Impfung zum Schutz vor COVID-19 seit Beginn derImpfkampagne am 27.12.2020 bis zum 30.11.2021, Langen, December 23, 2021. The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), as the Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines, reports on suspected cases of adverse reactions or vaccine complications reported from Germany in temporal relation to vaccination with the mRNA vaccines Comirnaty (BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH) and Spikevax (MODERNA BIOTECH SPAIN, S.L.) and the vector vaccines Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca AB) and COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen for protection against COVID-19 from the start of the vaccination campaign on Dec. 27, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2021. […]
International Labour Organization (ed.): ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work. Eighth edition. Updated estimates and analysis (October 27, 2021). The report gives a global overview of how countries are grappling with the recovery, eighteen months into the crisis. Based on new data, it provides a detailed picture of the different recovery trends between developed and developing countries. It also analyzes the impact of vaccination rates on labour market by region, and the distortions the COVID-19 crisis is having on productivity and enterprises.
Pierre L. Siklos: Did the great influenza of 1918-1920 trigger a reversal of the first era of globalization?, CAMA (Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis) Working Paper 95/2021 (November 2021). The author revisits the 1918-20 pandemic and asks whether it led to a reversal in the rise of trade and financial globalization that preceded it. Using annual data for 17 countries for the 1870-1928 period, a variety of tests and techniques are used to draw some robust conclusions. Overall, the pandemic a century ago interrupted, but did not put an end, to the first globalization of the 20th century. However, two […]
Francesco Brusa and Paolo Do, Interview with Sergio Bologna: What remains of the 1970s tradition of ‘Medicina democratica’ in today’s protests against the Green Pass?, published in Italian in: DinamoPress (October 25, 2021). From Trump to anti-vaccinationists, today people caught up in neoliberal ideology claim the concept of ”freedom”. Do you see any contradictions in its widespread use? The contradictions one can run into when using the term ”freedom” is an issue that has preoccupied me since the late 1980s, when I began thinking about self-employment. Free and independent work, it was said, was far removed from the slavery […]
International Monetary Fund: World Economic Outlook Update. Rising Caseloads, A Disrupted Recovery, and Higher Inflation, January 2022. The World Economic Outlook is a report by the staff of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), usually published twice a year. It contains the IMF staff economists’ analyses of short- and medium-term developments in the world economy. The chapters provide both an overview and more detailed analysis of the world economy; they address issues affecting industrial countries, developing countries, and economies in transition to market economies; and they deal with topics of urgent current interest. Appendices, boxes, graphs, and an extensive statistical appendix […]
World Bank: Global Economic Prospects, January 2022. The global recovery is set to decelerate amid diminished policy support, continued COVID-19 flare-ups, and lingering supply bottlenecks. In contrast to that in advanced economies, output in emerging market and developing economies will remain markedly below pre-pandemic trends over the forecast horizon. The outlook is clouded by various downside risks, including new COVID-19 outbreaks, the possibility of de-anchored inflation expectations, and financial stress in a context of record-high debt levels. If some countries eventually require debt restructuring, this will be more difficult to achieve than in the past. Climate change may increase commodity […]
Karl Heinz Roth: Blinde Passagiere. Die Corona-Krise und ihre Folgen (Stowaways. The Corona Crisis and its Consequences), Munich: Kunstmann-Verlag 2022. An analysis of the Corona crisis that illuminates all facets – from the medical problems to the change in mentalities to the political and economic consequences. A book that brushes false certainties against the grain. In this excellently researched and elegantly written book, Karl Heinz Roth shows how deeply the global pandemic is affecting our societies and people’s everyday lives – a fundamental work for critically coming to terms with this crisis, and for avoiding future ones. For the past […]
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): Economic Outlook (December 1, 2021) Issue 2. The global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is uneven and becoming imbalanced. The OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2021 Issue 2, highlights the continued benefits of vaccinations and strong policy support for the global economy, but also points to the risks and policy challenges arising from supply constraints and rising inflation pressures. This issue includes a general assessment of the macroeconomic situation, and a chapter summarising developments and providing projections for each individual country. Coverage is provided for all OECD members as well as for selected partner […]
International Monetary Fund: Fiscal Monitor. Strengthening the Credibility of Public Finances, October 2021. Multilateral monitoring of fiscal developments is an essential component of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Fiscal Monitor, which has been published twice a year since 2009, captures and analyzes, among other things, the latest fiscal developments and assesses policies to put public finances on a sustainable footing.
Manager Magazin: Biontech represents almost one-fifth of German economic growth (January 14, 2022). Without BionTech, German economic growth would have been significantly lower in 2021. According to an initial estimate by the Federal Statistical Office, the Mainz-based biotechnology company boosted growth by 0.5 percent, or nearly one-fifth, to a total of 2.7 percent. Sebastian Dullien, scientific director of the Kiel Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research, speaks of a “clear biontech effect” in this context.
Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, Steve H. Hanke: A Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality (Studies in Applied Economics, 200), Baltimore January 2022. This systematic review and meta-analysis are designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that “lockdowns” reduce COVID-19 mortality. Lockdowns are defined as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). NPIs are any government mandate that directly restrict peoples’ possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel. This study employed a systematic search and screening procedure in […]