‘We are facing the prospect of a catastrophe’

The coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented crisis that will shake our confidence in the robustness of Western institutions, according to Adam Tooze, the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History and director of the European Institute at the University of Columbia in New York.

"I don't think there's anything we can compare this to," the British historian tells Kathimerini. "It's impact on unemployment will remind us of the Great Depression. The fear in the financial market is reminiscent of 2008. The situation is likened to a war economy - though, unlike in a war, the aim here is demobilization, not mobilization. The only historical analogies are other moments of shutdown, like the Soviet economy after 1989 or Germany in 1945. What makes this recession completely unlike any other we've ever seen is the complete shutdown of the service sector, which is all about...