EU in the face of the coronavirus will be a catalyst for change. But Germany, the rock- solid foundation of the EU, can only do so much, and right now it looks like the structural divisions within the EU will prevent the continent from getting its act together. And the (non-China) emerging markets – the supposed growth engines of the global economy – are doing the worst of all. Brazil has more cases of COVID-19 than any other country except America. The country’s president is applying the “ignore it and it will go away” strategy to pandemic management (the same one the U.S. White House abandoned in mid-March or so). When he’s not wading into crowds of supporters, he’s fending off a rapidly metastasizing scandal that has a not-small chance of resulting in his impeachment. Back in the land of Champagne and sauerkraut, the European Union is too polarized, sclerotic, and crippled to project power beyond its own shores. India – which implemented a lockdown with four hours’ notice and elevated a pandemic into a massive internal immigration crisis (plus pandemic) – has moved into the top 10 list globally of total coronavirus cases. But the total case count, and the mortality rate, is surely absurdly undercounted, as testing in India is running at just 5% – the same (and also too low) levels of the U.S.
the subsequent epoch-defining economic collapse, could make Tiananmen look like an unfortunate misunderstanding on a sunny square by comparison. Back in the land of Champagne and sauerkraut, the European Union is too polarized, sclerotic, and crippled to project power beyond its own shores. “The sick man of Europe is Europe,” explained the Wall Street Journal in May 2019. The laundry list of Europe’s challenges – pre- and post-pandemic – rivals even China’s... with internal divides, Brexit, divisions over immigration policy, the erosion of democratic values, and perennially anemic economic growth (clocking at just 0.1% for the quarter before the coronavirus hit). Some countries in Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and others, are emerging from the pandemic in a strong position. But as a whole, the EU’s messy and disjointed response to COVID-19 has highlighted the disunion of the world’s biggest union. For example, open borders between member states, a basic and foundational element of the union, was one of the first casualties as EU members frantically barred their national boundaries to each other. It was only after weeks of bickering – one of the few things at which the EU excels, even compared to American lawmakers – that the EU’s rich states finally agreed to help bail out Italy and Spain, the third- and fourth-largest economies in the EU. There’s a chance that the dismal failure of the
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