, Columnist
The Fear Is About More Than the Coronavirus
Covid-19 has exposed deep-seated anxieties about markets and political systems around the world.
A lot of red.
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The sudden and dramatic drop of the markets — the S&P 500 down 11% last week — cannot be completely explained by fear about the coronavirus. Even if Covid-19 proves relatively deadly, it is not obvious it will lower longer-term corporate earnings by 11%. And it is plausible, though by no means assured, that a vaccine could be ready within a year.
So one way to think about Covid-19 is as a test of various systems around the world — political, medical and economic. Markets believe those systems are failing that test.