Given that trillions of dollars have been pumped into Western economies because of the pandemic, it will be difficult to argue after the lockdown is eased that money is not available for social and health programs to help the poor.
The balance of power is likely to shift away from the West toward Asia in the aftermath of the pandemic. This is based on how Asian countries have dealt with pandemic compared to Western countries.
In case of government debt, politics usually plays an important role in the decision to open and close the debt tap and in Lebanon everything is political. It seems that debt lenders—international financial institutions—have a vested interest in keeping the debt cycle going.
