The financial crisis and the pandemic have shown how Western Europe deals with crises. And it’s not pretty, writes Paul Ormerod

Karl Marx certainly had the ability to encapsulate a complex phenomenon in a pithy and memorable paragraph.

In a pamphlet on the Crimean War of the 1850s he wrote: “The redeeming feature of war is that it puts a nation to the test. As exposure to the atmosphere reduces all mummies to instant dissolution, so war passes supreme judgement upon social systems that have outlived their vitality”.

In modern jargon, he is describing the effect of a major shock on a socio-economic system which lacks resilience. An economy may continue to function in benign external conditions and even appear healthy. But a large shock rapidly exposes any weaknesses in the ability of the economy to adapt and evolve.

The nations of Western Europe have now experienced two such shocks in less than 20 years. In the late 2000s we had the financial crisis. In the early 2020s lockdown and the pandemic.

And now there is the third,........

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