It was not familiar economic forces that caused the upheavals of recent years, but Covid and the war in Ukraine. This reminds us that the most destructive forces we know are indifferent nature and wicked humanity. In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF stresses the “cost of living crisis” and the economic slowdown in China. Yet the policy response to Covid, the unbalanced recovery from that disease and Vladimir Putin’s war caused the former, while China’s response to Covid caused the latter. Disease and war have indeed shaken our world.
近年來的動盪不是由熟悉的經濟力量導致的，而是由新冠疫情和烏克蘭戰爭。這提醒我們，我們所知的最具破壞性的力量是冷酷的自然和邪惡的人性。國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)最新的《世界經濟展望》(World Economic Outlook)中強調了「生活成本危機」和中國經濟放緩。然而，應對新冠疫情的政策、走出疫情後不平衡的復甦和弗拉迪米爾•普丁(Vladimir Putin)的戰爭導致了前者，中國的防疫措施導致了後者。瘟疫和戰爭確實動搖了我們的世界。