Pandemic Markets Can Find Lessons in History
The Spanish Flu and the Irish potato famine show a wide disparity in outcomes. Bear that in mind when considering the Covid impact.
Blame the bond market, as well as the British.
Photographer: Hulton Archive/Archive Photos/Getty Images
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What will be the long-term consequences of the pandemic? Few if any answers are clear. In the financial realm, markets have automatic checks, balances and stabilizers. Tracing the impact of the last few months into the future soon becomes like plotting out an attack in chess. You can try to predict how the opponent will react, but you cannot know. A few unexpected moves could end your strategy. With this in mind, here are two historic pandemics whose financial ramifications were hard to predict at the time.