ON THE CHALKBOARD, CORONAVIRUS MITIGATION LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE A REGRESSIVE TAX.

In the national income accounts, it works exactly like a regressive tax.

The action over the weekend in Davos represents the growing international anger directed at the long-existing and grotesque economic inequality that has only been made more starkly evident by the Covid-19 pandemic—a dynamic captured in excruciating detail in a new report issued Monday by Oxfam International.

Titled "The Inequality Virus," the new report reveals that while over two million people have thus far died from the virus—and hundreds of millions of people are being forced into poverty—the world's very richest people and most powerful corporations are enjoying record profits and increased wealth. While the fortunes of the billionaires of the world have skyrocketed, returning to or even exceeding their pre-pandemic highs in just nine months, the study warns that economic recovery for the world's poorest could take over a decade.

"We stand to witness the greatest rise in inequality since records began," said Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, in a statement. "The deep divide between the rich and poor is proving as deadly as the virus."

"Rigged economies are funneling wealth to a rich elite who are riding out the pandemic in luxury," she added, "while those on the frontline of the pandemic—shop assistants, healthcare workers, and market vendors—are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table."

We will figure out how to live with coronaviruses. It is harder to deal with bad political economy.

Is it any accident, dear reader, that the people most able to work from home are the most favorably disposed to the lockdown theater?