Led by the Imperial College and other similar models, they chose complete economic shutdown. Because of R*, governments around the world were led to believe that the global economy was in great shape heading into the pandemic and could therefore better afford such extreme caution.
But not only was the underlying economic baseline one of stagnation, it had been heading in the wrong direction for two years! Central bankers couldn’t (and didn’t) account for how 2019 had already turned out in exactly the opposite fashion the models had all predicted, but, sure, let’s listen to the central bankers interpret those same models so as to get an idea about where things stand in the crucial months of early 2020!
