Twenty years ago, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which spread radioactivity over Europe, seemed to be the death knell of the industry. But a renaissance of interest in nuclear power is underway, driven by higher energy prices, global warming, new technologies, and, some argue, short memories.

Sherry Cooper argues that the long-term economic effects of a pandemic could lead to considerable supply and demand effects. Loss of labour and trade would dominate the supply-side effect and social distancing and fear would increase the demand for essentials such as non-perishable food, water, medical supplies and health-care services, but reduce the demand for virtually everything else.

This report by the IMF's Avian Flu Working Group posits that once the pandemic has run its course, economic activity should recover relatively quickly. Both consumption and average hours worked might even overshoot the pre-pandemic level temporarily.

The deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus has now crept well into Europe—infecting birds in Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, and Denmark—and now also threatens Africa. Experts are at a loss over how to best tackle what could be an imminent global pandemic.