If the global recession intensifies, only the US can pull the world out of it – but will Bidenomics save us?

If Joe Biden wins the election, there would be faster growth under his plans compared to Donald Trump’s, writes Hamish McRae

The former vice president speaks to reporters in Pennsylvania this week (Getty)

Will it be Bidenomics to the rescue? Or the second wave of the virus bringing a second wave to the Covid-19 recession?

Quite suddenly the world’s financial markets have realised we are not through this one yet. The decent bounce of the summer, gaining much – though by no means all – of the ground lost in the spring was already weakening before the second wave struck. So what can be done to keep the world economy moving?

Europe can’t help that there are plans for a big fiscal push to try to help the countries hardest hit by the virus, but that money will not flow until next year. The European Central Bank can always create more money, but it too is running out of options. Negative interest rates may do more harm than good. The UK is too small to matter in global terms and we have our own problems. China has recovered reasonably well, better than any other major economy, but it does not buy enough from the rest of the world to create enough demand in other countries to move the dial much. So it has to be America. Only the US can really help pull the world up if this second leg of the global recession does materialise. But will it?