Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Factories in the West are being asked or volunteering to switch gears and make products to help

with the global COVID-19 response. That same thing has been going on in China for weeks,

including it seems with the stillers of the powerful spirit by show.

That's just one of the small changes that the coronavirus will wreak on the global economy.

The big picture, who knows?

But our economics columnist looks back at how past pandemics have reshaped economies

going all the way back to the Black Death.

First up, though.

Israel has been through a year of political deadlock, three elections and failure after failure to form a government.

But yesterday there was a setback for longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

now in a caretaker role, and a fresh opportunity for his rival, the opposition leader Benny Gantz.

The country's president gave Mr. Gantz another chance to put together a governing coalition

after he won just enough support in the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

He now has a month to build a government from an unlikely grouping of politicians,

whose only unifying feature is their opposition to Mr. Netanyahu.

The political wrangling is taking place against the backdrop of another crisis, COVID-19.

But Mr. Netanyahu could stand to benefit.

Pandemic has already postponed a long-awaited trial on charges of corruption that the Prime Minister has

long denied. And it's pushed Mr. Netanyahu to suggest he lead an emergency unity government

to weather the storm, temporarily at least, insulating himself from prosecution.

...