Only bold state intervention will save us from a future owned by corporate giants.

The economy we knew before the pandemic disappeared. Instead of simply reverting back to pre-coronavirus shock, we are ready to emerge from a wrecked economic landscape. A large number of jobs It has been lost and countless small businesses are deep in debt, on the brink of bankruptcy. In the absence of additional government assistance, many of these companies could disappear forever, further destroying our main streets. and hollowing out our local economies.

For better or worse, the pandemic will create a new version of normality, with new standards of economic ownership. One of the clear dangers we face after Covid-19 is rising inequality: many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are likely to go bankrupt, allowing further consolidation by larger companies. Private equity sharks waiting in the wings will buy distressed business assets for pennies a pound.

The Bank of England's response to this crisis was to activate the quantitative easing . This is an unfocused approach to supporting the economy, which can push asset prices higher. the quality control will make the rich even richer , but will do little to increase spending or support everyday economy of small companies, essential for the recirculation of local wealth.

Our economy after Covid-19 could just become an uglier and more distorted version of the unequal system we have today. We may find that we have stumbled into an “Amazon recovery,” where big business and corporate giants hold an even larger share of the market, billionaires get richer (and more numerous), and inequality is overwhelmed.

Like many other corporate giants, Amazon saw his business expand during this crisis. In the USA, the company hired 100,000 new workers between mid-March and mid-April, before creating another 75,000 jobs. Your stock price shot more than 50% since early April, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has seen his wealth increase in US $ 30 billion (£24 billion) during the pandemic. The global billionaire class has never had it so well.

The government must ensure that the recovery works for everyone, not just the richest. A large part of the answer lies in trying to block corporate consolidation and predatory acquisition by preventing leveraged buying from the economy. This could take the form of a state holding company, with a mandate to support struggling SMEs directly during the coronavirus era and prevent the destruction of what is left of the UK's local small business sector. It would target companies that were profitable before March and may be profitable once the crisis has passed.

Later, when appropriate, this holding company could relaunch many of these rescued companies under worker- or community-owned conditions or as mission-led social enterprises. In this way, the holding company could become an important instrument in a green transition , building community wealth, supporting local economic activity.

A democratic society cannot flourish in conditions of unrestricted inequality and will be even more threatened in an economy where wealth and power are even more concentrated. The only alternative to an unfair recovery is to use state power to protect smaller companies and create a more democratic economy where ownership and economic rewards are more widely shared.

History can be our guide here. A similar movement was at the heart of the US response to the economic crisis of the 1930s. Under Franklin D Roosevelt, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation , a state-owned company, was allowed to acquire failing companies until they could be relaunched during the recovery from the Great Depression. One of the engines of the New Deal, the RFC became not only the largest bank in the US, but also the largest investor in the country.

Public holdings are also common around the world. Examples range from Temasek Holdings in Singapore to the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation in Sweden and the Agence des Participations de L'État in France, which oversees the French government's shareholding in nearly 100 companies. The current UK government has already adopted this principle as part of the birch project , which will rescue large corporations considered to be of “strategic” importance to the economy in exchange for equity stakes.

If such a measure is allowed to rescue giant companies, why not our small business sector? Nothing could be more short-sighted than bailing out airlines and ignoring local businesses, including the businesses needed to create a more sustainable economy for the future. Nor can a balanced recovery be driven by the central dictate of Whitehall and the Treasury. Public holdings could be established on a variety of scales, including by the devolved governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Boris Johnson if wrapped in FDR's mantle. But Johnson's rhetoric is cheap. Now we must hold him accountable on the basis of what a genuine New Deal would actually require. That may sound ambitious, but ambitious action is our only hope of avoiding a future owned by corporate giants. If we are to avoid a large-scale collapse of the SME sector, history shows that we need massive government intervention.

The vast power of the state was used to put the economy on life support during an unprecedented economic shutdown. Now, that same power must be used to ensure that economic recovery does not just benefit a small elite, as has often happened with crises in the past. Rather than ushering in a grim new era of overburdened inequality, the recovery may be an opportune time to build a better economy. But that will only happen if we demand it.