question: The economic policy reaction to the Covid-19 crisis has been considered from different angles Here I will remind only the positions by Draghi (looking at this historical conjuncture comparing it to ‘war times’), Tooze (seeing in it the definitive closure of the ‘political economy of inflation’ as well as ‘the first crisis of Anthropocene’), Kregel (proposing ‘central controls for social provisioning’ as the pertinent macroeconomic policy) The pandemic could inaugurate a game change in European economic policy;and even unlikely quarters suggested in the last year a retreat from neoliberalism as we knew it However, the health crisis is not an exogenous shock: it is inherent in the capitalist social form of production and consumption The pathological state of affairs that takes our breath away reveals the hidden reality of the society where we work and consume Confronting the current and future virus outbreaks (as well as climate change) obliges us to go back to the founding themes of macroeconomics, which needs to consider not just the level of employment, but also what employment is for In this logic, we are forced to radicalise the notion of the ‘socialisation of investment’ into that of a ‘social production economy’: the challenge in front of us is indeed about the ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘how much’ and ‘for whom’ to produce [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Review of Political Economy is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )