From Milan to Miami, locked-in nations try to soften an economic blow

Turmoil in financial markets reflects widespread fears over a global recession amid the coronavirus pandemic. How policymakers respond could be critical to the length and depth of such a recession.

It’s a seemingly intractable dilemma, suddenly as salient in Berlin or Tokyo as it is in Washington: How do you save people’s economic livelihoods while telling those same people to stay home?

A global recession, many forecasters say, is already here and is growing more severe by the day, as millions of consumers and workers in Europe, Asia,...