From Stanford.edu: “The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known as “Spanish Flu” or “La Grippe” the influenza of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.”
What happened to the world economy then and what would happen today?
Although I have not done research to substantiate this, I remember reading that the Bubonic Plague resulted in short term financial problems but had a positive effect on the survivors. The Plague created a shortage of workers, so wages went up. The wealth was also spread between fewer people.
