I recall talking with the CEO of a major US outdoor power manufacturer last year when we talked about the economy, which at the time was flat-lining. Growth was neutral both here in the UK and in US. His view was that zero-growth was the new objective. “In the present climate that’s pretty good, we can cope with that”.
Yet to hear the depressing banter in the House of Commons over who promised what, who said what and a fixation on trying to achieve impossible targets in the current market, you do wonder what planet these politicians are on sometimes.
In the old days (yawn!), you knew where you were with Conservative and Labour.
Today, they both have broadly similar agendas and solutions - and in the end the debate becomes more about 'politicing' than facing up to the reality of managing a fragile economy in a very tricky financial climate.
After the last general election, the government set up the Office of Budget Responsibility to provide an independent body for economic forecasting. These independent economists have hardly got one growth forecast right so far.
Of course there are inbalances in the country, bad retailers are going out of business, good retailers are doing pretty well. Look around, restaurants, places of entertainment, sporting events are all well supported, there seems to be no easing of traffic problems despite fuel prices and spending is picking up.
Nobody, but nobody wants to return to the days of easy credit, with people buying stuff they didn’t need, with money they didn’t have. We will emerge from these difficult times, hopefully slowly, having learned how rapid growth can result in real problems down the line.
Now if the politicians wanted to be really useful, they could start by sorting out the weather . . .
