The Economy - does it have to be so complicated?

What can be said about the economy that hasn’t already been said? Well quite a lot actually, Coronavirus has begun to create a whole new narrative which is somewhat at odds with the very pervasive narrative that we had become accustomed to over the years, and in particular, since the financial crisis of 2008.

The existing narrative, one constantly reinforced in the media is one where the economy is central to our very existence, that any small change among traders can have devastating effects or dire consequences (namely for us, the ‘plebs’). Even miniscule increases such as quarter or half of a percentage point constitutes progress, unless of course compared with another country’s economy performing at 1%!

Growth, is the inevitable be all and end all, exports are better than imports, big decisions are made by very well paid men (normally) in suits who, in the case of the UK, live and work in London. GDP is the only measure that matters, only those who work in finance or business are qualified to offer opinion, or answer questions, and ‘the markets is something we all know and understand intimately.

Inflation, deflation, stagnation and quantitative easing is something we all get, the only currencies that matter are Sterling, the Euro and the Dollar, and that net, gross, supply, demand, borrow, outlook, cuts, balance, trade, capital, default, rates, tariffs, recession, fiscal policy and gold standard, are more just a variety of scores in scrabble.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, I imagine that there hasn’t been a mainstream broadcast that hasn’t given us two-minutes worth on the economy on any of its main daily news bulletins as if most of us long for it, let alone actually get it. It’s the staple diet, on a par with the weather, the assumption being that we need to know and that even the slightest snippet of good news is something we can all bask in, when for the vast majority, putting food on the table and making sure we don’t freeze our asses off at the height of winter is all that we are really interested in.

It’s incredible how the narrative of ‘The Economy’ has seeped into our subconscious to such an extent, that any news, is met with not so much as a twitch of the eye, never mind a shrug of the shoulders. It is so pervasive, its language so common parlance, the reporting of it so mundane and non-descript that it just washes over us. It has become like the proverbial drive home when you wonder how you managed to complete the last 20 minutes of your journey, so riveting it has been you’ve completely forgot you were even driving.

Coronavirus has most certainly tested the theory that it is the ‘be all, end all,’ but of course the reality is that we do need an economy to turn, not just in the way that it has for the last few decades. Even the word economy has subsets – knowledge economy and gig economy among them – but realistically, what does the future economy hold for us?

What does it hold for those who indeed inhabit the gig economy (myself included)? Why is there a need for constant innovation and entrepreneurship – most of us can’t be and won’t be entrepreneurs, and even those that are, is there ever enough business to go around? And does it not leave us somewhat in eternal competition with each other?

For those of you who do make it, we salute you, and we might even buy one of your products, because for most of us, that’s about all we can afford. Can’t we have an economy where the old fashioned idea of a steady job with a decent wage that allows people to move beyond perpetual struggle occur?

After all, the majority of salary will go back to the government in personal insurances, pensions, taxes, fees, charges and so on, and the rest, latterly, via taxes, fees and charges gathered by government through normal weekly expenditure to other businesses and services? Is the old-fashioned idea a steady job with a decent wage somewhat of a naïve notion?