The FT says twice as many business leaders say that the world economy is going to improve in the next six months than think it is going to get worse, according to the FT/Economist global business barometer.
Well, I presume the survey does say that but I find that distinctly weird, or yet further evidence that these people are utterly out of touch.
The Euro is in crisis and has no clue what to do about it.
Japan is in recession. We totter in the brink. The GOP in the US want to quite literally tear the government down through acts of gross irresponsibility. The High Street is making clear that people aren't buying. Savings ratios are staying high with good reason. Unemployment is high: I think it will rise still.
But I guess if you're a baker, commodities dealer, oil company or other rentier then sure, things look just dandy.
That's the disconnect that we now suffer between business and economic reality.
And it's good reason for saying the interests of business (especially big business) should be ignored when much policy is set: what's good for them is not good for us. Surely that's obvious now?
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ER
They say it is likely to get better from where it is now.
You say it is terrible just now.
These are not mutually exclusive
Unless you are predicting another earthquake and tsunami, Japan is going to move out of recession – the rebuilding work virtually guarantees that; the US has seen months on end of increasing private sector non-farm employment (and the rise in food prices should encourage farm employment); it is not the Euro that is in crisis but the peripheral countries in the Eurozone – Germany with its centre-right government is expanding and has resumed its role as the engine of european economic growth; China (world’s second-largest economy, or third if you take the eoro-zone as one) is still expanding fast, much faster than Japan’s 0.9% decline in Q1; so is India, etc etc
I am not very optimistic about the UK because the CAP is restricting how much food we can grow during a world food crisis and we have a decade of profligacy to pay for, but I do expect the world economy to show *some* improvement in the next six months. For instance do you expect Toyota’s production to *reduce* from 30% of capacity?
“But I guess if you’re a baker, commodities dealer, oil company or other rentier then sure, things look just dandy.”
For years now, the financial sector has made gains at the expense of the real economy. The housing boom and the easy availability if credit covered up the cracks this caused in the economy for a decade or so, but pretty soon, the chickens will be coming home to roost.
A baker??! I must have missed something, but I’m damned if I can see what it is. What did the bakers do to earn opprobrium?
I think they set fire to the City
But I’m not sure that was any bad thing!
As I prove time and again, I’m neither the world’s best typist or the world’s best proof reader