A worthwhile resolution

You cannot do better than read Samuel Brittan in today’s FT, The problem with all this economic doom and gloom.

The most alarming feature at present is the fatalistic public mood. The slump is being discussed as if it were a natural catastrophe like the arrival of the comet that destroyed the dinosaurs. All the popular talk is of retrenchment, cutting down and spartan savings of all kinds. It should not take a genius to appreciate that such activities can only make the situation worse and aggravate a downward vicious spiral. I would be the last to argue that people should spend recklessly for patriotic reasons, but nor should they stint themselves.

Brittan reminds us that he wrote almost a year ago of the of the need to ‘buck up’, of avoiding talking ourselves into another depression. What was true then, is more so now.