The gaps between macro-economics, micro-economics and home economics are rarely bridged in your average person’s daily thinking. Given the worry about his wages, his electricity bill, his cable football subscription and the extra little entertainment money on the one hand and the Irish Question and EFSF financial bailout disquisitions on the other, your average Joe Borg is more likely to be immersed in the problems former. Like me he would have little or no clue (or only a vague recollection) of the EFSF – European Financial Stability Facility and would have no idea how consequential its future decisions are on the price of bread in his own little world.
Which is not to say that we should all enroll in a Masters degree in economics overnight. It would help though if things monetary were put into perspective whenever we discussed politics and policies national. Our governments tend to take notice of international scenarios only when the outlook has something positive about them to say. Behaving like organisational Lou Bondis they will only read the news if it is about them and if it is good. The biggest offender however is the opposition which continues to swagger and promise as though the international financial crisis is a thing past.
It’s funny how the opposition leaders do not notice that by acting with such naivety they confirm that Malta has hitherto been cushioned from the uglier effects from such recessions. The problem is that, as the IMF seemingly pointed out yesterday, we should not be carried away by the idea that it is all over. Malta, like the rest of the countries in the real world, is still out there in the stormy financial and economic storm – and the waters are far from being calm.
On yesterday’s episode of Vieni Via Con Me, world famous architect Renzo Piano was asked the question that most of the expat community often face at one time or another in their life. Stay or Go? Implying – would you encourage people to stay in Italy or leave the country? Piano answered unequivocally – partire (go): not out of desperation (as the emigrants of the harsh times who left for New York etc) but out of curiosity to discover the wider world.
It is sometimes this careless feeling that the outer world does not matter that drives our planning along the usual corrupt and useless ruts. Which is why we too should encourage our young to leave the country and discover the outside world.
Piano added a postilla – partire … per ritornare. Leave to come back. Which I must confess is probably the most difficult part. Someone once old me that the country that you pine for when abroad is never the same one that you left behind. Which makes the coming back part all the more difficult.
Related articles
- More bailouts, more (EFSF) problems (ftalphaville.ft.com)
- Outside the Box: Why Ireland’s troubles matter to you (marketwatch.com)
- Macro Economics and Micro Economics in Our Daily Life (socyberty.com)
- Ireland bailout: how it will work (telegraph.co.uk)
- What collateral has Ireland to put up for EFSF aid? (politics.ie)
- That EFSF sense of urgency (ftalphaville.ft.com)
