Unlike elections, an economy can’t be stolen or cheated. It has no friends and only responds progressively to rationality and intelligent decision making. Corruption and uncompassionate and poor judgement are the best tools to arouse the fiery anger of this gentle giant of livelihoods, especially when a Chap at the Helm of Things is hand in glove with sycophants and corrupt enablers.
An angry and broken economy refuses a quick response to change and is insensitive to explaining things away by press releases. It is a slow mover like the wheel of a ship. Its stimulus is to feed it with bitter and politically unpopular pills of a recovery program.
The more destruction it endures from earlier bad decisions and corrupt practices, the harsher its punishment of unpopularity upon the decision-makers – a trajectory of social unrest. Its flames of disruption are fanned by the hollow words of sycophants and the ambivalent and indecisive character of a Chap at the Helm.
Initially, the population can stoically tolerate the brunt of its hardships by carrying the increasing straws of burden but only to a point of having a single unpredictable straw that eventually breaks the back of public frustration to be quelled by social unrest and demands for disruptive change.
The straws of burden pile up with cumulative shortages (and hoardings) of goods of livelihood with high prices of – forex, essential commodities, fuel, energy and so forth. The Economy gradually dozes off in order to provoke prices to spiral up uncontrollably. That’s called inflation – it could go hyper too.
Interestingly, this beast can act funny and intriguingly too – as if it keeps one eye open and mockingly smile at the incorrigible decision maker and the cohorts. Their flip-flopping style of remedies makes it give more aggressive responses.
The Bretton Wood giants (WB and IMF) are always in combat readiness. They can come along when invited in order to help tame and douse the fire of an angry economy. They bring along a spade full of raw and bitter medication and a laundry list of spending cuts and institutional reforms that inflict more pain and drains off the comforts of corrupt and irresponsible spending. These giants make things worse before they get better – that is, if there is a will and capacity of a Chap at the Helm to conform and endure.
The cure can take an awful long time depending on how deep the abyss of destruction has been – a time so unpredictable and unstable. The more the can is kicked down the road, the longer and more bitter is the antidote and the closer the unresolved challenges will get nearer to the date of electoral choice for another Chap at the Helm.
Yes, yes – just remembered the recent UK example – although a marked difference from sitting duck economies that have a complacent population and dormant political outfits that take time to wake up from inertia – or will they?
Nonetheless, the Economy that is gone bad tempered and being what it is – a no nonsense beast of reality – wields a hammer of suffering with no exception to anyone in society – whether for or against the motion for the reasons of a difficult livelihood. The French would say:- “Cela même chose pour tout le monde” (someone help with the translation please).
Just Thinking Aloud
Lamino Lang Coma
Brikama
