Shift happens

Check out the dramatic shifts in the policy frame in just the past couple of days: the IMF acknowledges debt will grow dramatically because of the pandemic, but governments should keep spending rather than tackle deficits (!)

The Bank of Canada has pretty much run out of bullets, and says it won’t raise rates until 2022 or 2023. And, as the baton is handed to [federal] fiscal policy, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has declared 1990s vintage fiscal policy has been killed by the pandemic. (Of course, that doesn't mean zombie economics proposals have died.) All the major narrators have flipped the usual script.

Shift happens. How will we seize the new space? Here are two suggestions: Maximize potential and reconsider what “economics” means. This is a chance for a big reset. Catch you on the other side of the US Presidential elections. (Talk about shift happening!)

Find me on Twitter @ArmineYalnizyan, and on Instagram @futureofworkers.

The Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers is supported by the Atkinson Foundation. Find more information here.