The shock-absorber is a looser fiscal policy. Although the budget deficit is higher than one would like, the good news is that it is falling sharply.
Although we should arm Ukraine, we should not fan the flames of a wider European war – but tighten our economic grip in a way never before seen.
When he was Mayor of London, I outlined to Boris Johnson how we have the potential to become the largest economy in western Europe.
Better still would be to expand study or work visas that could lead to settlement for the most politically active, vulnerable young people in danger.
The OBR’s horrid forecasts of an output implosion and soaring unemployment will do nothing to quell Tory resistance to tougher Covid tiers.
After a decade of forward guidance, credit easing and quantitative easing, it was clear even before the Covid-19 crisis that monetary policy had run out of road.
“Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Saves lives” now needs to end up as “Get back to work. Protect the economy. Save livelihoods.”
Businesses can apply for up for 25 per cent of their turnover to a maximum of £50,000 with the Government paying the interest for a year.
Ministers can carry on trying, through the British Business Bank or directly, to push on this Gordian Knot – or slice through it.
The part of the country that is working well is the part that is not waiting for people in a risk-averse chain of centralised command to make a decision.
The job now needs to be completed by shoring up workers’ incomes and firms’ revenues to as close to 100 per cent as is practical.
Many of these matters can only be made on the basis of imperfect information. The advantage of the elected official making the ultimate decision is one of accountability.
Withdrawal from the EU provides a necessity and an opportunity to illustrate that the UK is “open for business”.
Demanding the right to profit from promoting it while refusing to pay the costs is clearly indefensible.