The Post-Covid Economy

What could a Post-Covid Economy look like? Join GIMMS and our speaker Philip Armstrong to find out.

Covid-19 pandemic began as a public health crisis with devastating consequences in terms of lives lost but has quickly developed along with the climate crisis into the biggest economic and social challenges facing our country. Over the last few months, the government has spent vast sums to lessen the worst effects of lockdown, by providing financial support to corporations and a furlough scheme to millions of workers in an attempt to stabilise the economy; an attempt to put the economy onto life support while avoiding the worst-case scenario of a deep and protracted recession with its mass unemployment.

But the pandemic has laid bare the consequences of 10 years of cuts to public sector spending, widening wealth and income inequality, combined with extended political uncertainty over Brexit to highlight the real human cost to society of government policies.  For years we have witnessed daily, an NHS and social care system which has been overwhelmed, public services stretched to their limit and local government leaving us unable to respond effectively due to years of cuts to its budgets by central government.

Can we rise to the challenges posed by climate change and the current pandemic? Do we have time to correct our path and save our planet and provide for a more sustainable future?

Politicians, journalists and institutions are claiming that, like a household or firm, the government has maxed out its credit card in an emergency and will need to pay that back by or increasing taxes or making cuts to public expenditure. So, it is ever more vital to be able to confront the economic orthodoxy which has informed the political agendas of governments on the right and left for decades and for policymakers to take a new approach.  If nothing else, this calamity has exposed the lie of austerity and demonstrated quite clearly what is achievable in spending terms for a government with both sovereign currency-issuing powers and the political will to act.

Now is the time to lay bare the false narratives about how governments spend and explore what makes for a balanced economy and a fully functioning society which works for everyone.

GIMMS’ Associate Member Phil Armstrong, author of ‘Can economics make a difference?’ to be published later in the year, will be exposing the sham narrative of how governments spend and how it is paid for and will explore in the context of modern monetary realities how we can move towards a sustainable green economy, provide jobs and essential universal basic services, and tackle poverty and inequality.

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