Like you, gentle readers, we have our favourite economics correspondents we turn to every Monday‑morning :sages who try to make sense of another week of largely unnecessary trouble and strife. But all of them, from Faisal Islam, Helia Ibrahimi and Gillian Tett to American heavyweights like Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Reich, seem rather gloomy these days.
Take Heather Stewart of The Guardian: as good an example as any. Today she examines the unfortunate new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and the sea of troubles into which he has been pitched. There have been seven like him in the past decade. Each arrived full of bounce, convinced that this time things would be different. And then, as Heather cogently explains, along comes the Chancellor with the grim reality: rising fuel prices, rising debt‑servicing costs, stubborn inflation, stagnant growth — all while trying to satisfy the endless demands of defence, health, social care, and citizens who expect economic prosperity to rise automatically and forever.
That is the gist of Heather’s article, and Britain is not so different from most countries.
And here is our LSS point today. No national leader now has the power to pull the levers or push the buttons that will make any of these woes go away. Some immediate causes lie in the intractable conflicts in the Middle East and eastern Europe. Beyond them loom global warming, runaway AI technologies, and the rapid colonisation of near‑Earth space. Much of the world’s investment capital is beyond governmental reach, sheltered in private trusts and tax havens. The economists we admire describe these pressures well — but they may be missing the deeper truth hiding between the lines.
The nation state is no longer large enough to carry the burden of providing the rising expectations of its citizens, nor even the orderly, decent life they reasonably hope for. Indeed, the division of the world into competing nation states creates many of our problems, because it ensures that no one can ever take control of them. Just as tiny polities such as Wessex and Mercia once found themselves no longer capable of solving the problems that confronted them on their own and united accordingly into England.
Imagine, instead, a world authority with the legitimacy to mediate the bloody quarrels of regional rivals — and prevent gullible outsiders from being drawn in. What would that do for energy supplies, bond prices, and food security? Imagine capital markets so deep they encompassed the whole planet (and perhaps one or two neighbouring bodies). How would that transform borrowing, investment, and trade?
All these correspondents, whose work we admire so much, are already making the case for us. When you read their articles, you will find the truth implicit, just behind their words.
[1] Burnham’s plan for a radical reset collides with economic reality | Heather Stewart | The Guardian
[2] Kingdom of England – Wikipedia
#Faisal Islam,#Helia Ibrahimi #Gillian Tett #Joseph Stiglitz # Robert Reich# andy burnham #history #economics #trade #finance #world government #nation state
