
Posted 25.03.2021 in Company News, Industry Updates
It’s strange how many times I have reflected on that last overseas trip – I’m not sure why – perhaps because it is surreal that our international borders have been closed ever since. Who knows when we will travel overseas again?
A week after we landed, we were entering lockdown and embarking on a new era of working, of technology acceleration and adopting new ways of doing things. It’s incredible how quickly we were able to pivot as a community and adopt these new ways.
There’s been much talk about ‘surviving’ the last year, and I guess for some people, that has been true. Still, I have been inspired by the resilience and growth, particularly in business, of those who have made the best of a very challenging situation. I have seen people adapt and thrive in the face of adversity.
What has been truly eyewatering has been the sheer scale of the numbers associated with the pandemic. Since the WHO declared the pandemic in the year, it has been interesting to observe the scale of the crisis and the response.
These numbers add weight to my proposition that we are in the Biggest Experiment of all Time, and the simple fact is that no one knows what will happen next. The fiscal stimulus we have seen worldwide has been enormous, which has saved the world from untold pain. This was a lesson well learned from the great depression, where governments uniformly failed to act, leading to the global economy’s near-collapse. We are left with a global economy awash with liquidity and governments more indebted than they have been since World War 2.
As we reflect, I don’t think anyone expected financial markets to bounce the way they have, nor did anyone seriously believe that there would be a vaccine rollout well in train within twelve months of the pandemic being declared. As things stand today, there is good reason to be optimistic. But in the years and months ahead, I think it would be foolhardy to be too optimistic – there will be breakthroughs and setbacks on the road to recovery.
We don’t really know what the long-term impact of all the stimulus will be – that’s the experiment. But rising consumption, strong economic growth and inflation are all possibilities. We can say for sure that 12 months on, the global economy is in the best shape we could have imagined.
In time, we will look back on the last twelve months and shake our heads. A fiction writer couldn’t dream up a script like that.
Sincerely,
Founder and CEO
SOURCES:
Australian Financial ReviewNew York Times
Reserve Bank
Australian Treasury
OECD
Ourworldindata.org