Towards Core Stability
No, not a post on my recent engagement with Pilates. Instead I am going to be a little Englander for a moment. This isn't out of prejudice: it is more a consideration of self sufficiency.
What's the problem with being an exporter? It is that if your clients stop buying, your economy runs into a wall. Look at Japan.
The problem with being an importer is that it is easy to import inflation.
A measure of self sufficiency therefore has some interest. The problem for the UK is that, with a few exceptions (cars, killing machines) we killed out manufacturing industry, making progress towards self sufficiency very difficult. It also makes our natural shortage of material much worse from a country risk perspective.
Therefore part of any long term financial stability plan should be the revival of manufacturing, especially engineering-based manufacturing, at the expense of financial services. It isn't impossible: Thatcher only killed manufacturing in the 1980s, and there are still some good engineers left (although many of them are retiring). This story is a tiny ray of light in that regard. But much, much more is needed.
What's the problem with being an exporter? It is that if your clients stop buying, your economy runs into a wall. Look at Japan.
The problem with being an importer is that it is easy to import inflation.
A measure of self sufficiency therefore has some interest. The problem for the UK is that, with a few exceptions (cars, killing machines) we killed out manufacturing industry, making progress towards self sufficiency very difficult. It also makes our natural shortage of material much worse from a country risk perspective.
Therefore part of any long term financial stability plan should be the revival of manufacturing, especially engineering-based manufacturing, at the expense of financial services. It isn't impossible: Thatcher only killed manufacturing in the 1980s, and there are still some good engineers left (although many of them are retiring). This story is a tiny ray of light in that regard. But much, much more is needed.
Labels: Economic Theory, Engineering
posted by David Murphy at 09:36
1 Comments:
Some of us are trying very hard to make this happen. But it isn't easy: the distribution curves of company size are against us (typically, 1 man and his dog; 5 people; 100 people or 5000), mainly because there's not enough financial support or streetwise business help for the currently tiny engineering companies that should eventually become larger ones.
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