Consumers are revolting

Don't let the use of the jargon term "consumer" confuse you.  It simply refers to you and me, deciding what to do and what to buy this week, next week, this July, this August.  And most of us are experiencing increasing anxiety, reducing our consumption, trying to increase effective savings against a rainy day. 

"Lack of domestic consumer demand" is now weakening every major global national economy - US, UK, Japan, Canada, France, Germany - and domestic demand elsewhere (India, China, South America) is simply not strong enough to take over as a locomotive power for thee world.

How are these anxieties to be countered, and a reasonable degree of confidence rebuilt, in the future?  How is the confidence to consume be re-created?  For me, this is the greatest current challenge to our powers of political judgment.

My own judgement is that the fears of the world's citizens should be addressed by Governments, in this priority order.  I would badger all my fellow Heads of State to pursue precisely the same priorities.

1. Pull back from international aggression - Bush has done untold damage to the peace of mind of much of the world's population.  Britain's complicity in this disruptive campaign adds to the anxiety of many.  TV channels are dominated by war and the pictures of war, and America continues to assert its right of unilateral aggression. This has profoundly unsettling effects, both explicit and subliminal.  If the world economy is to resume growth, the USA must develop more peaceful ways and help to re-build the United Nations and its agencies.

2. Move to counter universal fears of impoverishment in old age - each country has its own systems, but the fear of impoverishment is real.  These fears are deeply corrosive, and interpenetrate all aspects of life. Throughout Europe and the USA, popular confidence in old-age provision (whether public or private sector) is weakening, with no hint of optimism on the horizon.

3. Make sure that health services remove from the shoulders of each citizen the great fears of illness, disease and disability - these problems are more acute in America and Japan than in Europe, but the priority must be assiduously maintained.

4. Make sure that sustainable arrangements are in place to support the unemployed, at the moment of their loss of employment.

5. Address realistically the perceived pressures of global migration, which aggravate needlessly all other fears - start negotiating straight away for a humane, honourable and liberal system of international migration management.

If I were Prime Minister, these would be my priorities. Some of these themes are, of course, already being addressed.   Everything else would take second place - traffic congestion, education, tourism, agriculture, GM foods, global warming.  I would even have to downgrade my two personal obsessions - constitutional devolution, and company law reform. 

• But I do know precisely what I would do.

What would you do, to kick-start the world economy?  Drop me a line

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