Open Road

Tuesday May 26th 2009

What happened to the recession?

The Daily Telegraph started its seemingly endless series of revelations about MPs expenses over two weeks ago; since then, it has been quite hard to hear about much else, whether in the papers, on radio, the internet or the TV.

Now don’t get me wrong: revelations about moats, new kitchens and double claiming are pretty important. They’ve demonstrated, in both a howls-of-outrage and howls-of-hilarity way, just how remote from the electorate our ruling elite has become. (It is simultaneously depressing and amusing that a 25-year political career has been ruined over fowl furniture.)

Two recent essays have helped to refocus my attention. Nick Paumgarten’s survey of the state of Wall Street in the New Yorker (full article for subscribers only) and John Lanchester’s jaunt around the Square Mile for the London Review of Books. Two serious, and seriously long, articles which deserve our attention.

All that stuff in the media about the economy – remember that? The thing we heard about almost non-stop a while ago? Well, it’s still here and it’s as serious as ever. Calamitous public debt, borderline bankrupt banks, house prices in decline, the pension bomb ticking ever louder.

The media likes to keep our attention on one outrage at a time. But it strikes me that in the grand scheme of things Global Economic Meltdown is worth greater sustained focus and scrutiny than MPs’ expenses, Damian McBride and Derek Draper, Jade Goody, Fred the Shred’s Pension, or Jonathan Ross’ salary. As you were please.