All in Policy
Survival requires adaptability and agility, making full use of all the tools in our toolbox, instead of being a hammer treating everything as nails. And our longer-term future depends on our ability to grow, change and innovate — we should take a cue from nature and be as creative as we can be.
The idea of a level playing field between developed and developing countries is not historically just. Things were unfairly titled towards these rich countries in history. We need to re-tilt it back towards the rest of us.
The reality of economic development is that, however we feel about them, elites exist and the elite bargain does matter. And an elite bargain that accelerates economic growth may not necessarily be the same bargain that maintains that growth.
The release of the dinosaurs into the world is very much akin to the massive monetary expansion from quantitative easing in developed countries, particularly the US, the eurozone nations and Japan, since the global financial crisis.
Power distance and our “VIP culture”, which may have worked in different instances in the past or indeed in the present for a given objective, is unlikely to be conducive to future economic development objectives
Technology need not be predestined, and technology policy is something policymakers can influence. Governments can and should shape the kinds of digital technology they believe their countries can adopt and deploy.
When it comes to competition, if Malaysia’s largest firms primarily compete among themselves for an “island-type” market size, how productive can they actually be?
Ultimately, while we must certainly care about infrastructure and the economy, it is real lives and real people that form the centre of our preparations towards more frequent tail events.
The implementation of vaccine distribution will make or break our vaccination strategy and will have important consequences for our more macroeconomic outcomes such as GDP growth and employment rates.
Trust is key to an all-of-society approach to tackling Covid-19, but trust must be earned, not just assumed.