This summer the phrase “Roaring Twenties” will be bouncing around corporate boards, investment groups and political strategy meetings. As Covid-19 lockdowns are scaled back, economic optimism is rising and investors and advisers are contemplating a boom decade. Judging by Manhattan’s packed restaurants, a rebound is in full swing.
However, despite all this sunny chatter, it is worth policymakers taking a cool-headed look at a striking survey that recently emerged from the Pew Research Center in the US. This suggests that economic dissatisfaction, given an outlet in the pandemic, has bred a broad desire for reform.
Late last year, Pew’s pollsters asked 4,100 adults in Germany, the US and UK whether they liked the structure of their economy. You might have thought that the development of vaccines and thus the prospect of an exit from fresh lockdowns would have sparked an upbeat mood. Other surveys from groups such as the business think-tank Conference Board suggest that, in the US at least, consumer confidence has recently soared.