We should listen to wise warning from the past

PRIDE, as we know, comes before a fall – and sometimes before a crash. If we learned anything from the economic collapse it must be to keep a close eye out for alarm bells. And one was surely sounded by Ashoka Mody, the former IMF mission chief. Mr Mody is rightly worried by our over-reliance on global corporations as the pistons to drive our economic engine.

In particular, he identifies our favourable tax regime as being under threat from a radical shake-up in global tax laws. Our inability to dispense favourable tax treatment could hit hard and in Mr Mody’s view – unless we engineer a new growth model beyond corporate taxes – we could once more be in for a hard landing.

He lists critical failures which must be addressed such as too little emphasis on research and development, a decline in public education expenditure, and other legacy issues that have not been adequately addressed 10 years after the downturn.

Ten years ago, to some extent given international events, it was difficult to change the hand we were dealt but few doubt that we might have played it a lot better.

We have little choice but to adapt to the new paradigm. There can be some value in making mistakes but only if you learn from them, as we know to our cost.

We should be grateful to Mr Mody for reminding us of them.