Those who read their newspapers would have noticed some good news emerging from the finance pages this past week.
Australia, because it is a land of opportunity and hope, breeds resilient people.
In particular, the United States has officially emerged from ‘recession’ and the Australian economy is not only growing, but will experience stronger growth as the resources export boom continues.
Perhaps the best news for a smaller economy like ours is that the two super-economies we sit between – the United States and East Asia – are finally both growing at the same time.
However, when I look at the data and the predictions, I don’t see the fractions of a percent that are used to judge economic growth, or the tens of thousands that are used to measure unemployment.
I see resilience; I see evidence that millions of Australians have made their choices to stay positive, to keep their hopes alive and to keep their businesses and households pumping along in unstable times.
It is this quality, I believe, that culminates into the positive data and ‘sentiment’ that we read in the newspapers.
If we’re all showing resilience in our personal and commercial lives, then that’s how it’s reflected in the economic data.
It’s also reflected in the behaviour of the banks.
One of the features of the Global Financial Crisis was the tightening of liquidity in the banking sector, which simply means to the business owner that it was harder to secure finance, and for those who already had overdrafts, the costs went up and the flexibility went down.
But if enough business owners are staying positive, staying open, hiring staff and trying to expand, then the banks eventually have to lend.
They have to look after their business customers or those customers will go to another bank.
This became obvious as Australia’s major banks recently reported increases in their business lending after a flat period.
In other words, it was Australian business owners who kept active and sustained their demand for funds.
This indicates resilience in an economy.
It doesn’t come from the numbers – the numbers arise out of the resilience.
Australia, because it is a land of opportunity and hope, breeds resilient people.
And it breeds business owners who take a deep breath every morning that they open the shop, every time they hire a new person or go looking for new business.
It is this factory-floor leadership that makes us strong and puts impetus in the hands of householders and business owners, not economists and politicians.
As Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens told a forum on Monday: ‘The future is of course unknowable, and economic forecasts unfortunately are not very reliable.’
We can’t predict the future but we can decide every morning how we approach our lives and our businesses.
That’s what makes an economy – that’s what makes us resilient.
Mark Bouris is the Executive Chairman of Yellow Brick Road, a financial services company offering home loans, financial planning, accounting & tax and insurance.
Email Mark on mark.neos@ybr.com.au with any queries you may have or check www.ybr.com.au for your nearest branch.