The first important message from the new Bank of Canada governor is an upbeat one – as upbeat as you can be in the middle of a pandemic that has hammered the economy.
But that is his point – that the economic damage was not as bad as it could have been. And…the worst is behind us. Action by all the players – the central bank as well as government – kept the system flush with cash with liquidity for banks and direct payments to people who lost their incomes because of the lockdown.
That was enough to keep the economy going and keep it from crashing into a depression-style funk.
As we see people starting to return to work, businesses that had been closed re-open and mobility improve, we will now begin to work out what things we learned during the pandemic we will keep and what we will discard. No doubt the question of whether we embrace policies around working from home will top that list.
