Based on my professional experience working with people, entrepreneurs and local economies, this is a 12 Step Program to Economic Recovery and to find our New Normal following COVID-19:
- We still have memory of how to run an economy (e.g. run a business, find a job) to prime the recovery pump
- Some keystone industries are still doing well such as health care, food supply chains, and others such as online shopping and construction and their supply chains – i.e. “flywheel momentum”
- Government funds are helping to keep other industries and their workers on life support
- Banks and financial institutions have helped somewhat in reducing the financial burdens
- Entrepreneurs are agile, innovative, resilient, driven, optimistic, and restless, and they will seize emerging opportunities with calculated risks based on experience and acumen, and they will experiment with new business models as needed i.e. human capital
- Banks and financial institutions will want to make investments in some of these companies to make money
- The band-wagon effect will take hold as we begin to see early business successes and other entrepreneurs copy them
- Consumer demand will drive recovery as people with disposable incomes will begin spending it on non-essentials, such as affordable entertainment and recreation
- New and recovering businesses will hire people, possibly in short-term gig contracts until they stabilize
- Local economies will recovery before international trade as we are rediscovering community belonging and the buy local movements will kick in (there’s no place like home)
- Businesses will eventually have to replace major assets such as machines and appliances made in factories elsewhere
- We begin to pay back debts and taxes!
Randal Adcock 