POST-GLOBALISATION ECONOMICS

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, it became apparent that previous economic models would have to be revised.  First, the cash economy declined in many neighbourhoods, with the reversion to barter; one pound of home grown tomatoes being considered equivalent to an hour’s babysitting.

Consumer spending was sharply reduced; one example being that gossip magazine sales plummeted because all the celebrities in those days were poets, with faces better suited to radio.  However, lemonade sales rocketed as the craze for traditional children’s parties, with pooh sticks, and fairy cakes, continued.

The Allotment War of Hayes and Harlington was a painful episode, but soon resolved by the government releasing for horticultural use land previously earmarked for the third Heathrow runway.

The housing market gently eased, as families agreed it was nicer by far to stay close to their neighbours, rather than move away and buy a six-bedroom, three bathroom home in a gated community.  There was a brief surge in cosmetic dentistry, as many people felt the need to smile more during the course of their day.

This was an international phenomenon. The Nikkei index plunged five hundred points in one day when Japanese salarymen knocked off early to have dinner at home with their wives, and the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve resigned, after the General Strike resulted in an Amendment to the Constitution granting all Americans the inalienable right to six weeks annual vacation.

Finally the World Bank capitulated and announced at a flashbulb-happy press conference that they were changing their major macroeconomic metric:

from Gross Domestic Product to Fine Domestic Happiness.