It’s been another year of upheaval. War in Europe triggered enormous confusion regarding the supply of energy to the continent – as well as an inflation that had long not been experienced to such an extent in the advanced economies. Yet the euro as a currency hardly went through any crisis which was purely its own, and not one that all currencies were experiencing for the same obvious reasons.
This happened even if one could claim that euro leaders misjudged how inflation would affect them and were confused in the action they took to contain it.
The euro which used to be criticised for the fragility of its set-up is actually demonstrating how resilient it can be. The measures adopted during and following the 2008-2012 financial crisis – even if they were left incomplete – are proving to be quite well taken. Still, the point could be that the best safeguard the euro zone possesses relates to the political will which exists to ensure that the euro is a success and that it functions as it should. This has created a dynamic which is probably establishing new economic realities while certainly giving the wherewithal for the euro to remain a monetary powerhouse. Which highlights the view that a currency is not just a financial fact that depends on the market for its existence. It is also a political fact of life.
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PEOPLE ADAPT
Complaints are never few, they escalate when times are bad. But people adapt. If their income declines, they try hard to make do. They rise up against the government of the day and when a new government settles in but still times remain bad, people adapt once again, for they must. They cut on their expenses and more... till hopefully, times change for the better.
When this happens, they will adapt once more – and this time, the process is much easier. For as long as the good times persist, the faster and the more natural is the change. The problem arises when yet another change looms. It is much more pleasant to have to adapt to changes for the better than when the need is to absorb the burdens of hard times. Political and economic concerns then merge into one lament.
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WINTER TOURISM
We are in the middle of the winter tourist season and it seems like we cannot complain about the results being obtained. Tourist arrivals have maintained their rhythm and this could not have happened just because we were enjoying close to summer weather these past weeks. Could one have predicted such weather say three weeks ago?
To be clear, the push in tourism has continued to prevail not only here but as well in many other locations, which did not all enjoy (or still do) summer-like temperatures. Still, the point holds that we certainly have advantages when it comes to competing for winter travel business. We have to be quite definite as to what these advantages consist of, rather than take them for granted and assume we need not worry about them. To the contrary, if we comprehend well what they are, we can promote and improve them.
Meanwhile, though the winter tourism scenario appears to be very encouraging, news from Gozo has been less definite. Is the same positive scenario playing out also there?