This is indeed the debate of the decade: where and when comes the moment for governments to stand back and let the private sector get on with it. Mariana Mazzucato’s answer is perfectly right: “This is not about left versus right, or public versus private. It is about working together to shape a symbiotic innovation system fit to solve the greatest challenges of our times”/FT, 9 October 2020/.
Governments really have funded nearly all highest-risk research and development and they must continue doing so in this decade.
It means bigger budgets, higher public debts and new “green” taxes to foot at least a part of the bill.
Central banks will participate in this deal via targeted means helping governments and business sectors in their innovative endeavors.
Governor Matolcsy, MNB, the Central Bank of Hungary
Re “Johnson has taken the wrong economic lesson from the crisis”
