Jake's View | Beijing desperately needs a recession to shift the economy

New loans grew more than expected on the mainland last month... The monthly total grew to 948.7 billion yuan, compared with July’s total of 463.6 billion yuan, the central bank said. It beat expectations of 750 billion yuan from analysts polled by Reuters.

SCMP, September 15

I like recessions. Let me repeat this in case you think your eyes have deceived you on this page. I like recessions. I think they do any economy an enormous amount of good.

The problem is that no-one ever changes direction in boom times. Whatever any business or industry is doing when things are going well, it is all just full speed straight ahead, pedal to the metal, don’t bother yourself with anything else going on around you. There is money to be made. Grab it while you can.

But economies have to change direction from time to time, just as racing cars do, and any racing driver who is still going top speed when he comes to a sharp bend in the track is in for serious trouble. Likewise economic performance. There are times when it is best to slow down.

Recession is the part of the cycle is where you say, “Ouch, got that wrong somewhere, it seems. Let’s think about this again. Perhaps we should do things a bit differently next time. Let’s work out how while we have time on our hands with things so slow just now.”

Even if this only results in cost cutting that makes the business more efficient in the next cycle, recession has proved itself valuable. But mostly it does a good deal more. It refocuses attention on new directions, new methods, new markets and new products. Paradox though it may seem, recession is where an economy grows up to its next stage of development.