Sustaining growth: Trust, equality, jobs

The economy is not out of the woods yet, with limited growth at best expected in OECD countries for 2013, unemployment still rising in some areas and falling more slowly than had been hoped in others, before things start to pick up in 2014.
But this forecast, in the latest OECD Economic Outlook, is not written in stone – it assumes that governments continue with reforms to set their economies and societies back on the path to sustainable recovery – and that means sustainable socially, economically and environmentally.
One risk was averted in January, when the US Congress agreed to extend the country’s debt ceiling for a further three months until May, avoiding potential inability to pay its bills. But this decision also sent a message that Congress is taking seriously the need to find a more permanent solution than repeated debt rollovers – if lawmakers have not produced a budget bill by mid-April, they will not be paid until they do.
The key to recovery is to push ahead with reforms that will pay dividends in the medium-term, in areas such as education, innovation, taxation, jobs OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said at Davos. This is not a case of ignoring the present, however -- "If you really want to go for a durable recovery, you really have to go for the fundamental measures," Mr. Gurria said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Some of these take a long time to get results but today, paradoxically, your best short-term policies may be your best long-term reforms.” Read more...