An economy that does not grow cannot generate the resources necessary to recompense the capital invested in companies, to bear the burden of public debt or to enable households to repay their debts. Weak economic growth has even more serious effects on financial wealth if there is also a surfeit of debt in some sectors.
He was not, and he did not pretend to be, “always right”. But, like the builders of the medieval cathedrals that enrich Europe, he was a “man of vision,” a believer but also a very practical man. He was loyal to the institutions which he served but no slavish follower of received tradition.