The current “crisis of trust” is often attributed to the Great Recession of 2008 and has been compounded by the adverse side effects of globalization and technology as well as numerous high profile examples of untrustworthy behavior by politicians, banks and various institutions. The response to this lack of trust in institutions has been to look elsewhere. “A person like yourself” is now as credible as an academic or technical expert, and far more credible than a CEO or a government official – reflecting a shift in trust toward family and friends that we have witnessed on social media. An agenda for rebuilding trustworthiness We need expertise more than ever to solve the world’s problems. But we are in a time where confidence in experts is at an all-time low. Many are trying to think of ways to restore trust in experts and institutions. In her very thoughtful Reith Lectures, Onora O’Neill was skeptical that requiring ever greater transparency (“it seems no information about an institution and profession is too boring or routine to remain unpublished”) and  22  Edelman Trust Barometer (2017). 7  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  7  imposing ever more box ticking accountability would work. Transparency is not good enough if information is inaccessible and unassessible. Instead, we should focus more on increasing trustworthiness.
Prospects for both the euro area and the Japanese economy seem to have worsened, if anything, at least for the coming year. In the euro area it is manufacturing which has weakened in particular, while consumption still seems to be following a relatively favourable path. Developments in the United States are still fairly strong but some slowdown is still foreseen. The situation in Brazil in recent days has created some renewed unrest in international financial markets, with a limited flight to safe assets. This, too, may affect future international activity, though the turbulence in the wake of the falling real seems, if anything, to have been less than expected. The economic statistics for Sweden suggest that industrial activity may go on weakening. The picture of total resource utilisation is still difficult to assess but there is much to suggest that the proportion of unutilised resources is still comparatively large. Forward indicators, such as incoming orders, also point to a further deterioration. At the same time, households’ expectations of their own economic situation indicate that the development of private consumption will remain relatively good. Household optimism is supported by increased employment and a favourable development of disposable income. However, the sustainability of this development is uncertain, as it was last autumn, partly because households and firms differ in their assessments of the future. Negative news from the business community may make households more pessimistic, and so may renewed unrest in financial markets.