Optimism needed

Whether one is fighting cancer or a recession, being optimistic helps.

Thus, making a nation feel optimistic about its future is the job of governments, particularly those that desire to guide it out of a bad spot.

Conversely, scare tactics that raise pessimism and fear of the future among citizens undermine the possibility of a quick recovery and harm the government itself.

The impact of optimism on human welfare has been a matter of debate since the time of Sophocles.

In experimental economics, nothing moves market supply and demand faster than expectations: positive (optimistic) or negative (pessimistic).

Presidents, kings, rulers and diplomats in general have recognised the power of sentiments on human welfare.

In more recent times, Franklin D. Roosevelt probably best showed how a president can use optimism, combined with political savvy and confidence, to help recovery in an otherwise hopeless situation.

Faced with the Great Depression (America’s greatest domestic crisis) and World War II, and having taken the presidency while the economy was enmeshed in a horribly dilapidating depression, Roosevelt guided the nation with indefatigable confidence and optimism into a new age.

His opposite was Gorge W. Bush, who almost brought America to total economic devastation through his emphasis on the negative, finding enemies and wars where there were none, and using accusations and ruin tactics against businesses to spread distrust and general pessimism.

Politicians who utilise threats to pass their political or economic agenda or programmes are basically subjecting markets to pessimism that cannot be beneficial.

Experimental evidence shows that people who are self-employed are more optimistic than wage earners. Since wage earners make up 75 per cent of the labour force in Jordan, one can easily state that the majority of Jordanians are dispositional pessimists. Therefore, making them even more pessimistic is highly destructive.

In addition, because some of the most important decisions people make are infrequent, people tend to be more cautious about making them.

Large investments, such as the purchase of a house, depend to a great extent on how secure one feels about the future. Hence, negative statements by politicians tend to destroy this confidence and cause delays in actions.

Nowhere is the evidence of pessimism and optimism on the market more apparent than at the Amman Bourse.

It has been years since one read about a surge in the stock market index.

Negative statements by politicians, which are very easy to formulate, have ensured that the pessimism continues and, with it, the destruction of Jordanian wealth and the departure of foreign investment

Jordanian politicians need to refrain from making negative statements and threats about the economy in order to pass what address economic maladies. That day, however, is not here yet.

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