[BlackVanilla]

The UK's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (where people are put on furlough and the government contributes to wages) seems to have damped the creative destruction usually seen in recessions. To use a basic example, assuming there will be more remote work in the future compared to pre-COVID times, there will likely be fewer people who commute and fewer people who buy sandwiches at Pret.

Perhaps a better solution is to make furlough portable, so that workers can read the writing on the wall and be part of the reallocation we are soon to see. [1]

[1] https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/covid19/2020/11/05/making-furlough-p...

[tonyedgecombe]

It was interesting that retail closures actually fell last year. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of zombie companies out there just clinging on.

It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

[rjsw]

It will be interesting to compare with Germany and France, their wage support schemes are more flexible than the all-or-nothing UK furlough one.