In part for those reasons, a number of countries have over recent years developed indices of well-being, drawing on a much wider array of economic, social and environment factors. For example, in the UK the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has begun tracking 43 separate measures of well-being grouped into 10 categories: personal well-being, relationships, health, participation in civic society, where we live, personal finance, the economy, education and skills, governance and the natural environment. These different metrics are slightly apples and oranges – and some may be bananas. Nonetheless, a variety of empirical studies have found these categories to be important determinants of individuals’ subjective well-being. 12 A good starting point is personal well-being – people’s sense of whether their lives are satisfying. Chart 28 plots an index of personal wellbeing since 2012. At an aggregate level, it suggests a rising tide of well-being, consistent with a growing economy. There are also few clear distributional differences in this pattern of wellbeing, with different regions, ages and income groups all rising. Other measures of well-being paint a more mixed picture. Of the 43 measures of well-being tracked by the ONS, 17 have seen some improvement since 2012. Many of these improvements are among economic indicators – employment, income and wealth. In some ways more interesting, however, the majority of these well-being measures have not improved during the recovery, while a fifth have deteriorated. Interestingly, the areas of weakness chime with some of the messages I heard from charities in Nottingham last year.

Thomas Jordan: Structures of a new financial system Summary of a speech by Mr Thomas Jordan, Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Volkshochschule Zürich, University of Zurich, Zurich, 15 April 2010. The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  Well-functioning financial systems are fundamental for long-term economic growth. They enable capital to be allocated efficiently and facilitate trade in goods and services. However, financial systems also harbour major risks. The recent financial market crisis clearly revealed the vulnerability of our globally integrated financial system. Wrong turns taken in the past few years together with government rescue measures have led to a situation that is, from a liberal perspective, untenable. All this underscores the urgent need to make financial systems more robust and to minimise the risks faced by governments and by national economies as a whole. It will not be possible to banish crises forever, since we cannot be sure what the origins of the next crisis might be or when exactly it will occur. Building a more robust financial system therefore represents a major challenge. The key role that banks play in the economy combined with their high level of vulnerability clearly underline the necessity of effective bank regulation. Greater stability and security, however, do not automatically mean less efficiency or growth. On the contrary, the creation of an intelligent and stabilising framework is a basic prerequisite for the efficient functioning of the financial system.