2020 is a year unlike any other. The pandemic and the economic downturn are changing how we live, work and think about the future. All of this is complicated by one question: Who will lead the country?

In a series of virtual events, policymakers and UBS experts provide insights into how these issues could impact you.

People will spend less time working in offices in the future. This is part of the fourth industrial revolution. The pandemic has accelerated the change. What does this mean for the economy? Home working will shift but not reduce consumption. It should result in a more efficient economy with higher living standards. Food and travel show this. Home working means we are buying fewer ready-made sandwiches, but workers are not going on collective diets. We are still buying the same calories, just in a different way. Demand has shifted location, not disappeared. In fact, preparing meals at home is more economically and environmentally efficient. In 1930, the economist Keynes predicted technology would allow a 15-hour working week within a hundred years. Keynes was almost right. Technology cut the amount of time spent doing household chores. Leisure boomed as a business. Today, technology is cutting the amount of time (and money) spent travelling to work. That again increases the time...

Bridge over a ravine. Participants broadly agreed that policy makers had so far been successful in averting the worst effects of the pandemic and shutdowns. But the risk remains that policy support could be with withdrawn too soon. That clouds the outlook over coming years. One speaker commented that monetary and fiscal policy makers have attempted to build a bridge over the ravine but that there was danger that the bridge will not reach the other side of the crisis. Another participants added that a return to normal would hinge largely on the outlook for a vaccine. Even in the event of a return to economic normality, longer term trends – such as the erosion of employment by technology – will continue to suppress employment and wages.

UBS Arena will become the new home for the New York Islanders, the first third generation arena in the industry, and a beacon of strength, resilience, achievement and community for decades to come.

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I am the Chief Economist of UBS Global Wealth Management. I believe passionately that economics is something everyone can and should understand. We all make economic decisions all of the time. The problem is that economists tend to wrap economics in jargon and equations. We do not need to do that. It is my job to help people realise what they probably already know – by developing and explaining the UBS economic view in a clear way. To do this, I publish research (most of which you can find here) and appear in various print and broadcast media.

I tend to think of myself as a political economist, not a mathematical economist. I get very excited about lots of things in economics. Diversity, inflation, education, trade, inequality, and social change are some of the topics I am very enthusiastic about.

2020 is a year unlike any other. The pandemic and the economic downturn are changing how we live, work and think about the future. All of this is complicated by one question: Who will lead the country?

In a series of virtual events, policymakers and UBS experts provide insights into how these issues could impact you.

On August 12, Mullen and Ridge joined Bob McCann, Chairman of UBS Americas and Tom Naratil, Co-President of UBS Global Wealth Management and President UBS Americas, to discuss the upcoming US election. UBS experts also gave their insights.

An all-star line-up shares their own stories of money, power and resilience. Watch the replay above, featuring: Billie Jean King, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, sports icon and equality champion; Lisa Leslie, 3-time WNBA MVP, 4-time Olympic Gold Medalist and Hall of Famer; Paula Polito, financial industry leader, Divisional Vice Chairwoman of UBS Global Wealth Management and author of the Own your worth report; Tina Brown, award-winning journalist and editor; Paulina Porizkova, model and author; Elaine Welteroth, The New York Times best-selling author, award-winning journalist, former Teen Vouge Editor-in-Chief and Judge on the new Project Runway; and Dr. Jill Yavorsky, University of North Carolina sociologist focusing on gender and finance.