Brisbane welcomes the Ghost 20.

With the blanket sycophantic media coverage of the G20 taking place in Brisbane, I find it really jarring to hear reporters refer to the attendees as "economic leaders".

It’s jarring because it implies they have a credibility they haven’t earned and don’t deserve. For one thing, apart from Germany, most of the countries represented have debt-ridden basket case economies. Or at least economies with vast problems these "leaders" are not addressing, because to do so would be politically difficult. Leaders too scared to lead.

Then there’s the media coverage leading up to the G20 constantly talking up the security arrangements for the event, in particular how large parts of the city will be blocked off from the public.

I think there’s a weird kind of irony here. A bunch of supposed economic leaders come into a city to talk about the economy, but the people living in that city — the people who actually constitute the economy — are basically told to fuck off.

That’s probably a very apt metaphor for the elitist, standoffish, exclusionary thinking that defines modern economics.

It’s also why the G20 is pointless and will achieve nothing. At least nothing worthwhile to most of the world’s population.

It is merely a media event, just another way for the world leaders — and the interests of the rich and powerful elite they represent — to further consolidate their power.

Because their influence and power is ephemeral, based on illusion — a spectre only made substantial by the implied credibility of constant media attention. They are ghostly leaders, and in the case of Brisbane during the G20, they are presiding over a ghost town.

Many Brisbane residents — those that comprise the local economy — have quite sensibly decided the inconvenience of the G20 is not worth putting up with, and that this would therefore be a great time to the beach, leaving the city ironically empty for this contrived celebration of economic artifice.

Which is quite apt, for these "economic leaders" are barely leaders, and in most cases do not posses any specialised economic knowledge, and certainly no great economic insights. They are mere mortals who just happened to win the preternatural popularity contest of politics.

Are they likely to be driven, ambitious? Sure. They certainly know enough to get themselves elected in their respective countries. But this doesn’t give them economic superpowers. It does give them connections, and the influence and power that comes from that is not insignificant.

But it is limited. A media profile and an ability to bullshit effectively will get you far these days, but even that has its limits. The global economy is bigger than the bullshitting ability of the G20.

If the economy grows, if people prosper, it will be despite the G20, not because of it.

For the economy is made up of people. People who buy things, people who run businesses. The very people the G20 kicked out of Brisbane to make way for these leaders of ghosts.

Leaders who have achieved some success at the game of politics. But those same skills are often a liability when it comes to economics. Because politicians will always want to do something, whether it’s to appease voters, or to appease their corporate puppet masters, or just to appease their own inflated egos.

But sometimes, it’s best just to do nothing. Or to do very little, and let the people that constitute the economy go about their business.

But that’s an anathema to politicians. They must meddle. Because they have to. It’s just what they do. To prove they have a reason to exist, if nothing else. To feel important. Even to the point of displacing the population of a major city just so a handful of politicians with delusions of grandeur can play masters of the universe.

All the while oblivious to evidence around them that even with the best of intentions, politicians and economists often do more harm than good. Because everything has side effects. Everything has unintended consequences. (As the global financial crisis demonstrated.)

Because the economy is not some abstract entity. It is not a machine. It is not a bunch of statistics about growth and GDP.

It’s the people. It’s us. We are the economy.

The economy is about us, our needs, our wants, and our individual financial decisions.

Such a shame then, that the G20 will be all about them, and what they want.

They don’t give a shit about us, as kicking us out of our own cities demonstrates.

Still, at least here in Australia, we’ve got the option of fucking off to the beach. There’s that at least.

Until they work out an economic reason to take that away from us. It’s only a matter of time.