MPs today will debate the economy. It could not be more timely.The Mindmaps poll published in The Royal Gazette this week shows that the economy has overtaken crime as the biggest concern of most Bermudians. That’s no surprise. Everywhere you look, the weakening economy is taking its toll. Today, Mindmaps reports in this newspaper that 14 percent of those surveyed had lost a job in the last year. More worryingly, just one in five of those people had found employment since.If those numbers held true for the whole population, Bermuda would have an unemployment rate of 11 percent. That’s a shocking number for an economy which not very long ago boasted full employment and was one where employers were scrambling for workers. Retail sales figures released yesterday for May provided no relief either, with the volume of sales down by 8.1 percent compared to May, 2010.This slump is not a reflection solely of a drop in the numbers of residents or a typical economic contraction. It is a direct reflection of a lack of confidence, as shown by the fact that just five percent of people in the Mind maps poll expressed confidence in the direction of the Bermuda economy and 70 percent said they were not confident.US President Franklin Roosevelt said “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” and to a degree, that is true of Bermuda now. When people are afraid, they do not spend, they do not borrow to expand their businesses or to buy a home or a car, and they do not invest. Instead, they hoard their cash and reduce their economic activity. That may make sense on a personal level, but it spells disaster nationally because it simply speeds up the downward spiral. The economy is weak so people cut spending, which further weakens the economy which means that people cut spending more, which further weakens the economy and so on.By contrast, economic confidence leads to more spending and investment which in turn increases confidence which leads to more spending and investment; a virtuous circle, provided the economy can be prevented from overheating. This is not a George W Bush exhortation to people to “spend to victory”. But some sign of a viable plan for a sustainable recovery is needed.That will be the responsibility of Premier Paula Cox and Shadow Finance Minister ET (Bob) Richards who will need to roll out their plans for recovery in today’s debate. Whoever does a better job of it could well determine who will form the next Bermuda government.Ms Cox of course, began hers last week when Government announced its business-friendly policies on immigration and landholdings. But these simply fix past policy mistakes. They don’t set out a plan for the future. Both parties need to explain how they would start bringing the Bermuda economy into recovery and, more importantly, how they would lay out a sustainable economic future.If anything has been learned from the past two or three years, it is that Bermuda cannot be dependent on a single economic pillar or by relying on construction to fuel the local economy. And we must also begin to make Bermuda more competitive, either by lowering our costs or by offering better service. There cannot be a presumption that costs cannot be restrained. They have to be, even if it comes with short term pain. And at the same time, quality of service must increase.There are no simple answers to these questions. But Ms Cox and Mr Richards need to answer them. Bermuda’s future depends on it.