Perhaps the coda to this should be that a majority of Brits do not fear a fall in their standard of living? Would that be the same optimistic majority who voted for Brexit? And would a similar, almost 50/50 result be the result whenever and wherever the question was asked? It does prove, I guess, that our sense of well-being in peace and possibly most other times, depends on the economy, stupid, and how wealthy or otherwise we feel or think we should feel. Top factors are inflation, interest rates and the possibility of recession. Talk to those of the wartime generation, which I’m fortunate enough to still be able to do, and they’d say that just getting and earning the usual crust was, day to day, more of a worry than bombs and invasion. The problem is, any medicine has side effects, including and especially upping interest rates to kill inflation. Just look at the empty shops on any high street. Alas.
“Falling UK wage growth boosts chances of August rate cut”
Silver linings and all that. Growth in wages is slowing, (some) inflation is down, which means interest rates are more than likely, I’d say, to come down a bit next month. Long-term, most predictors think they’ll get to and stay around 3.5%, quite a reduction from the current 5.25%.
