Mehdi's Morning Memo: 'The Longest Slump In A Century'

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

in HuffPost UK Politics


1) 'THE LONGEST SLUMP IN A CENTURY'

Forget (our anaemic) growth for a moment - focus on the crisis in pay. From the Guardian:

"Britain's workers have suffered more financial pain since 2008 than in any five-year period of the modern age, according to research by a leading tax thinktank that shows employees have sacrificed pay to keep their jobs.

"Describing this downturn as the longest and deepest slump in a century, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says workers have suffered unprecedented pay cuts of 6% in real terms over the last five years.

"Historically, real wages rise by about 2% a year. This suggests that people are more than 15% worse off than they would have been if the pre-crisis wage trends had continued.

"Analysing downturns going back to the great depression, Paul Johnson, director of the IFS, said: 'This time really does seem to be different … it has been deeper and longer than those of the 1990s, the 1980s and even the 1930s. It has seen household incomes and spending drop more and stay lower longer.'"

What's the point of obsessing over the size of the benefits bill while more and more people are having to live on low wages and even 'poverty pay'?

Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports:

"Baby boomers are a 'fortunate generation' who have enjoyed dramatic improvements in living standards but are now 'absorbing' more than their fair share of taxpayers’ money, one of the Church of England’s most senior clerics has suggested.

"The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, who is 65, said there were 'severe questions' about the share of government spending that goes on his own generation."