There is no new economics, just more examples of the old

We are told, endlessly, that we’re in a new economics here. Growth only goes to the rich, the entire structure of what we thought we knew is wrong and thus, well, thus we’ve got to do all the things we previously knew were wrong.

This is, umm, wrong. We do not have a new economics these days, we just have ever more examples of the old:

The jobs market has defied Brexit worries and fears of an economic slowdown to add another 79,000 posts in the three months to October.

A record 32.5m people are now in work, a rise of 396,000 on the year.

Pay growth also accelerated to a new 10-year high, with regular pay up 3.3pc, its strongest rate since the end of 2008.

Bonuses, which are volatile, rose by 4.2pc year-on-year. Once those are included, the average worker’s earnings came in at £528 per week.

This means wages are outstripping inflation, as prices increased by 2.4pc over the same period.

Wages rise when unemployment is low, wages don’t rise when unemployment is high. This is such old economics that even Karl Marx managed to get it right with his comments about the reserve army of the unemployed.

It’s entirely true that we don’t know economics well enough to know everything but we do indeed know some things. The old verities apply simply because they are verities.

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