British capitalism seems to be on a roll. A million job vacancies were advertised in July, a new monthly record. Early signs are that unwinding the furlough scheme, now under way, is not going to cause a sharp rise in unemployment.
House prices are rising at the fastest rate since 2004. Public borrowing in July halved compared with last July. Many new companies are being created. Business confidence is rising. The recovery is moving so fast as threats of lockdown recede that the UK on average will get back to pre-pandemic levels of output before the year is out. The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, can indulge his boss’s tantrums; his political position could hardly be stronger.
Sceptics, pretty much everyone, including me, have been confounded. In fairness, nobody foresaw, or could foresee, the incredible development of effective vaccines and the rapid speed of rollout. Also, more than 7 million people have cascaded out of furlough, using it as it was intended, protecting the economy from what would have been devastation, but returning people to paid work as fast as possible. In the…
