Quick final word on pay growth - it remains very strong at around 6% (blue line), which is welcome especially as inflation is falling - so 'real' pay is around 2% (yellow).
Means real pay is around £10/ week higher than pre-pandemic (altho only £10/ wk higher than 2008 too...)

How many people go to church weekly?

Surveys say it's about 1 in 5 Americans.

Cell phone tracker data say it's actually closer to 1 in 20 Americans.

Fascinating new working paper!

nber.org/papers/w32334

Gordon Brown: ‘I really didn’t think we could go as far backwards as we’ve gone’

Really lovely interview by ⁦Henry Mance⁩ on.ft.com/3UhcllG

What possible benefits of publishing monthly GDP outweigh the enormous cost (the media wildly over interpreting what is essentially a random number generator on this time scale)

It's genuinely shocking how much more expensive skilled worker visas are in the UK than a lot of other European countries

Now that we have the price index of private rents from the ONS, we can also compare the rent. Someone earning the median FTE salary in each city (~$60k/£40k) would not be able to afford a one bedroom flat in either city* but they'd be a bit closer in London

London: Streets Paved with Gold
1/3

The difference between wages in the top decile in London and New York (MSA is the lowest level of granularity available) are significantly larger than the differences for the rest of the distribution

Private renting is the most espensive tenure type.

💸 The average private renter paid just over £11 per square metre in 2020-21.

🪙 The average mortgagor was paying £3.10.

🆕 Research available now 👉 resolutionfoundation.org/publications/t…

*talking about Germany and Italy*

'Imagine a world with only 2 states: GOOD and BAD'