UK Economy - uncertain times ahead

A cluster or comment pieces in recent days have focused on the uncertainties surrounding the UK and global macroeconomics outlook.

This state-of-the-nation piece by Will Hutton looks at some familiar themes, with him arguing that the pandemic has done little to resolve many of the deep-seated problems facing the UK economy.

He's quite specific about low economic growth, low levels of skills, regional inequality and low levels of trade - things that he identified as problematic nearly 30 years ago.

Richard Partington writes a piece in the Observer, arguing that we're still not sure how the economy is going to recover going forward. There's doubt about a supposed post-lockdown spending boom, fears about the supply chain and rising energy prices, and the fact that the global economy is still struggling to recover, in large part because of a lack of vaccinations in many places. So whither the macroeconomy?

It seems that the big theme of this year's Jackson Hole central bankers' conference is going to be how to unwind Quantitative Easing, most notably in the United States? Certainly loose monetary policy has helped prop up the economy in the past decade, but what are the implications of bringing it to a close.