We think of Britain as a world-beating economy. We would be better off thinking about Taiwan

theguardian.com:

Inflation is at a 40-year-high. Food bills are soaring. Pensioners are so fearful of rising energy costs that they are delaying turning on their central heating. There are “eye-watering” cuts in public spending and tax increases to come. But never mind. All will be fine now that the grownups are back in charge.

Jeremy Hunt was at his emollient best in his Commons debut this week. The government has learned the hard way that you dispense with orthodoxy at your peril. Abacus economics – derided by Liz Truss during her leadership bid – is vital if the UK is to take advantage of its fundamental strengths.

For now, the new chancellor admitted, it was impossible to avoid decisions of eye-watering difficulty, but in the long term the future looked bright. Hunt then launched into a familiar riff, listing all the things Britain had going for it, provided it swallowed its latest dose of austerity medicine: three of the world’s top 10 universities; a global financial sector; “incredible strength” in the creative industries, science, engineering, manufacturing and innovation.

To which there are several things to say. The first is that the record for doing things the orthodox way has been pretty dreadful in the 15 years since the global financial crisis. Real wages have barely grown, investment has been weak, the public finances have never been licked back into shape and Britain’s trade deficit has hit new records. Truss was wrong about many things, but her basic critique was spot on: the UK’s economic model isn’t working.

And while Hunt is right to point out the things Britain does well, he is really only looking at the asset side of the balance sheet. The debit side makes much grimmer reading. Britain is dependent on foreign investors