Reckoning with an era of slow growth

HAS rapid economic growth in the world’s high-income countries come to an end? If so, did the bursting of the bubble economy in 2007 mark the turning point? Alternatively, are we at the start of a new age of rapid growth fuelled by artificial intelligence?

The answers to these questions are likely to do much to shape the future of our societies, since stagnant economies partly explain our bitter politics.

What then does the record look like, and how far did it depend on unrepeatable opportunities? Here, I will focus on the UK, as one of a number of countries struggling to recover dynamism.