Quote:Keeping migrants out will, as you say, raise wages. And hence living standards. That's good right?
No it will just bring inflation. Higher wages from labour shortage = inflation = lower living standards.
Especially when there has been a sudden exodus and you then stop those people coming back. I’d have thought quite a few might want to come back now the £ is 8% higher against the euro, and the UK looks like it may be post pandemic.
Inflation currently looks like either (a) It is already a huge problem with huge pent up demand vs capacity cuts to below pandemic levels, or (b) ‘It is just a temporary blip’ - in which case we are in for large price drops within 6 months - which frankly seems unlikely.
If you take shipping costs, even if/when all the containers are back in the right place there will be a capacity shortfall, and you can’t build ships quickly.
Lockdown has hugely destabilised the economy. Materials and commodities prices hugely inflated - and I think once suppliers have the taste for hugely hiked prices I cannot see them lowering them again. The only pressure for prices falling again is a drop in demand plus competition.
Lockdown and money printing looks to be sending us back to boom & bust economics and all the damage that does.