I am but one data point.

I have a fairly broad portfolio of stocks, ranging from blue chips to outright bets inspired by the wallstreetbets crowd.

I have divested entirely of anything that relies on the spending power of the British consumer; retail, house builders, all of it. British people just don't have discretionary money to spend, and it's getting worse rather than better. Thus far, this particular stock market bet has gone well for me (although obviously it's a sign of bad times for the UK consumer). This is not the same as British companies; those with large overseas markets are still going. My Games Workshop shares have been absolute champs, for example.

I cannot speak for other countries, but the UK is one I can see with my own eyes. The people are just ending up with ever less discretionary spending power, where discretionary now appears to be gradually edging towards including "something to live inside" and "food."

I visited the Balkans recently. One thing that is very clear to me as a n American is that the rest of the world is catching up. English taught at a young age, internet access is easier than ever and in aome cases superior to US options. Like it or not, people from the developed countries are competing much more on the world stage than they realize. For companies, why pay 2x the price of a developer in the US when they can find good talent elsewhere? I'd love to leave the US and geo-arbitrage while I still can, I'm on a slowly sinking ship.

For 69€/month subscription ig this article isn't as much for the people whose wage will shrink than for the people which will take the decisions which will shrink these wages.

Start to?

Article brought to you by Sleeping Beauty. It took "ft" 6 years to notice.

Inflation will do that for you. Government spending and money printing are the primary problems, the rest is noise.

> The squeeze on workers creates two separate worries for policymakers. One is that households will rein in spending, worsening the hit from the war to economic growth and forcing companies to cut jobs as demand slows.

Well, yes, there's an incoming petrol/jet fuel shortage which is currently being disguised by running down inventory. That is necessarily going to hit consumption. Only way out of that is investment, which if targeted correctly both improves the economy in the short run and provides productivity benefits in the future.

There is, as they say, a war on.

> The other possibility is that workers will succeed in bidding up wages, fuelling persistent inflation even once energy prices fall.

This is the central madness of our times: people do want higher wages, but they don't want inflation, except a large part of inflation in a service economy is .. other people's wages.

Haven't kept up in 40 years because of the perverse incentives and inequality created by tax cuts and supply-side nonsense.