Britain's Productivity Problem

On Thursday, British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after just 44 days. To some she was an economic naif, brought down by delusions of resurgent Thatcherism; to others she was a conservative clown, who had turned the United Kingdom into a laughing stock. The turmoil in the UK economy caused by her budget prompted European newspapers to mock Britain for leaving the European Union. American media outlets wondered if she could last until the end of the month. Britain's own newspapers compared the Prime Minister to a rotting head of lettuce — and then noted the lettuce outlived her. Italy's leading daily, Corriere Della Sera, ran with the headline "Panic in London: 'We have become the new Italy'."

This last jab was particularly galling for Truss, and not just because it nodded at how politically unstable the UK has become (Italy went through six prime ministers in the ten years between 2006 and 2016: when Truss' successor is named,