Retailers thought it natural that their sales grew more quickly than people’s incomes. Many investors thought that earning capital gains on their existing assets was the key to wealth creation. Banks got used to very fast growth in their balance sheets. And we all got used to the annual tax cuts that came from strong revenue growth. But these trends were not normal.
And so two years ago, my thesis was that the dawning realisation of this was affecting the national psyche. Two years on, I think we better appreciate the uniqueness of the earlier episode and there has been some realignment in expectations.