Amid all the despondency about the economic prospects of “the West,” it’s refreshing to find an optimist with a coherent argument. Chris Watling of Longview Economics believes that the West is on the threshold of an economic boom.“It is anathema to talk about it given recent experience,” he admits. But he points out that inflation, although sticky, is dissipating. Interest-rate cuts have already started and will spread to the US and UK. The US economy has performed well, helped by productivity growth, and now faces a soft landing rather than a recession, which will be
