Saturday, 10 October 2026
OpinionMarkets

Markets are not the economy, and we should stop pretending they are

A rising stock index can hide a struggling high street. Policymakers should look beyond the ticker.

Illustration for “Markets are not the economy, and we should stop pretending they are”
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Stock prices reflect expectations about future company profits. They say little about wages, rents or whether families can afford the weekly shop.

The bigger picture

Treating the index as a scoreboard for the whole economy leads to the wrong conclusions, and sometimes the wrong policies.

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