Derek Thompson writes about Britain’s economic decline over the past few years. In the midst of decreasing living standards, we’re now one of the poorest and least productive countries in Western Europe by some measures, especially outside of London.

In the past 30 years, the British economy chose finance over industry, Britain’s government chose austerity over investment, and British voters chose a closed and poorer economy over an open and richer one. The predictable results are falling wages and stunningly low productivity growth