, Columnist
Britain's Dangerous Post-Brexit Borrowing Binge
Brits are piling on the pounds in the form of increased debts. That's a risk.
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For the U.K. economy, the good news is that following the Brexit vote, the sky hasn't fallen as many predicted; on the contrary, it's been a period of unexpected fair weather. The bad news is that the benign outlook is encouraging a surge in borrowing, leaving households vulnerable if the Bank of England decides to tighten monetary policy.
Andy Haldane, the chief economist at the central bank, said last week that as far as the British consumer is concerned, "it's almost as though the referendum had not taken place." That, he says, helps explain why the central bank's gloomy prognosis of what a vote to leave the European Union would do to the economy has thus far turned out to be wrong.