Who knows if Truss or Sunak is right on the cost of living crisis – where are all the economists? | Simon Jenkins

The profession seems to have gone AWOL, just when we could do with a bit of modelling on tax cuts v handouts

Cut taxes? No, give handouts. Go for growth? No, fight inflation. Increase debt, curb debt. Raise interest rates, lower them.

Two members until recently of the same cabinet seem at opposite extremes of the economic spectrum. Both studied economics at Oxford. They must have attended similar lectures and read the same books. What's their problem?

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist