In Mr Tulip's view, a good part of the difference between the low equilibrium rate of unemployment in America (and Britain) and the much higher rates in continental Europe can be attributed to Europe's higher minimum wages.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

So strong is this indirect effect, on his calculations, that the gradual fall in the relative value of America's minimum wage over the past 20 years is capable of explaining 1.5 percentage points of the fall in the country's equilibrium rate of unemployment over the same period.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

The macroeconomy has a long-run equilibrium natural rate of unemployment and GDP from which unanticipated counter-cyclical policy can scarcely nudge the economy.

FORBES: Thomas Sargent, Rational Expectations And The Keynesian Consensus

Most of us (myself included) will also readily agree that, if equilibrium money wage rates have been increasing at an annual rate of, say, 4 percent (as was approximately true of U.S. average earnings around 2006), then an unexpected decline in that growth rate to another still positive rate can also lead to unemployment.

FORBES: Three Percent Is The New Zero Percent

At equilibrium, all its investments will yield the same expected return, equal to the lending interest rate in non-Islamic banking.

FORBES: A Distant Mirror