Economics | The Guardian

US/China trade dispute, US interest rates, Brexit and Italy’s budget spook investorsWall Street and European stock markets followed Asian shares lower on Tuesday, as investors around the world took fright at the increasingly fractious global geopolitical outlook.Investors are growing increasingly worried about a cocktail of risks that could act as a significant drag on the world economy. Potential headwinds include the trade dispute between the US and China, rising US interest rates, the fallout from the death of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the budget dispute between the EU and Italy. Continue reading...

Worries about trade wars, Brexit, Italy’s budget, China’s economy and Saudi Arabia all blamed as shares decline

Early declines signalled acknowledgment of US-China trade war and other eventsStock market investors’ ability to ignore big geopolitical events is legendary. Give them a whiff of lower interest rates and most big-picture troubles can be relegated to the status of passing worries. In the absence of cheaper money, however, the story can be different. Tuesday’s early declines, which were really a continuation of a losing run that has lasted for most of October, marked a moment when investors were obliged to acknowledge that, yes, some global forces look genuinely alarming.First, the trade war between China and the US is having an impact that US companies can count. Caterpillar, the manufacturer of earth-moving equipment, said the full-year whack from higher steel and aluminium prices will be about $100m (£77m). Continue reading...

Reactions to Aditya Chakrabortty’s exploration of the damage caused by decades of neoliberal policiesI have always admired Aditya Chakrabortty’s analytical writings and his latest offering (Britain fell for a neoliberal con trick. Even the IMF says so, 17 October) is no exception, apart from one thing, which isn’t really his fault. I wish one could say that in the pubs and bars where I live they speak of little else but “neoliberalism”, but I can’t. I have never heard the word used by anyone in ordinary conversation. Never. And that’s a problem for the left if opposing it encapsulates what we stand for. The word is too academic and remote, and too unclear in meaning, to set the pulse of opposition racing.In order to shift the mass of public opinion in favour of the state and public sector, we need a word or phrase that sums up why, and for whom. Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal did it in 1930s America, and we need something like that here and now. “For the many, not the few” is fine in its way, but already feels somewhat tired and empty. The Tories won the economic argument with their use of the word “austerity”, so it’s vital to oppose that, but that is not enough. We need something optimistic and positive in language that captures the public mood.

Despite Theresa May’s eye-catching pledge, the chancellor’s budget will have to factor in Britain’s precarious post-EU futurePhilip Hammond’s budget next week is likely to be filled with initiatives and spending plans that, the NHS aside, add up to very little. Brexit, for so long an undetonated bomb, makes all predictions of economic growth and tax receipts more of a fiction than usual – and the chancellor knows it. The inescapable conclusion from a lack of clear visibility is that the Treasury can spend only what it must, he will say. In other respects, it must keep its powder dry. How could he not be cautious, when the most bloodcurdling predictions attached to Britain crashing out of the European Union could prove optimistic.There may be a £16bn war chest, stored up since April from a combination of unexpectedly high tax receipts and low Whitehall spending, but spending pledges at this stage, with only months to go before the divorce deadline, would be reckless.Related: Philip Hammond urged to make moves to end austerity Continue reading...

An innovative Rust Belt school district prepares students for industrial jobs – but also competition from robotsThe high school students clustered around a 4ft-tall red robot with long arms and cartoonish eyes. A so-called collaborative robot, programmed to work with humans at the Prent Corporation, a packaging company, it looked cute, not intimidating.But on this “Manufacturing Day”, which in the last few years has given local high schoolers the chance to don safety goggles and step inside factory walls, the robot delivered a not-so-subtle reminder that their teachers have tried to drill into them: the unskilled jobs that paid earlier generations so well are dwindling, gone offshore and to robots like this one. Continue reading...

The author and journalist Nicholas Shaxson gives a chilling account of the financial sector’s stranglehold on the UKIn its final decades, the Soviet Union was hooked on alcohol. It needed the revenue from selling vodka, and it needed the booze to keep its citizens happy. But there was a problem: the more Soviet citizens drank, the less they worked, and the more the economy withered. It was a vicious circle, with no clear exit, that helped doom the whole communist project.I was reminded of this parlous trap while reading Nicholas Shaxson’s excoriating analysis of the City of London’s effect on our economy in The Finance Curse. Coming seven years after his groundbreaking Treasure Islands, which told the story of Britain’s tax havens, this new book broadens his assault on the foundations of the modern globalised financial system.Related: Britain can’t prosper as a tax haven. It has to stop these hollow threats | Nicholas Shaxson Continue reading...

No case for keeping to surplus plan and focus should be on investment – Fabian SocietyDitching the government’s budget plans and adopting Labour’s tax and spending proposals would allow Philip Hammond to ditch austerity and pencil in an extra £100bn of spending by the middle of the next decade, according to a leftwing thinktank.In a report to be published later this week, the Fabian Society said there was no clear case for the chancellor to stick to his plan of running a surplus and that the emphasis should be on investment that would improve the economy’s growth rate. Continue reading...

Theresa May’s foolish promise offers an open goal for Labour if the chancellor fails to abolish tax relief for wealthy votersHow do Theresa May and Philip Hammond converse in private? I doubt he roared at her like Gordon Brown did at Tony Blair – “You’ve stolen my fucking budget” – even though she has. Prime ministers in a corner often do it. Blair did it from a TV sofa in 2000, panicking when a cash-starved NHS tipped into crisis: he pledged health spending would reach the EU average (an unknowable moving target). Familiar? May, facing a far worse NHS crisis, promised £20bn – and then went further. Confronting a fractious Tory conference she declared “an end to austerity” (meaning and price tag: equally unknowable).Her Brexit conundrum of impossibilities is of her own making, drawing red lines round herself with no escape. Now she’s red-lined her chancellor: he must abolish the deficit, keep debt falling, cut tax thresholds and “end austerity”, just like that. Impossible, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the great arbiter. It will cost £19bn extra just to stand still, while still cutting another £7bn from benefits: in next Monday’s budget, the public won’t think that ends austerity. May’s foolish promise offers never-ending open goals for Labour.Related: Philip Hammond urged to make moves to end austerityRelated: Hammond 'would need £19bn a year to meet May's end of cuts vow' Continue reading...

Charities, teaching unions and medical colleges accuse UK government of ignoring young peopleChildren’s services from Sure Start to schools and NHS mental health are at breaking point, according to a coalition of 120 organisations that have called on the chancellor to invest in young people in the budget next week.An open letter to Philip Hammond and Theresa May from a group of charities, teaching unions and medical colleges accuses the government of ignoring children and young people in its spending plans. Continue reading...

Alarm clocks and trouser presses are also out as John Lewis report reveals shopping trendsSome 20 years after the first DVD players went on sale, they’re history. John Lewis won’t be restocking when the current players have sold out, the retailer said, after a 40% dive in sales this year.The DVD player’s demise is revealed in the annual snapshot of buying trends compiled by the department store group. A number of other devices and electricals are also in steep decline: sales of alarm clocks are down 16%, prompting the retailer to reduce its range by nearly a third, while desktop computers are down 15%. Sales of trouser presses are down by 36%. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as investors brace for Europe to reject Italy’s budget this week

Unprecedented move likely after government insists it needs to increase deficitThe European commission is expected to ask Italy’s indebted government to revise its 2019 draft budget, the first time such a request will have been made of an EU member state.Italy refused to compromise on its economic targets, sending a letter to Brussels on Monday explaining why it will raise its deficit – the gap between government spending and income – to 2.4% of GDP. The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, told reporters in Rome that the government was not being led by “a bunch of hotheads” and that the increased borrowing was needed to ensure that Italy’s economy grows. Continue reading...

Thinktank promotes measures to help chancellor increase NHS spending and reverse planned cuts to servicesPhilip Hammond could make progress towards ending austerity in his budget on 29 October despite opposition from backbench Tory MPs to tax rises and extra borrowing, according to a leading tax and benefits thinktank.The Resolution Foundation said a freeze on income tax and inheritance tax thresholds before the end of the parliament would raise billions of pounds for public services. Cutting a string of tax reliefs for employers would also improve the chancellor’s war chest as he seeks to pay for increased NHS spending and reverse planned cuts to services.Related: Hammond 'would need £19bn a year to meet May's end of cuts vow'Related: CBI demands £2bn boost for business in Philip Hammond's budget Continue reading...

The man who used to run the WTO says the EU single market, set up by Margaret Thatcher, is ‘the top league’. How right he isThis country is obsessed by football. Many of the people who voted to “leave Europe” follow closely the ups and downs of the teams in the Premier League, teams whose stars and managers are often from, well, “Europe”.It is unimaginable that any football fan would want his or her team to descend from the Premier League to the lowest, just like that. Yet that is not unlike what this country would be doing if the wishes of the Brexit extremists were to be realised.The idea of trying to set up new trade agreements in a world that is going protectionist fast is for the birds Continue reading...

Cuts have ‘come at the wrong time’ after the Rochdale case raised national awareness, says former CPS expert Nazir AfzalPotential victims of grooming gangs are no safer now than when the issue became a national scandal almost a decade ago, according to the Crown Prosecution Service’s former lead on child sexual abuse and violence against women and girls.Speaking after 20 men were found guilty on Friday of belonging to a gang that raped and abused girls as young as 11 in the west Yorkshire town of Huddersfield, Nazir Afzal said the government’s austerity programme had seriously undermined attempts to protect victims.There have been hardly been any cases south of Birmingham. What the hell is going on? Is it because there is no problem? Continue reading...

The trillions in cheap money that central banks created after the crash have just gone to service old debt or push up property prices. And we know where that could lead …You wish fervently for something then, when it happens, it’s not what you hoped for at all. That is how central bankers must be feeling as they watch corporate debt soar to record highs.They wanted companies to borrow and grow, but not like this. Last week, this concern was visible in the minutes of Bank of England’s financial policy committee. They show that the committee, which overseas bank lending and is chaired by governor Mark Carney, likened a rapid growth in lending to indebted companies around the world to the US sub-prime mortgage market, which triggered the 2008 financial crisis. Continue reading...

Vice-premier and central bank governor intervene as GDP grows at lowest rate since 2009Chinese officials have reacted quickly to a sharp slowdown in growth at the world’s second largest economy, promising that it remained strong despite an escalating trade war with the US.The intervention on Friday by the vice-premier, Liu He, and the central bank governor gave China’s leading stock market a brief respite from six months of tumbling shares that have sliced more than a third from the value of Shanghai-listed companies.Related: New Look to pull out of China with closure of 120 stores Continue reading...

Dr Katharine Sutton highlights the importance of the everyday economyLynsey Hanley is right (We need to make growth work for all, 15 October). The everyday economy in which most of us are pitched is far less glamorous than the high-skill, high-tech ambitions espoused by the economic elite, yet its impact is far wider and the challenge it poses for now and future generations far greater.It’s not only economists, however, who need to focus on foundational activities or the overlooked economy, it is the way services are organised that also must be changed. Society has to provide more efficient services that are renewed and replenished from the ground upwards. This means devolving power downwards, removing lines of management, eradicating paper systems and trusting and valuing the contribution that those working on the frontline of the everyday economy can make. Continue reading...

Economic growth of 6.5% in the third quarter was the weakest since early 2009 and is expected to slow further as the effects of China’s trade war with the US take hold

£800m fall in borrowing on same month last year bolsters chancellor’s budget war chestPhilip Hammond’s plan to bring down the government’s annual borrowing was back on track last month after a blowout in August that knocked the chancellor off course.Public sector net borrowing in September, excluding the nationalised banks, was £4.1bn – £800m less than in the same month last year. The drop had the effect of cutting the level of borrowing since April to £19.9bn, which is £10.7bn less than in the first six months of the 2017 financial year. Continue reading...

Across the UK, others like us are taking action where a depleted police force cannot. Is this really how we want Britain to be?If I am being perfectly honest, the austerity cuts haven’t affected my life much over the past eight years. I’ve written about them so I know about the resurgence of rough sleepers, the proliferation of food banks, the increase in NHS waiting times and the closure of libraries and youth clubs.But have they hurt me? Not really. My bins got collected a bit less frequently, it took even longer to get answers out of council press offices and everything seemed to grow a bit grubbier. I got angry at what was happening to others, sure. But for me, life essentially continued as before, just with a lower mortgage rate and a larger tax-free allowance from HMRC.Related: The growth of private policing is eroding justice for all | John HarrisRelated: Policing at 'tipping point' over budget cuts, warns police chief Continue reading...

The US president has attacked Jerome Powell again, but the central bank is simply dealing with economic realityIn the past month Donald Trump has called the US Federal Reserve “crazy”, “out of control” and “loco”. This week he returned for another bite. The Fed is the “my biggest threat”, said the president, and he is “not happy” with the chairman, Jerome Powell, an official he nominated to office less than a year ago.The upwards adjustments to US interest rates are “too fast”, argued Trump, because inflation is “very low”. Continue reading...

Fortunes of already wealthy people grow much faster than that of general populationThe UK’s ranks of the ultra-rich have swelled by 400 over the last year, taking the number of people with fortunes of more than $50m (£38m) to nearly 5,000.The fortunes of the already very wealthy are growing at a far faster rate than the general population, according to a report by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse published on Thursday. Continue reading...

UK trade secretary, Liam Fox, and US Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, join others in boycotting economic forum in RiyadhLiam Fox, the UK trade secretary, and the US Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, joined key European partners in pulling out of a major economic forum in Saudi Arabia nicknamed Davos in the desert, in response to the alleged murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Reports of Khashoggi’s gruesome murder at the hands of a gang of 15 men with links to the Saudi royal court have already led to many western media firms and bankers pulling out, and the political lead from Fox and Mnuchin is likely to accelerate the boycott of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh next week.Related: As Trump cozies up to Saudi Arabia, the rule of law collapses further | Richard WolffeRelated: Search for Khashoggi's remains focuses on consul general's houseRelated: Mohammed bin Salman never was a reformer. This has proved it | Dilip Hiro Continue reading...

Paris and other cities have put out Brexit welcome mats for the City, but does banking unbalance the wider economy?As the UK’s Brexit negotiations stumble on, other European countries are using the uncertainty about the future regulation of the continent’s financial markets to tempt firms and activities away from London.The French have been particularly active in support of Paris, but Frankfurt, despite lukewarm support from the government in Berlin, has not been far behind. And other cities such as Luxembourg City, Dublin and Amsterdam have laid out their own welcome mats. Bankers have not been so popular for a decade or more.Related: Blockchain isn't about democracy and decentralisation – it's about greed | Nouriel RoubiniThere is a ring of plausibility to the argument that with finance you can have too much of a good thing Continue reading...

Labour councils have had enough. As another round of devastating cuts looms, the leader of Newcastle council has gone to the sourceWith the budget barely more than a week away, the queue of desperate petitioners would stretch down Whitehall, far out of sight. If austerity is over, who’s first in line? In the battle of crises, whose need is greatest?This morning an actual petition was handed into No 10 by one sector among those that have suffered the worst in the great state shrinkage of the last eight years – local government. Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle city council, handed in a plea signed by all Labour local government leaders to stop the next round of cuts – a further £1.3bn due to be lopped off in April. If that axe falls again, Theresa May’s “austerity is over” conference message will be exposed as pure deceit.Related: Even Tory councils are now calling on ministers to ease the pain of cuts | Patrick ButlerRelated: Yes we must take back control, not from Brussels – from Whitehall | Simon Jenkins Continue reading...

ONS snapshot shows drop of 0.8%, which is bigger than expected after summer splurgeA strong summer for Britain’s retailers came to an abrupt end in September as weaker demand for food hit supermarkets and dragged down spending overall.The latest spending snapshot from the Office for National Statistics showed the volume of sales for shops and online businesses had dropped by 0.8%, twice the monthly fall analysts had been expecting.Related: Cheaper chocolate and meat drive down UK inflation in September Continue reading...

US central bank discussed raising borrowing costs to ‘modestly restrictive’ levels, minutes of last month’s meeting show

ONS says consumer price index fell to 2.4% last month from 2.7% in AugustUK inflation dropped further than expected last month as the falling price of meat and chocolate helped reduce some of the pressure on cash-strapped British consumers.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the consumer price index (CPI) fell to 2.4% in September from 2.7% the previous month, confounding City analysts’ forecasts for a more modest reduction to 2.6%.Related: UK pay growth rises to 3.1%, the highest in almost a decade Continue reading...

Central bank draws parallels to 2008 financial crisis in warning about leveraged loansThe Bank of England has issued a stark warning over the rapid growth in lending to indebted companies around the world, drawing parallels with the US sub-prime mortgage market that triggered the 2008 financial crisis.Threadneedle Street said Britain was not immune from a global boom in risky lending that had alarmed financial regulators around the world this year, with the US market for such loans more than doubling since 2010 to surpass $1tn (£763bn).Related: Cheaper chocolate and meat drive down UK inflation in September Continue reading...

The fund reports that Britain’s finances are weaker than all other nations except Portugal, and says privatisation is to blameColumnists usually proffer answers, but today I want to ask a question, a big one. What price is paid when a promise is broken? Because for much of my life, and probably yours, the political class has made this pledge: that the best way to run an economy is to hack back the public realm as far as possible and let the private sector run free. That way, services operate better, businesses get the resources they need, and our national finances are healthier.It’s why your tax credits keep dropping, and your mum has to wait half a year to see a hospital consultant – because David Cameron slashed public spending, to stop it “crowding out” private money. It’s why water bills are so high and train services can never be counted on – because both industries have been privatised.Related: We let finance rip and flogged our assets. Austerity was bound to follow | Will HuttonRelated: Just look at housing to see the true cost of privatisation | Dawn Foster Continue reading...

Far-right and anti-Islam ideas taking root in post-industrial towns, says Hope Not HateBritain is hugely divided across cultural, age and education lines, a major study of national attitudes has concluded, warning of a potential rise in far-right and anti-Islam sentiments unless politicians tackle long-standing disaffections behind the Brexit vote.There is a particular chasm between people living in affluent, multicultural cities and those from struggling post-industrial towns, according to the report from Hope Not Hate, based on six years of polling and focus groups. Continue reading...

UK drops two places as World Economic Forum warns Brexit holds risk of further declineBritain has dropped two places to eighth in an influential global competitiveness index, with the risk of Brexit further damaging its international standing.The World Economic Forum (WEF), which runs the annual Davos gathering of business and political leaders, said that the UK had been overtaken by Hong Kong and Japan on its annual ranking of the world’s 140 most competitive economies.Related: UK economy heading for worst year since crash, say economists Continue reading...

Former RBA governor says Coalition pursues low-tax road to jobs and growth despite lack of evidence to support itNeoliberalism has caused “misery and social polarisation” yet remains in vogue with the Coalition government, according to the economist Bernie Fraser.The former Treasury secretary and Reserve Bank governor has made the comments in a presentation circulated to participants of the Australia Institute’s revenue summit to be held in Canberra on Wednesday.Related: Australia’s housing boom is not heading for a soft landing. How did we get here? | Greg JerichoRelated: More than three million Australians living in poverty, Acoss report revealsRelated: Why are stock markets falling and how far will they go? Continue reading...

Competition for workers helps push up wages, as unemployment stays at 4%Britain’s workers have started to repair the damage from a lost decade of wage growth after increased competition for workers pushed the government’s preferred measure of pay to its highest level since the UK was deep in recession a decade ago.The latest health check on the labour market from the Office for National Statistics showed that regular pay – which excludes bonuses – was 3.1% higher in the three months ending in August than in the same quarter a year earlier. Continue reading...

Aim unlikely to be compatible with balancing the books, says IFS in pre-budget viewPhilip Hammond will need £19bn from higher taxes, extra borrowing or faster-than-expected growth if this month’s budget is to fulfil the prime minister’s promises to end austerity and boost NHS spending, according to the UK’s leading experts on the public finances.The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the pledge by Theresa May at this year’s Conservative party conference to end eight years of cuts was “unlikely” to be compatible with the chancellor’s aim of balancing the nation’s books unless some tough decisions were made. Continue reading...

It’s a very jittery start to the week amid the Khashoggi standoff, US-China trade tensions and concern about US borrowing costs. Follow all the action live

Forget the ‘high-skill, hi-tech’ obsession: we should invest in everyday services to create a society run for collective goodThe late Prof Mick Moran, who taught politics and government at Manchester University for most of his professional life, had, according to his colleagues, once had “a certain residual respect for our governing elites”. That all changed during the 2008 financial crisis, after which he experienced an epiphany “because it convinced him that the officer class in business and in politics did not know what it was doing”.After his epiphany, Moran formed a collective of academics dedicated to exposing the complacency of finance-worship and to replacing it with an idea of running modern economies focused on maximising social good. They called themselves the Foundational Economy Collective, based on the idea that it’s in the everyday economy where there is most potential for true social regeneration: not top-down cash-splashing, but renewal and replenishment from the ground upwards.It hurts nobody to bring local services back into local authority control and to divest from outsourcing firmsRelated: How to build a fairer city Continue reading...

Forecasting body blames growing risks of no-deal Brexit as it downgrades estimateThe British economy is heading for its worst year in almost a decade amid the growing risks from no-deal Brexit, according to a leading economic forecaster.After official figures revealed zero growth in GDP in August, the EY Item Club said the economy would struggle to recover in the final months of the year owing to the increasing likelihood of Britain crashing out of the EU in less than six months’ time.Related: Frictionless Brexit trade deal would bolster budget – Hammond Continue reading...

Automation will bring growth, but history tells us labour’s share of national income will declineThe World Bank has a reassuring message for those fearful of being made obsolete by automation. The robot age is nothing to be worried about. Just like all previous waves of technological advance, the fourth industrial revolution will create rather than destroy jobs, so fears of mass unemployment are largely unfounded.Nor should we be concerned that the arrival of the new machine age is going to widen the gap between rich and poor, because the idea that the world is becoming a less equal place is more perception than reality.Related: Why teach drone pilots about ethics when it’s robots that will kill us? | Andrew BrownRelated: Rise of robots ‘could see workers enjoy four-day weeks’ Continue reading...

Markets rise in Abu Dhabi and Dubai; Trump issues threats of ‘severe punishment’Saudi Arabia’s stock market tumbled in early Sunday trade on concerns about relations with the international community following the disappearance of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Riyadh and a US resident, vanished on 2 October after visiting the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Ankara believes that he was murdered inside the building and his body removed. Continue reading...

Behind Theresa May’s assertion that austerity is over lurk the horrors of universal credit, Brexit and the DUP Continue reading...

If the PM can place a concrete deal before MPs, the pressure on hardliners to take it, and avoid chaos, will be intenseWhen the final Brexit deal hits the floor of the Commons, Brexiters who prefer leaving the EU without a deal than agreeing to a Chequers fudge will come under the most intense pressure to lay down their arms.They won’t just feel the water cannon of recession forecasts hosing them down. The international community, in the form of the International Monetary Fund, is weighing in with its own Project Fear, citing a no-deal Brexit as a potentially disastrous hit to global financial stability.If a customs arrangement is part of a Chequers deal, then Labour might need to back it Continue reading...

Because of heritability and upbringing, there can never be genuine equality of opportunityNo moral intuition is more hard-wired into Americans’ conception of their country as a just society than equality of opportunity. While some may be rich and others poor, we are willing to accept the market’s judgment about the distribution of income because it rewards talent, hard work and risk-taking rather than some unfair or arbitrary advantage.“We are true to our creed,” declared Barack Obama in his second inaugural address, “when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anyone else, because she is an American.”We have created a meritocratic aristocracyThe luck of parental lottery can never be overcomeSteven Pearlstein is a Pulitzer-prize winning economics columnist at the Washington Post and Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University. This essay is drawn from his new book, Can American Capitalism Survive? (St Martin’s Press)

Index closes below 7,000 for the first time since March after challenging weekThe FTSE 100 has dropped below 7,000 for the first time in more than six months as stock markets around the world remained under pressure amid the fear of rising US interest rates.The index of UK blue-chip shares closed 11 points lower on Friday, taking it below the 7,000 milestone for the first time since March to finish the week at 6,995.91. After a closing peak of 7,877 in late May, the FTSE has now lost more than 10% of its value – the definition of a market correction.Related: Why are stock markets falling and how far will they go? Continue reading...

World Development Report dismisses concern about growing income inequality, say criticsAid charities and trade unions have denounced a World Bank report that advises some of the poorest countries in the world to accept the demands of multinational corporations to hire and fire workers and remove laws protecting workers’ rights.Oxfam said the report’s main message was that governments should abandon labour market regulation and rely instead on low levels of welfare to prevent workers falling into extreme poverty. Continue reading...

Chancellor says smooth exit would free up much of £15.4bn reserved in case of ‘no deal’A smooth Brexit that offers frictionless trade with the European Union will give the Treasury a double bonus in the budget, the chancellor has said, allowing him to boost public spending and consider cutting taxes.Philip Hammond said a deal with Brussels offering open trade with the EU would free up much of the £15.4bn he had saved this year to act as a buffer against a no-deal Brexit.Related: EU makes direct appeal to Northern Irish firms on Brexit backstop Continue reading...

Princess Eugenie’s had her big day – now it’s time to consider streamlining the working royals“As a father, my wish for my daughters is for them to be modern working young women,” is how Prince Andrew responded two years ago to rumours that Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice wanted to be elevated to the rank of working royals – and perhaps even be given public money to perform official duties.Today Eugenie tied the knot with Jack Brooksbank in a celebrity-packed ceremony at Windsor Castle that suggested she is loath to depart the royal stage for her day job as a director of a Mayfair art gallery. The wedding almost rivalled Harry’s nuptials, with 850 guests, 1,200 ballot-chosen members of the public in the palace grounds and a carriage procession over the cobblestones. Clearly, Theresa May was right: austerity is over.Related: Quoting The Great Gatsby at the royal wedding? It’s no love story | Sam Leith Continue reading...

Too many people live too far from shops selling fresh food. There are steps the government could take, but don’t hold your breathIn the past decade there has been a revolution in the British food industry. If you are a comfortably-off urban dweller, it has never been easier to procure a healthy snack. Gone are the days where a soggy sandwich and a packet of crisps were the best you could hope for: now your options include protein pots, prepared mango, chia seed yoghurt, salads containing quinoa. Large supermarkets, too, have cottoned on: if it’s fajita night, a wholemeal wrap is an option. So is reduced-fat cheese. And, if you’re happy to overlook the food miles involved, a larger selection of fresh vegetables than our grandparents could have ever imagined.Yet the food revolution does not benefit everyone. A new study from the Social Market Foundation in collaboration with Kellogg’s has found that more than a million Britons are living in “food deserts” – neighbourhoods where poverty, poor transport and a lack of big supermarkets severely curtails access to affordable fruit and vegetables.Related: More than a million UK residents live in 'food deserts', says study Continue reading...