Report backed by business leaders says gains from growth are going largely into profits for corporations rather than wagesBritain’s economic model is broken and produces widespread inequality, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned in a report backed by business leaders.Justin Welby said the UK needed to make fundamental choices about the direction of its economy, in a study that found the gains from growth are being diverted into profits rather than wages.Related: Britain’s economy is broken. We desperately need new ideas | Tom Kibasi Continue reading...

Analysts voice concerns that UK economy is being held back, blaming Brexit uncertainty and weak poundBusiness leaders have blamed the uncertainty created by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union for the slowest pace of output growth in the services sector for almost a year.Financial data provider Markit said Brexit uncertainty and higher import costs arising from the slump in the pound were behind the stumbling performance of the UK’s largest business sector last month.Related: UK construction 'flirting with recession' as Brexit uncertainty bites Continue reading...

Weakness in sterling having positive effect on manufacturers as goods made in Britain become cheaper for buyers overseasBritish manufacturers and retailers are reporting an upswing in sales, despite fears Brexit could hamper future growth, as the weak pound bolsters exports abroad and consumer spending at home.Retail sales increased by 1.3% on a like-for-like basis last month from August 2016, when they fell 0.9%, according to the British Retail Consortium. Meanwhile the EEF manufacturers’ organisation said there was rising demand for goods made in Britain from Europe and the rest of the world.Related: UK construction 'flirting with recession' as Brexit uncertainty bites Continue reading...

A £50bn-a-year green infrastructure quantitative easing programme is feasible, say Prof Richard Murphy and Colin HinesZoe Williams is right: another credit crunch-induced “crash” is likely and the only affordable rescue package will be some form of quantitative easing (With Britain’s addition to debt, another crash is certain, 4 September). This time it must generate jobs for the “left behind” and others, rather than today’s beneficiaries – the property- and share-owning rich. The Green New Deal group showed the potential of such an approach in its proposal for a £50bn-a-year green infrastructure QE programme.This would pay to make the UK’s 28m dwellings and 2m commercial and public sector buildings super energy efficient, dramatically reducing energy bills, fuel poverty and greenhouse gas emissions. It could also tackle the housing crisis by building affordable, highly insulated homes, predominantly on brownfield sites. This form of QE would provide job security and local business opportunities in every constituency, since its infrastructure improvements would take place across the UK. Continue reading...

Proposed cuts to federal agency budgets and changes to employment law benefit only the US president and his cronies

All the day’s economic and financial news, as British builders are hit by concerns over the economic outlook

The word has become a rhetorical weapon, but it properly names the reigning ideology of our era – one that venerates the logic of the market and strips away the things that make us human• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast &Sticherand join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...

Growth slows to one-year low with analysts as Brexit delays investment plans and saps demand for new office spaceBritain’s construction industry is taking on fewer workers amid a slowdown in commercial work, as economic uncertainty puts projects on hold.Growth in the construction sector fell unexpectedly to a one-year low in August, the closely watched Markit/Cips purchasing managers’ index for the industry showed on Monday.Related: UK construction growth hits one-year low as Brexit worries build - business live Continue reading...

Survey by Lloyds Bank finds people’s confidence in Britain’s financial situation has worsened amid rising pricesWorries about rising inflation among UK consumers are at their greatest in three and a half years, while people’s confidence in Britain’s financial situation has worsened, according to a survey.A monthly poll by Lloyds Bank found that 65% of people felt negative about levels of inflation in July, up from 60% in June and the highest level since January 2014. Continue reading...

Ten years ago the culprit was sub-prime mortgages. Personal credit is out of control in Britain now. We seem to have learned absolutely nothingWhen Provident Financial lost £1.7bn in share value a little over a week ago, a handful of people asked whether this was a Northern Rock moment. The Provident extends high-interest loans to low-income people, and as such could be seen as a bellwether in the manner of a sub-prime mortgage company, the first to go under when debt becomes unbearable, the signal that credit is, once again, about to crunch.Related: Doorstep lender Morses swipes customers from troubled rival ProvidentThere is something obscurely insulting about being warned about household debt by the Bank of EnglandRelated: Drive carefully – I can see a credit car crash up ahead | Phillip Inman Continue reading...

Far from David Cameron’s vision of a strident UK distancing itself from a failing union, Brexit may deliver the oppositeWhen David Cameron set out to create a “two-speed Europe” , the former prime minister did so with the words of the Eurosceptic Tory right ringing in his ears.Europe was doomed. Mounting problems for Greece and rising numbers of immigrants showed that Britain must cut itself free from a failing union. Far from prospering from our membership of the world’s largest economy, the EU was hindering mighty Britannia. Take back control. Let Brussels sink.Related: Slowdown in consumer credit growth spells trouble for UK economy | Phillip InmanRelated: The EU is not the enemy of the state. Time to think again on BrexitRelated: British tourists tell of misery abroad with pound at eight-year lowRelated: We have the power to create the economy we want – let’s use it | Tom Kibasi Continue reading...

This week, the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice delivers a new vision for the UK economy, one that joins prosperity with justice and builds the common goodToday, the unclear prospects of Brexit loom large over our economy and our politics. The vote to leave was, by definition, a vote against the status quo. A majority of British people felt they had little to lose and perhaps something to gain from a radical shake-up of the economy. “Take back control” resonated because it was an expression of a feeling of powerlessness in the globalised economy.The general election that was ostensibly called on the question of Brexit rapidly focused on the state of the country at home – schools funding, NHS deficits, public sector pay, reductions in police numbers. And the increase in voting by people in their 20s and 30s revealed the depth of frustration among younger generations, so many of whom are unable to access decent housing and are weighed down by mounting student debt. This generation expect that they will be poorer than their parents because they will be. Continue reading...

So far this year, at least 140 million people across 37 countries have been left in need of humanitarian aid. But most of them will not get itFor tens of millions of people around the world, 2017 has been a year of disasters. The latest in a long list of catastrophes, natural and manmade, has left more than 40 million in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal struggling with extreme monsoon flooding. Many of those affected are the least able to cope – subsistence farmers and the urban poor who can expect little help from their governments. In a world inundated by emergencies, they may be left, literally, to sink or swim. Continue reading...

However confident the Fed is of recovery, there is growing evidence of a slide into outright deflationHurricane Harvey was such a distraction last week that Donald Trump forgot to tweet about his country’s return to 3% GDP growth. When the news came that US second-quarter GDP, when extrapolated over a year, showed the country growing at the fastest rate in the G7, he was busy flying down to Texas to support the relief effort.Trump and his Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin have promised to deliver 3%-plus growth and here was the first indication that the president’s arrival in the White House had made a difference. In a way, it is just as well he missed the opportunity to brag. The headline figures may look good, but a peek under the bonnet of the US economy makes for disturbing reading. In a report last week a senior City analyst, Albert Edwards, showed that the Trump effect is quite the opposite and much of the life has been sucked out of the American economic juggernaut in the last six months.Related: Trump vows to 'bring back Main Street' by cutting business tax to 15%Related: The president tweeted it – but is the US economy really great again? Continue reading...

A BBC Radio 4 programme examines why experts often get predictions wrong – and meets the people who get them rightWhile accepting the Nobel prize for economics, Friedrich Hayek made an astonishing admission. Not only were economists unsure about their predictions, he noted, but their tendency to present their findings with the certainty of the language of science was misleading and “may have deplorable effects”.This revelation, made about 40 years ago, is a crucial one and yet it has been largely forgotten or ignored. One of the most striking comments before the EU referendum was from Michael Gove. He claimed people in Britain had had enough of experts. This has since become something of a mantra, and polling does indeed suggest that most people place little trust in expert predictions and pronouncements. Continue reading...

Because US infrastructure is not built to withstand climate change the cost of the disaster will be relatively highHurricane Katrina in 2005 was “the first taste of a bitter cup that will be proffered to us over and over again,” according to former US vice president Al Gore at the time.Since then, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and now Hurricane Harvey have borne out this prediction. The latest storm may turn out to be less fatal than Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people but in economic terms it may be as bad. Hurricane Katrina cost about $160bn (£124bn) in economic losses in today’s terms, accounting for the last decade’s inflation, while Sandy wrought about $70bn in damage.Related: A timeline of the billion-dollar weather disasters in the US over the past decadeWeather catastrophes are now six times more frequent than in 1950 Continue reading...

Brexit secretary also tells US Chamber of Commerce Britain will not take part in a ‘race to the bottom’ to secure trade dealsThe Brexit secretary, David Davis, has taken aim at the isolationist rhetoric of Donald Trump in a pointed speech in which he told US business leaders that free trade was the solution to, not the cause of, global turmoil.Speaking to the US Chamber of Commerce, Davis said Britain would not take part in a “race to the bottom” in order to secure new free trade deals with countries outside the EU after Brexit.Related: Trump wants to shut out the world. Ditching the Paris deal proves it | Simon JenkinsRelated: Liam Fox accuses EU of trying to 'blackmail' UK over Brexit deal Continue reading...

Figures could be made worse next month by impact of Tropical Storm Harvey and reduce chances of interest rate riseThe US economy recorded a sharp fall in job creation in August, raising questions over whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates before the end of the year.Economists had expected the US to add about 180,000 jobs over the month. But the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a marked slowdown on the previous month, with a rise of 156,000 jobs. The figure for July was revised down to 189,000 from an initial 209,000, while for June number was reduced from 231,000 to 210,000, compounding the weaker picture.

Growth in US jobs slowed sharply in August, diminishing the prospect of another interest rate hike before the end of the year

Weak pound reported to have helped competitiveness, but rising raw material prices could cause problemsBritain’s manufacturers increased production at the fastest pace in seven months in August, taking on more workers to keep up with strong domestic and international demand.The closely watched Markit/Cips UK manufacturing PMI barometer of factory sentiment showed activity jumped to 56.9 last month from 55.3 in July, the second-highest level in more than three years, helped by the weak value of the pound.Related: Lack of skilled EU workers 'could choke UK growth post-Brexit' Continue reading...

Panel of economic experts hired, but move raises risk speculators could bet against council should oil prices wobbleAberdeen city council has taken the unusual step of appointing economic advisers to assess its prospects for the bond market, as a growing number of local authorities turn to the world of high finance amid central government cuts.Councillors in Scotland’s third largest city will get advice from three experts on the state of the regional economy, and will help the panel with the annual assessment of a credit rating agency Moody’s. Aberdeen is one of a handful of councils to raise money by selling bonds, raising £370m in November 2016 to help finance a £1bn capital spending programme.Related: Greed is no longer good – bond boom comes to an endRelated: Greece plans return to bond market as Athens sees end in sight to austerity Continue reading...

MPC members do themselves little credit, as withdrawing the only stimulant that still works at this time would be negligentMichael Saunders surprised many when he voted in June for the Bank of England to increase interest rates.The former Citigroup economist, who joined the Bank’s nine-strong monetary policy committee (MPC) last year as one of the four external members, warned that the UK economy was performing well enough for inflation to become a challenge. The response, he said, should be a modest rise in the cost of borrowing for businesses and households. Continue reading...

Nobody’s job is safe. But a citizen’s income in a post-work world could see us avoid the Terminator scenario and return to pre-capitalist sources of valueSemi-automated truck convoys are soon to be tested on UK roads. Perhaps, one day, human beings won’t be allowed to drive. Perhaps it will be considered too risky to put an easily distractible human being in charge of a ton or more of fast-moving metal. Future generations may think of driving as terrifyingly retro.It’s yet another example of a pressing existential question, as well as an economic one. When clever robots have taken most of our jobs, how will we live and what will we live on? For these Meccano scabs are not only going after the repetitive tasks of the long-distance lorry driver or factory workers. Once they pass the Turing test and can successfully fob themselves off as human beings, jobs that used to require a university degree will be just as much at risk. Human beings are fast heading for obsolescence. Continue reading...

Michael Saunders says Brexit uncertainty is hitting consumer confidence, but ‘modest’ increase is necessary to curb high inflationBritain needs higher interest rates to prevent inflation from heading back towards 3% and staying there for several years, according to Michael Saunders, one of the two dissenting Bank of England rate-setters to vote for a rise earlier this month.Saunders said the UK economy was able to withstand the impact of higher credit costs after a steep fall in unemployment that paved the way for an increase in wages and higher prices in shops.Related: Quantitative easing is a costly habit we should have kicked long ago | Larry Elliott Continue reading...

President says US is being ‘taken to the cleaners’ by rivals and issues blunt demand for Democrats to support his reformsDonald Trump has vowed to cut the US business tax rate to 15%, in a speech otherwise short on specifics but heavy on “America first” rhetoric.Addressing workers in Springfield, Missouri, the US president – who is yet to release his own tax returns – sought to take up the mantle of Ronald Reagan, the last president to oversee a major tax reduction, even though he has sharply criticised Reagan’s measures in the past.Related: Ivanka Trump supports rollback of Obama's policy to close gender pay gapRelated: Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the worldRelated: The president tweeted it – but is the US economy really great again? Continue reading...

Matthew Goodman says the US will look to Australia to advance issues of mutual interest without actively joining trade pactA former Obama administration official says he believes the Trump administration has given Australia tacit approval to move ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite the president disavowing and dumping the agreement as one of his first acts in office.

Consumer borrowing through credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans slows slightly amid squeeze on living standardsThe rapid growth in borrowing by consumers appears to be slowing amid a squeeze on households, despite remaining at levels unseen since the financial crisis.The annual rate of growth for consumer borrowing through credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans slowed to 9.8% in July, the lowest rate of expansion since April 2016, according to the Bank of England. The growth rate was a little weaker than in recent months, when the pace of expansion was above 10%.Related: Credit card lenders 'targeting people struggling with debt' Continue reading...

Readers including Arthur Scargill respond to Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to change tack on BrexitThe publicity now given to the decision of Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition to start opposing the government on Europe is indicative of its curious failure to do so hitherto (Report, 28 August). Labour’s new policy of a very soft Brexit is to be welcomed, but for all the advocates of such a policy there is the huge question mark hovering overhead – why advocate adhering to the single market and the customs union without also insisting on being part of the decision-making process on the rules of these bodies? This is the essential weakness of those who keep insisting that the UK will leave the EU.Your leader (So far, so good. Labour’s soft Brexit move changes the debate, 28 August) states that “further steps are not ruled out”; unless this includes taking the first opportunity to reverse article 50, Labour’s change of direction is only taking us down a side alley.

Jim O’Donnell isn’t sure France needs its own Thatcher, while Martin London thinks education is the key to the wealth disparity. Plus David Redshaw writes on how inequality drives boom and bustWelcome back to the Guardian’s agenda-setting Monday economic analysis page (Fat cats and how the wealth gap has been steadily widening, 28 August). It takes me back 25 years to why I first started to buy the paper. More of this would be most welcome; in particular, more on the sort of fundamental transformation that will be required to pre- and post-income regimes if the situation is to be reversed.On the opposite page Natalie Nougayrède more or less encourages President Macron (as if he needed it) to show the French a bit of the tough love that was Thatcherism. In fairness, she does acknowledge that “In France, income inequality and poverty rates are lower than in Britain and Germany,” but does not speculate whether that would be the case if they had had a Thatcher or a Hartz IV, the German labour market reforms. Unemployment levels in France are undesirably high, but if you were unemployed in France would you be gasping for access to the conditions of the bottom 25% of the “employed” in the UK or Germany? Of course, it’s not the real choice that the French should have to make but that’s a longer story.

Any desire for a clean break with the EU is pure Tory fantasy. Jeremy Corbyn must defend access to the single market and customs union permanently

Average price of a home fell 0.1% between July and August as pressure mounts on household finances, says NationwideUK house prices dipped this month, dragging down the annual growth rate, in further evidence of a cooling market.The average price of a home fell 0.1% between July and August to £210,495, according to Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society. Prices rose in July and June but fell between March and May, the first time this had happened since the financial crisis. Continue reading...

Theresa May has always wanted a new approach to executive pay and boardroom values. Her latest plans fall far short of what Britain – and the Tory party – should demandAttacks on excessive executive pay and calls for more consensual company management have always marked Theresa May’s Conservatism out from that of her more Thatcherite colleagues. Mrs May has highlighted these issues often since she became prime minister. At the weekend she returned to the theme in a newspaper article, echoing Edward Heath’s 1973 phrase about the “unacceptable face of capitalism”. Now she is having another try, launching a package of measures on high pay, workers’ rights and corporate governance to mark her return to the political stage after the summer break.Mrs May’s concern about these issues is right and rational. They are unfinished business for modern Britain. Unfortunately there is little that measures up in this package. Several of the ideas that Mrs May floated in 2016 – themselves fairly modest in the first place – have now been trimmed back or dropped altogether, in response to lobbying by the chancellor, Philip Hammond. Binding annual votes by shareholders on executive pay have bitten the dust. Now the City’s self-regulatory code will require companies only to publish the pay ratio between CEOs and their workforce average. Plans to put employee representatives on company boards have been abandoned. Now the appointment of a non-executive director “to represent employees” will suffice. Continue reading...

Melvyn Bragg concludes that Theresa May wants to keep referring to 140,000-plus foreign students as immigrants because it suits some scaremongering tactic. Plus letters from Jeremy Cushing, Prof Roger Cullis and Dr Stephen PaceyWith reference to your report on the official figures revealing that fewer than 5,000 students a year stay on after their visa expires (PM under fire as student visa myth exposed, 25 August), I have just retired after 17 years as chancellor of Leeds University and cannot credit that the government has got away with this mule-headed and mendacious policy for so long under Theresa May at the Home Office and now at 10 Downing Street.Like many others in parliament and the universities, I have consistently challenged this policy and been consistently fobbed off with arrogant or feeble responses. I must conclude that Theresa May wants to keep referring to these 140,000-plus students as immigrants because it suits some disgraceful scaremongering tactic. Continue reading...

Portugal’s PR vote system put it on the right path, says Dee Searle; Greece shows that political perspectives alone don’t cut it, says Elspeth Geronimos; the UK economy was recovering under Labour in 2009-10 but Cameron and Osborne blew it, says David Butler; don’t forget Iceland, says John AirsMany of the anti-austerity policies that have led to a revival of Portugal’s economy (The lie is nailed – there is an alternative to austerity, 24 August) did not actually originate from the Socialist government, but from conditions set by radical leftwing and green parties to enable the Socialists to govern after they failed to win a majority in the 2015 national elections.Among demands by the Communists, Left Bloc and Greens were the reversal of privatisation, a swift elimination of salary and pension cuts, and a substantial increase in the national minimum wage. These were mostly accepted by the Socialists, who went on to form a minority administration that relies on support from the radical left in parliament. Continue reading...

Measuring tax paid against share of income earned and wealth owned reveals the US tax system has become less progressive – and in Britain it is a similar pictureDenis Healey never actually said he intended to squeeze the rich until the pips squeaked. The man who would soon be Labour chancellor was referring solely to property speculators when he made the remark during the February 1974 election campaign.But the rich knew full well that Healey was coming for them, too. At the previous year’s Labour party conference, he said: “We shall increase income tax on the better off so that we can help the hundreds of thousands of families now tangled helplessly in the poverty trap, by raising the tax threshold and introducing reduced rates of tax for those at the bottom of the ladder. I warn you, there are going to be howls of anguish from the rich. But before you cheer too loudly, let me warn you that a lot of you will pay extra taxes, too.”Related: Why wealth is the enemy of the young Continue reading...

Labour has a golden opportunity to capitalise on the strong pro-European feelings of the youngWhen I referred in my last column to Chancellor Philip Hammond as the only grown-up minister in this chaotic cabinet, I was unaware that he had just put his name to a joint article in the pro-Brexit Sunday Telegraph with his arch-foe Liam Fox, making the following statement: “We respect the will of the British people – in March 2019 the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. We will leave the customs union… we will leave the single market… ”True, this was followed by reports that he wanted, in effect, to retain quasi-membership for several years, but the two emphasised that such a precaution “cannot be a back door to staying in the EU”. There were also reports that Hammond had in some mysterious way scored a victory, which contrasted vividly with other reports that his attempt at some kind of coup had been foiled. Continue reading...

With a euro now worth 92p compared with 70p before the Brexit vote, holidaymakers are feeling the pinchBritish tourists returning from continental holidays last week arrived at airports in various states of shock. The pound’s slump in value against the euro reached an eight-year low during their trips and many holidaymakers bore tales of the woes they had endured at foreign cash machines.“You do become more aware of it each time you take money out,” said Tom Wake as he and his wife Pip made their way through Stansted airport after a break in Pisa. “The rate shifted quite a bit when we were away, so it became quite noticeable and Brexit is there in the back of your mind. Everyone seems to be talking about it over there – they can’t really understand why we’re doing it.” Continue reading...

Fed chair defends regulations and says policymakers may have forgotten damage inflicted on the economy in 2008Donald Trump has been rebuked by the US central bank chief, Janet Yellen, for planning to scrap tough banking regulations that made the system “substantially safer” and did nothing to restrict growth or lending.Yellen, the Federal Reserve chair, used a speech at the annual meeting of central bankers on Friday in the US ski resort of Jackson Hole to warn that policymakers might have forgotten the terrible damage wreaked on the global economy in 2008 when they seek to lift regulations that prevent risky behaviour.Related: Trump orders Dodd-Frank review in effort to roll back financial regulation Continue reading...

The president is threatening to erect new trade barriers against China just when he needs its aid to rein in the Kim regimeFor years, Americans have misunderstood the nuclear threat from North Korea, misjudging how to address it. They have also misunderstood the bilateral trade deficits with China, overestimating their importance. Today, as President Donald Trump threatens new trade barriers against China, on which the United States must depend to help rein in an increasingly dangerous North Korea, these two issues have become closely connected. Yet US officials seem no closer to figuring them out.The stakes obviously are much higher regarding North Korea, with US-South Korean joint military exercises this week aggravating already-high tensions. If the US and North Korea do get into a military confrontation, there is a real risk that nuclear weapons will be used. Even a conventional war would likely be catastrophic.Related: Living on the edge of oblivion: life along the North Korean border Continue reading...

ECB’s Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve’s Janet Yellen set to give keynote speeches

Gary Cohn is the most senior administration official to condemn the president over his initial failure to condemn neo-Nazi and white supremacist groupsGary Cohn, Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser, has become the most senior administration official to criticize the president over his initial failure to condemn neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, following the clashes in Charlottesville earlier this month that left one woman dead and dozens injured.Related: Divided states of America: 62% say Trump is driving people apart, poll findsRelated: Republicans on Charlottesville: who's with Trump and who's against him? Continue reading...

Special report: India and China are shifting away from coal imports and coal-fired power while a mega-mine is planned for Queensland. Where does this leave coal in Australia?

Sterling’s slide should have improved net trade – but Britain’s manufacturing base is now too small to take advantageThe downside to a weak pound is immediately apparent because imports get dearer and foreign holidays get more expensive. With sterling at its lowest level for eight years, there have been plenty of horror stories of travellers from the UK being gouged by foreign exchange bureaux.The benefits of a weaker currency tend to be less obvious but are potentially significant nonetheless. Exports become cheaper and the UK becomes a more attractive destination for overseas tourists. This leads to an improvement in the balance of payments, something that is sorely needed in Britain’s case.Related: UK consumer spending growing at weakest rate in nearly three years Continue reading...

A Federal Reserve official has spoken out against the Trump administration’s reform plans. It is important to hold a debateSince a revolving door was installed at the entrance to the West Wing of the White House, it has been difficult to keep track of the comings and goings in America’s corridors of power. Anything written about the Trump administration’s personnel and policies may be invalid before it is published.At least for the time being, however, the key economic policy actors remain in place. Steven Mnuchin is still treasury secretary and has not been mentioned in dispatches during the latest power struggles. Gary Cohn continues to chair the National Economic Council, though he is reported to be unhappy about some of the president’s statements on non-economic issues. And of course Janet Yellen is still at the helm at the Federal Reserve, at least until February next year.Related: Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world Continue reading...

Concerns over inpact of incomes squeeze as business investment shows no growth in second quarterSpending by British consumers is growing at the weakest rate in almost three years, as households squeezed by rising prices tighten their belts.Household spending growth slowed to 0.1% in the three months to June, the Office for National Statistics said, the slowest rate of quarterly growth since the final three months of 2014. Business investment in the British economy showed no growth at all in the second quarter.Related: Big UK firms face 2018 slowdown amid Brexit uncertainty, study finds Continue reading...

Workers in the midwest cite trade as a top reason they supported Donald Trump’s candidacy. Here’s what he can do to listen to their concernsSunday signaled the completion of a major milestone: the end of the first round of negotiations to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). Canada, Mexico and the US are set to meet over multiple rounds in the coming months.Too frequently I have heard the mantra “do no harm” from industry leaders as they encourage Donald Trump’s negotiations. I take a different stand, as I have since Nafta was signed into law 23 years ago. This is an opportunity to do right by workers across the continent. This moment must not be squandered by pandering to transnational special interests. Some of us in Congress, and many workers throughout our heartland, have been waiting for this moment for years.Related: Canada v Mexico: Trump seeks to divide and conquer in Nafta negotiations Continue reading...