As long as austerity continues to smother the economy it will be impossible to take the necessary steps to restore growthOne of the economy’s lingering tumours, one that needs the financial equivalent of radiation therapy, can be found inside the banking industry.According to a report last week, the banks continue to harbour bad debts that eat away at their health and prevent them functioning properly. Continue reading...
Last Monday, at the start of a chaotic week for his presidency, a defiant Donald Trump claimed there had been an upswing in America’s fortunes. Was he right?It was a boast that every political leader would be thrilled to make in a single tweet, especially when, like Donald Trump, they are in a hole and looking for a spade to dig themselves out. Trump tweeted: “Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!â€, encouraging the world to put aside the unfolding Russia scandal, impotence over North Korean missile launches and the sacking of newly arrived press secretary Anthony “the Mooch†Scaramucci, and look instead at the economic boom apparently unfolding under the president’s administration.Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!"Corporations have NEVER made as much money as they are making now." Thank you Stuart Varney @foxandfriends Jobs are starting to roar,watch!Stock Market could hit all-time high (again) 22,000 today. Was 18,000 only 6 months ago on Election Day. Mainstream media seldom mentions! Continue reading...
The early signs of the 2007 credit crunch are back. With wages stalled and prices rising, more and more are turning to loans and plastic cards to make ends meetWe are 10 years on from the start of the financial crisis, and unsecured consumer debt has reached more than £200bn for the first time since 2008. It’s up 10%, year on year. The best that can be said of the matter, as compared to the pre-crash debt boom, is that at least there are worries about it.The Bank of England and the credit ratings agency Moody’s are among those who have warned that the situation could be problematic. Which seems like an understatement. These guys are talking about big-picture risks to the economy, which generally adores debt. But at street level, the Financial Conduct Authority warns that one in six people with debt on credit cards, personal lending and car loans is in trouble. That’s 2.2 million stressed-out individuals.Related: Bank of England warns of complacency over big rise in personal debtThe welfare state is used to punish people for being dependent, forcing them into debt – because they have no choice Continue reading...
Readers share their thoughts on electricity generation, cars, cycling, trains and garden citiesGeorge Monbiot makes some useful points in his article bemoaning the influence of the lobbying power of the motor industry (We must break the car’s chokehold on Britain, 2 August). He proposes a modal transport shift to more coach travel and investment in nuclear power plants to power our electric cars. He ignores completely, as usual, the solar option with smaller electric cars and electric bikes and charged by photovoltaics on homes, at work and in public places. In 1993, I bought Hannibal, the 750kg fibreglass Kewet El Jet electric car that we used for a decade to take the children to school, go shopping and to train and bus stations. This first British solar car was largely powered by the 4kWp PV roof on my Oxford ecohouse. Monbiot also ignores the huge trend towards using electric bikes that can be easily solar charged at home or work. We love our cars and bikes, but the trick is to make them much smaller, lighter and solar powered, used locally and to connect with public transport systems for longer distances, so decrying any need for building inevitably toxic new nuclear power stations at all. Car size does matter now if we, as a society, are serious about surviving safely into the 22nd century, so let’s have less of Jeremy Clarkson on TV and more solar-powered Good Lives. It’s the mindset that has to change first, then the hardware.
Given the Trump presidency’s political ineffectiveness it is hard to envisage much changing economically either, be it growth, trade or taxNow that US President Donald Trump has been in office for six months, we can more confidently assess the prospects for the US economy and economic policymaking under his administration. And, like Trump’s presidency more generally, paradoxes abound.The main puzzle is the disconnect between the performance of financial markets and the real. While stock markets continue to reach new highs, the US economy grew at an average rate of just 2% in the first half of 2017 – slower growth than under President Barack Obama – and is not expected to perform much better for the rest of the year.Related: Central banks are ending policies like QE – but they'll be back | Nouriel RoubiniRelated: Donald Trump's tax cuts for the rich won't make America great again | Joseph Stiglitz Continue reading...
Under Thatcher and Blair, it looked unassailable. But now both Britain’s main parties are turning away from unfettered capitalism. By Andy BeckettTwelve years ago, shortly after winning his third consecutive general election, Tony Blair gave the Labour party a brief lecture on economics. “There is no mystery about what works,†he said, crisply, speaking from a podium printed with the slogan “Securing Britain’s Future†at the party conference in Brighton. “An open, liberal economy prepared constantly to change to remain competitive.â€Blair rounded on critics of modern capitalism: “I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation. You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer. They’re not debating it in China and India.†He went on: “The temptation is … to think we protect a workforce by regulation, a company by government subsidy, an industry by tariffs. It doesn’t work today.†Britain should not “cling on to the European social model of the pastâ€.Related: The day the credit crunch began, 10 years on: 'the world changed'Related: Globalisation: the rise and fall of an idea that swept the world Continue reading...
This scandal shows how normal it has become to expect to ‘earn’ exploitative rewards without risk or commensurate investment, writes Stephen HillThe abuse of leaseholds (Editorial, 26 July) is exactly that: abuse. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with leasehold/freehold arrangements in the hands of responsible (and preferably regulated) landlords. It’s worth thinking why they were invented and have endured for centuries. They are a highly effective way of allocating capital, risk and reward in the use of land and buildings; they are still much used in commercial property transactions for that purpose. By contrast, private finance initiatives and similar arrangements are designed primarily to make money for all the intermediaries in a set of parasitical financial relationships, all of which could have been structured just as well and more cheaply with leases.This scandal simply shows how normal it has become to expect to “earn†totally exploitative rewards, without risk or commensurate investment. This is just more evidence of the damaging commodification of land, and how, since financial deregulation, global capital flows graze effortlessly on our local housing markets for the risk-free excess profits they so willingly give up. The economist Martin Wolf rightly calls this “the greatest misallocation of resources imaginableâ€. Continue reading...
Bank of England’s suggestion that a hike is nearing is risky. Also, how the rising Dow shows Trump is delivering – for the richThe Bank of England speaks like a hawk. It acts like a dove.Those in the City expecting the Old Lady to do what it has not done for a decade – raise interest rates – would have been brought up short by the latest decision of its monetary policy committee. At 6-2 for borrowing costs to remain at 0.25%, the vote wasn’t even close.Related: Bank of England keeps interest rates on hold despite inflation fearsRelated: Dow soars to record high as it crosses 22,000 mark for the first time Continue reading...
Speaking to the Guardian 10 years on from the crash, the Bank of England governor recalls how the crisis played outWhen the financial crisis started in August 2007, the reaction of many of the participants was similar to that of the first world war generals in August 1914: they thought it would all be over by Christmas.Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said that when the markets started to seize up, some of the major players reckoned it was just a blip and that things would soon be back to normal.Related: Britain's finance sector will double in size in 25 years, says Mark CarneyRelated: The day the credit crunch began, 10 years on: 'the world changed' Continue reading...
Bank of England governor predicts financial sector will thrive after Brexit but says there can be no return to the lax pre-2007 regimeThe governor of the Bank of England has predicted that the financial sector could double in size to be 20 times as big as GDP within the next 25 years, but warned that the government must hold its nerve and resist pressure to water down regulation after Brexit.
As Trump reportedly plans to investigate alleged intellectual property and trade abuses, ex-adviser to Beijing warns of lawsuits and other forms of retaliationChina has “all kinds of weapons and ammunition†to fight back against Donald Trump’s “petulant†threat to investigate alleged Chinese intellectual property and trade abuses, a former trade adviser to Beijing has warned.According to some reports, Trump will use a speech at the White House on Friday to announce a wide-ranging trade inquiry targeting Beijing – a move that has received the blessing of senior Democrats, in a rare show of bipartisan solidarity. “We should certainly go after them,†the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, was quoted as saying by Reuters on Thursday.Related: Donald Trump's romance with China's Xi has cooled, 'ass-kicking' could lie aheadRelated: Rex Tillerson: risk of 'open conflict' if US-China relations continue to grate Continue reading...
After voting to hold interest rates, Bank warns rising prices and weak wage growth will continue to squeeze living standardsBrexit uncertainties have discouraged some firms from awarding pay rises, the Bank of England has said, as it warned that rising prices and weak wage growth would continue to squeeze living standards this year.The Bank’s rate-setting committee voted by 6-2 to leave official borrowing costs at their all-time low of 0.25%, according to minutes from their meeting released on Thursday. But they hinted that rates would have to rise over the coming year to keep inflation in check.Inflation is when prices rise. Deflation is the opposite - price decreases over time - but inflation is far more common.Related: 'It's hard to remember how fraught it was': Mark Carney on the credit crunchRelated: Bank of England leaves interest rates unchanged and cuts growth forecasts - live! Continue reading...
Key players in the drama recall the day that sparked the first UK bank run in 140 years and heralded a global financial crisisThe ninth of August 2007 was the first day of Mervyn King’s holiday. The governor of the Bank of England spent it at Lord’s cricket ground where he was interviewed by the former England cricket captain Michael Atherton. While Lord King was watching the cricket, the French bank BNP Paribas announced it was freezing the assets of hedge funds that were heavily exposed to the US sub-prime mortgage market.It was the first and last day of King’s holiday. He would not have another for several years. Within six weeks, members of the Bank’s court – its oversight body – were being whisked into the back entrance of Threadneedle Street in a people carrier with blacked-out windows to be told that money was haemorrhaging out of Northern Rock. Continue reading...
Countries that close themselves off to foreign competition eventually lose their edge, with innovation, jobs and growth sufferingAs US and European political leaders fret about the future of quality jobs, they would do well to look at the far bigger problems faced by developing Asia – problems that threaten to place massive downward pressure on global wages. In India, where per capita income is roughly a tenth that of the US, more than 10 million people a year are leaving the countryside and pouring into urban areas, and they often cannot find work even as chaiwalas, much less as computer programmers. The same angst that Americans and Europeans have about the future of jobs is an order of magnitude higher in Asia.
IFS says increased UK state pension age is lifting earnings from employment but only partially offsetting reduced incomes from other benefitsMore than a million women are worse off by an average of £32 a week under changes to the state pension age and poor households are being hit the hardest, according to analysis by a leading independent thinktank.The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) also highlighted a significant boost to the public finances from the government’s move to lift the pension age for women from 60 to 63 between 2010 and 2016. Continue reading...
Economic thinktank NIESR predicts boom in exports and higher wages will lead to GDP growth of nearly 2% and interest rate riseBritain’s economy will surge back to life in the next six months following its slow start this year, a leading forecaster has predicted, prompting the Bank of England to raise interest rates next spring – more than a year earlier than its previous projection.The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said a boom in exports after the fall in the pound and a return to bumper wage rises next year would be enough to increase GDP growth to almost 2% and convince the central bank to increase the cost of borrowing. Continue reading...
Property values rise slightly for the second month in a row even as transactions and mortgage approvals declineA shortage of homes for sale has kept house prices rising despite falling consumer incomes and political uncertainty, according to Nationwide.
Legal reports | Scandal-hit headlines | Fast-food shutdown | Viking inheritance | Time-travelling correspondent? | Smallest carnivoresI would like to suggest that, when reporting on the outcome of court cases – particularly contentious or high profile ones such as that recently involving Charlie Gard, or the employment fees decision in the supreme court, but really more generally – you should provide a link (online and in print editions) to the location of the actual judgment on the web (most of them being available on the BAILII database fairly promptly after handing down). That way, people could more easily read the actual decision themselves, inform themselves of the actual issues and evidence the judge heard and took into account, and thus better appreciate the result arrived at. That might avoid much of the misinformed discussion – thinking in particular of the Charlie Gard case – that takes place “below the line†and otherwise online.
Bank reports big rise in half-year profits to $10.2bn as chairman Douglas Flint calls for global regulation to keep markets safeThe outgoing chairman of Britain’s biggest bank, HSBC, has called for an overhaul of financial crime detection as he sounded the alarm over the impact of Brexit and attempts to fragment global financial regulation.Douglas Flint’s warning came as HSBC reported a 5% rise in first half profits to $10.2bn (£7.8bn) and announced a $2bn share buy-back – propelling the shares to a four year high. Continue reading...
Robert Halfon warns of impact to working families as chancellor Philip Hammond reportedly considers more levies on fuel, food and pensionsA Tory MP and former minister who has been a cheerleader for so-called “blue-collar Conservatism†has warned against any tax rises that would hit working families.Robert Halfon spoke out after it emerged that the chancellor, Philip Hammond, was considering additional levies on fuel, homes and pension relief as a way of plugging the hole in public finances.Related: While Hammond looks for a magic money tree, Labour has found one | Larry ElliottHope #Budget fuel duty rise not on cards.Would mean significant costs to motorists & small businesses: https://t.co/4lAINpnwUl @FairFuelUK pic.twitter.com/awgoUrZxYjRelated: Treasury will need to plug gap in tax as drivers switch to electric cars Continue reading...
The Greek government says the country has turned a corner, but that is not the experience of people on the ground“The worst is clearly behind us.†Panaghiota Mourtidou pondered the words with a gravity unusual for the jovial volunteer. Even now, several days after the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, saw fit to use the phrase, she still feels somewhat bewildered. “Politicians clearly have no idea of the reality on the ground,†she said. “If they did, they wouldn’t make such pronouncements because, really, it couldn’t be worse.â€It is four years since the Guardian met Mourtidou packing food boxes at the Solidarity Club which she and other concerned citizens were running out of the local branch of Tsipras’s then radical Syriza party. At the time, the leftist was an ardent fan of the only political force she truly believed could pull Greece from the depths of financial collapse.Related: Greece's €3bn bond sale doesn't mean its debt crisis is at an end | Nils PratleyRelated: The Guardian view on Europe’s new politics: all change | Editorial Continue reading...
Only after the second world war did average growth top 2%. We must prepare for a fight to benefit from meagre spoilsThere have been periods in the past in which the Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged for a long time. In 1719, official borrowing costs were raised from 4% to 5%, where they remained during the South Sea bubble, the seven years’ war, the loss of the American colonies, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. In 1822, Seven years after the Battle of Waterloo, the Bank decided it was again time to act and reduced rates to their level of 103 years earlier.By comparison with their 18th and early 19th century forbears, the current crop of policymakers in Threadneedle Street are positively hasty. Rates were cut to 0.5% in March 2009 and left there for a mere seven-and-a-half years. A year ago, in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, they were reduced to 0.25%. And there they are likely to stay. Continue reading...
Analysis from economic consultancy Oxera says cost to UK of new customs checks and ensuing delays could amount to more than £1bn a yearBritain will be hit by huge border delays, require vast lorry parks in the south-east, and suffer more than £1bn a year in economic damage, according to a stark economic analysis of the likely impact of customs checks after Brexit.Additional costs associated with potential motorway queues, extra customs staff and jobs lost as a result of companies relocating mean even that assessment is “extremely conservativeâ€, a study by a leading economic consultancy warns.The border is a tax point, not a search point – with digital borders, customs clearance can be managed very quickly. Continue reading...
The founder of Alibaba, one of the world’s biggest online retailers, made the promise at a pre-inauguration meeting with Donald TrumpJack Ma was destined to live an ordinary life. He failed the Chinese university entrance exam several times before being accepted by the worst school in Hangzhou, and he was rejected from a dozen jobs – even selling chicken at KFC. Ma was ready to settle into a quiet life as an English teacher in eastern China, a position with few advancement prospects, when, during a trip to Seattle in 1995 working as a translator for a trade delegation, everything changed.A friend showed Ma the internet. He placed a toe on to the information superhighway with a one-word search – “beer†– and, two decades later, Ma is the richest man in Asia, head of an e-commerce and finance empire that includes Alibaba, one of the largest retailers in the world.Trump doesn't care about anything that's not huge. Ma figured 1 million is a good number to get his attentionGovernment findings showed that more than 70% of goods in a random sample on Taobao were fake Continue reading...
Emmanuel Macron new dawn may be a false one, but at least his country has some industry, a decent education system and no Brexit bindThe French economy is growing at the same pace the UK managed in 2016 and looks set to maintain it for the rest of the year. Growth for the second quarter was 0.5% and 1.8% over the past year. Meanwhile the UK is shuffling along in the slow lane, up just 0.3% between April and June.Does the reversal of fortunes tell us that France has found its mojo while the UK has done worse than let its foot slip off the accelerator? Continue reading...
Harold Wilson was not a Europhile, but a clear-eyed realist. Jeremy Corbyn could learn much from the story of the 1975 referendumWhat have David Cameron (Tory prime minister, 2010-16), and Harold Wilson (Labour prime minister, 1964-70 and 1974-76) got in common?Answer: in order to keep their respective parties together, because they were split over “Europeâ€, each of them called a referendum. Wilson triumphed, and went down in history as a consummate politician, indeed statesman. Cameron failed lamentably, and his mishandling of this vital issue is sometimes described as the biggest prime ministerial disaster brought upon the nation since Lord North lost the American colonies. Continue reading...
The Bank of England has issued a notably strong warning about consumer debt. There is a real risk of a second bust less than a decade after the previous oneBritain is on a consumer credit binge. Over the past year, growth per head of population has increased by 1% while the amount consumers have racked up – on their credit cards, on car finance and in unsecured personal loans – has increased by 10%.This is a matter of concern for the Bank of England, and rightly so. As Alex Brazier, the Bank’s director in charge of financial stability, put it last week, we have seen this movie before – and it doesn’t have a happy ending. Continue reading...
In the Northamptonshire town, charities and council workers face the daily consequences of the rising spiral of borrowing sweeping across the UKCorby in Northamptonshire has taken on a few notable titles over the years. It has been dubbed “Little Scotland†to reflect the Scottish workers who flooded in during the last century for jobs in its now defunct steelworks. More recently, Corby emerged as the fastest-growing borough outside London, its population now swelled by EU migrants and young workers commuting to London.Last week, the East Midlands town had the dubious honour of topping a new list. Amid the latest warnings around Britons’ growing reliance on borrowing, Corby was named the personal loans capital of Britain. Continue reading...
Key economic adviser, known for helping keep UK out of euro, replaces Charlotte Hogg and will have seat on MPCPhilip Hammond has filled the vacancy on the Bank of England’s interest rate setting committee left by the departure of Charlotte Hogg, following the appointment of Sir David Ramsden as the central bank’s new deputy governor.The chancellor said Sir David, who is the Treasury’s chief economic adviser, would take up the role as deputy governor of markets and banking, making him Threadneedle Street’s eyes and ears on the banking sector while also giving him a position on the nine-strong monetary policy committee (MPC). Continue reading...
It doesn’t matter how slick the messaging or how outrageous the claims by the Liberals, reality has a habit of thumping discourse every timeMy colleague, Greg Jericho, is dead right. Bill Shorten’s inequality pitch sure has “rustled the jimmies†of Australia’s conservatives. It should. When the facts are in, and the facts are bad, they can be very frightening.The facts in this instance are twofold.Related: Bill Shorten's inequality pitch has rustled the jimmies of conservatives | Greg JerichoRelated: Wage fraud will continue until politicians stop it. They can – but will they? | Josh Bornstein Continue reading...
Readers respond to Britain’s latest clean air plan and the ban on all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040So, the government is committed to banning all diesel and petrol cars by 2040 (Report, 26 July). Has it considered the wider impacts?Power stations will face huge peak-time demand when drivers charge vehicles overnight. Can they cope? Will we face increased electricity charges? Continue reading...
Analysis from the Centre for Cities thinktank finds urban areas are likely be hit hardest by the increased trade barriers under both hard and soft BrexitsNew research examining for the first time the potential impact of Brexit on cities and towns has found Aberdeen could be the hardest hit by higher trade costs with the European Union, though no British city will escape its effects.The analysis by the Centre for Cities thinktank predicted that in the decade following the implementation of new trade agreements with the EU, every local authority area would be negatively affected.Related: Can post-Brexit London survive as Europe's cultural and financial capital? Continue reading...
Dollar slides after US Federal Reserve adopts more cautious tone on inflation outlook3.16pm BSTWith this, we are closing the blog for today. Good-bye and thank you for all your great comments. We’ll be back tomorrow.2.42pm BSTWall Street has got off to flying start: US stocks have risen to fresh record highs boosted by a flurry of strong company results.The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 70 points, or 0.4%, to 21778.96 while the S&P 500 advanced nearly 4 points, or 0.15%, to 2481.73. and the Nasdaq climbed 33 points, or 0.5%, to 6455.67.1.48pm BSTInvestors are breathing a sigh of relief after US durable goods data showed a better than expected 6.5% gain in orders in June, says Dennis de Jong, managing director at online broker UFX.com.A downbeat assessment on current inflation levels at yesterday’s Fed Reserve meeting had cast further uncertainty over the next interest rate, although today’s numbers suggest the US economy remains in good health.â€The greenback could claw back some of yesterday’s losses against major European counterparts.1.36pm BSTPhillip Hammond has found a new Bank of England deputy governor to replace the disgraced Charlotte Hogg from within his own Treasury ranks.The chancellor has appointed the Treasury’s chief economic adviser, Sir David Ramsden to replace Hogg, who resigned earlier this year after failing to disclose that her brother was a senior executive at Barclays – a bank she would have regulated.12.10pm BSTThe world’s oil consumption could peak as early as the late 2020s as electric cars become more popular, says Royal Dutch Shell boss Ben van Beurden.But he added that oil would still be needed for several more decades, arguing that it will remain the main fuel used in planes, ships and heavy trucks.Even if the UK, France and the western world in general will all go to 100% electric vehicles, that would be great, but that wouldn’t be enough... We still have less advanced economies that cannot do that switch.11.52am BSTFrance has decided to nationalise the STX France shipyard, marking president Emmanuel Macron’s first major industrial policy decision, Reuters is reporting, citing Le Monde.The French government has been in an ownership standoff with Italy over the shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, north-western France. Reuters says:As France’s most pro-business leader in decades, few would have predicted the former investment banker’s first big move in the corporate sector to be a nationalisation.However, his action fits with the interventionist style of other postwar French leaders. It also crosses into the strategically sensitive defence sector where many national governments prefer to wield influence over ownership.11.16am BSTThe warm summer weather added a sizzle to Britain’s high streets this month: retail sales growth hit a three-month high as shoppers updated their summer wardrobes and bought more groceries, according to a monthly survey from the CBI employers’ group.Its retail sales balance rose to 22 in July from 12 in June, marking the highest reading since April. Expectations for next month were the strongest since last December, but the CBI warned it might not last.While retailers expect a similar pace of growth next month, the factors underpinning their sales growth are more shaky. Although employment is strong, real incomes are falling in the wake of higher inflation, and that’s expected to feed slower consumer spending growth ahead.â€10.36am BSTTime for a quick market round-up. The FTSE 100 index has slipped into negative territory, trading down some 2 points at 7450.24.AstraZeneca’s woes are weighing on the index, as is the stronger pound, which is rising against the dollar after a more cautious statement from the US Federal Reserve last night suggested the next interest rate hike may be some way off, and sent the greenback sliding.10.02am BSTSky has also reported results this morning. Our media correspondent Mark Sweney reports:Sky is to hire 300 new technology staff to keep pace with rivals such as Netflix and Amazon as the broadcaster suffered a drop in full year profits and an increase in the rate of customers defecting to rivals.Related: Sky in tech battle with Netflix and Amazon as its profits fall10.01am BSTHere is our full story on Lloyds.Related: Lloyds takes fresh £1bn hit from PPI compensation claims9.57am BSTAstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot is fielding numerous questions about whether he’s leaving to join Israel’s Teva. With a sigh, he saidAstraZeneca CEO: 'I will only make one comment: I'm not a quitter;" says about Mystic failure that immuno-oncology drugs take time to work9.39am BSTThe head of Britain’s financial markets watchdog just said that the UK will scrap the scandal-hit Libor interest rate benchmark from the end of 2021, when a substitute index should be in place.Libor is based on banks’ submissions of interest rates they believe they would be charged for borrowing money.9.25am BSTAstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot is speaking on a conference call to journalists after the failure of a key lung cancer drug trial sent the company’s shares down more than 15%, to £43.24. The stock is heading for its worst day ever.Soriot, whilst saying that the company never comments on market speculation and rumours, has tried to squash the speculation triggered by a recent media report that he could jump ship and defect to Israel’s Teva, the world’s biggest generics drugmaker.I’m impressed with the progress we’ve made. I’m proud to be the CEO of this company and I’m looking forward to continuing on our journey ahead... I’m committed to delivering our strategy of returning to growth.8.47am BSTTravel company Thomas Cook as announced that it will start selling holidays in Tunisia again soon, after the UK changed its travel advice yesterday.Chief executive Peter Fankhauser told journalists:The foreign office came to the conclusion that it is again safe to travel. We didn’t have any programme for the winter so we are setting up a really good quality offer for Tunisia and this is going to take some time. I suppose that we are gong to start during the winter season, but more towards the spring.8.44am BSTThe Walkie Talkie skyscraper in the City has been sold to a Hong Kong oyster sauce maker for £1.28bn in a record-breaking deal.Land Securities has sold the building at 20 Fenchurch Street to Hong Kong-based Lee Kum Kee, a sauces company that specialises in oyster-flavoured sauce. It is the latest trophy building in London to be acquired by Asian investors, and marks the biggest sale ever of an office building in the UK.8.33am BSTGuardian Business has launched a daily email.Besides the key news headlines that you’d expect, there’s an at-a-glance agenda of the day’s main events, insightful opinion pieces and a quality feature to sink your teeth into each day.Related: Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news8.26am BSTFoxtons, the London-based estate agent known for its fleet of Minis, has seen its shares tumble 7% to 89.75p, after a 64% plunge in first-half profits, as the London market cooled. Pretax profits dropped to £3.8m in the six months to June, from £10.5m a year earlier.Chief executive Nic Budden said:Our performance has been resilient in the context of a London property market that has been further impacted by unprecedented economic and political uncertainty. Whilst sales commissions in the second quarter as a whole were down 3% versus prior year, sales exchanges and our under offer pipeline weakened through June and the early part of July.8.14am BSTShares in AstraZeneca have crashed more than 16%, after the drugmaker suffered a major setback with the failure of an key lung cancer trial. The shares plunged as low as £42.71, wiping about £10bn off the company’s market value.The long-awaited initial results from the Mystic study found that a combination of two injectable immunotherapy drugs, durvalumab and tremelimumab, failed to help patients.7.57am BSTLet’s have a look at the company results.Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds has set aside another £700m to meet PPI claims, taking the PPI charge in its first half to £1bn. However it has also reported its biggest first-half profit in eight years – a statutory pretax profit of £2.5bn, 4% higher than last year – and lifted the interim dividend.7.45am BSTGood morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.The pound has hit $1.3146, its highest level since last September against the dollar, after last night’s US Federal Reserve statement. The dollar is sliding after the Fed adopted a more cautious tone on the inflation outlook – boosting expectations that the next interest rate hike may be delayed until next year. Continue reading...
The president thinks lower taxes and deregulation will solve the US’s problems. They won’t work, because they never haveAlthough America’s rightwing plutocrats may disagree about how to rank the country’s major problems – for example, inequality, slow growth, low productivity, opioid addiction, poor schools, and deteriorating infrastructure – the solution is always the same: lower taxes and deregulation, to “incentivise†investors and “free up†the economy. Donald Trump is counting on this package to make America great again.It won’t, because it never has. When Ronald Reagan tried it in the 1980s, he claimed that tax revenues would rise. Instead, growth slowed, tax revenues fell, and workers suffered. The big winners in relative terms were corporations and the rich, who benefited from dramatically reduced tax rates.Related: How about a little accountability for economists when they mess up? | Dean Baker Continue reading...
ONS highlights role of sector as foreign movie and TV studios are attracted to Britain by government tax breaks and weak poundThe British film production boom, including the Han Solo spin-off from Star Wars and a live action remake of Disney’s Dumbo, is helping boost services industry growth as other sectors flag.“Motion picture activities†– including production activity and income from box office hits such as Wonder Woman, Beauty and the Beast and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – were singled out by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday as playing a significant role in the modest growth in UK GDP reported in the three months to the end of June.Related: UK GDP: economy grows by just 0.3% amid 'notable slowdown' Continue reading...
Chancellor acknowledges ‘pain’ of inflation caused by post-referendum depreciation of sterling, after figures reveal scale of slowdownPhilip Hammond has admitted that consumers are suffering from the pound’s sharp post-referendum fall, after what government statisticians have called a “notable slowdown†in growth in the first half of the year.The economy grew by just 0.3% in the second quarter of 2017 following 0.2% expansion in the first three months of the year, Office for National Statistics figures showed.Gross domestic product (GDP) is a key government statistic and provides a measure of the UK's total economic activity.Related: Brexit economy: sterling fall hits public finances and fails to boost tradeRelated: UK suffers 'notable slowdown' as GDP rises by 0.3% in second quarter of 2017 - business live Continue reading...
The omens are better, with the IMF calling for debt write-offs – but the chances are Greece will require another bailoutCompare and contrast. As Greece raised money in the bond markets for the first time in three years on Tuesday, prime minister Alexis Tsipras declared that the fundraising was “the most significant step to finish this unpleasant adventureâ€, meaning the country’s bailout.Back in April 2014, when Greece was returning after a four-year absence, the country’s finance minister drew a similar moral. The return to international borrowing markets was “a catalytic undertaking,†he said. The crisis soon returned. The next bailout followed after a referendum on the terms of austerity. Continue reading...
The Single Market Act has given rightwing governments carte blanche to sit back and watch millions of people lose their livelihoods, writes Ian MacKillop. But Nick Dearden cautions against stepping away from the EU and towards the USPolly Toynbee (Labour should exploit the Tories’ disarray on Europe, not copy it, 25 June) claims it is wrong to suggest the EU prevents state ownership and gives as an example how European rail networks remain state-owned; she should have added “for nowâ€. The market pillar of the fourth rail package, as agreed in April 2016, mandates “more competition and performance targets for public service contracts, so as to improve cost-efficiency and get better value for money for taxpayersâ€, which sounds wearingly familiar. And with 2020 as the target date.Given that the EU court of justice has deliberated that article 106 of the Single Market Act – the one prohibiting renationalisation – gives private companies the right to argue before their national courts that services must remain open to private-sector competition, it is hard to see any wriggle room there when Jeremy Corbyn seeks to implement his manifesto. Continue reading...