Crude oil dips on renewed supply glut fears, with markets set to end positive week on downbeat note2.47pm GMTA slide in oil prices on concerns about oversupply - notwithstanding the recent proposal from producers to freeze output at January levels - continues to take the shine off this week’s stock market rally.US markets have followed Europe lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 70 points or 0.4% in early trading. As well as oil, investors were unsettled by higher than expected inflation numbers, which could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise rates sooner than forecast.2.42pm GMTAnother point about US inflation:Markets are focused on the black line (goods = 30% of core CPI). Fed should be focused on blue line (services = 70%) pic.twitter.com/3vbr3ftfIZ2.29pm GMTOver in Greece, protesting farmers have upped the ante, expanding roadblocks nationwide ahead of what some are calling make-or -break talks with prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday. Helena Smith reports from Athens:A month into their protests over pension and tax reforms, the powerful bloc of farmers that have brought chaos to Greece intensified their action, announcing that tractor blockades would be stepped up around Thessaloniki airport this afternoon.More than 66 % of Greece’s import and export trade is carried by road to Europe with the economy suffering huge damage as a result of the blockade.2.16pm GMTTurning back to the UK public finances, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the government’s independent economic analysts, said there was uncertainty over the outcome for the rest of the year:On the current data, meeting our full-year forecast for 2015-16 would require borrowing to fall by £18.4 billion in the year as a whole. That implies borrowing of £7.0 billion over the next two months, compared with £14.8 billion in the same period last year. Our November forecast does assume stronger growth in receipts in the remainder of the year (particularly income tax and stamp duty land tax) but local authority borrowing as measured in the statistical bulletin looks likely to exceed our November forecast. Considerable uncertainty remains over prospects for the remaining two months of the financial year, while data on local authority borrowing are often subject to substantial revisions over subsequent months.Public sector net debt (PSND) in January 2016 is estimated to have fallen by 0.1 per cent of GDP relative to January 2015. A major contributor to the drop over the past 12 months has been the Government’s programme of financial asset sales, including multi-billion pound sales of Lloyds shares and UK Asset Resolution mortgage assets. But the nominal GDP estimate used to calculate the debt ratio is in part still a forecast, so it remains to be seen if debt is still shown to fall on this basis in the year to January in future outturn estimates.2.03pm GMTStill, the higher than expected US inflation numbers may not prevent the Federal Reserve from sitting on its hands in terms of any imminent rate rises, says Rob Carnell of ING Bank:US CPI for January came in a little stronger than had been expected, with the headline rate unchanged on the month, and the core rate rising by 0.3% month on month. Headline inflation in January is now double that in December at 1.4% year on year, with the core rate now at 2.2% (up from 2.1%).Inflation has been one of the factors the Fed has cited for its cautious stance towards monetary policy changes. But despite these latest inflation increases, concerns over the ebbing strength of domestic activity may start to provide more of an excuse for further foot dragging, whilst external demand and financial market turbulence provides yet another excuse for the Fed to do nothing for the foreseeable future.1.49pm GMTThe US data does seem to show a trend:Beating estimates in past 2 wks:

The bosses of the two companies, Iain Conn and David Brown, have faced a barrage of questions about their treatment of customersIain Conn and David Brown should compare notes after the day they have just had.The two men are in charge of companies battling it out for the unofficial title of most-hated business in Britain. Conn is the boss of Centrica, owner of British Gas, while Brown is the head of Go-Ahead, which operates the Thameslink, Southern and Southeastern rail franchises through its subsidiary Govia. Continue reading...

The Democratic party rejected the New Deal and its stress on working-class Americans in favour of a technocratic elite – is it time for a political revolution?Stunned by the rise of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton has been at pains to assure the Democratic rank and file that she too understands their concerns; that just like her rival, she is capable of denouncing wealthy interests, of promising to break up big banks and even of hinting that she might prosecute powerful financiers.After her landslide defeat in New Hampshire last week, she conceded that “the way too many things were going just wasn’t right”. There was a difference between her and the senator from Vermont, however: she was the candidate who would get things done, who could “actually make the changes that make your lives better”.Related: Hillary Clinton aides' Wall Street links raise economic policy doubts Continue reading...

Neel Kashkari, head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, said US’s biggest banks are still ‘too big too fail’ and Congress should consider ‘bold solutions’America’s biggest banks present a “nuclear” threat to the US economy and should be broken up, a Federal Reserve policymaker and architect of the 2008 banking bailout said Tuesday.Neel Kashkari, the head of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, said the US’s biggest banks were still “too big too fail” and Congress should consider “bold transformational solutions to solve this problem once and for all”. Continue reading...

CPI rises to 0.3% for January, up from 0.2% in December, and analysts believe it will stay below 1% for whole of 2016The prospects of a rise in interest rates from the Bank of England has receded after the latest official figures showed only weak upward pressure on the cost of living.The annual rate of consumer price inflation (CPI) rose to 0.3% in January, compared with 0.2% in the year to December.Related: Inflation rises, but we should still fear deflationRelated: Bank of Japan launches negative interest rates Continue reading...

The annual inflation rate was always likely to rise in early 2016 – the surprise is that it has not risen by moreThe level of inflation poses a risk to the UK economy, but not in the way that you might think. Inflation is worryingly low, rather than worryingly high.That may seem a perverse idea at a time when the cost of living as measured by the consumer prices index has risen to its highest level in a year. But consider the following.Related: UK inflation rises on dearer alcohol and clothesRelated: UK inflation rises to 0.3% in January, but market rally fades on Opec news - live Continue reading...

Governments would love to see the end of banknotes. But what would a cashless society mean for freedom?I can remember the moment I realised the era of cash could soon be over.It was Australia Day on Bondi Beach in 2014. In a busy liquor store, a man wearing only swimming shorts, carrying only a mobile phone and a plastic card, was delaying other people’s transactions while he moved 50 Australian dollars into his current account on his phone so that he could buy beer. The 30-odd youngsters in the queue behind him barely murmured; they’d all been in the same predicament. I doubt there was a banknote or coin between them.Related: It’s not enough that homeowners prosper. Everyone should Continue reading...

From baby boomers through to generation X, the idea was that children would become better off than their parents. That dream is now dead – just ask generation rentPerpetual progress has been at the heart of western society for the past 150 years or more. The idea has been simple: each generation should be better off than their parents.

Australia avoided quantitative easing thanks to Labor’s stimulus, but for other countries it has become the norm and now more rate cuts are a possibilityPolicy experiments continue to be a feature of the global economy with the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan moving official interest rates below zero. This follows the earlier radical decisions of the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England to engage in quantitative easing, which in effect dumped cash into the banking system in the hope that some of the excess money would flow to the private sector and be invested, spent and drive economic growth.Related: Gilts plunge as interest rate rises recede Continue reading...