Looie, a new app servicing user-pays toilets, is making a splash. As bottled water did to drinking fountains, are free amenities destined to fight a rearguard action?Meet Looie: it’s like Uber, but for bodily functions. Looie is a new app that promises you access (for a fee, naturally) to private bathrooms, all of which have been certified for hygiene and cleanliness.“[Y]ou’re getting a consistent, amazing experience all the time,” explained Looie founder Yezin Al-Qaysi earlier this year. “You won’t have to flush with your foot anymore.”Related: Subway station toilets: a surprisingly accurate indicator of urban civilisationIf you can monetise the liquid going into a human body, you should be able to make a buck when it comes out.[W]ell into the 1880s, new fountains were considered significant enough to warrant news stories in major newspapers. And large crowds would gather to watch them be turned on. In 1881, The New York Times wrote that a thousand people were present at the opening of the water fountain in Union Square.Airports undergoing renovation keep losing their water fountains,’ she says, ‘while coolers stocked with Fiji proliferate. Well-maintained fountains are becoming about as scarce as working pay phones.America has accepted the spread of the pay toilet, now a $2 million a year industry. That acceptance is importance because it firmly establishes a basic tenet of a true free market economy: that a fee can be placed on anything for which there is a demand … And it is not hard to forsee the day when what are presently considered “free” services will be recognised by creative capitalists for what they are – profit opportunities.[It] always depended on a very measured and modest set of expectations from those worker-consumers, happy to accept a limited range of lifestyle choices and social identities: men were expected to accept their role as breadwinner and paterfamilias with very little variation in how these roles could be interpreted; educational options were narrowly restricted at all levels of society; immigrants were expected to assimilate; it was possibly the worst time in history to be gay; there were very few choices for the woman who didn’t want to be a housewife, etc. And this lack of freedom went along with a very modest range of choices in the marketplace: ‘You can have any colour you like, as long as it’s black,’ Henry Ford famously told his customers.’The welfare state during the postwar boom provided security – but a security that could feel stultifying.Related: Composting loos should be the answer to the world's toilet crisis Continue reading...

Britain’s blue-chip index hit a seven-month low of 6,359 points, more than 10% from its record closing high of 7,104 points in AprilBritain’s leading share index dived for an eighth consecutive day on Thursday, as tumbling oil prices and anxiety over a slowing economy in China sent the FTSE 100 officially into correction territory – a fall of 10% from its recent peak.The blue chip index hit a new seven-month low of 6,367 points, down 0.5% on the previous close and into its longest losing run since 2011. It has lost more than 10% from its record closing high of 7,104 points set in April.Related: Stock market correction: is this a new global financial crisis?It's all looking a bit ugly - Dow $DJIA currently forecast to start 180 points lower than Weds close, at 17169. Low for 2015 is 17,038. Continue reading...

Greece will head back to the polling booths as Alexis Tsipras asks for a new mandate to implement the third Greek bailout

Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister of Greece, announces his resignation on Thursday, paving the way for snap elections next month. The debt-crippled country has just received the first tranche of a new €86bn (£61bn) bailout that Tsipras negotiated with Greece’s creditors. The prime minister says ‘my conscience is clear’ as he steps down Continue reading...

Despite U-turns and a split party the charismatic and still-popular PM is betting Greek voters will back him before the new round of austerity bitesAll elections come with an element of risk from which Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, will not be exempted. Will cruel fate reduce him to a footnote in history or will his calculated gamble pay off?After seven months of rollercoaster drama under his stewardship, there is limited appetite for yet more ructions. Above all, the electorate is exhausted – worn out by austerity and politicians flip-flopping over policies that have hollowed out their country over five long years. Greeks will go to the polls with their economy in tatters, capital controls in force, their international reputation shattered, their political system more unstable than ever before. To a great degree Tsipras, their first leader from the radical left, is to blame for this. Continue reading...

Shares and stocks are tumbling around the world, with investors worried that the next global crisis has begun in emerging markets and China. It’s a good question, and a brave betSell in May and go away, don’t come back until St Leger Day. So goes the old stock market adage and rarely has the first part of that advice been more apposite than this year. The FTSE 100 index peaked on 27 April, just before the general election, and has been on the slide ever since. It is now down more than 10% from its peak, so fulfilling the definition of a correction.On the face of it, there seems to have been no real reason for the slide in the FTSE 100 over the summer. Markets should have been cheered by the return of a majority Conservative government in the May general election. The economy grew by 0.7% in the second quarter and continues to be boosted by ultra-low interest rates. That, too, should be a source of comfort. Cash and gilts don’t obviously represent a better place for investors to put their money. The crisis in Greece has abated, if only temporarily. Yet the selloff has continued. Continue reading...

The food bank I run is set to provide over 50,000 meals through some 41 tons of food this year, in neighbourhoods ranked among the top 10% most-deprived in England. Yet, day after day, the primary emotion of service-users visiting me is not so much hunger and thirst but shame and degradation. Man after woman, pensioner after teenager, one benefit sanction ravaged shell of humanity at a time; they never cease to astound me. Hundreds in my city are not so much craving a hand-out from the state as a lasting hand out of a great abyss of despair they have been lost to after being tripped on the cracks of a society rent in two.Community-based intervention, especially for those suffering the disadvantages of food poverty, mental illness and any number of other financial, familial and compulsive battles, is of paramount importance. But why should this financial and material burden fall on another minority – the one that donates with a generosity capable of reducing my team to tears? I suppose I should consider a paternal hand from government as being far too much to ask; for if sea rescue were also to depend on the public coffers, these poor souls could just as easily expect to drown. Continue reading...

Labour’s next leader will face a Tory blitzkrieg on economy policy. The frontrunner’s plans need more workJeremy Corbyn is a high-risk choice as Labour leader. If elected, he could crash and burn very quickly. But it’s not that hard to see why he is the frontrunner in Labour’s leadership race. After the global financial crisis broke in the summer of 2007, the Labour government was left ideologically adrift. It had accepted the broad thrust of Margaret Thatcher’s economic settlement – the primacy of market forces, privatisation, the replacement of manufacturing by financial services as the hub of the UK economy – but then, overnight, the model seized up. When the first oil shock led to stagflation in the 70s, the Thatcherites were ready with an alternative. When the queues formed outside branches of Northern Rock Gordon Brown’s government made up policy on the hoof, such was the intellectual vacuum.Related: Labour leadership vote vetting process under scrutiny: Politics live - readers' editionThe public may give Corbyn time to decide which of his options are runners, but don't bank on it Continue reading...

Fears of a rapid tailing off in retail spending look premature, especially given near-zero inflation, falling oil prices and booming car salesIt would be easy to assume from the latest retail sales figures that the UK economy is slowing down fast. After all, the amount of goods bought on high streets, in shopping centres, in petrol stations and online, was up just 0.1% in July following a drop of a similar size in June.That conclusion looks a bit premature. Spending has certainly eased back from the turn of the year when shoppers were feeling the benefit of last autumn’s crashing oil price. But as Martin Beck of the EY Item Club has noted, there was always a bit of a “sugar rush” feel to that spree.Related: Shop sales rebound in July but petrol and groceries struggle Continue reading...

Markets are on edge, gripped by growing concern over the Chinese economy and a potential US rate rise, plus the slump in emerging markets and the oil priceChina’s continued growth helped limit the impact of the global recession of 2009 but now fears are increasing that the world’s second-biggest economy could cause the next recession. China’s growth is slowing, with knock-on effects for producers of the commodities that power its manufacturing industry and for makers of goods bought by the country’s new middle class. The authorities have struggled to stop share prices plunging after a bubble fuelled by retail investors. China then stunned markets by devaluing the yuan last week – a possible distress signal that raised further questions about its policymakers’ ability to keep a grip on the economy.Related: Five reasons to be worried about the Chinese economyOil dip

Consumers splash out on summer clothing and barbecues, although price cuts in supermarkets help dampen the overall value of retail salesA burst of summer spending spurred a rebound in shop sales across the country during July, but petrol and groceries continued to drag, according to official figures.Shoppers rejuvenated their wardrobes and dusted off their barbecues as the sun came out and loosened previously tight purse strings.Related: Food fight: the secrets of the supermarket price war Continue reading...

A report laments the number of graduates in ‘non-graduate’ jobs. But it’s reductive to think education should be about employment rather than ideasThe Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has released a report showing that almost 60% of graduates are in “non-graduate” jobs. This, it argues, should be seen as a wake-up call about the role of the university degree and the “waste” of talent the “conveyor belt of graduates” represents.The report, however, misses the point about the system of schooling we have in Britain, and what education should be for.Related: UK graduates are wasting degrees in lower-skilled jobsIt is the range of transferable skills that make graduates attractive to employersRelated: It's foolish to argue that we don't need so many graduates in the UK Continue reading...

Will they, won’t they plot of latest Greek bailout drama has seemingly reached a conclusion. We look back at the year’s twists and turnsRelated: 100 days of solitude: Syriza struggles as Greeks once again stare into the abyssRelated: Yanis Varoufakis: some of his best quotes Continue reading...

Now that Greece has recieved approval from creditors for its third bailout, we explore the next step in the processGreece has cleared all the political hurdles on its way to a third bailout deal and will receive its first funds under a third bailout, worth €86bn (£61bn). But problems lie ahead, including the possibility of fresh Greek elections and the non-participation of the International Monetary Fund. Continue reading...

Despite growing criticism over the EU’s bitter medicine of austerity, the trade bloc has passed its first big existential testThe EU dream is a tattered one these days. “Europe has failed!” announce pundits from left and right alike. The image of a frail, white-haired Greek pensioner lying in front of a cash machine, which apparently had failed to disgorge his miserable ECB-specified stipend of €60, has gone around the world symbolising for many the moral emptiness at the European project’s core. The economics which were meant to heal a war-stricken continent have instead set countries at each other’s throats.Economics is where politics and reality collide. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the case of the Greek crisis. Politically, the Greek government had a mandate reinforced by its referendum to put an end to austerity. Likewise, from the other side, the EU governments did agree on one thing the eurozone would not allow any bailouts. No ifs, no buts, no maybes. And yet here we are with the Greeks tucking into their third load of bailout money and signing up at the same time to another dose of increasingly powerful “austerity medicine”.Related: Germans to run Greek regional airports in first wave of bailout privatisationsRelated: After Greece’s defeat, we need a new European movement against austerity | Marina Prentoulis Continue reading...

UK stocks fall to lowest point since January following anxieties over China’s economic slowdown, with mining and oil shares hit hardestThe FTSE 100 index has slipped to its lowest level since January as global investors reacted to concerns that a slowdown in China will undermine demand for oil and industrial metals in the world’s second largest economy.Weak data from the US helped drive fears that global growth is slowing and commodity prices have much further to fall, hitting mining and oil stocks in London as well as shares across Europe. Continue reading...

Anticipated interest rate rises in US and UK will intensify pressure on developing economies, particularly those that borrowed cheap dollars after 2008 crashThere has been no shortage of disturbing trends in Asian foreign exchange markets this year, even before China shocked traders last week with its unilateral devaluation of the yuan. The Malaysian ringgit and Indonesian rupiah have been in freefall for months, and the Thai baht was haemorrhaging support long before the Bangkok shrine bombing.Figures showing that emerging markets have suffered a near-$1tn (£640bn) outflow of funds over the last year give another indication that countries billed as the stars of the post-crash economy are now waning.Related: How a Fed rates rise creates issues for emerging markets Continue reading...

Members say conditions for an increase are ‘approaching’ after rates held near zero since 2008 financial crisis, but some raise concerns over too little inflationThe Federal Reserve is inching closer to the first interest rate increase in nearly a decade, minutes of the central bankers’ latest meeting indicated on Wednesday.The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) 28-29 July meeting did not mention any timetable, but did state that most members believed that economic conditions were “approaching” those that would warrant a rate increase.Related: Federal Reserve hints at interest rate rise but leaves them unchanged for now Continue reading...

Athens has been set up to fail its October review of whether it is complying with the latest agreement, at which point some EU countries will cut up roughNow that Germany’s parliament has approved Greece’s third bailout, it is tempting to think that the crisis is over. Tempting, but wrong.The threat of imminent financial disaster has been averted, but only by kicking the can a bit further down the road until October. At that point Greece will have had its first review to see whether it is meeting the terms of the latest agreement, and the International Monetary Fund will have to decide whether it wants to be involved in the financial rescue package. Both are problematic. Continue reading...

Following Bundestag vote, eurozone finance ministers agreed to release €26bn of €86bn bailout immediately to help Athens meet ECB paymentGreece will receive the first batch of funds under its new bailout programme after the German parliament voted to support the deal, despite widespread misgivings about whether Athens will manage to implement reforms in return for the money.Following the Bundestag vote, eurozone finance ministers agreed to release €26bn (£18.4bn) of the €86bn bailout immediately, helping Greece meet a payment due to the European Central Bank and recapitalise its struggling banking sector.

A state-led investment programme offers a way to steer British economy away from private speculative activity to long-term sustainable growth investmentFiscal austerity has become such a staple of conventional wisdom in the UK that anyone in public life who challenges it is written off as a dangerous leftist. Jeremy Corbyn, the current favourite to become the next leader of Britain’s Labour party, is the latest victim of this chorus of disparagement. Some of his positions are untenable, but his remarks on economic policy are not foolish and they deserve proper scrutiny.Corbyn has proposed two alternatives to the UK’s current policy of austerity: a national investment bank, to be capitalised by cancelling private-sector tax relief and subsidies; and what he calls “people’s quantitative easing” – in a nutshell, an infrastructure programme that the government finances by borrowing money from the Bank of England.Related: Jeremy Corbyn is right to blame the banks, not Labour, for the financial crisis Continue reading...

Despite China’s world-beating success at eradicating poverty, economic disparity persists. How will the government ensure no one is left behind?Whether it’s the currency devaluation or the stock market rout, the economic news coming out of China seems unremittingly negative – and that’s not to mention the horrific explosions in Tianjin.But here’s some good news. Yet-to-be-released data shows that China has all but eradicated urban poverty. For a country with huge numbers of poor people streaming into its cities, many of whom living initially in conditions of abject misery, this is an extraordinary success. It has been achieved, in large part, because of a government subsidy paid to urban dwellers to bring incomes up to a minimum level of 4,476 yuan ($700 or £446). Continue reading...

With the current lack of data, we can’t be sure what impact the ‘gig economy’ is having on people’s lives but it is certainly not a new phenomenonBig claims have been made that the future of work lies in self-employment, multiple job holding, short duration employment and temporary employees. The permanent employee job, we are told, is on its way out.This is already generating a political backlash, with Hillary Clinton among those accusing companies of exploiting their workforce by “misclassifying them as contractors.”Related: Hillary Clinton criticises the Uber business model for exploiting workersRelated: The ‘gig economy’ is coming. What will it mean for work? | Arun Sundararajan Continue reading...

Over-qualification has reached saturation point, meaning money invested in education is being wasted and young people are crippled by debt, report warns

Shanghai shares index drops 3.9%, denting hopes of Chinese stock markets stabilising following last week’s devaluation of yuanAsian shares on Wednesday struggled at two-year lows after Chinese stocks extended their fall, stoking fears about the stability of China’s economy.

Investment in emerging markets hits record low while sluggish growth figures cause jittersChinese stock markets fell sharply in their final hour of trading on Tuesday as investors were rattled by the withdrawal of government support for shares and further capital flight after last week’s yuan devaluation.

Politicians from Germany have been forced to cut short their holidays to attend the crucial meeting Continue reading...

Budget gyms with more flexible contracts contribute to increase in membership in last yearConsumer spending on UK gym membership has soared by 44% in the last year, figures reveal, driven by the growth in popularity of new, budget gyms which come without the expensive shackles of contracts that cannot be unlocked and hefty fees.The research suggests that earlier reports of the demise of the gym – as the UK enthusiastically embraces cycling, park runs and open water swimming – may have been premature. In June Sport England reported the first fall in the number of people going to gyms or keeping fit in the privacy of their own homes – by 153,000 to 6.56 million – but the latest figures indicate they are being more pro-active.Related: How better posture improves your runRelated: I’m exhausted from trying to pause a Bannatyne gym contract for Ramadan Continue reading...

The cost of living picked up in July, despite another drop in British food prices and transport costs

Chancellor Angela Merkel will ask MPs to approve latest €86bn package, but faces prospect of many conservatives voting against the dealFor the second time this summer, German politicians have been forced to interrupt their holidays and fly back to Berlin for a key vote on bailing out Greece.In what is being seen as Angela Merkel’s last chance to ensure that Athens stays in the eurozone, MPs will decide on Wednesday whether to approve the latest €86bn (£60.5bn) rescue, Greece’s third.Related: Greece bailout deal: Angela Merkel expects IMF involvement Continue reading...

Though the cost of living figures were stronger than expected, an acceleration in wage growth is far more likely to trigger a hike in borrowing costsThe Bank of England says interest rates are going up. Not quite yet, but at some time in the not too distant future, the monetary policy committee thinks the conditions will be right for borrowing costs to go up.Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, has made it clear that the timing of that decision will depend on what the economic data looks like. Unsurprisingly, therefore, every piece of news is seen as having a bearing on whether interest rates will go up in late 2015, early 2016 or later.Related: UK inflation rise fuels debate over higher interest rates Continue reading...

Devaluation of yuan and Beijing’s moves to halt shares sell-off fails to prevent biggest one-day fall in three weeks for Shanghai Composite IndexChina’s Shanghai Composite Index plunged more than 6% in its biggest drop in three weeks, amid fears that the recent change in exchange rate policy may accelerate flows of capital out of China.The Shanghai Composite Index fell 6.2% to 3,748.16, its largest fall since an 8.5% dive on 27 July that was the biggest slide in eight years. .Related: Eight reasons why China’s currency crisis matters to us allRelated: Why has China devalued its currency and what impact will it have? Continue reading...

ONS says falling food and fuel costs failed to offset pick up in prices caused by higher clothing costs and dearer air faresBritain’s inflation rate ticked higher last month, heating up the debate over when Bank of England (BoE) policymakers will start raising interest rates.The consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation edged up to 0.1% in July from zero the month before, defying City expectations for no change and pushing the pound higher. But inflation is still well below the Bank’s 2% target, having hovered around zero since February.Related: Rail fares forecast to rise 1% after latest inflation data Continue reading...

Increase comes despite claims from campaigners that train tickets are rising three times faster than wages and service is deterioratingRail fares will rise by 1% from January after the announcement of July’s retail prices index inflation figure, which helps determine regulated train fares for the next year.Details of the rise follow a study which claimed that season tickets and other regulated fares had increased nearly three times faster than wages over the past five years.Related: Unions protest as rail fares rise three times faster than wages over five yearsRelated: UK inflation rise fuels debate over interest rate hike Continue reading...

Study of census results in England and Wales since 1871 finds rise of machines has been a job creator rather than making working humans obsoleteIn the 1800s it was the Luddites smashing weaving machines. These days retail staff worry about automatic checkouts. Sooner or later taxi drivers will be fretting over self-driving cars.The battle between man and machines goes back centuries. Are they taking our jobs? Or are they merely easing our workload? Continue reading...

Slowdown in China a major factor but ratings agency says UK growth is ‘robust and broad-based’ despite forecasting pace of expansion slowing to 2.4%The global economy is on course for muted growth this year and next as it faces risks from a slowdown in China, the prospect of higher interest rates in the US and the lingering threat of a Greek exit from the euro, according to the latest forecasts from Moody’s.Outlining the list of potential shocks that could knock even modest expansion off course, the credit rating agency said it did not expect the world’s leading economies to shake off the legacy of the financial crisis and return to their former growth averages for the next five years. Continue reading...

During the Greek crisis Europe missed a historic chance to fix its currency. Now the mess continuesNow the dust has temporarily settled over the ruins of Greece’s economy, it is worth asking if there wasn’t a brief moment when the actors had found a way to cut the eurozone crisis’s Gordian knot. At some point in July German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, appeared to have realised that his dream of a “core Europe” with a Franco-German avant-garde would vanish into thin air if Greece was allowed to remain in the economic and monetary union. Rewriting the rules of the union to accommodate the Greeks, Schäuble realised, would pull the euro southwards, and France, Italy and Spain with it – forever breaking up the European core.His Greek equivalent Yanis Varoufakis, for his part, may have learned from his encounters of the third kind with the Eurogroup that the only role there was for Greece in the Europe of monetary union was that of an underfed and overregulated welfare recipient. Not only was this incompatible with Greek national pride; more importantly, what the governors of Europe would be willing to offer the Greeks by way of “European solidarity” would, at best, be too little to live on.Related: Why is Germany so tough on Greece? Look back 25 years | Dirk LaabsVery few people believe that programmes of this kind – like a Marshall plan – can “kickstart” an economy like Greece’s Continue reading...

Financial investors are watching the political fallout in Athens after its third aid programme was agreed on Friday night

Former finance minister accuses EU leaders of punishing ordinary people as he argues measures imposed on Greece will make dire economy worseGreece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has accused European leaders of allowing oligarchs to maintain their stranglehold on Greek society while punishing ordinary people in a line-by-line critique of the country’s €86bn (£61bn) bailout deal.Varoufakis said the Greek parliament had pushed through an agreement with international creditors that would allow oligarchs, who dominate sections of the economy, to generate huge profits and continue to avoid paying taxes. Continue reading...

Interest rates less likely to rise from historic low of 0.5% as falling energy prices and strong pound anchor inflation to well below 2% CPI targetFalling oil prices and a strong pound are likely to have anchored inflation at zero for a second successive month in July, giving further reason for Bank of England policymakers to delay raising interest rates.City economists said official figures to be published on Tuesday are likely to show consumer price inflation (CPI) remained at zero last month. The rate, which is used by the government as its official measure to set pensions, wages and benefits, fell to 0% in February, and has remained close to that level ever since.Related: Low pay, low inflation and low interest rates? This is not 1975Related: UK economy: the low-interest rate era is far from over Continue reading...

The second quarter of the year saw output contract by 0.4% despite prime minister Shinzo Abe’s huge stimulus programme to reverse years of poor growthJapan’s economy shrunk 0.4% in the second quarter of the year, official data showed on Monday, underscoring how the prime minsister’s “Abenomics” growth programme has yet to grain traction.

Economists have always feared that once everybody starts printing money, one player would break ranks. If that player is massive – like China – the impact would be to export stagnation to the rest of the worldOne of the strangest things about China’s shock currency devaluation is that nobody outside the government’s secretive HQ in central Beijing really knows why they’ve done it. Since China slashed the value of the yuan against the dollar, the financial world has been forced into a guessing game: do they mean to start a currency war with the US and their Asian rivals – or are they just making a tactical response to a tricky situation?It’s a question not just with global ramifications but parochial ones. When Yvette Cooper slammed Jeremy Corbyn’s call for “people’s quantitative easing” – printing money and spending it on infrastructure instead of debt – she was, in her own way, plunging Labour into the same debate as the wider one triggered by China.Related: The end of capitalism has begun Continue reading...

Ma Jun seeks to assuage fears of tit-for-tat devaluations with US, Europe and Japan after its shock interventions last week, but warns of further volatilityChina’s central bank has warned of further volatility in the yuan but reiterated that Beijing had no intention of sparking a “currency war” following a series of shock devaluations last week.The chief economist at the People’s Bank of China, Ma Jun, said the Chinese government had “no intention or need to participate in a currency war”.Related: Eight reasons why China’s currency crisis matters to us allRelated: China's economic mandarins are proving to be human after all Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt is trying to improve quality but George Osborne is determined to keep on cutting. It’s not good news for the NHSDavid Cameron likes to boast that not a day has been wasted since his unexpected triumph 100 days ago. That may be the case. But it’s also true that ministers are scampering around like jugglers keeping improbable numbers of plates balanced at the same time. In several departments, most of all at health, it is looking increasingly likely that even as agile a minister as Jeremy Hunt will be unable to avoid an almighty crash very soon.Last month, Mr Hunt went to the King’s Fund, the impartial and long-established health policy thinktank, to set out his plans for the next five years. Mr Hunt is already unusual, a member of a small band of health secretaries (headed by the NHS’s founder Aneurin Bevan) who’s stayed in his job, one of the toughest in cabinet, after an election. But on Monday the King’s Fund is publishing its assessment of progress since May, and its conclusion is that he may be in office, but increasingly it is the Treasury that is in power. This marks the denouement of the ambition of Mr Cameron’s first health secretary, Andrew Lansley, to devolve power away from Whitehall. For all trusts, even the supposedly independent foundation trusts, and increasingly for patients facing lengthening waits, the result is already serious, and likely to get worse. Continue reading...

German chancellor tries to reassure sceptical MPs ahead of Bundestag vote by saying IMF will take part in €86bn bailoutAngela Merkel has said that she expects the International Monetary Fund to take part in a new €86bn (£60bn) bailout for Greece, as the German chancellor prepares to face Bundestag opposition to the package in a vote on Wednesday. In an attempt to reassure sceptical MPs, Merkel said the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, would ensure the fund’s participation if conditions on Greek pension reform and debt relief were met.Related: Greece needs further debt relief after third bailout deal in five years, says IMF chiefRelated: Why is Germany so tough on Greece? Look back 25 years | Dirk Laabs Continue reading...

The debate over an interest rate hike labours on in both the UK and the US, but static pay and minimal inflation means ultra-low rates are staying putAugust 1975. Harold Wilson was prime minister. Gerald Ford had been in the White House for a year following Richard Nixon’s resignation. Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was the summer blockbuster and inflation in Britain hit a postwar peak of 27%.Statutory incomes policy was Wilson’s response to the cost of living crisis in what now seems like a completely different world. With inflation non-existent, today’s central banks have a big decision to make. Is it safe to go back in the water and start raising interest rates for the first time since the global financial crisis and recession of 2007-09? Continue reading...

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney may hope otherwise but it’s a safe bet that rockbottom rates will stay rockbottom this year and nextIt’s a safe bet that Britain’s rock-bottom interest rates are going to stay at rock bottom, this year and next. That is the message from the global economy, where all the signs point to low inflation for years to come, robbing central banks of any reason to raise the base rates that set the benchmark for mortgages, overdrafts and loans.Some central banks might even be forced to pump more funds into their economies through those inelegantly titled quantitative-easing programmes just to keep inflation from sinking again into negative territory. Continue reading...

Christine Lagarde insists burden is unsustainable and warns fund will not participate without ‘concrete agreement’ on debt reliefGreece needs more significant debt relief from its creditors, the head of the International Monetary Fund said, after the bankrupt country accepted tough conditions to secure its third bailout deal in five years.The first €26bn of a package worth more than three times that will be disbursed within days after the government in Athens grudgingly approved the agreement at the end of a marathon debate, and Germany backed down on its opposition to rescuing Greece.Related: Alexis Tsipras is down but far from out Continue reading...

The publication last week of the debt deal signed by Alexis Tsipras has laid bare an alarming programme of social revolution and pervasive oversightOn Channel 4’s The Three Day Nanny, modern-day Mary Poppins Kathryn Mewes arrives in a household of tantrum-prone tots and has just 72 hours to transform them with tough love and discipline into model family members. Judging by Greece’s latest bailout deal, its lenders, led by the German government, are adopting much the same approach.It was already clear in the wake of eurozone leaders’ marathon all-night talks last month that the governing leftist party Syriza was being punished for its temerity in challenging the eurozone orthodoxy of austerity.Once it gets down to the nitty-gritty, the abrogation of political control signalled by the memorandum is extraordinary Continue reading...