Sneaking off to China to beg for political investment in vanity projects that no European would touch is no route to economic recoveryChina was always the Ashley Madison of public money. Finance ministers with an infrastructure problem would sneak off to Beijing for a quickie billion and return with smiles on their faces. The Chinese seemed willing and no one need know. George Osborne and David Cameron have done it for HS2 and Hinkley Point. Boris Johnson can’t keep his hands off Chinese skyscrapers. Now something dreadful has happened. Someone has told the Chinese people where their savings have been going. Does it matter? Of course it matters. Any student of economic history knows that when a swiftly urbanising economy exports its surplus savings – as Britain did in the late-19th century – it loses touch with reality and goes into recession. Money is tipped into African railways, Brazilian mines and Russian bonds. China has been tipping cash into worthless transport and energy projects around the world, or storing it in empty London towers. It encourages reckless governments to get involved with stupid projects that no sane banker would support.Boris Johnson can't keep his hands off Chinese skyscrapersRelated: China's 'Black Monday' sends markets reeling across the globe - as it happened Continue reading...

Leader writers accuse Beijing of incompetence and urge calm on the home frontThe great fall of China. It was a pun too good to miss for the Daily Mail (page 1), the Sun and the Times. It kept company with the most used cliché of the day, the one about China sneezing and the rest of the world getting a cold.In various guises, it appeared in the Guardian, Independent, Daily Express, Daily Mirror and the Sun. But the Sun deserves special mention for the pun over its editorial, Chinese burn.“It is clear that China is slowing down much faster than anticipated... If the Chinese model really has run its course, the impact will be shattering. Yet the fundamentals that earned the label of the Chinese century are still largely in place.What is needed is transparency. China must also let its markets function more freely and accelerate the shift from an export-led economy towards greater consumption at home... In the meantime there is no need to stockpile pickled cabbage or storm the ATMs.”“China is being forced to learn the hard way what traditional practitioners of market-based economics have known all along - that you cannot buck the markets and that economic development never proceeds in a straight line.The belief that China’s own peculiar form of authoritarian, state-sponsored capitalism could somehow defy the usual laws of economics always did look deluded.”“At the very least, its slowdown threatens to spark a rolling series of debt and currency crises in emerging markets... Small wonder that stock markets are panicking.”“It should be public about its conclusions, however much this may go against the grain. Markets and the wider world need confidence in the existence of a plan, given the absence of the monetary and fiscal tools common to market economies.”“Instead of soothing nerves, these measures only stirred new concerns about why they had been necessary at all. Beijing’s grip on events loosened again in the eyes of the world after it allowed the yuan to slide over the last fortnight...Beijing is certainly not out of options nor treasure just yet, and yet the world is losing its blind faith in the assumption that China’s often-secretive political processes can in the end be relied on to steer the nation to ever-greater prosperity.”“Alarm bells should be ringing very loudly in Downing Street as the economic weather darkens. Instead, the Europe-obsessed Tories are focusing on renegotiating Britain’s relationship with Brussels.And Labour is mired in a chaotic leadership battle which is doing lasting damage to the party.” Continue reading...

Chinese stock market slide since 12 June peak has panicked not only Beijing and country’s investors but markets across the globe Continue reading...

Party formed after split from Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza, unlikely to succeed

Benchmark Chinese markets fall 6% but some indices bounce back on the day after ‘Black Monday’Asian stock markets record big swings Related: Dow plunges after rollercoaster trading on ‘Black Monday’ for global marketsMarkets across Asia experienced more turbulence on Tuesday, with Chinese shares suffering a dramatic fall of more than 6% a day after hundreds of billions of dollars were knocked off global stocks. As the gravity of China’s market woes continued to sink in – following a trading session dubbed “Black Monday” by the country’s official news agency – stock markets in the region were again hit by wild fluctuations.Related: Asian stock markets recover amid wild swings after Wall Street slump – live Continue reading...

Australia’s economy can survive these share shocks for now, but further falls in stock prices could challenge the Coalition’s resistance to fiscal stimulusThe savage market ructions of recent weeks and days are disconcerting. While not unprecedented, the quite staggering fall in share markets and commodity prices are threatening to undermine the global economy. For Australia, the news is particularly alarming. Australia’s stock market, the ASX, has not performed well in recent years, lagging well behind the other markets. If the market ructions translate to an extended period of weak global growth, Australia’s already dismal export performance will be hampered and the commodity price weakness will further undermine national incomes.We are not there yet. There needs to be either further falls in stocks and commodities or an extended period where market weakness persists for there to be material damage to the Australian economy. Continue reading...

Chancellor’s remarks come on day Beijing dubbed ‘Black Monday’ and as European markets saw biggest falls since 2008 financial crisisGeorge Osborne has played down fears that European economies will be derailed by the dramatic stock market slide in China that triggered some of biggest swings at bourses around the world since the 2008 financial crisis.The UK chancellor said the volatility in China, where the main Shanghai Composite index on Monday had its biggest one-day drop since 2007, was “a cause for real concern”.

A stock market bubble and bust that was made in China might have stayed there – had the west not got other reasons to be fearfulPotential disruption to the iron ore trade; the sudden exposure of the South African rand; the incompatibility of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive with that Wild East entrepreneurial spirit which has powered decades of Chinese growth. Watching panic spread from Shanghai and Shenzhen to London and New York, western analysts grabbed for straws of understanding in unfamiliar fields, reflecting not only a professional need to look as if they know what’s going on, but a psychological yearning to impose order on a wild, mercurial swing in the mood. There may be no single reason why August 2015 proved the moment for the world’s investors to take collective fright about the People’s Republic. What there is however, lurking under all the anxiety, is a single question for governments everywhere. Namely, what’s left in the locker?Like a swaggering pre-crash financier, Beijing had grown to resemble a Master of the Universe. What it said more or less went; even the great crisis of 2008 caused only modest and impermanent departure from the course that it had set. But in recent months, the regime has been having to do ever more to achieve ever less. After inflating an extraordinary stock bubble, by enticing people of modest means into the market, the Communist rulers became visibly terrified of a burst. Restrictions were imposed on shares being sold off, while public bodies were sent on a buying spree. Instead of soothing nerves, these measures only stirred new concerns about why they had been necessary at all. Beijing’s grip on events loosened again in the eyes of the world after it allowed the yuan to slide over the last fortnight. This might have been explained as a pragmatic adjustment to a slowdown at home after years in which a rising currency had eroded competitiveness overseas. Instead, there was spin suggesting that the move was all part of a well-laid plan, which succeeded only in alerting the world to the rate at which China had been burning through its vast reserves. That created such panic that further resources soon had to be spent on putting a floor under the slide. Continue reading...

Concerns about inflation, shares and interest rates are raised after ‘Black Monday’ chaos sees billions wiped off markets around the globeChina’s stock market has fallen sharply over recent weeks despite measures by officials in Beijing aimed at calming investors’ jitters and shoring up global confidence in the country’s slowing economy.As in August 1997, 1998, 2007 and 2008 we could be in the early stage of a very serious situation.It is far from clear that the next Fed move will be a tightening.Advice on the looming crash, No.1: get hard cash in a safe place now; don't assume banks & cashpoints will be open, or bank cards will work.Crash advice No.2: do you have enough bottled water, tinned goods & other essentials at home to live a month indoors? If not, get shopping.Crash advice No.3: agree a rally point with your loved ones in case transport and communication gets cut off; somewhere you can all head to.Today is just the stock market catching up with the terror over defaults that's been gripping the bond market for months.Related: China stock market panic shows what happens when stimulants wear off Continue reading...

Unlike in 2007, this crash could be seen coming. China just provided trigger for sell-off in global financial markets bulked up on quantitative easingRelated: Asian stock markets fall again after Wall Street slump – liveFinancial markets have gone cold turkey. For the past seven years, they have been given regular doses of strong and dangerous narcotics. The threat that the drugs will no longer be available has resulted in severe withdrawal symptoms.Related: Why is China's stock market falling and how might it affect the global economy? Continue reading...

London index and Germany’s Dax fall sharply as global markets reel from worst day in Shanghai and Hong Kong since 2007European stocks tumbled and US equity markets prepared for steep falls after Chinese shares had their worst day since 2007 – intensifying a stock market rout driven by fears about the world’s second-biggest economy.In lunchtime trading local time, the FTSE 100 had fallen almost 4.5% to 5,914 points, wiping more than £60bn off the index of leading UK shares. It was the first time the index had dropped below the 6,000 mark since early 2013, with almost all companies in the red, and followed a week of declines last week.Related: FTSE plunges as China sparks global markets crisis - liveBlack Monday! #ChinaStocks join global panic selloff, dive 8.5%, worst since Asian financial crisis at midday pic.twitter.com/nLHoFf34bVRelated: Share markets plunge triggered by jitters over ChinaRelated: China to allow pension fund to invest in stock market for first time Continue reading...

Adviser to Labour leadership frontrunner hits back after John Cridland says QE was justified in banking crisis but should not become standardJeremy Corbyn’s plan for “people’s QE”, which in effect would involve printing money to fund infrastructure spending, has been criticised by the head of the CBI.John Cridland, director general of the independent employers’ organisation, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while he agreed that capital investment was urgently needed, the Corbyn plan was not based on sound economics.John Cridland: “We all know household finances and government finances are the same”. No they are not!!! Households cannot print money Continue reading...

Federal treasurer Joe Hockey speaks about recent falls in the share market. Hockey says he will be travelling to Turkey for the G20 next week and ‘the more transparency we can get from the US Federal Reserve, and Janet Yellen in particular, the more it will help to address some of the volatility in global stock markets’ Continue reading...

Sale of shares takes taxpayer’s stake in bailed-out bank to less than 13%The government has sold 1% of its stake in Lloyds Banking Group to reduce its ownership of the bailed-out bank to less than 13%.UK Financial Investments, which manages the government’s stakes in Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, has reduced its holding to 12.97%, Lloyds said on Monday. Continue reading...

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 falls 2.4% in first 20 minutes as stocks across the board affected by global worries about China, Greece and oilThe Australian share market has plunged at the start of trade, with losses felt across the board from banks to resources stock as uncertainty grips global markets.The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 and the All Ordinaries indices fell more than 2.4% in the first 20 minutes of trade on Monday.Related: Global stocks sell-off deepens as panic grips markets - liveRelated: Fortescue to cut hundreds of jobs despite partial rebound in iron ore price Continue reading...

Political mood becomes even more poisonous as former PM Antonis Samaras accuses Alexis Tsipras of acting like ‘drunk captain of a rudderless ship’Confusion over the timing of fresh elections in Greece has threatened to jeopardise the prospects for a smooth transition to a new government and the ability of the debt-stricken country to meet the conditions of its €86bn bailout.The election campaign intensified over the weekend with officials preparing candidate lists and the appointment of a caretaker administration after the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras refused to participate in talks with other party leaders to form a new government.Related: Greek crisis: what's the mood in Greece after Alexis Tsipras' resignation? Continue reading...

Chancellor meets European leaders in three Scandinavian capitals as part of effort to gain support for UK’s bid to renegotiate EU relationshipGeorge Osborne will tell European leaders during a whistlestop tour of capital cities that Britain’s bid to reform the EU will also benefit their nations.The chancellor is visiting Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen to build support for the UK’s demands for a new settlement in Brussels.Related: Even with Labour in disarray, Europe could still derail the Tories | Isabel Hardman Continue reading...

Economist says Australia is in better shape than others to weather the global market turmoil fuelled by China’s slowing economy

State news agency reports 30% of net assets will be allowed to be invested in domestically listed shares, which could restore investor confidenceChina has cleared the path for local authority pension funds to invest in the stock market for the first time, potentially channelling hundreds of billions of yuan into the country’s struggling Shanghai exchange. After a week of turbulence that sent world stock markets spiralling to their worst weekly loss for the year, Xinhua, the official news agency, reported on Sunday that under the new rules, the fund will be allowed to invest up to 30% of its net assets in domestically listed shares.The move, which is likely to be seen as a brazen attempt to inject pension cash into the market to shore up prices and restore investor confidence, comes ahead of several reports that are likely to show the world’s major economies struggling to recover as China’s main industries slowdown.Related: China syndrome: how the slowdown could spread to the Brics and beyond Continue reading...

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World hasn’t changed much since financial crisis, which showed an economic model based on widening inequality and uncontrolled capital flows is unviableAnd so it begins. Shares are falling, currency markets are in turmoil. The price of oil is going through the floor, burning the fingers of speculators who have made the wrong bets on borrowed money. Welcome to the crash of August 2015.Financial markets being what they are, there is every chance there will be a bounce on Monday. Investors will be sniffing out bargains and be hoping that the scale of last week’s falls will prompt a response from central banks. Even in the most severe bear markets, prices never go down in a straight line. But don’t be fooled. This could get ugly.Related: Stock market correction: is this a new global financial crisis?Related: China syndrome: how the slowdown could spread to the Brics and beyond Continue reading...

It is the current government’s policy and its objectives that are extreme, not the Labour leadership candidate’sThe accusation is widely made that Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters have moved to the extreme left on economic policy. But this is not supported by the candidate’s statements or policies.Related: Jeremy Corbyn wins economists’ backing for anti-austerity policies Continue reading...

The unlikely leadership frontrunner looks vulnerable to criticism over some policies and pledges. But someone in opposition had to come out fightingThe seeds for the phenomenon of the rise and rise of Jeremy Corbyn were sown when Labour either voiced acceptance of George Osborne’s welfare cuts or abstained in the parliamentary vote.This really did raise the question: what is the Labour party for? One may disagree with Corbyn over his stance on Nato and one or two – or possibly seven – economic issues, not least his proposals for the Bank of England, which would demand serious quantitative analysis. But he certainly struck a chord with his full-frontal attack on austerity. Despite all the bad-mouthing of him, he has indeed forced other leadership contenders to stop apologising for a deficit that was induced by the financial crisis and had nothing to do with spending plans that were supported by George Osborne at the time.Until Corbyn came along, Labour was like a rabbit in the headlights on the subject of austerity Continue reading...

The Amazon revelations reflect a wider tendency for companies to take a brutal approach to employees at all levelsMore than 100 years ago, the Cadbury family built a model town, Bournville, for their workers, away from the overcrowded tenements of central Birmingham. Cadbury’s vast chocolate factory was at the centre of thousands of purpose-built villas, a village green, schools, churches and civic halls.The message was clear. Cadbury cherished and invested in their workers, expecting commitment and loyalty back, which they got. Sir Adrian Cadbury, now in his 80s, still proudly shows visitors how his Quaker forefathers felt a genuine sense of responsibility to their workers. His family believed in capitalism for a purpose – innovation and human betterment. Continue reading...

Syriza leader under fire as radical left goes to war over austerity before electoral campaign gets under wayGreece’s pre-election campaign has turned ugly before it has even officially commenced, with senior figures – including the former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis – rounding on the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, for his governance of the crisis-plagued country.Related: Yanis Varoufakis: ‘If I’m convicted of high treason, it would be interesting’ Continue reading...

Emerging markets, once the world’s great economic hope, could see the good times end as Beijing falters. We look at which countries are most vulnerable to the 21st century’s next financial crisisTumbling share prices. A sell-off in commodity markets. Capital flight from some of the world’s riskier countries. Hints of a looming currency war. Financial markets ended last week in panic mode as fears emerged that the world was about to enter the next phase of the crisis that began eight years ago in August 2007.Back then, the problems began in the developed world – in American and European banks – and spread to the rest of the world. The bigger emerging markets – China and India most notably – recovered quickly and acted as the locomotive for global growth while the west was struggling. Continue reading...

Most major markets around the world suffer bruising losses as investors worldwide become increasingly concerned about Chinese economyUS stock markets dropped dramatically on Friday afternoon, dragging overall global markets to their worst week of the year as concerns about the health of the Chinese economy rattled investors across the world.

World stock markets have suffered their worst week of the year so far buffeted by worries over China, a potential US rate rise and troubles in emerging economies. What do six big moves across markets tell us about increasingly jittery investors?World stock markets have suffered their worst week of the year so far as concerns about the health of the Chinese economy rattle investors across the globe.

Commission says it expected Alexis Tsipras to call snap elections last night

Unexpected acceleration in economic activity suggests ECB’s bond-buying scheme and weaker euro could be having a stimulating effectEurozone business growth unexpectedly accelerated this month as steeper price cutting drove an increase in new orders and led to firms building a bigger backlog of work, according to a new survey.The relatively upbeat survey, one of the earliest monthly economic indicators, suggests the European Central Bank’s (ECB) massive bond-buying programme and a weaker euro may finally be having an impact on growth.Related: Brutish, nasty – and not even short: the ominous future of the eurozone | Wolfgang Streeck Continue reading...

Yvette Cooper risked ridicule for bringing up feminist economics. But if there had been a few founding mothers alongside the founding fathers, the discipline would look very differentWhen God created man, runs the old car sticker, she was only joking. When God created economics, however, he was very definitely a him. Yvette Cooper invited, and duly received, rightwing disdain last week, after the Labour leadership hopeful dared to suggest that possession of a pair of X chromosomes might have a bearing on how a leader would set about running UK plc. Her intervention shone a rare light on the obscure but important corner of academia that is feminist economics.Tasked with introducing this unpromising breakfast-time topic on BBC radio, Jim Naughtie initially spluttered out these two words as if they sat together as oddly as, say, Yorkshire physics, or socialist chemistry. But a pithy turn from Oxford University’s Professor Jane Humphries soon enlightened him and all but the most reactionary listeners that economics was, after all, a field in which there really is a case for a distinctive feminist slant. Nearly 300 years on from Adam Smith’s birth, male hegemony in the field was – until comparatively recently – challenged only by brilliant exceptions, such as Joan Robinson. And this dominance has made itself felt at every level of the discipline, from the intellectual foundation stones up. Continue reading...

ONS details £1.3bn gap between revenue and expenditure – the first surplus for three years and the largest since records began in 1997A record month for income tax receipts helped the government achieve its first July surplus on the public finances for three years, according to official figures.The Office for National Statistics said there was a surplus of £1.3bn last month for the public sector, excluding the financial impact of state-controlled banks. That was in line with City expectations and compared with a small deficit of £100m in July last year.Read the Chancellor, George Osborne's response to today's @ONS Public Sector Finances: pic.twitter.com/Jya5EAmQuSRelated: Tax receipts from North Sea oil predicted to fall to 40-year low Continue reading...

The Greek prime minister needs to overcome leftwing elements in his own party and gain political cover for his acceptance of a bailout. So his weary citizens are being hauled out to vote yet againFor the third time since January, the Greek people are going to have to trudge to the ballot box. Once more they are going to have their say in order to untangle a political mess.Last night the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras submitted his resignation to Greece’s president and requested that snap elections be held as soon as possible. The earliest date this can happen is 20 September. And so, once more, the campaigning will begin; the process of governance will be put on hold. Greece will be paralysed. Continue reading...

MPs angry at what they see as betrayal of anti-austerity principles announce decision in letter to parliament after Alexis Tsipras’s resignationHardline rebels have confirmed an irreparable split in Greece’s ruling Syriza movement and broken away to form a new anti-austerity party as the country heads towards its fifth general election in six years.The long-awaited move by up to 29 dissident Syriza MPs on Friday followed the resignation of the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, who stepped down on Thursday to pave the way for a snap poll widely forecast to strengthen his hold on power.Related: Greek elections: Alexis Tsipras makes a calculated gambleRelated: As Tsipras uses the polls for his own ends, democracy fatigue threatens | David PatrikarakosRelated: Greek bailout Q&A: What happens next? Continue reading...

The ASX200 has already fallen 8% in August after another day of heavy selling on the back of concerns about China’s economyThe Australian share market is on track for its worst monthly fall since the global financial crisis as concerns about China hit global markets.Related: Stock markets tumble as global growth fears intensify - live updates Continue reading...

Despite the bad news on graduate jobs, if we feed the myth that student life is a waste of money we’ll simply turn back the clockHow many graduates does it take to change a lightbulb? All of them, because it’s the only job they’ll get. Ho, ho. Except it’s not remotely funny to anyone who left university in the last seven years, or to all those soon-to-be freshers currently being dragged round Ikea by their mums, loading up on duvets and kettles. As jokes go, it feels uncomfortably near the truth.Half of those graduating in 2010 ended up doing what have traditionally been seen as non-graduate jobs, according to a report this week from the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD). As some future graduates are still scrabbling through clearing, the spectre hovers of a generation plunging itself deep into debt, just to end up serving lattes and manning call centres – and inadvertently elbowing less qualified kids out of a job. This is bewildering territory for those of us raised to see university as an unquestionable good: not just the golden key that would unlock all doors but a milestone in a family’s life, a symbol of something much bigger.Related: UK graduates are wasting degrees in lower-skilled jobsFor many recruiters degrees have just become a crude filter, an easy way of halving the tottering stack of CVsRelated: It’s a degree, not a ticket to a job | Kehinde Andrews Continue reading...

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...