Jobless level lowest since 1974 but pay growth still failing to keep pace with soaring inflationThe number of working-age adults in Britain who are not in the jobs market because they are long-term sick has increased to a record high, official figures show, amid concerns over shortages of workers in the UK economy.The Office for National Statistics said unemployment in the UK fell to 3.5% in the three months to August from a previous level of 3.8%, dropping to the lowest level since February 1974. Continue reading...

Veteran official gets permanent secretary role instead of reformer as fiscal plan is brought forward by three weeksLiz Truss has overruled Kwasi Kwarteng’s top appointment at the Treasury and handed the role to a veteran Treasury official, one of a series of moves designed to calm markets and backbenchers.It was also announced that the chancellor will set out plans to shore up the public finances three weeks earlier than planned and publish long-awaited forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility at the same time. Continue reading...

Analysis of budgets finds rich nations, including UK, ‘exacerbated explosion of economic inequality’Many of the world’s poorest countries have cut health spending during the last two years, sometimes to make debt repayments to rich creditors, according to a report by Oxfam that shows inequality between rich and poor nations worsening during the coronavirus pandemic.Analysis of national budgets across 161 nations found that despite the biggest global health emergency in a century, half of low- and lower-middle-income countries cut health spending, while almost half cut their welfare budgets and almost three-quarters cut education spending. Continue reading...

IFS says Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget will leave ministers making serious reductions in public servicesKwasi Kwarteng will need to find £60bn of savings by 2026 to fill the gap left by unfunded tax cuts and the costs of extra borrowing triggered by a panicked reaction on international money markets to the chancellor’s “mini-budget”, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.The UK will also struggle to hit the chancellor’s 2.5% growth target, with economic forecasts by the investment bank Citigroup that the IFS uses to underpin its analysis showing the UK will struggle to grow at more than 0.8% on average over the next five years. Continue reading...

Jamie Dimon said the Federal Reserve ‘waited too long and did too little’ as inflation has surged in the past 18 monthsThe US and global economy is facing a “very, very serious” mix of headwinds that is likely to cause a recession by the middle of next year, warned Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, the largest US investment bank, on Monday.Dimon pointed to the effects of runaway inflation, sharp interest rate rises and Russia’s war in Ukraine, as factors that informed his thinking. But he added that the US is “actually still doing well” and consumers were likely to be in better shape compared with the global financial crisis in 2008. Continue reading...

The former chair of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke has been awarded this year’s Nobel prize in economics alongside two other leading economists for their work on financial crises. The former head of the world’s most powerful central bank – who was at the helm during the 2008 financial crisis and helped oversee the global response – said he was ‘incredibly honoured’ to share the prize with the economists Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig

Head of US central bank from 2006 to 2014 awarded prize alongside economists Douglas Diamond and Philip DybvigThe former chair of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke has been awarded this year’s Nobel prize in economics alongside two other leading economists for their work on financial crises.The former head of the world’s most powerful central bank, who was at the helm during the 2008 financial crisis and helped oversee the global response, shared the prize with the economists Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig. Continue reading...

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Yield on 10-year government bonds rises above 4.5% despite Bank of England trying to quell jittersUK government borrowing costs have risen to the highest levels since the financial market chaos triggered by Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget in September, despite renewed efforts by the Bank of England to smooth over the turmoil.The yield – or interest rate – on 10-year UK government bonds rose above 4.5% in afternoon trading on Monday, returning to the levels last seen two weeks ago, before the central bank intervened after the chancellor’s poorly received tax and spending statement. Continue reading...

The prime minister is calling for greed, not growth, says Dr David Scott. Plus letters from Rob Basto, Catherine Dornan and Mike HineLast week, Liz Truss bemoaned the “anti-growth coalition” and called for “growth, growth, growth”. This nonexistent broad-based coalition seems to include nearly everyone who does not agree with her dangerously irresponsible promotion of profits and capitalist accumulation, no matter what the human and environmental costs.Truss seems to care nothing for the wellbeing of ordinary people. In fact, she is not calling for growth, but for greed. I would be happy to join any anti-greed coalition – one that calls for the growth of human wellbeing and life expectancy; the growth of understanding of the catastrophic crisis that the world is facing through ecocide and of interventions that can prevent it; and growth in capacity of welfare services, such as the NHS, that meet human need. Continue reading...

Incomes have stalled while the rich get richer. It’s clear the obsession with GDP has to changeLiz Truss was clear what she wanted. “I have three priorities for our economy,” the prime minister told the Conservative party conference last week: “Growth, growth and growth.” But her problem is that this is not actually clear at all.The definition of economic growth is an expansion of national income, as measured by GDP (gross domestic product). Since the 1950s it has been the objective of more or less all governments to have GDP growing every year.Michael Jacobs is professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield

Kwasi Kwarteng brings forward release of debt-cutting plan, as Bank of England announces new measures to support pensions sector through crisisDespite the Bank’s announcement, long-dated UK bond prices have opened a little lower.The yield on 30-year UK government bonds have inched up to 4.45%, from 4.38% on Friday night.The UK index of financial stress (which takes into account the rise in UK interest rate spreads as well as their volatility) remains as high as when the BoE started its intervention in late September.Equally important, and as I explain for The Conversation, persistently high financial stress can have a depressing impact on UK GDP for as many as 20 months. So we are not out of the woods yet… Continue reading...

Fall of 0.2% recorded in week starting 2 October, with biggest dip in shopping centres and retail parksThe number of visitors to shopping destinations dropped back last week in one of the first indications of a slowdown in spending amid rising energy bills.In the week beginning 2 October, footfall slipped by 0.2% on the previous week across all UK retail destinations, with the biggest drop in shopping centres and retail parks, according to figures from the monitoring group Springboard. Continue reading...

Phoenix’s economy appears to be booming – but wages are failing to keep up, and prices are spiralling. How do voters see it?In her back pocket, Ana Diaz carries a smooth grey pebble she calls her “knock-knocker”. She uses it to get a loud rap on the front doors of the South Phoenix neighborhood where she is canvassing for the Democrats ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections.It’s 110F (43C) in the early afternoon sun, and Diaz is aiming to knock on 80 doors in this largely Latino neighborhood and speak to at least 20 people, encouraging them to vote. Diaz, a Los Angeles-based bartender and Unite Here union member, is a familiar face to many in this working-class area. In her T-shirt that reads “Worker power” she has been knocking on these doors since 2018. Continue reading...

UK’s biggest tenpin bowling operator says its low-cost entertainment will appeal to cash-strapped familiesHollywood Bowl, the UK’s biggest tenpin bowling operator, has increased annual revenues and profits to well above pre-pandemic levels and believes its value entertainment will continue to appeal to families cutting back on household spending.The company, which claims to be cheaper than its rivals, said the ability of a family of four to play for less than £22 would continue to make it attractive during the cost of living crisis. Continue reading...

Chancellor will also bring forward publication of OBR forecasts after pressure from MPs• Live coverage: UK to publish fiscal plan on 31 OctoberKwasi Kwarteng has brought forward the date of his debt-cutting plan to 31 October after pressure from MPs over the unfunded tax and spending promises announced in last month’s mini-budget.The chancellor told the Commons Treasury committee that he would use the new date to announce his “medium-term fiscal plan”, alongside the release of fresh forecasts for the economy and public finances from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Continue reading...

We asked Guardian readers what they would do with all that money

Janet Yellen’s comments come as figures show business activity declining across most UK regionsThe world’s biggest oil-producing nations cutting production at a time of soaring energy costs is “unhelpful and unwise” for global economic growth, the US Treasury secretary has warned, amid intense pressure from sky-high inflation.Ahead of meetings hosted by the International Monetary Fund in Washington this week, Janet Yellen said the move by Opec+ – the oil production cartel led by Saudi Arabia, plus Russia – risked undermining the world economy. Continue reading...

Online media company, which has seen its share price slump, blames economy for job lossesLadBible, one of the UK’s biggest online media success stories, is sacking 10% of its staff following a slump in its share price and a warning about tough trading conditions.The Manchester-based company blamed the state of the economy, which it variously attributed to the war in Ukraine, the hangover from Covid lockdowns and growing price inflation caused by “political instability”. Continue reading...

Measures too similar to tried, tested and failed tactics of past decadeSomewhere on the roads into north London, the suburbs turn into streets lined with the townhouses of the anti-growth coalition. As Liz Truss told the Conservative party conference last week, here live the “enemies of enterprise” who would hold Britain back.Forget that financial markets were thrown into a tailspin by her plans for the economy, pushing up mortgage costs to eye-watering levels. Forget that Britain under the Conservatives is on the brink of a prolonged recession with the highest rates of inflation for 40 years. Here was the real culprit: the pundits talking Britain down. Continue reading...

This gonzo economic theory continues to live on, notwithstanding its repeated failuresWithin weeks of taking office, Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, and her chancellor of the exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, proposed a radical new set of economic measures that echoed the trickle-down policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan – heavy on tax cuts for the rich and deregulation.Last Monday, after a backlash from investors, economists and members of his own party, Mr Kwarteng reversed one of the proposals, deciding against abolishing the tax rate of 45% on the highest earners. But proposals for other tax cuts worth tens of billions of pounds remain intact, as the government insists it is on the right path.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

I know we are in volatile financial times but let’s at least have a bit of linguistic variationYou would have thought that City types were hard-boiled, armour-plated folk, well used to all the financial vicissitudes that life could throw at them, but no. Just consider these headlines from past week: Bank of England quells market chaos after UK government spooks investors; Core inflation spooks markets; Joules tanks as insolvency talk spooks market. And that’s just a small selection. Quite clearly, City types are a bunch of poltroons. My point, though, is the ubiquity of “spook the market”. I know how hard it is to write punchy headlines, but I’m getting rather bored with this one and would heartily welcome a new variant. Thinking caps on please, fellow hacks.Wandering around my home town last week, I was struck by a couple of notices. The first, in the window of Holland & Barrett, was advertising for positions as “store colleagues”. Further light was shed on these mysterious entities on its website: “Our stores are the place where we can engage face-to-face with our customers and our skilled, trusted store colleagues are a vital part of our success. Wellness begins with you, start your journey today.” I’m sure they used to be known as shop assistants, but there you go. Job titles today, eh? Still, I’m glad they are going on a journey. Continue reading...

The PM and chancellor will try to stop panic spreading through the party after their high-risk economic plan threatens a ‘death spiral’The prime minister, Liz Truss, and the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, will face the wrath of Tory MPs at a succession of crisis meetings in parliament this week as their high-risk economic policies hit their poll ratings and spread panic in all wings of the party.After a turbulent first five weeks at No 10 and an ill-disciplined, chaotic annual conference in Birmingham last week, Truss is expected to address the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers on Wednesday evening after taking on Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions. Continue reading...

The chancellor is bound for Washington for talks with the organisation that blasted his mini-budget“Whenever there is change, there is disruption,” Liz Truss told the Conservative party conference last week. “And not everyone will be in favour.” This week, her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, will fly out to Washington to meet at least one prominent critic.The main focus of the International Monetary Fund annual meetings in the US capital will undoubtedly be the way the world responds to a succession of shocks: the Covid pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and global heating. Global economic growth is faltering amid sky-high inflation and more natural disasters are sweeping the planet, while there are serious divisions between leading nations. Continue reading...

Liz Truss’s strategy for getting the economy going is not a pretty sight• You can order your own copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

How can the government build, build, build and hit net zero? Or, come to that, keep both the Bank and the OBR on its side?Are you against growth, Liz Truss asks in her speech to the Tory party conference. What about your credentials as a disruptor? Can you say, with a steady hand on your trusty sword, that you have cut through anything more than a pat of butter in the past few years, let alone weeks?Growth in all its guises should be positive for the economy. Growth promotes new jobs and incomes, says Truss. Disruption likewise. But when a government says it wants to build, build, build and at the same time achieve net zero carbon emissions, there are obvious contradictions. Continue reading...

In Britain’s darkening economic climate, the expensive high speed rail project looks like an obvious target for further cutsAt first glance, the scarred earth in central Birmingham where HS2’s future Midlands terminus will stand has not changed greatly since 2018. Back then, before another Tory party conference, transport secretary Chris Grayling donned a hard hat to affirm that work was up and running, in front of bulldozers specially hauled in for a Sunday shift.Now, with the government set on fresh spending cuts, the vast outlay on the high-speed rail line has been called into question again as inflation bites. Facts on the ground will matter once more – and while the sweeping viaduct and new station at Birmingham’s Curzon Street exist only in CGI form above ground, foundations have been laid beneath. Continue reading...

High oil and gas revenues notwithstanding, Putin’s ability to fight is being eaten away as the months go byFears that Russia is navigating its way around sanctions are unfounded, according to experts who say Moscow is suffering a bigger hit than institutions such as the World Bank have been predicting.Some analysts have interpreted the strength of the rouble, the size of the warchest of cash available to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin’s ability to redirect exports destined for Europe to willing southern neighbours as a signal that the arsenal of sanctions deployed against Moscow is failing to bite. Continue reading...

Cash is virtually worthless, it’s cheaper to cover walls with peso bills than to buy wallpaper, and simple shopping trips turn into expeditions to find the best deals … Photographer Irina Werning captures the chaosIrina Werning had to buy new batteries for her camera flash the other day. The Buenos Aires-based photographer first tried her local supermarket, but the price was too high. She went to an office supplies store, a corner shop, a kiosk, a tool shop, another supermarket. This small errand had become an expedition in circumventing spiralling prices in a country whose inflation rates are projected to reach triple figures by next year – among the highest in the world.“You grow used to it. Since I was born, there’s been inflation, even since before my father was born. It’s such a part of our daily life that it’s inside of us,” Werning says. “I am 46, and for 36 years of my life I’ve had double-digit inflation; on average, that’s 80% inflation every year.”Werning photographed her husband papering walls with 10-peso bills – which is cheaper than buying wallpaper. Her husband’s trousers are worn deliberately low, ‘to show how exposed and naked we are to inflation’ Continue reading...

At Euston picket line, RMT general secretary talks of ‘incompetence’ of new prime minister and chancellorUnion chief Mick Lynch has compared Liz Truss’s government to a “bad smell” as more than 40,000 RMT members joined a national rail strike on Saturday.Speaking at a picket line outside Euston station in London, the RMT general secretary criticised the “incompetence” of the new prime minister and chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, claiming it was only matched by their ego. Continue reading...

Chancellor must top up budgets or face industrial action and further recruitment issues, thinktank warnsMore than 100,000 public sector workers would lose their jobs this year if the government refuses to fund higher than expected pay awards for nurses, doctors, teachers and care workers, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.The IFS said the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, faced a choice of either topping up public sector budgets or accepting the likelihood of industrial action, further problems recruiting and retaining staff, and a decline in quality of services already under extreme strain. Continue reading...

Katharine Murphy speaks to economics writers Shane Wright and Greg Jericho about Great Britain’s trickle-down woes, looming dangers in the world economy, and the future of the stage three cuts Continue reading...

Predictions handed to chancellor expected to paint gloomy picture for UK economy amid sweeping tax cutsKwasi Kwarteng has been handed independent forecasts on the state of the UK finances that are expected to show a hole of more than £60bn left by his sweeping tax cuts and a sharply slowing growth outlook.At the end of a turbulent week for Liz Truss’s government, the chancellor was on Friday handed the initial predictions for the economy and public finances by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which are likely to paint a gloomy picture. Continue reading...

Underfunding is the biggest challenge facing all providers in the sector, says John WadsworthZoe Williams brings up Liz Truss’s proposals to cut staff-to-child ratios as a solution to the funding crisis faced by both maintained and private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers (Toddlers, stop your running around: Liz Truss is coming for you, 3 October).Truss put forward this idea in 2012 in the CentreForum thinktank paper Affordable Quality: New Approaches to Childcare, and the following year as undersecretary of state for education and childcare in the report More Great Childcare. Both documents are riddled with inaccuracies, which I detailed in 2013 in the article Like an ‘Uncontrolled Toddler’ Elizabeth Truss Risks Causing Chaos in England’s Nursery Education and Child Care Sector, published in the journal Forum. Continue reading...

On one side, oceans of wealth and power. On the other, precarity and powerlessness. But we have the tools for reformRising interest rates, a falling stock market, a seesaw in the price of gas, a high dollar and chaos in world finance – we see in all this, once again, the folly of trying to run the world’s largest economy through a central bank. It’s time to rethink the basics: what has happened in America? And what should be done?Adam Smith wrote: “Wealth, as Mr Hobbes says, is power.” Today in the United States we find islands of wealth and power on one side and an ocean of precarity and powerlessness, alongside poverty, on the other. This is a structural development over 50 years, the effect of politics and policies, but also of industrial change, globalization and new technologies, with intense regional, social, demographic and political implications.James K Galbraith holds the Lloyd M Bentsen Jr chair in government/business relations at the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. In the 1970s, he drafted the monetary policy oversight provisions of the original version of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act Continue reading...

Jobs market growth has remained robust despite rising interest rates and fears of a recession, but how long it can maintain trajectory is unknownUS employers added 263,000 new jobs in September as the unemployment rate dipped to 3.5%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.The jobs market has shown signs of slowing recently after regaining all the jobs that were lost during the pandemic. September’s gain was down from the 315,000 jobs added in August and far lower than the 420,000 average monthly gain thus far in 2022. But growth has remained robust despite rising interest rates and growing fears of a recession. Continue reading...

ONS says soaring energy costs and supply chain problems forced 5,629 firms to go bust in second quarterThe number of company insolvencies in England and Wales hit a 13-year high in the three months to the end of June, as soaring energy costs forced a record number of firms out of business, according to official figures.There were 5,629 insolvencies in the second quarter, the highest since the third quarter of 2009 when the UK was in the grip of the global financial crisis, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Continue reading...

Business confidence sinks to lowest level since depth of Covid pandemic as rising costs hit households and companiesBritain’s economy is expected to take until 2024 to recover to pre-Covid levels amid a slowdown for hiring and business investment, as households and businesses struggle with soaring costs.Business leaders have said that there has been a significant decline of key economic indicators in recent weeks, with confidence among company bosses over the growth outlook collapsing to the lowest level since the depths of the Covid crisis. Continue reading...

Reserve Bank warns households with high debt relative to income are ‘particularly vulnerable to shocks’

BoE has spelt out what was at stake when events last week turned extreme, though surely not unimaginableIt was a close-run thing. That is a less-than-reassuring summary of the Bank of England’s analysis of its emergency intervention in the gilts market last week. Sir Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability, spelled out what was at stake: “An excessive and sudden tightening of financing conditions for the real economy.” Translation: the current bout of turmoil in the mortgage market, for instance, would feel like a minor squall.Some of the numbers in Cunliffe’s 11-page letter to the Treasury select committee are extraordinary. Pension funds, facing demands to put up collateral to support their holdings in LDIs, or liability-driven investments, were looking at dumping £50bn of long-dated government debt in “a short space of time”. This is a market where daily trading volumes are just £12bn. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Free Market Forum suggests scrapping free childcare hours and abolishing corporation taxA free-market thinktank with close links to Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng has drawn up a blueprint of “slash and burn” ideas that could form the basis of the government’s supply-side reform programme to be set out in coming weeks.The document from the Free Market Forum (FMF), an offshoot of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), suggests scrapping free childcare hours, releasing green belt land for housing, abolishing corporation tax and dropping teacher training qualifications for graduates. Continue reading...

Initiative may continue beyond December as bank bosses raise concerns over mortgage marketThe chancellor is considering extending the government’s mortgage guarantee scheme, after UK bank bosses raised concerns over the state of the UK’s mortgage market at a high-level meeting at No 11 Downing Street.The meeting on Thursday – which was attended by chief executives including Alison Rose of NatWest, Charlie Nunn of Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC UK’s Ian Stuart, Mike Regnier of Santander and TSB’s Robin Bulloch – was scheduled amid mounting fears about the potential fallout from rapidly rising mortgage rates. Continue reading...

Average mortgage rates hit 12 year high, as ratings agency Fitch lowers outlook on UK debt to “negative” from “stable”

The prime minister has identified a genuine problem with the UK economy – but she lacks the authority to fix it herselfEleven years ago, Ed Miliband made a party conference speech that must have seemed a great idea at the time. It was a denunciation of predatory capitalism that in retrospect seems very prescient, and went down well enough in the hall. It was only afterwards, when journalists started challenging him to name names, that things hit the buffers. Come on, then; if they’re so awful, who are they, these bastards ruining life for everyone? The minute his team hesitated, presumably afraid of being sued, the pack pounced. Is Rupert Murdoch a predatory capitalist? What about the guy who runs BHS? Or Sainsbury’s, or Next? A somewhat bruised Miliband ended up insisting the point was not to make “moral judgments about individuals”. It’s easy to generalise about your enemies but hard, it turns out, to be specific.Liz Truss has just fallen into a similar trap. The Conservative party audience clapped her attack on the “anti-growth coalition” she blamed for Tory failures to deliver over the last 12 years, because it was essentially a list of people they dislike: Scottish nationalists, Brexit deniers, north London liberals who say snide things about them on the BBC. It was only on contact with the real world that things began to fall apart.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Kristalina Georgieva points to ‘fundamental shift’, with fragile global ties and more frequent natural disastersThe world faces growing recession risks and a “fundamental shift” away from relative stability to an age of breakdown in international relations and more frequent natural disasters, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, said a succession of economic shocks had unleashed persistently high inflation, prompting a cost of living crisis in countries around the world. Continue reading...

Official explains how promise to buy up to £65bn of government debt staved off destructive UK financial spiralPension funds managing vast sums on behalf of retired people across Britain came close to collapse amid an “unprecedented” meltdown in UK government bond markets after Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget, the Bank of England has said.Explaining its emergency intervention to calm turmoil in financial markets last week, the central bank said pension funds with more than £1tn invested in them came under severe strain with a “large number” in danger of going bust. Continue reading...

The UK thought it would be protected from the volatility seen in ‘developing’ countries. Now, cracks are beginning to appearIt has become fashionable among experts to compare Britain’s economy, once a global superpower, to that of an “emerging market”. The former US treasury secretary Larry Summers recently argued that the UK is “behaving a bit like an emerging market”. The Dutch bank ING stated the trading volatility of the pound mirrored what “you would expect during an emerging market currency crisis” . The American billionaire investor Ray Dalio has described the administration of the new prime minister, Liz Truss, as operating “like the government of an emerging country”.For those who live in Britain, it can be shocking to hear such labels applied to a “developed” country like our own. It runs counter to the history we were taught and the belief we were raised with: that as Britain was the birthplace of industrial capitalism, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, it sits at the forefront of a linear path of development. Over the last two centuries, political thinkers from Karl Marx to Adam Smith shared the view that political and economic shifts first occurred in Britain and that the rest of the world would follow.Dr Kojo Koram teaches at the School of Law at Birkbeck, University of London Continue reading...

Lack of independent forecasts at mini-budget and clash with Bank of England’s inflation strategy prompts cut

Billions needed for water and soil conservation to boost resilience in small farms, says new head of UN’s agricultural financing armIn his first week in the job, the new head of the UN’s agricultural finance fund admits he has no small task ahead. Alvaro Lario takes up the role as head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development amid a global food crisis, which he warned could become a regular occurrence.Lario wants the IFAD to focus on investing in the resilience of small-scale farmers so they can produce food for themselves and are not left at the mercy of external shocks. Continue reading...

For every £1 given workers by cutting tax rates £2 was being taken via freeze on income tax thresholds, thinktank calculatesMillions of households are facing a “stealth” tax raid under Liz Truss’s government despite her promise to support workers through the cost-of-living crisis by lowering their tax bills, Britain’s leading economic thinktank said on Thursday.The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has calculated that for every £1 given to workers by cutting headline tax rates, £2 was being taken away through a freeze on the level at which people begin paying tax on their earnings. Continue reading...