As council declares it’s ‘no longer bankrupt’, people say closure of services have added to social isolation and crimeWhen Birmingham city council announced last week it was “no longer bankrupt”, after years of budget cuts and asset sales, one retired police officer was left feeling despondent.Wendy Collymore had experienced first-hand the impact of the council’s cost-cutting drive on the UK’s second largest city when the adult day centre her elderly father attended was forced to close in 2024. Continue reading...

10 Feb 2026 11:43 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Born of student disquiet after the 2008 crash, the group says it is reshaping economists’ educationAs the fallout from the 2008 global financial crash reverberated around the world, a group of students at Harvard University in the US walked out of their introductory economics class complaining it was teaching a “specific and limited view” that perpetuated “a problematic and inefficient system of economic inequality”.A few weeks later, on the other side of the Atlantic, economics students at Manchester University in the UK, unhappy that the rigid mathematical formulas they were being taught in the classroom bore little relation to the tumultuous economic fallout they were living through, set up a “post-crash economics society”. Continue reading...

10 Feb 2026 08:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Two decades of weak pay growth have left poorer households stuck, Resolution Foundation says, fuelling political uneaseIt would take 137 years for lower-income families in the UK to see their living standards double at the current rate of growth, according to a thinktank.A two-decade stagnation in disposable incomes has created a “mood of unease” across the country, the Resolution Foundation says, warning of the risk of “further political disruption” unless pay growth accelerates. Continue reading...

10 Feb 2026 00:01 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Investors reassured by support for PM after fears about effect of a more left-leaning replacement on public financesBusiness live – latest updatesUK politics live – latest updatesUK borrowing costs dipped back on Monday after rising earlier in the day, as cabinet ministers voiced support for the embattled Keir Starmer.The yield, or interest rate, on UK benchmark bonds initially increased on Monday as traders reacted to Sunday’s resignation of the prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, over the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington. Continue reading...

09 Feb 2026 16:46 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsSanae Takaichi’s conservatives cement power in landslide Japan election winSterling is dropping this morning after the resignation of Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, increased the pressure on the prime minister.The pound has fallen by half a eurocent to €1.146, the lowest since 22 January.In the UK, political pressure on PM Starmer is mounting which is weighing on UK assetsThe Japanese parliamentary election, held yesterday, saw an overwhelming victory for the Liberal Democratic Party. The party, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, won two thirds of the seats in the lower house, the best result for a single party since the end of the Second World War.Japanese stocks performed well as Takaichi intends to pursue supportive fiscal policy. Japanese government bond yields edged slightly higher, while the yen gained ground after Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama reiterated her willingness to preserve the stability of the currency. Continue reading...

09 Feb 2026 15:52 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Campaigners say industrial issues cannot be solved by watering down climate and environmental policiesEurope live – latest updatesBusiness live – latest updatesEU leaders have been warned against a rollback of the green agenda before a summit focused on reviving the bloc’s waning economy.Campaigners from the Climate Action Network, a pan-European group of NGOs, said European industry was “under real pressure” from “high energy prices, ageing assets, global overcapacity and delayed investments”, but these issues could not be solved by watering down climate and environmental policies. Continue reading...

09 Feb 2026 12:47 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Workers and unions condemn ICE operation as ‘horrific’ as pressure builds on Susan Collins, facing re-election this year Maine, the US’s whitest state, has been shaken by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, a crackdown that could threaten Republican control of the Senate in November’s crucial midterm elections.Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents launched “Operation Catch of the Day” in the state on 21 January, targeting “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities”, according to the administration. Continue reading...

09 Feb 2026 11:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN