Category Archives: Business

Mark Carney to be next Canada PM after winning Liberal leadership race

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Former central banker will be only second prime minister in Canadian history without a seat in parliament

Mark Carney, the former central banker who oversaw the response to financial crises in North America and the UK, will become the next prime minister of Canada after winning the race to lead the country’s federal Liberal party.

Carney, 59, takes on the role as Canada is locked in a potentially catastrophic trade war with the US, long its closest ally and largest trading partner. Last week Donald Trump announced a 25% tax on all Canadian goods, with a carveout for the automotive and energy sectors. The tariffs have the power to push Canada’s fragile economy in a recession.

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‘Military Keynesianism’? Reeves faces British defence dilemma after EU spending surge

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Even Berlin and Brussels are bending fiscal rules in the face of Russia’s threat. Will the chancellor still stick to hers?

As the Nobel laureate Robert Lucas quipped during the 2008 financial crisis: “I guess everyone is a Keynesian in a foxhole.” Donald Trump’s upending of the postwar security consensus has underlined the enduring wisdom of Lucas’s observation. But now, instead of bank bailouts and emergency bond buying, European firepower is being directed at bombs, tanks and drones in the desperate fight to secure the continent’s border with Russia.

Berlin and Brussels – typically capitals of financial orthodoxy – have been convinced that this approach is required once again. Under the plan put forward by Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, Berlin is on the brink of relaxing its “debt brake” rule to pave the way for spending on defence and infrastructure worth an additional €1tn (£840bn) over the coming decade.

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US rise of cryptocurrency and fall of regulation pose ‘profound risks’ – report

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Center for Political Accountability, which advocates for corporate disclosure, warns of fallout from Trump’s efforts

A new report warns of “profound risks” in American politics as cryptocurrency companies increase their political spending and Donald Trump oversees regulatory retreat while promising to create a “crypto strategic reserve”.

The situation “illustrate[s] the profound risks that unchecked corporate political spending presents, particularly within the volatile and often unpredictable cryptocurrency industry”, reads the report, from the Center for Political Accountability (CPA), a non-profit that advocates for corporate political disclosure.

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Justice department opens investigation into soaring US egg prices – report

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Officials said to be looking at whether producers have conspired to increase prices or have held back supply

The justice department has reportedly opened an investigation into what is driving the sharp rise in egg prices, including whether top producers have conspired to increase them.

Officials are also said to be looking at whether companies have held back supply. Their investigation is in its early stages, and may not lead to any formal action, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the matter.

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Andrew Bailey was accused by Barclays chair of having ‘destroyed’ Jes Staley, court hears

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Nigel Higgins asked if FCA would drop investigation into Staley’s relationship with Epstein if CEO quit

The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, was accused by the Barclays chair of having “destroyed” Jes Staley, a court heard on Friday, after the City watchdog led by Bailey at the time launched an investigation into the banker’s ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Nigel Higgins, who made the accusations and is still the Barclays chair, also asked in 2019 whether the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) would be willing to drop its investigation if Staley resigned.

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Nigerian king faces Shell in London high court over decades of oil spills

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King Okpabi, ruler of Ogale, says Shell has caused chronic pollution, while oil firm argues it is not responsible

His Royal Highness King Godwin Bebe Okpabi has carried bottles of water drawn from the wells of his homeland in the Niger delta to the high court in London.

It stinks. “This is the water that Shell has left for my people,” said the ruler of the Ogale community in Ogoniland, Nigeria. “This is poison, and they are spending millions of dollars to pay the best lawyers in the world so that they will not clean my land.”

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UK house prices fall unexpectedly, says Halifax

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Average property price dips to £298,602 in February despite analysts expecting rush before stamp duty rises

UK house prices unexpectedly fell last month as concerns over the sluggish economy outweighed an anticipated rush of people trying to complete purchases before stamp duty increases in April.

The average property price dipped by 0.1% in February to £298,602, having hit a record high in January, according to Halifax.

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UK Treasury ‘plans funding cuts at GB Energy’ in blow to Ed Miliband

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Government considering such a move over state-owned firm set up by Labour in June’s spending review, say reports

The UK government is making plans to cut the funding for GB Energy, the state-owned company set up by Labour to drive renewable energy and cut household bills, in June’s spending review.

Cuts to the £8.3bn of taxpayer money promised over the five-year parliament would be another blow for Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, after he was overruled by the government when the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, backed the expansion of Heathrow’s third runway.

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US owner of UK pharmacy chain Boots to be taken private in $10bn deal

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Walgreens Boots Alliance sold to Sycamore Partners and ends almost a century of trading on public markets

The US owner of the high street pharmacy chain Boots is to be taken private in a $10bn (£7.8bn) deal that will bring an end to almost a century of trading on public markets for Walgreens Boots Alliance.

The company, which operates more than 1,800 Boots stores in the UK, has been sold to the US private equity firm Sycamore Partners after struggling in the internet era as customers have turned to online shopping for cheaper products.

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Trump delays tariffs on many products from Mexico and Canada

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US president paused tariffs on Mexican products covered by USMCA and later stayed tariffs on many Canadian imports

Donald Trump pulled back from his trade war with Canada and Mexico on Thursday, temporarily delaying tariffs on many goods from the two countries once again.

Two days after imposing sweeping tariffs on all imports from his country’s closest trading partners, the US president announced that duties on a wide range of products would be shelved until April.

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Hundreds of Santander customers in UK hit by banking problems

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Bank says it has fixed mobile and telephone service outages after people unable to make payments

Santander has fixed the problems affecting its banking services after many customers were left unable to access their accounts.

The bank apologised for any “inconvenience caused” and said no customers would “be left out of pocket” as a result of the outages.

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Cheap goods ‘not essence of American dream’, Trump official says amid tariff price fears

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Treasury secretary Scott Bessent defends the new administration’s aggressive trade strategy

Buying cheap products is “not the essence of the American dream”, Donald Trump’s top economic official has declared, amid warnings that the US president’s trade wars risk increasing prices.

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, defended the new administration’s aggressive trade strategy on Thursday, two days after it imposed sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico and hiked duties on China.

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Council tax in Scotland to reach record high with 15% rise in some areas

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Levies on tourists and cruise ships considered by some local authorities in attempt to plug funding gaps

Council tax costs in Scotland will hit record levels next month after local authorities agreed to raise rates by up to 15%, with some planning new levies on tourists and cruise ships.

All of Scotland’s 32 local authorities have announced council tax increases from April of at least 6%, with the majority raising them by about 10%, after years of successive cuts to their grant funding.

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Welfare recipients told to perform mutual obligations as Tropical Cyclone Alfred bears down on Queensland

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Disability employment provider Help asked jobseekers to perform telephone appointments before later clarifying they were voluntary

Private employment agencies across Queensland have given jobseekers the impression they still need to perform their mutual obligations, despite there being a pause across large swaths of the state while it prepares for Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The mutual obligations scheme forces jobseekers to complete tasks such as applying for jobs or attending training, or risk their payments being stopped.

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Australia news live: Victoria to tighten bail laws; man shot dead by police in Queensland

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The Victorian premier said she would be introducing legislation to' ‘bring about that change … very soon’. Follow today’s news live

Chalmers defends Australian defence spending as Trump administration says nation should spend more

Jim Chalmers has defended Australia’s defence spending as having already gone up “considerably”, amid suggestions from the Donald Trump administration that Australia should spend more.

That is a very, very substantial pick-up in defend spending and one of the reasons we’re doing that is to be able to work more effectively with our allies and partners like the United States … We do pay our own way on defence. We are substantially increasing defence spending.

We have got a good relationship with the Americans, particularly that economic relationship which is of mutual benefit, and these are the sorts of things that we have been talking about with our American counterparts as they finalise some of the policies on things like tariffs.

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River campaigners to sue Ofwat over water bill rises

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Group claims regulator signed off on ‘broken system’ making customers pay for industry’s neglect

An environmental group is to take legal action against Ofwat, the water regulator, accusing it of unlawfully making customers pay for decades of neglect by the water industry.

River Action will file the legal claim this month, arguing that bill rises for customers that have been approved by the regulator could be used to fix infrastructure failures that should have been addressed years ago.

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Jack Daniel’s maker says Canada pulling US alcohol off shelves ‘worse than tariff’

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CEO Lawson Whiting calls Canada’s move ‘disproportionate response’ to levies imposed by Trump administration

The Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s CEO Lawson Whiting said on Wednesday Canadian provinces taking US liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration.

Several Canadian provinces have taken US liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against Donald Trump’s tariffs.

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Trump temporarily spares carmakers from US tariffs on Canada and Mexico

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After a call with top executives at GM, Ford and Stellantis, president approves one-month exemption from tariffs

Donald Trump has temporarily spared carmakers from sweeping US tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, one day after an economic strike on the US’s two biggest trading partners sparked warnings of widespread price increases and disruption.

The US president extended his aggressive trade strategy at midnight on Tuesday by targeting the country’s two closest neighbors with duties of 25%.

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European markets soar as Germany moves to lift ‘debt brake’ and raise defence spending

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Berlin’s ‘big bazooka’ proposal sends industrial stocks surging but fiscal sea change also hikes borrowing costs

European financial markets have rallied sharply and German borrowing costs have soared after the country’s prospective leaders announced a historic deal to loosen its “debt brake” rule to boost spending on defence.

The yield – in effect the interest rate – on 30-year German government bonds rose by about 25 basis points to 3.08% in its biggest daily increase since October 1998.

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Tesla’s UK sales rise despite threat of backlash over Musk’s political role

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Sales of battery-powered cars jumped in February, with Model 3 and Model Y most popular after Mini Cooper

Sales of Teslas in the UK rose by more than a fifth last month as demand for battery-powered cars increased, despite the prospect of a buyer backlash over Elon Musk’s controversial and divisive behaviour since becoming a key figure in Donald Trump’s administration.

Almost 4,000 Teslas were sold in the UK in February, with the Model 3 and Model Y proving the second and third most popular after the Mini Cooper, according to the latest new car registration figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

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