Donald Trump’s tariff threats have made the US “a scary place to invest” and may unleash stagflation, the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said. “It risks the worst of all possible worlds: a kind of stagflation,” Stiglitz said in an interview with the Guardian. He argued that despite optimism about the US economy at…

Britain’s poorest households are paying an increasing share of their income on council tax, according to new analysis that likened it to the poll tax that contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. The poorest fifth of households paid 4.8% of their income on council tax in England, Wales and Scotland and on domestic rates…

It has been one of the few political constants in a turbulent period for British politics: an agreement that defence spending really should increase. But in the second era of Donald Trump, what was a consensual background hum has suddenly become an ear-splitting alarm. European Nato members, the UK among them, have long been used…

The greatly increased difficulty for young adults of either buying a home or finding a long-term, affordable tenancy is both a generational and socioeconomic injustice, and a serious political problem. Sir Keir Starmer’s government knows this and hopes its commitment to build 1.5m new homes will shore up support among voters. Making people more secure, so that disappointment and…

Keenly priced. Photograph: Andrew Fox/Alamy Keenly priced. Photograph: Andrew Fox/Alamy The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Why are bananas so cheap to buy in the UK? In a big supermarket, a single banana costs about 15p, but…

Amazon has been accused of targeting 60 trade union members with disciplinary action after narrowly defeating a recognition vote at its Coventry warehouse last summer. The GMB trade union said all 60 workers were involved in action at the warehouse – where it has about 700 members out of a workforce of at least 1,500…

Extreme weather events are expected to lead to volatile food prices throughout 2025, supply chain analysts have said, after cocoa and coffee prices more than doubled over the past year. In an apparent confirmation of warnings that climate breakdown could lead to food shortages, research by the consultancy Inverto found steep rises in the prices…

OpenAI on Friday rejected a $97.4bn bid from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk for the ChatGPT maker, saying the startup is not for sale. The unsolicited approach is Musk’s latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with CEO Sam Altman – but later left – from becoming a for-profit firm, as it…

Childcare is one of the biggest expenses for families – often surpassing what they pay for rent. In Washington DC, for example, the average annual cost of infant care tops $24,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute, more than a quarter of the median family income and more than three-quarters of a full-time minimum wage…

Donald Trump has spoken to Keir Starmer again after what appears to have been a spur-of-the-moment phone call from the US president that was not expected by the British prime minister and his team. News of the call, which took place on Thursday evening, emerged in a Downing Street statement about Starmer’s meeting with Mark…