Plague and climate change triggered a severe economic downturn on the fringe of the Byzantine Empire 1,500 years ago, a study of ancient grape pips has revealed. Researchers from Israel examined thousands of grape pips and cereal grains, as well as ceramic sherds from waste heaps in the Negev left behind in the mid-6th Century. … Read more
A perfect storm of ‘cultural, health and economic factors’ including large BAME families living in small terraced houses and poor residents who have had to work through lockdown while taking public transport have made one Leicester borough the epicenter of the city’s coronavirus outbreaks its councillor has said. And he also pointed to busy mosques … Read more
Angela Merkel says Britain will have to ‘live with the consequences’ of Boris Johnson’s decision to loosen economic ties with the EU as German leader hardens her Brexit stance Angela Merkel has hardened her stance on a UK-EU Brexit trade deal Ex-UK PM Theresa May was keen on keeping close ties with the European Union … Read more
The International Monetary Fund has laid out the unprecedented economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, sharply lowering its forecast for global growth this year. The IMF said on Wednesday that this ‘crisis like no other’ would send the global GDP plunging by 4.9 percent this year and wipe out an astonishing $12 trillion over two years. … Read more
When it was announced in March, the Government’s Job Retention Scheme was rightly hailed as an unprecedented and inspired policy to save British business. And yet, as the cost of furloughing more than quarter of the entire workforce passes £20billion, and with still no end in sight, I fear it could end up being the most … Read more
This year’s events may be a surprise to many Americans, but one scientist predicted predicted the current political, economic and social instability a decade ago. Peter Turchin, a researcher at the University of Connecticut, published a paper in 2010 forecasting that these instabilities would peak around the year 2020. He highlights a rise in public … Read more
MARKETS LIVE: Shares up after positive US economic data; Lookers to shut dealerships; Aston Martin to cut 500 jobs By This Is Money Published: 08:00 BST, 4 June 2020 | Updated: 08:02 BST, 4 June 2020 Markets rose today after Wall Street gained on surveys showing better US jobs and manufacturing conditions than expected. However, … Read more
Even now, when the lockdown is beginning to ease, it is an eerie experience to walk down your local High Street. Most shops are still shuttered. The restaurants are dark, the pubs abandoned. The dusty pavements stretch out in front of you, silent and empty, weeds poking through the cracks. Sometimes I feel as if I’ve … Read more
Boris Johnson’s government has made many startling missteps as it has sought to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Some have been understandable; this is a new virus and the havoc wreaked, unprecedented. Others have been the result of incompetence or complacency. There is one ‘misstep’, however, that stands out as profoundly stupid. That‘s the decision to … Read more
An economic collapse in the eurozone caused by coronavirus has ‘likely bottomed out’ as lockdowns have been eased across the continent, experts have said. The economies of 19 countries using the euro are still declining but are doing so at a much slower rate, analytics firm IHS Markit said in a report on Thursday. Data … Read more