George Osborne's austerity experiment has choked off economic growth, and families in Southampton are paying the price, Southampton MPs said today. Forecast growth has fallen from 2.3% to just 0.9% - a virtual flatline - the result of the depth and speed of deficit reduction followed by the Tory-Lib Dem Government. In a humiliating u-turn, the Government is also scheduled to borrow £158...

Many of the measures are tinkering, squeezing public sector pay will deepen the deflationary pressures and the proposals to cut public sector pay in already depressed regions will cut demand even further and make it harder to get deal on pensions says GMB GMB commented on the Autumn statement and the growth forecasts by

Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party, said today in a speech to the IPPR ahead of the Chancellor's Autumn Statement next week:

The Obama administration will take a calculated gamble that it can promote further reform in Burma when secretary of state Hillary Clinton visits the country next week

£200 million already spent on controversial high-speed rail project.

Exchanges hope to assuage competition concerns in Brussels by selling some units and offering rivals partial access to their Germany-based clearing house

A surprise announcement by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou that his government agreed to hold a referendum on the hard-fought deal to save his country from bankruptcy sent a wave of panic across Europe and the world. More »

Something from an email from a City type. Re MF Global, the company that John Corzine’s just driven into bankruptcy. Basically, what he was doing was taking a broker (someone who does the technical bit of trading for other people) and turning it into a proprietary trading firm, one that takes risks for itself. That’s

The traditional theatrics of the Justus Lipsius summit building in Brussels often call to mind the old saying that academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so low.

As someone who works in the City, even I sometimes think the Occupy Wall St brigade have a point. When you consider Barclays' behaviour today, it's a surprise that the protests didn't come earlier. The bank has announced an $11.5 billion loan to junk-rated Kinder Morgan Inc to fund an oil pipeline transaction. The banks have money to lend; they just choose to gamble it. The reas...