Global wheat harvest this year has been hit by droughts and floods. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian Two years after the last food crisis, when prices surged by nearly 15% in the UK, food inflation is back. Soaring global food prices have prompted City and food industry experts to warn that the cost of [...]

Tony Blair is welcomed by staff at Dublin’s Easons bookshop yesterday as about 100 protesters chanted outside. Photograph: Niall Carson/Getty Literature and politics have always laid claim to Dublin’s O’Connell Street, bookended by statues of James Joyce and Catholic emancipator Daniel O’Connell. Tony Blair, in his modest way, was no doubt hoping connections would be [...]

Spending power in the US will have gone up because average hourly earnings are higher. Photograph: Mike Theiler/REUTERS Fears that the world’s largest economy is spiralling back into recession eased today as it emerged that the US shed half as many jobs as feared in August. Here is what the economists made of the non-farm [...]

Chancellor George Osborne appears to have spooked the service sector with warnings of spending cuts. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images Recession alert! That’s the obvious conclusion from this morning’s news that activity in Britain’s service sector has slipped to its lowest level since April last year. There are two main reasons to be concerned by the [...]

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is to appear before the financial crisis hearing. Photograph: Dennis Cook/AP Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is set to appear before a panel investigating the financial crisis to give his take on the meltdown and his views on potential systemwide risks posed by large financial institutions. Bernanke led the economy [...]