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Governments controlling prices? It has long been unthinkable – but may now be inevitable | Andy Beckett

In Mexico and Spain, leaders who have capped public costs have been rewarded at the ballot box. As another cost of living surge arrives, it may be a policy our leaders are unable to resist Politicians are not supposed to meddle with prices. Even though much of politics is about whether voters can afford things – especially in an era of recurring inflationary shocks – ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union’s planned economy four decades ago, the orthodoxy across much of the world has been that only markets should decide what things cost.As the hugely influential Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek argued, in a complex modern society, information is too dispersed among potential sellers and buyers of goods or services for government to make informed and correct decisions about the prices of those goods. Hence, his disciples say, the inefficiency of state-run economies, from post-colonial Africa to the eastern bloc.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The Guardian 19 hours ago

In Thailand’s rice paddies, rising petrol prices spell chaos for farmers

Farmers need fuel to keep water pumps running, but many petrol stations are empty and fears are now growing over the war’s impact on cost of fertiliserFollow our live coverage of the events in the Middle East hereThanadet Traiyot waited in line for hours at his local gas station, armed with containers and desperately hoping to secure much-needed diesel for his rice fields in Ayutthaya, central Thailand. He was third in the queue when the shop announced their supplies had run dry. That was five days ago; he still hasn’t managed to restock to his normal levels.Back on his farm, Thanadet wades into his rice paddies, weaving past tall green stalks to assess the water levels and decide which of his water pumps can be turned off. Water needs to be spread equally across the fields, he says, but he doesn’t have enough diesel to keep everything running. Continue reading...

The Guardian 20 hours ago

Ed Miliband’s stock is rising because he’s a rare commodity in Labour these days: a thinker | Gaby Hinsliff

The party seems to have woken up to its need for an old-style intellectual heavyweight to counter the vacuousness of recent yearsNature famously abhors a vacuum. So when Morgan McSweeney departed government, leaving a hole where much of Keir Starmer’s thinking used to be, it was always going to be filled eventually. And increasingly, that filling looks Ed Miliband-shaped.The energy secretary’s influence has visibly grown in recent weeks, and not just because of a spiralling energy crisis in the Gulf. The idea that he is the real prime minister now – the one supposedly calling the shots over everything from whether Britain should join the war on Iran to how far it should pursue its “fatwa against fossil fuels”, as Michael Gove, the former Tory minister turned Spectator editor-in-chief, huffed recently – is on one level just another attempt by the opposition to humiliate Starmer, painting him as a lame-duck leader pushed around by underlings. But if the truth is a bit more nuanced than that, there’s no denying Miliband has grown in stature of late.Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistGuardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?On Thursday 30 April, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform UK – and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader. Book tickets here Continue reading...

The Guardian 21 hours ago

Is Trump losing it? (the war of course) – podcast

Donald Trump says the US has won its war with Iran. Iranian officials responded to this by mocking him.This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Susan Glasser of the New Yorker about analysis suggesting Trump is losing his touch when it comes to sealing the deal, winning elections or just having the energy to run the White HouseArchive: NBC News, CNN, Bloomberg Television, ABC News, BBC News Continue reading...

The Guardian 22 hours ago

‘Accountability has arrived’: dual US court losses show shifting tide against Meta and co

With two unprecedented trial defeats, big tech firms face crisis akin to that faced by cigarette makers in the 1990sIn the span of just two days, the most powerful social media company in the world faced a more severe public reckoning than it has in years.Jurors in California and New Mexico gave back-to-back verdicts this week that for the first time ever found Meta liable for products that inflict harm on young people. For years, lawmakers, parents and advocates have raised red flags over how social media can hurt children, but now the tech firms are being held to account via court rulings that could set long-lasting precedents. Continue reading...

The Guardian 1 day ago

NS&I boss forced out as bank faces £470m payout over missing savings

Pensions minister promises the ‘full truth’ as external advisers are hired to identify the scale of the errorsThe chief executive of the state-backed National Savings and Investments bank has been forced out over a scandal that left thousands of bereaved families owed almost £500m.The savings institution is in discussions with the Treasury to repay about 37,500 people who collectively have £470m in deposits trapped in the bank after long-running operational errors. Continue reading...

The Guardian 1 day ago

The Middle East price shock hasn’t hit Next – yet | Nils Pratley

Timing lags in the retail industry mean the impact of fuel and fabric inflation may not be felt until autumn ranges landIn the context of Next, which has just reported full-year pre-tax profits of £1.16bn, an estimated £15m of extra fuel and air freight costs arising from the Middle East conflict is tiny. The sum, which in any case assumes disruption lasts three months, can be lost in the wash, or more precisely “offset by savings elsewhere”.The chief executive, Simon Wolfson, a boss who tends to err on the side of caution when guiding on profits, saw no reason not to add £8m to this year’s number as a mechanical read-through from last year’s outcome. If there wasn’t a war on, one can assume there would have been a proper profit upgrade. After all, trading seems to have been going like a train up until late-February – “encouraging” in the UK and “strong” overseas. Continue reading...

The Guardian 1 day ago

‘Tehran’s tollbooth’: a visual guide to how a trickle of ships still passes through strait of Hormuz

Many of the vessels willing to make the crossing are taking an alternative route through Iranian watersThreats to shipping have effectively closed the strait of Hormuz since the US-Israel war on Iran began four weeks ago – upending global oil and gas supplies and sending energy prices soaring.In normal times, tankers carry about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies through the narrow channel and on to the rest of the world, while about a third of the global fertilisers necessary for half of the world’s food production pass through in dry bulk vessels. Continue reading...

The Guardian 1 day ago

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