“Prince William has launched a major five-year campaign to end homelessness, which he says should not exist in a “modern and progressive society“. 

‘European consumer groups have urged shoppers to stop buying products of large pasta manufacturers such as Barilla, De Cecco, and La Molisana in Italy, and Panzani in France, in response to what they claim are unjustified price hikes, according to a Financial Times report.

EU pasta producers are facing growing pressure to cut prices as Italian consumer unions have called for an investigation in to possible price manipulation, saying that the increases in costs have been “inexplicable.”

While manufacturers in Italy and France claim that the price rises reflect the impact of higher production costs sparked by the conflict in Ukraine, consumer groups insist that “reality is far different” from the companies’ narrative.

Food producers have been accused of profiteering and “greedflation” as the surge in pasta prices has been well above broader inflation rates across Europe even despite a sharp drop in the price of the wheat used to make it, the outlet said.

“Year-on-year price hikes measured on a monthly basis are two times the current rate of inflation,” according to Italian consumer group Codacons.

Another Italian consumer association, Assoutenti, has called for a week-long “pasta strike” starting next week, urging people to shun the product and make it at home themselves.

Although Italian inflation has cooled over the past few months, pasta prices were still 14% higher year-on-year last month, according to official statistics.

“For Italian families it’s a fairly existential crisis,” said Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, as they are the world’s biggest pasta eaters, consuming roughly 23 kilograms per year.

In Britain, pasta price inflation reached 27.6% in April, while the figures were 21.8% in Germany and 21.4% in France, data showed.

Meanwhile, Luigi Cristiano Laurenza, general secretary of trade organization Unione Italian Food Pasta, claimed that pasta makers have been hit with higher energy, logistics and packaging costs in light of the Ukraine crisis.

Despite the decline in grain prices, it will take time for consumer prices to go down as producers are still using up the stocks of wheat they bought at peak costs, according to the CEO of La Molisana, Giuseppe Ferro.

Meanwhile in France, the government has threatened pasta producers with financial penalties. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in May that companies will face a tax levy if they refuse to negotiate lower prices.’

There are caveats to this article; ‘may have to’, ‘could wipe out’. However, the general tenor about the effect that the rapidly rising bank rate increase will have on those with mortgages and other borrowers is apposite. Still don’t know what the only solution is?

‘British homeowners may have to pay 50% more on their mortgages by the end of the year as a result of the Bank of England’s (BoE) interest rate hikes, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) warned in a new report published on 22 June.

According to the findings, higher mortgage repayments could wipe out the savings of some 1.2 million British families, bringing the total number of insolvent households to 7.8 million, or 28% of the total in the country.

The analysts also calculated that the rising repayments in aggregate will erase 0.3% of the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) and cost households with home loans a total of £12 billion ($15.2 billion) per year.

The warning from NIESR follows the BoE’s decision on Thursday to raise its base interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to 5% as the regulator tries to tame the persistently high inflation in the country. While annual consumer price inflation remained unchanged at 8.7% in May, core inflation, which excludes volatile energy, food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, surged to 7.1%, its highest level since 1992.

“The rise in interest rates to 5% will push millions of households with mortgages towards the brink of insolvency,” Max Mosley from NIESR stated. He explained that many families who took out mortgages with interest rates of 1-2% may be in for a rate surge of 4 percentage points.

“No lender would expect a household to withstand a shock of this magnitude, so the Government shouldn’t either. Some investment should be done in forbearance agreements, giving households and lenders the ability to create payment plans that work for each other,” he said.

Since last year, the average variable-rate home loan in the UK has more than doubled from around 3% to 6.19% as of Thursday morning. This has affected around 4 million UK households that either have variable-rate mortgages or are facing the need to remortgage due to their fixed-rate deals ending.

For a household borrowing £300,000 on a 25-year mortgage, monthly repayments have already been pushed up from £1,400 to £2,000 , a nearly 50% increase, NIESR calculated, warning that with more interest rate hikes expected, these bills will only grow further’.

‘A growing number of Germans have been forced to change their grocery shopping habits amid soaring prices, data from Deloitte’s Global Consumer Pulse Survey showed this week. According to the findings, many consumers are either buying cheaper food or dropping certain product groups from their shopping lists.

Around 37% of respondents said they now prefer to buy cheaper supermarket brands, while 35% said they are buying cheaper types of meat. A fifth of respondents said they are constantly buying less groceries than they want, while a fourth said they now buy only the essentials, cutting back on sweets and delicacies.

“The numerous crises and challenges of recent years have caused consumers to change their habits and routines in order to make do with the financial resources available to them. This affects a wide range of areas of everyday life – including nutrition. Our research shows: for many consumers, saving money on food purchases is the order of the day,” Deloitte states, adding that one in three consumers is “financially stressed” when shopping for groceries.

Researchers also noted that only 41% of respondents said they have an understanding of why the prices are at their current elevated level and complained of the lack of transparency when it comes to price formation. More than two-thirds of respondents (64%) said they feel that companies are raising prices more than their increased costs require, and are thus making additional profits.

Annual inflation in Germany was confirmed to be at a 14-month low of 6.1% in May 2023, down from 7.2% in the previous month, but remained well above the European Central Bank’s target of 2%. Food prices slowed their climb from the previous month, but remained in the double digits at 14.9%, led by dairy products (28.2%) and bread and cereals (19.3%).

Deloitte’s analysis is based on a representative survey of around 25,000 consumers from 25 countries, including around 1,000 from Germany. The survey was conducted on April 20-26, 2023. According to Deloitte, there was also a supplementary survey in June with an identical sample.’

 Chris Hedges in a recent interview with Cornel West, a third party canddate in the 2024 US Presidential election and supporter of Bernie Sanders in the 2020 race, described Patrice Lumumba as ‘a real freedom fighter.’

Chemical manufacturer 3M Co. will pay at least $10.3 billion to settle lawsuits over contamination of many U.S. public drinking water systems with potentially harmful compounds used in firefighting foam and a host of consumer products, the company said Thursday.

The deal would compensate water providers for pollution with per- and polyfluorinated substances, known collectively as PFAS — a broad class of chemicals used in nonstick, water- and grease-resistant products such as clothing and cookware.

Described as “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade naturally in the environment, PFAS have been linked to a variety of health problems, including liver and immune-system damage and some cancers.

The compounds have been detected at varying levels in drinking water around the nation. The Environmental Protection Agency in March proposed strict limits on two common types, PFOA and PFOS, and said it wanted to regulate four others. Water providers would be responsible for monitoring their systems for the chemicals.

The agreement would settle a case that was scheduled for trial earlier this month involving a claim by Stuart, Florida, one of about 300 communities that have filed similar suits against companies that produced firefighting foam or the PFAS it contained.

3M chairman Mike Roman said the deal was “an important step forward” that builds on the company’s decision in 2020 to phase out PFOA and PFOS and its investments in “state-of-the-art water filtration technology in our chemical manufacturing operations.” The company, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, will halt all PFAS production by the end of 2025, he said.

The settlement will be paid over 13 years and could reach as high as $12.5 billion, depending on how many public water systems detect PFAS during testing that EPA has required in the next three years, said Dallas-based attorney Scott Summy, one of the lead attorneys for those suing 3M and other manufacturers.

The payment will help cover costs of filtering PFAS from systems where it’s been detected and testing others, he said.

“The result is that millions of Americans will have healthier lives without PFAS in their drinking water,” Summy said.

Earlier this month, three other companies — DuPont de Nemours Inc. and spinoffs Chemours Co. and Corteva Inc. — reached a $1.18 billion deal to resolve PFAS complaints by about 300 drinking water providers. A number of states, airports, firefighter training facilities and private well owners also have sued.

The cases are pending in U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina, where Judge Richard Gergel is overseeing thousands of complaints alleging PFAS damages.

A trial of a complaint by the city of Stuart, Florida, had been scheduled to begin this month but was delayed to allow time for additional settlement negotiations.

Most of the lawsuits have stemmed from firefighter training exercises at airports, military bases and other sites around the U.S. that repeatedly used foams laced with high concentrations of PFAS, Summy said.

The 3M settlement is subject to court approval, he said.

3M’s website says the company helped the U.S. Navy develop foams containing PFAS chemicals in the 1960s.

“This was an important and life-saving tool that helped combat dangerous fires, like those caused by jet fuel,” the company said.

3M said its participation in the settlement “is not an admission of liability” and said if it was rejected in court, “3M is prepared to continue to defend itself.”

The cost of cleansing PFAS from U.S. water systems eventually could go much higher than the sums agreed to in the settlements, Summy acknowledged.

“I’m not sure anyone knows what that ultimate number will be,” he said. “But I do think this is going to make a huge dent in that cost … and you don’t have to litigate for the next decade or longer.” ‘

New York Post  23/6/23

‘The UK’s cost-of-living crisis is fuelling a surge in shoplifting, according to a report published on Thursday by the British Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).

ACS data showed that more than 1.1 million incidents of theft were recorded at stores across the country over the past year – the highest level in a decade, and up from 970,000 the year before. The most commonly stolen items were meat, alcohol and sweets, which are typically considered high value items that can be resold.

James Lowman, chief executive of ACS, said the levels of theft happening daily were “unprecedented.” 

“Repeat offenders, known to the community and known to the police, are stealing without fear of reproach,” he claimed.

ACS, which represents small stores across Britain, estimated that shoplifting has cost retailers £125 million ($159 million) over the past year, which is about £2,574 per store.

Some retailers noted that theft rates were partly affected by an increase in gang activity and people with addictions stealing to fund their drug or alcohol habits. However, 79% of those surveyed said they believe that the cost-of-living crisis is the main driver behind the surge in theft, as a growing number of people are struggling to afford basic items while prices continue to rise.

The report by ACS came after official figures released on Wednesday showed that UK inflation in May stood at 8.7%. That was unchanged since April, when it fell to single digits for the first time since last summer.

Grocery price inflation dropped from a 45-year-high of 19.1% in April to 18.3% last month, although the cost of food itself in UK stores still rose 0.9% in May alone.

According to a recent forecast from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UK will have one of the highest inflation rates of any major developed economy this year.

The ACS survey was conducted between February 13 and March 31. The calculations were based on crimes faced by retailers over the previous 12 months.’

‘Britain’s public sector net debt in May reached its highest level in over six decades and now exceeds the country’s annual economic output, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed on Wednesday. This comes as government borrowing has outpaced expectations.

Public sector net debt excluding borrowing from state-controlled banks hit £2.567 trillion ($3.28 trillion) at the end of last month, which amounted to 100.1% of gross domestic product (GDP), the ONS said.

This is the first time that debt has stood above 100% of the country’s GDP since 1961, meaning that public sector borrowing is now larger than the UK’s economy.

Government borrowing reached £20.045 billion ($25.5 billion) in May, down £3 billion ($3.8 billion) from April but still exceeding consensus expectations of £19.5 billion ($24.8 billion), according to the ONS. Last month’s borrowing figure was £10.7 billion ($13.6 billion) higher than in May 2022 and was the second-highest level recorded in the month of May since monthly records began in 1993.

The ONS released the debt figures along with the latest inflation data, which showed that consumer price growth remained persistently high in Britain.

“This will likely drive up spending through increased debt interest payments and inflation-linked benefits and tax credits,” PwC economist Divya Sridhar said.

Inflation in the country stood at 8.7% in May and exceeded expectations for the fourth month in a row.’

 Friday 23 June 19.30 (GMT + 1)

Perhaps the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, should get himself booked on to the next series of the radio comedy game show,

I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. Except this increase in the bank rate is no laughing matter. How much pain, desperation and despair is it going to take before you shake off your lethargic support for this social system that is based upon the exploitation of the majority and you realise that capitalism doesn’t give a jot about you?

‘The British Tory government, like the New Zealand Labour government, believes that high interest rates reduce demand and therefore limit price rises. In March 1984 the bank minimum lending rate was 8 percent Since then it has risen to the present 15 percent. So prices ought to have stopped rising. Actually they have gone up by 43 percent since March 1984 and are now rising faster than they were then. Since higher interest rates increase the income of the lenders by exactly the same amount as they reduce the spending power of borrowers, why should demand be affected?’

Socialist Standard Editors August 1990

From the MailOnline, June 22, ‘Andrew Bailey today told Brits to stop demanding ‘unsustainable’ pay rises after the Bank of England ramped up interest rates in a bid to curb inflation.

The governor warned that the current level of wage settlements ‘cannot continue’ as he defended heaping misery on mortgage-payers by raising the base rate from 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

Speaking to broadcasters after the bombshell move – far bigger than the 0.25 percentage point hike analysts have expected – Mr Bailey denied that he actively wanted to trigger a recession.

But he made clear he will do ‘what is necessary’ to bring inflation back to the 2 per cent target – less than a quarter of the current reading.

High wage settlements are among the factors that have spooked the markets and forced the Bank’s hand, although it has been heavily criticised for failing to act early enough to combat prices.

Asked whether people were asking for too much, Mr Bailey – who earns around £575,000 a year – said: ‘Let me be very clear on this, because it’s an important issue.

‘We’ve got to get and we will get inflation back to its target.

‘To do that I have to be clear – and we expect inflation to come down this year – to do that we cannot continue to have the current level of wage increases,

‘And we can’t have companies seeking to rebuild profit margins which mean prices continue to go up at their current rates.

‘But what I would say to people is we expect inflation to come down, and it is important then that price setting and wage setting reflects that.

‘Because the current levels, I’ll be absolutely honest, are unsustainable.’

Amid mounting panic in Tory circles, Rishi Sunak voiced support for the Bank’s tough action. He also tried to cool concerns with a folksy town hall event performance insisting he is ‘100 per cent on it’.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt also offered gave strong backing to the Bank, saying controlling prices is the ‘only long-term way to relieve pressure on families with mortgages’.

‘If we don’t act now it will be worse later,’ he added.

Mr Bailey has been coming under intense fire for failing to respond to inflation earlier, with some Treasury advisers arguing that Threadneedle Street now has no option but to force a recession…’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12223281/BoE-chief-Andrew-Bailey-blames-unsustainable-pay-rises-rate-hike.html