Economic View

This is bad news. A drop in a credit rating by one agency does not matter that much in itself, for heaven knows, the rating agencies have been absurdly wrong in their judgements. The AAA ratings they gave to dodgy US housing debt were one of the factors in the banking crash of 2008. Both the US and France have seen a similar modest downgrading of their debt. But it matters because it focuses investors on the inherent weakness not just of British national finances at the moment but also of the longer-term commitment of the UK authorities to holding down inflation and assuring investors that they will get paid back in real – rather than devalued – money.

Economic View: There is a real risk that the Bank of England will make some serious policy errors in the coming months

European car sales have never been lower in modern history. Our Chief Economics Commentator says there are three main lessons we can take from the latest figures

Our Chief Economics Commentator on how confidence in economic recovery, and fear of inflation, are behind the FT 100 index's surge to its highest level since May 2008

Some good news about Ireland. No, it's not that austerity seems to be working and that Dublin is regaining access to the financial markets and is now less dependent on life support from Europe. Austerity may indeed be working, but the social costs are huge and continuing, and they are falling largely on people who had nothing to do with the disaster. So any success has to be set against those costs.

Economic View

The frustrating part of the recovery is its slow pace

Concerns are rising that countries - including the US and UK - were deliberately trying to push down their currencies in order to gain competitive advantage

Our Chief Economics Commentator says the coming tax rises and spending cuts will probably be done in a haphazard manner - but the pessimists may be proved wrong