International

British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak is Upbeat on U.K.’s Economy and His Spending Plans

Multi-billion pound spending on health care services and transport were among the plans British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced in his latest budget statement on Wednesday.

Multi-billion pound spending on health care services and transport were among the plans British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced in his latest budget statement on Wednesday. Sunak has set out changes to universal credit he says will give low-income families an extra £1,000 a year. According to BBC, he promised more money for schools, business rate cuts and took... 3p off the price of a pint of beer.

Sunak told lawmakers in U.K. Parliament that the government budget “delivers a stronger economy for the British people, stronger growth, with the UK recovering faster than its major competitors.” In an upbeat Budget speech, he said the UK economy had not been hit as hard by the Covid pandemic as expected. He said unemployment had not hit the levels feared at the height of the pandemic - but inflation was set to rise further, from 3.1% to 4% over the next year.

Much of his Budget had been pre-announced, including an end to the public sector pay freeze and an increase to the National Living Wage from £8.91 per hour to £9.50.

International

Food Prices Keep Rising Globally

The United Nations unveiled that global food prices have surged to the highest level in more than a decade, driven by robust demand, supply bottlenecks and lackluster harvests.

U.S. Economy

Investors Stiff Their Upper Lip Eyeing Fed’s Firm Stance on Bond Purchase Tapering

Stock-market investors took the Federal Reserve’s decision Wednesday to begin tapering its monthly bond purchases without a hysteria, erasing early losses to see the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite score a fourth consecutive round of record closes.

Investing Ideas

Edward Snowden Likes Bitcoin and Doge, but Wary of Shiba Inu

According to Benzinga, in a recent tweet, the famous whistleblower in exile Edward Snowden warned about unleashing investing hype around Shiba Inu (SHIB) and said that people should not invest their hard-earned money in a "clone of dog money".