Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke led the US economy through most severe recession since the 1930s. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters 4.32pm: Bernanke on toxic mortgages interacting with the US economy: “The e.coli got into the food supply and that caused a much bigger problem.” 4.29pm: “A lot of the Wall Street guys are like greased pigs [...]

New Look store in Oxford Street, London, the fashion retailer is among several businesses that have cancelled their flotation plans. An array of rumoured flotations that were delayed during the financial crisis but tipped for revival this autumn have been shelved again on fears about the state of the capital markets. The series of U-turns [...]

Candover Investments has announced plans to wind itself up. Among the assets the private equity firm will be selling is Ferretti, the Italian luxury yacht group. Candover Investments today became the latest high-profile victim of the financial crisis, as the private equity firm announced plans to wind itself up, selling its remaining assets and returning [...]

Friends of the Earth says that biofuel crops, including sugar cane, ‘are competing directly with food crops for fertile land’. Photograph: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters European Union countries must drop their biofuels targets or else risk plunging more Africans into hunger and raising carbon emissions, according to Friends of the Earth (FoE). In a campaign launching [...]

William Hague. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno The philosopher Julian Baggini Mattering is a very complicated business. Nothing matters, full stop. You always have to ask what exactly it is that matters, for whom or for what. In the case of William Hague, that means there are dozens of questions...