Money, in brief

Stand-alone Medicare drug plans will cost 50% more a month in 2027, KFF found. [1]

The average premium rises from $34 in 2026 to $51, for people who keep their plan. [1]

Medicare is the US government's health cover for older Americans. [3]

Nearly 25 million of them buy their drug cover as a separate, stand-alone plan. [3]

KFF, a US health information nonprofit, ran the analysis. [3]

So the rise lands on traditional Medicare members far more than on Advantage members. [2]

Drug costs are a big worry for voters before the US midterms on 3 November. [3]

A deductible is what a member pays before the plan starts paying for drugs. [29]

Health economists call these parts cost-sharing: the premium, the deductible and the coinsurance. [2]

On 28 October, President Trump told an Ohio rally US drug prices are the world's lowest. [3]

Premiums and deductibles in many Medicare drug plans are rising anyway, KFF's figures show. [2]

A Vanderbilt professor said dearer stand-alone plans could push people into private Advantage plans. [4]

Open enrollment, the yearly window to change plans, runs until 7 December. [1]

Medicare's agency ended a subsidy that held stand-alone drug plan premiums down, so 10.4 million Medicare members will pay more in 2027 unless they change plans by 7 December. [2][3]

An average hides the spread: Medicare's own projection shows a rise of about $1 a month, while 2.4 million people face rises of more than $50. [2]

Medicare's rebates let their drug cover average $9 a month against $51 for stand-alone plans, a gap that may pull members their way. [2][4]

No free stand-alone plan exists in 2027, so each of them will pay a premium. [2]

How many of the 10.4 million will switch plans by 7 December.

Last year switching turned a projected $44 average into $34; this year's window has only just opened. [2]

Why Medicare's projection and KFF's differ so much.

The agency projects $36 a month and KFF $51; KFF says the agency did not explain its method. [2][3]

Last year, Medicare drug-plan premiums were projected to rise to $44 a month and ended at $34, once members moved to cheaper plans.

Open enrollment for US marketplace health plans begins on 1 November in most states. [6]

Many self-employed Americans buy health cover there: about 28% of working-age buyers. [7]

The benchmark silver plan's premium rises an average 13% for 2027, KFF found. [6]

That follows a 26% rise for 2026: 42% in two years. [6]

Extra federal help with premiums ended in 2026, and enrollment fell 12% by February. [6]

Buyers earning over four times the US poverty line now get no help. [6]

9.2 million buyers, nearly 40%, chose Bronze plans for 2026. [7]

Bronze plans trade a lower premium for a higher deductible. [7]

Cigna is leaving all 11 states where it sells marketplace plans. [6]

These rises land hardest on people who earn too much for any federal help. [6]

KFF calls it a worsening risk pool: healthier buyers drop out, so premiums rise. [6]

Insurers estimate these changes added about four points to 2026 premiums. [6]

New Mexico paid for all the lost federal help, and its enrollment grew. [6]

US budget officials project 13.1 million buyers in 2027, down from 22.4 million in 2025. [6]

Why a low monthly premium often means a bigger bill at the pharmacy

An insurer must collect enough to pay its members' expected bills

Part comes in as the premium, paid every month by every member

Part comes in as the deductible and coinsurance, paid only when care is used

For the same bills, a lower premium means a bigger share paid at use

So a plan that is cheap to hold costs more for members who are often ill

A yearly cap stops the share paid at use from growing past a set sum

A plan's monthly price shows what a healthy member pays. A member who falls ill also pays the deductible and a share of each bill, up to the yearly cap.

What the average stand-alone Medicare drug plan member pays in 2027: a premium every month, then a deductible, then a share of each preferred brand drug.

When extra federal help ended, nearly 40% of buyers chose Bronze plans, taking a higher deductible to get a lower premium.

The usual test counts only the monthly payment and leaves out the roof and the boiler, which come due when something wears out.

The trade only holds for the same expected bills.

In the years a member is well, they pay mostly through the premium. In the years they are ill, they also pay through the deductible and coinsurance.

On the US marketplace, premiums are rising 13% again after extra federal help ended in 2026 and healthier buyers left. [6]

They get no federal help, so they pay every dollar of the 13% rise. [6]

How many people leave the US marketplace in 2027.

Marketplace figures after February 2026 are not out yet; budget officials project 13.1 million buyers, against 22.4 million in 2025. [6]

New US I bonds will pay 5.51% a year from 1 November to 30 April. [8]

That is up from 4.26% on bonds bought up to 31 October. [8]

I bonds are US government savings bonds, seen as nearly risk-free. [8]

The rate has two parts: a fixed part and a part that follows prices. [8]

The fixed part is 1.40%, the highest since 2006, and never changes after purchase. [8]

The price-linked part is reset every six months, in May and November. [8]

The rate hit a record 9.62% in May 2022, after the pandemic price surge. [8]

US prices rose 3.7% in the year to September, up from 3.4% in August. [8]

A bond tied to prices pays more when living costs rise faster. [8]

The US Treasury does not explain the fixed part, so it is harder to predict. [8]

Bonds bought from 1 November pay 5.51%, with a fixed part of 1.40% kept for the bond's life. [8]

UK house prices rose just 0.5% in the year to October, Nationwide says. [9]

Nationwide, a UK lender, puts the average home at 273,566 pounds, flat on September. [9]

That is the slowest yearly growth in more than two years. [9]

The yearly rise had been 0.8% in September. [9]

The average five-year fixed mortgage rate reached 5.99% on Thursday, Moneyfacts says. [9]

It is the first time in three years the average has reached about 6%. [9]

The Bank of England has held its rate at 3.75% since last December. [9]

Swings in bond markets pushed up the swap rates lenders use to price fixed loans. [9]

Higher rates mean bigger borrowing costs, and new buyer inquiries stay weak. [9]

Knight Frank's Tom Bill said loan costs outweigh any help in this week's UK Budget. [9]

Many expect the Bank of England to vote next week to raise its rate to 4%. [9]

Whether the Bank of England raises its rate next week.

Expectations of a rise to 4% are growing, but the vote has not happened. [9]

In October, a typical US worker earned a gallon of petrol in about 9.5 minutes. [10]

In February, before the Iran war, it took 6.3 minutes. [10]

Pew Research Center, a US research group, worked it out from fuel and wage data. [10]

A gallon of regular petrol cost $4.12 on 26 October, up 47.4% since February. [10]

Diesel, used by trucks and buses, rose 66.8%, to $6.35 a gallon. [10]

Counting inflation, June 2008 was dearer: $6.18 a gallon in today's money. [10]

In July 2008 a gallon took 16 minutes of work. [10]

74% of Americans are very concerned about fuel prices, up from 43% in January. [10]

Pew measured fuel in minutes of work so prices and wages are compared together. [10]

The minutes use August's $26 median wage, as later wage data was not yet out. [10]

The American Federation of Teachers sued US education secretary Linda McMahon on Friday. [11]

The union represents about 1.8 million members. [11]

It says her department blocks loan forgiveness that tens of thousands of public workers have earned. [11]

Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels government and charity workers' student loans after 120 payments. [11]

A buyback lets borrowers pay for months missed during a pause, to reach 120. [11]

88,000 borrowers were waiting for a buyback decision this spring, a court filing showed. [11]

Some borrowers' payment counts fell without explanation, in one example from 116 to 109. [12]

The US Education Department says it is fixing coding errors made under President Biden. [11]

Elizabeth Schoepflin said: "Every month this drags on is another payment I shouldn't have to make." [11]

While they wait, borrowers cannot move that money to homes or their children's college savings. [12]

The case, Weingarten v. McMahon, is in the federal court in Washington, DC. [11]

They keep making payments while their buyback requests wait for a decision. [11]

How many public workers are waiting on loan forgiveness buybacks.

A court filing counted 88,000 waiting this spring; the teachers' lawsuit says 90,000. [11][12]

The Trump administration is considering $9,000 a year for parents who stay home with children. [13]

The plan is known from a New York Times report. [13]

The money would come from federal funds that usually help single mothers and low-income families. [13]

Vice-president JD Vance is reported to have put the idea forward. [13]

52% of US families have two working parents, against 31% in 1975, Pew found. [13]

40% of households spend an outsized share of income on childcare, a Georgetown report says. [13]

One Texas mother said daycare for her children cost more than their mortgage. [13]

Moving the money would shift help from single parents to married couples. [13]

"Families of all compositions need help right now," said Chandra Childers, a policy analyst. [13]

Whether the $9,000 payment for stay-at-home parents will happen.

It is known only from a New York Times report that the Trump administration is considering it. [13]

An hour of US work buys 15.79 candy bars this year, S&P Global says. [14]

In 2019 the same hour bought 17.46. [14]

Prices for candy and gum rose 7.7% in the year to September. [14]

Prices in general rose 3.7% over the same year. [14]

Popular Halloween chocolates cost 15.3% more than last year, two US research groups found. [15]

Cocoa, the bean chocolate is made from, passed $10,700 a tonne in January 2025. [15]

Shops are still selling chocolate made from cocoa bought at those prices, a Columbia professor said. [15]

One Halloween fan's $200 of sweets in 2024 cost $283 this year. [14]

Wages have grown slower than prices for six months, so treats take more of pay. [14]

S&P Global says shoppers keep spending by using credit cards and saving less. [14]

Counting repairs, nearly 1 in 3 US homeowners spend too much of their income on housing. [16]

Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies presented the early findings on Friday. [16]

The usual test calls owners burdened if housing takes over 30% of income. [16]

By that test, 22.7 million owners, or 26%, were burdened in 2023. [16]

Adding routine repairs and big replacements raises the count to 28.4 million. [16]

Owners' routine repair spending rose 61%, from $65 billion in 2019 to $105 billion in 2023. [16]

Home insurance premiums rose 72% and property taxes 31% from 2019 to 2025. [16]

A new roof does not appear in the monthly bills most affordability figures count. [16]

Most big US housing surveys never ask owners what they spend on repairs. [16]

The usual test counts only the monthly payment and leaves out the roof and the boiler, which come due when something wears out.

7.7% of EU residents live in homes spending over 40% of income on housing. [17]

Eurostat calls this the housing cost overburden rate; the figures are for 2025. [17]

Greece is highest, at 26.4%, more than three times the EU average. [17]

Denmark follows at 14.7%, and Germany at 11.2%. [17]

Cyprus is lowest, at 2.4%. [17]

Housing costs include rent or mortgage interest, energy, water and regular charges. [17]

EU house prices rose 69% on average from 2015 to mid-2026. [17]

Among people at risk of poverty, the EU rate rises to 29.1%. [17]

In Greece, 82.6% of people at risk of poverty are overburdened. [17]

Private renters usually carry the heaviest burden, an ETH Zurich researcher said. [17]

Pakistan raised diesel by 2.29 rupees a litre on Friday, to 402.96 rupees. [18]

Petrol stayed at 377.91 rupees a litre. [18]

Pakistan's government takes 114 rupees a litre in taxes on petrol and 100 on diesel. [18]

Diesel cost 281 rupees before the US-Iran war began on 28 February. [18]

It peaked at 520.35 rupees on 3 April. [18]

An 11.57kg cylinder of cooking gas now sells for 6,000 to 7,200 rupees. [19]

The regulator's official price is 3,296 rupees. [19]

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif set up a committee of ministers to review gas policy. [19]

A party leader, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, threatened a mid-November march against the fuel tax. [18]

The proposed policy lets state firms import cooking gas and set its price; dealers oppose it. [19]

The committee has one month to report to the prime minister. [19]

A cylinder sells for 6,000 to 7,200 rupees, against an official price of 3,296. [19]

UAE petrol prices will fall in November. [20]

Super 98 drops 5.5%, from 4.40 to 4.16 dirhams a litre. [20]

Diesel falls 1%, to 4.75 dirhams. [20]

Prices are still about 80% higher than in February, before the Iran war. [20]

Since 2015, UAE pump prices have followed the world oil market. [20]

Yet Brent, the main world oil price, rose 15% in October, to $117.64 a barrel. [20]

Drivers pay less this month even though crude oil got dearer. [20]

Analysts had told The National they expected UAE pump prices to rise again in November. [20]

It is the first cut in four months. [20]

Super 98 falls 5.5% in November, though Brent oil rose 15% in October. [20]

UAE petrol prices will fall in November, the first cut in four months: Super 98 drops 5.5%, to 4.16 dirhams a litre.

Petrol in Malawi costs $3.24 a litre, the highest in Africa, GlobalPetrolPrices says. [21]

That is more than twice the world average. [21]

On the black market, a litre sells for as much as $11.50. [21]

Malawi, in southern Africa, is a largely poor country. [21]

It has had fuel shortages for years, which Malawi's government blames on lacking foreign currency. [21]

The country needs about $49 million a month in foreign currency for fuel. [21]

Officials say the Iran war made it worse, and some suppliers want payment up front. [21]

A taxi rider in Lilongwe, the capital, said he spends more time queuing than working. [21]

Fuel is bought abroad in dollars, so a country short of dollars runs short of fuel. [21]

Whether Malawi can find the dollars to buy fuel.

It needs about $49 million a month, and some suppliers now want payment up front. [21]

US prosecutors announced the first charges in a $130m student aid fraud on 29 October. [22]