Money, in brief

The Bank of England raised its rate from 3.75% to 4% on Thursday, its first rise in over three years. [1]

That rate is what it charges banks to borrow, and it steers what they charge on mortgages. [1]

About 500,000 UK homes on tracker mortgages pay more now: about £31 a month on a typical loan. [2]

Savers could earn more, because that rate also steers what banks pay on savings. [1]

What this rise costs a home depends first on its loan: tracker, variable or fixed. [2]

Economists call this monetary policy: a central bank lifts its rate so people spend less and prices slow. [2]

A home paying £31 more a month has less to spend, so shops may sell less. [2]

When a parent cuts pocket money, the sweet shop down the road feels it a week later.

The £31 is a sum by UK Finance, the banks' trade body, for a typical loan. [1] The real rise depends on the size of the loan. [2]

The Bank decides again on 17 December. [7]

Why the same pizza costs a pound more three miles away

The same thing is on sale in several places

Finding or reaching the cheapest costs the buyer time, money or effort

The buyer stops looking when one more search seems worth less than it could save

So a seller can charge up to about that gap and still keep the sale

Prices spread out, and those who look least tend to pay most

A seller does not have to fool anyone to charge a pound more. It only has to be easier to reach than the seller who charges a pound less.

One pizza at one chain, in three parts of London. Look at the distance between the marks: that is what convenience and local costs together add.

The contract keeps the lower rate off the hotel's website, so finding it takes a phone call, and guests who do not call pay more.

Newer accounts pay more, but moving takes effort, so savers who stay where they are earn less.

Where one lender holds more of a market, it cuts new-card rates less, so two similar borrowers end up paying differently.

Not every gap is a search cost: a shop in central London may really pay more rent, so part of its extra pound can be its own bill.

Everyone here is acting sensibly: a tired commuter takes the nearest pizza, and a busy saver leaves money where it is.

The Bank of England raised its rate to slow price rises that a war started, and it says its rate cannot change world energy prices. [7]

Homes on tracker mortgages pay more at once. [2] Homes on fixed deals pay when their deals end. [2]

A single number such as £31 feels like everyone's bill, but it is the bill for one kind of loan at one size.

The Bank's rate steers what banks pay on savings, and the BBC reports savers could see better rates. [1]

The BBC names borrowers on variable-rate loans as the big losers, because they have no fixed deal to wait out. [2]

Their next deal is priced for today's rates, however long ago they fixed. [1]

Whether higher energy costs spread into other prices and pay.

The Bank of England says evidence of this is limited so far, and that such effects usually appear late. [7]

How much of this rise reaches UK savers, and how soon.

Each bank sets its own savings rates, and the BBC says only that they could improve. [1]

How many UK homes are on tracker and variable loans.

One BBC report gives 510,000 and 470,000. [1] Another BBC report gives about 500,000 each. [2]

UK savers could lock money away for a year at an average 4.48% on 4 November, while prices were rising 3.5% a year.

Prices in the eurozone, the countries using the euro, rose 4% in the year to October, early figures show. [8]

That is the highest since September 2023, and twice the European Central Bank's 2% target. [8]

Energy cost 20.8% more than a year earlier. [8]

Italy's rate jumped to 5.6% from 4.2%, the largest rise. [8] Belgium reached 5.2%. [8]

Core inflation, which leaves out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, stayed at 2.5%. [8]

Whether energy costs reach rents, wages and restaurant menus may decide how far the bank goes, Euronews says. [8]

Economists call this cost-push inflation, and here energy alone added roughly 1.9 points of the 4%. [8]

Core stayed at 2.5% while the total rose, so energy did most of the pushing. [8]

When petrol costs more, a pizza delivery costs more even though the pizza has not changed.

The bank meets next on 16 and 17 December, and prediction markets put about 84% on a rise. [8]

Democrats won both houses of the US Congress on Tuesday, with rising costs a top voter concern. [9]

New members do not take office until January. [9]

Among voters aged 18 to 29, 87% said inflation had caused their families hardship, early exit polls show. [10]

Democrats say health comes first: bringing back extra help with insurance under the Affordable Care Act. [11]

Those extra subsidies ended with 2025, and millions of people's premiums rose sharply. [9]

They also want to scrap President Trump's import taxes, and some want 4 million new homes in a decade. [11]

US petrol averages $4.18 a gallon, up nearly 40%, which Democrats link to the war in Iran. [11]

Relief may come late: one forecaster quoted by the BBC sees no health deal until late 2027. [11]

Political scientists call this divided government: one party holds the US Congress and the other the presidency. [12]

So a housing bill still needs Trump's support and enough Republican votes to clear the Senate. [12]

When one parent plans the holiday and the other holds the wallet, only a trip both accept happens.

Larry Levitt of KFF, a health information non-profit, says the full health agenda is impossible with Trump in office. [13]

US government funding runs out after 11 December, and the BBC says another shutdown looks possible. [11]

Whether US Democrats and President Trump strike a health deal.

Trump told Politico he does not want to spend two years vetoing everything, but no deal exists. [13]

President Trump has promised to cap US credit card rates at 10%. [9]

Aaron Klein of Brookings, a US think tank, says a Democratic US Congress might be willing to do it. [9]

Jaret Seiberg of TD Cowen, an investment bank, says any cap is likely to be closer to 36%. [9]

Bills at both levels have been proposed in the current US Congress. [9]

Lower- and middle-income Americans are more likely to carry a card balance and owe interest, Klein says. [9]

So a cap would likely be welcome to them, Klein says. [9]

Economists call this a price cap, here a legal top on the interest a lender may charge. [9]

A lender held to a lower rate may lend less, so Klein says credit limits and rewards could fall. [9]

If a shop must sell sweets cheaply, it may put fewer on the shelf.

More than 30 US Democratic lawmakers wrote to Education Secretary Linda McMahon about student loan errors. [14]

The letter says firms running the loans, called servicers, billed some borrowers too much and added interest wrongly. [14]

It also cites delays to relief under plans that set payments by income. [14]

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley led the letter. [14]

Eight state student loan watchdogs had already raised what they called systemic failures. [14]

President Trump's overhaul of repayment took effect on 1 July. [14]

Officials also reassessed repayment timelines, delaying some borrowers' forgiveness by years, CNBC reports. [9]

Economists call it a principal-agent problem when a hired firm goes unchecked, as these servicers did. [14]

A US audit found the department stopped checking servicers for accuracy after staff cuts. [14]

A teacher who stops marking homework soon gets careless homework.

The department says it has fixed repayment errors as they came up. [14]

Democrats are likely to hold hearings and subpoena officials over the loan policies, an expert told CNBC. [9]

One borrower was shown payments as counting toward forgiveness, and spent thousands on ones that did not. [14]

How many US student loan borrowers were billed wrongly.

The lawmakers' letter, as reported, lists the kinds of error and gives no total. [14]

The 35 US senators elected on Tuesday will face a funding gap in Social Security, Business Insider reports. [15]

Social Security is the US government's retirement and disability payment, reaching over 75 million people. [15]

Its trustees project the retirement fund may run out in the last quarter of 2032. [9]

Without action, payments could then be cut by 22% across the board. [9]

A typical two-income couple who recently retired could lose almost $17,000 a year. [15]

Many Democrats in close races want to lift the cap on the pay taxed for it. [15]

Many older Americans told local reporters that candidates' views on it shaped their vote. [15]

Pension experts call it pay-as-you-go: tax coming in pays benefits going out, as the population ages. [15]

In 2033 it is projected to collect $2 trillion and spend $2.4 trillion. [15]

Spend more than the pocket money each week, and the jar lasts only until it is empty.

No clear path has been agreed, and many Republicans stress protecting current payments or setting up commissions. [15]

Ofgem, the energy regulator in Great Britain, has opened an investigation into ScottishPower, an energy supplier. [16]

It covers catch-up bills, help for vulnerable customers, and whether repayments fit what people can pay. [16]

A catch-up bill, or backbill, charges later for energy that estimated bills had undercounted. [17]

Rules restrict charging for energy used more than 12 months earlier. [16]

When Ofgem banned older catch-up bills, the typical one was £1,160. [17]

In January, a Which? survey gave ScottishPower the lowest customer satisfaction score of the suppliers, a ranking it questioned. [18]

Large catch-up bills can leave people struggling or in debt to their supplier, Ofgem has said. [17]

Regulators call these licence conditions: written duties in a supplier's licence to sell gas and electricity. [16]

One duty limits catch-up bills to 12 months, and another ties debt repayments to ability to pay. [16]

A driver keeps a licence only by keeping to the rules of the road.

Ofgem says opening the case does not mean it has found any breach. [16]

Whether ScottishPower broke any rule.

Ofgem has only opened the case, and has published no findings. [16]

Retail workers, social workers and cleaners in Australia can afford under 1% of rental listings, Anglicare's report shows. [19]

Nurses can afford 1.1% of listings, and teachers 3.3%. [19]

Anglicare, a welfare group, measured 48,776 listings against full-time minimum pay in 16 essential jobs. [19]

Only 3 of the 16 jobs saw rentals grow more affordable than last year. [19]

Unit rents rose 44.3% in five years, and house rents 36.6%, the analyst Cotality says. [19]

Anglicare says pay rose by less than half that rate. [19]

Social worker Allie Thompson is moving to a $740-a-week Brisbane rental that takes about half her income. [19]

She has stopped some of her medicines to afford the move. [19]

Housing researchers call it rental stress when rent takes a big slice of pay, as half of Thompson's does. [19]

When rent climbs faster than pay, the gap comes out of doctors, dentists and holidays. [19]

If pocket money stays the same and the bus fare doubles, sweets go first.

The figures use minimum pay in each job, so staff on more pay can reach more listings. [19]

A nurse in Albany, Western Australia, says holidays and meals out went first. [19]

Britain's housing market is unlikely to recover until 2028, the property firm Savills says. [4]

It expects average prices to drift lower this year and fall 1.5% in 2027. [4]

Mortgage rates kept higher by the war in the Middle East are deterring buyers, it says. [4]

Nationwide, a lender, says UK prices rose just 0.5% in the year to October, the slowest in over two years. [4]

Its average UK home price is £273,566. [4]

Savills expects prices to rise 15.8% over the five years to 2031. [4]

It expects first-time buyers to lead the recovery from 2028, helped by deposit affordability and government schemes. [4]

Property analysts call this mortgage affordability: higher rates shrink what buyers can pay, and that weighs on prices. [4]

A fixed allowance buys fewer games when each one costs more, so the shop waits or cuts its price.

Savills, whose business is property, made this forecast, and says a sharper fall is unlikely. [4]

US applications for home-buying loans were 19% below a year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association says. [20]

The average 30-year rate in that survey was 7.3%, against 6.17% a year earlier. [20]

More borrowers took adjustable loans, which start nearly a point cheaper: 11.4% of applications. [20]

In October, 20.5% of homes for sale had a price cut, Realtor.com says. [21]

New listings fell 7.5% from a year ago, and agreed sales fell 10.5%. [21]

Homes for sale still rose 7.4%, to over 1.18 million. [21]

Jake Krimmel, an economist at Realtor.com, calls it a seller pause rather than an exodus. [21]

Economists call it lock-in, and refinancing is 60% below a year ago as owners stay on lower rates. [20]

Owners on cheap old loans feel little monthly pressure to sell or cut prices, one agent says. [21]

A student on a cheap old phone plan keeps it rather than switch to a dearer new one.

NerdWallet's daily figure jumped to 7.07% on 4 November. [22] The bankers' weekly figure fell to 7.3%. [20]

The US central bank meets in December, and markets put a rise at just under 80%. [20]

Florida voters approved the new home tax break on Tuesday with about 62%, and it needed 60%. [23]

It shields $150,000 of a lived-in home's value in 2027, and $250,000 in 2028. [24]

A $350,000 home's local tax falls from about $3,135 to about $1,050, lawyer Raul Gastesi calculates. [24]

A $50 million home's falls from about $524,000 to about $522,000, he says. [24]

It also cuts the cap on yearly rises in a second home's taxable value from 10% to 5%. [24]

Gastesi says that saves a $50 million second home about $280,000 over five years, if values rise 8% yearly. [24]

State economists estimate cities, counties and special districts will eventually lose $11.86 billion a year. [24]

Tax economists call this a flat exemption, because it takes the same dollars off every lived-in home. [24]

About $2,085 a year is most of a mid-priced home's local bill, and almost none of a mansion's. [24]

A small voucher halves a cheap lunch and barely touches a banquet.

Gastesi warns the saving on one line may come back on another, if councils raise their rates. [24]

The lower cap slows the tax on second homes, which matters more to them than the main exemption, experts told Fortune. [24]

Councils lose tax with no new state money, so one economics professor says they cannot fully close the gap. [24]

How Florida's local governments fill the gap.

The amendment brings no new state money, and one economics professor says the gap cannot be fully closed. [24]

Louisiana voters passed 4 property tax measures on Tuesday. [25]

Amendment 6, with 65%, gives over-65s who already qualify for a tax freeze up to $30,000 off. [25]

Amendment 9, with 59%, lifts the income limit for that freeze from $100,000 to $150,000. [25]

About 230,000 people qualify for the freeze today. [25]

Amendment 10, with 53%, lets communities excuse tax on derelict homes brought back into use. [25]

Critics say Amendment 9 cuts the tax money local governments need for social services. [25]

Public finance calls a break like this a tax expenditure, as Louisiana gives help by not collecting tax. [25]