we begin with the turmoil on financial markets today, the pound sterling continues to languish against the us dollar and several other currencies. the slide in its value was triggered by last week s mini budget, with its controversial package of tax cuts. let s get historical for a moment. we have records for sterling against the dollar going back through history, and in the early hours of monday morning it reached an all time low that is since the creation of the us currency in 1792. let s take a closer look at the past few days the dollar has been strong but this further drop down is about sterling weakness, with a bit of a recovery and then falling back again. you can see this dramatic few days, sterling weakness with a little bit of recovery before it fell back again. on friday and monday there were massive moves within a day, which for a currency like sterling is rare. and one of the impacts of a low pound means that we import inflation, oil and gas is more expensi
the french president, emmanuel macron, has suffered a serious setback after losing his majority in parliament. his party, ensemble, is still the biggest in the national assembly, but it lost around 100 seats in yesterday s elections. there were big gains for marine le pen s far right party, and a new left wing alliance, led by the hard left leader, jean luc melenchon. this means issues such as macron s plans to raise the retirement age and changes to low income support could face more obstacles. joining me now is tomasz michalski, economics professor, at the business school, hec paris. professor, welcome. where does this result leave macron s mandate to govern the world s sixth largest economy? the first thing is the question is whether the party of macron will be able to make a coalition with the right wing party, that support them on the issue you just mentioned, raising the retirement age and various other reforms. if such a coalition cannot be, whether implicit or explici
we begin in france today, where a third national lockdown looms large, but the french government is insisting it s doing everything possible to avert more restrictions that could be devastating for the economy. a year ago to the day, president macron appeared on television confirming the closure of schools and the stay at home order that led to the country s first lockdown. officials say the paris region may be forced to lock down soon, as patients with new covid 19 variants fill up hospitals intensive care wards, with special medical planes taking patients from the paris area to less saturated regions over the weekend. france currently has a 6pm nationwide curfew in place with weekend lockdowns in two regions, but it is still seeing a rise in case numbers. joining me now is tomasz michalski, economics professor, hec paris. good to see you again. first, do you think a third nationwide lockdown is inevitable as macro unfortunately, the lockdown of some sorts might appear at t