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Coverage, page 6

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Money in people’s pockets is the key to economic recovery | Letter

David Redshaw responds to a letter on the bond markets and economic pressures afflicting the UK Neil Kinnock’s timely letter ( 9 September ) reminds us that we are not alone in suffering high gilt yields and borrowing costs. We are still feeling the fallout from Covid, and it needs mentioning that our national debt is similar to America’s and much less than Japan’s, and it never gets mentioned that Italy routinely runs 100% of GDP debt. But as Kinnock observes, the policies of several Conservative governments (including Brexit) have made things worse, and the problem for us is not so much the actual debt but our direction of travel. The aforementioned will make the bond markets view us with a more jaundiced eye. It was predictable that Jamie Dimon would pop up at this point ( JP Morgan boss meets Burnham and Healey to warn against bank tax rise, 10 September ). He talks about potential lack of investment by the banks. What investment? We aren’t even a nation of shopkeepers any longer; we’re a nation of pizza deliverers. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Guardian Staff17 Sept

Bonnie Greer obituary

Writer and critic who became known for her sharp, composed appearances on TV shows such as Late Review and Question Time The writing and broadcasting of Bonnie Greer, who has died aged 77, were driven by divided perspectives. Her technical experience across an unusual range of genres – drama, fiction, biography, memoir, documentary – informed her work as a wry and lively critic, especially on the late-night BBC2 cultural programmes Late Review and Newsnight Review from the 1990s onwards. And, having spent the first half of her life in the US and the second in the UK, she was also perfectly positioned – in an era when British writers, movie-makers and artists were making much work about and for America – to adjudicate on such creative duality, as well as the escalating Americanisation of British politics. Another asset was her connections: reviewing a David Mamet play or a Madonna album, she had worked with the former in Chicago theatre and met the latter as a young music wannabe in a Manhattan apartment share. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Mark Lawson17 Sept

Fences review – August Wilson’s classic family drama is as smart as paint

Leeds Playhouse Daniel Bailey’s dynamic production fizzes with jazz and moments of possibility amid taut scenes of thwarted ambition and harsh realities in 1950s America Five years on from their excellent production of Jitney , Leeds Playhouse and Headlong return to August Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle of plays with a revival of his 1985 classic Fences. It’s another drama of family, masculinity and thwarted ambitions, painting national issues of race and inequality on a domestic canvas. Set in the 1950s, the focus is the African American Maxson family and its patriarch, Troy: a trash-collector, former convict and one-time baseball player robbed of professional success by the colour of his skin. Ray Fearon is horribly compelling as this tragic figure, a man made monstrous by circumstance. His anger at the world seems to radiate across his wide shoulders, which he braces against the anticipated onslaught. Raised in hardship and denied his dreams, Troy rains this same harshness down on his two sons, not allowing the possibility of a better future for his offspring. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Catherine Love17 Sept

LeBron James once raged against the machine. Increasingly, he helps prop it up

LeBron James was once one of the world’s most outspoken athletes. Now he’s plugging a predictions market and an authoritarian leader There was a time when LeBron James’s views on abuses of political power were considered dangerous enough that Donald Trump’s allies told him to shut up and dribble. But over time, James has become less outspoken. After he built a reputation as a voice on social issues and human rights, anti-government protesters in Hong Kong burned his jersey over what they saw as his lack of support for their campaign. Alongside plenty of other US athletes, he has barely spoken on politics during Trump’s second term in power. There was the recent dismal sight of him promoting a prediction market (although at least he kept his clothes on ). Now he is happily associating with – and helping promote – an authoritarian leader. On Sunday, Angola’s president, João Lourenço, welcomed two of the most famous people in America – James and Will Smith – to his presidential palace. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Karim Zidan17 Sept