This year’s Nobel prize for economics is about “creation and destruction” said Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.It has gone to Joel Mokyr, economics professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, the French economist Philippe Aghion of Collège de France, and Peter Howitt, economics professor at Brown University in Rhode Island, “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth”.The Sveriges Riksbank prize in economic aciences in memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth,” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction.”Mokyr is a Dutch-born American-Israeli economic historian, professor of economics and history and the Robert H.Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.

Aghion is a professor at the Collège de France, at INSEAD, at the London School of Economics, and at the Paris School of Economics.Howitt is a Canadian economist, who has done most of his research in macroeconomics and monetary economics.He is one of the creators of the modern “Schumpeterian” approach to the theory of economic growth.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said:Joel Mokyr used historical observations to identify the factors necessary for sustained growth based on technological innovations, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt have produced a mathematical model of creative destruction, an endless process in which new and better products replace the old.With the understanding of the mechanisms of creative destruction provided by the laureates and the follow up research, we have a better chance to make sure growth can continue and be guided in the direction that benefits humankind.

Wall Street futures are pointing to a higher open, with the Dow Jones seen rising by 0.9%, the S&P 500 by 1.3% and the Nasdaq by 1.8%, as concerns over the US-China trade spat have eased, with Donald Trump softening his language towards Bejing yesterday.He is of course in Israel now, addressing the Knesset at the moment, where he declared the end of the “age of terror and death”.

The German, French, Italian and Spanish stock markets have increased by between 0.3% and 0.5%, while the FTSE 100 index has dipped slightly.In Asia, shares tumbled on concerns over trade tensions.Here’s our full story on the markets:Lloyds Bank has put aside an extra £800m to deal with possible compensation claims over the motor finance scandal, with its total provision rising to almost £2bn.

Our other stories today:Turning to AI, Aghion was optimistic that it would help boost economic growth, and that it will ultimately be positive for employment, despite fears of massive job losses.AI has a big growth potential because AI automates tasks, both in the production of goods and services and in the production of ideas.The problem is to harness this potential… If we don’t have appropriate competition policy, we will inhibit the growth potential.Of course, there is a big fear that AI will destroy a lot of jobs, but that’s why it’s important to have a good education system because at school we learn to learn… We should emulate Sweden and Denmark on that front.When you have a revolution like AI, there is the fear of unemployment, it’s true that machines substitute for humans, but on the other hand, it allows you to become much more productive, and therefore it increases the world market demand for your products, and that allows you to increase employment.

Aghion said he would use his quarter share of the prize money – a total of 11 million Swedish kronor – to fund projects at his research lab at the Collège de France, where he and his team of younger researchers look at growth and artificial intelligence, green growth and R&D policy.He said:Tariff barriers, those things are obstacles to growth, because you need a big market to grow more.A bigger market means more grants for innovators, more possibilities to exchange ideas, you can transfer technologies, it means more competition.So openness is a driver of growth.Anything that gets in the way of openness is an obstacle to growth.

So I see dark clouds currently accumulating, pushing for barriers to trade and openness.He then addressed green growth and AI.Okay, so that’s one thing.The other, of course, concern is green growth – we want to reconcile growth with the environment.So how can we make sure that we will innovate greener? Firms do not spontaneously innovate green.

If they are used to innovating in dirty technologies, they will continue to innovate in dirty technologies,How can you redirect technical progress towards green carbon price, carbon tax, green industrial policy; how should we design these policies?So that’s a fantastic challenge in front of us, and AI has fantastic growth potential, but we know that with inappropriate competition policy, the same as with IT can happen,Some superstar firms may end up dominating everything and inhibiting potential entry of new innovators,So how can we make sure that today’s innovators will not stifle future entry and future innovation?The committee phoned professor Philippe Aghion, who said that it was “quite a surprise” and he was “still speechless”,“I did not expect it at all.

”He was asked about about trade tariffs and their impact on economic growth.He said:I’m not welcoming the protectionist wave in the US, okay? And that’s not good for world growth and innovation.But on the other hand, let’s look at the bright side.European countries have to realise that we should no longer let the US and China become technological leaders and lose to them.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explained:Over the last two centuries, for the first time in history, the world has seen sustained economic growth.

This has lifted vast numbers of people out of poverty and laid the foundation of our prosperity.This year’s laureates in economic sciences, Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, explain how innovation provides the impe­tus for further progress.John Hassler, chair of the committee for the prize in economic sciences, said:The laureates’ work shows that economic growth cannot be taken for granted.We must uphold the mechanisms that underlie creative destruction, so that we do not fall back into stagnation.This year’s Nobel prize for economics is about “creation and destruction” said Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

It has gone to Joel Mokyr, economics professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, the French economist Philippe Aghion of Collège de France, and Peter Howitt, economics professor at Brown University in Rhode Island, “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth”,The Sveriges Riksbank prize in economic aciences in memory of Alfred Nobel was awarded “for having explained innovation-driven economic growth,” with one half to Mokyr “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress” and the other half jointly to Aghion and Howitt “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction,”Mokyr is a Dutch-born American-Israeli economic historian, professor of economics and history and the Robert H,Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University,Aghion is a professor at the Collège de France, at INSEAD, at the London School of Economics, and at the Paris School of Economics.

Howitt is a Canadian economist, who has done most of his research in macroeconomics and monetary economics.He is one of the creators of the modern “Schumpeterian” approach to the theory of economic growth.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said:Joel Mokyr used historical observations to identify the factors necessary for sustained growth based on technological innovations, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt have produced a mathematical model of creative destruction, an endless process in which new and better products replace the old.With the understanding of the mechanisms of creative destruction provided by the laureates and the follow up research, we have a better chance to make sure growth can continue and be guided in the direction that benefits humankind.You can watch the press conference live here.

WATCH LIVE: Join us for the announcement of the 2025 prize in economic sciences.Hear the breaking news first – see the live coverage from 11:45 CEST.Where are you watching from?#NobelPrize https://t.co/rD1qzzcxvIThe Nobel prize for economics is due to be announced shortly.Shares in Big Yellow Group jumped by more than 20% after the US fund manager Blackstone said it was considering a buyout of the UK self storage company.

New York-based Blackstone is in the early stages of considering a cash offer for the company, according to a statement.The move comes ahead of the budget on 26 November, it said.Blackstone Funds’ evaluation of Big Yellow is at a preliminary stage and Blackstone is considering, amongst other factors, the macro-economic environment including the potential impact of the upcoming UK budget as it relates to the self-storage sector.Shares in Big Yellow jumped more than 20% to £1.16, their biggest rise on record.

The self storage company responded with a statement, saying:The board of Big Yellow notes the announcement by Blackstone Europe that one or more of the investment funds advised by Blackstone or any of its affiliates is considering its position in relation to the company, which could include a cash offer for the entire issued, and to be issued, share capital of the company.The board of Big Yellow notes the recent media speculation and confirms that it has held meetings with a small number of parties in relation to a range of potential options including a potential sale of the company.The company is not in receipt of an approach and is not in discussions with any parties in respect of a potential sale of the company at the time of this announcement.Blackstone has been on a buying spree in the UK, snapping up property assets.The private equity firm bought Warehouse REIT (real estate investment trust) earlier this year and confirmed today that it taking a stake in Tritax Big Box REIT, which invests in ‘big box’ distribution centres, as part of a deal to sell a £1bn UK logistics portfolio to the company.

The National Lottery operator Allwyn is to merge with Greece’s leading gambling company OPAP to create a global listed gaming giant worth about €16bn (£13.9bn).Allwyn, which owns a near-52% controlling stake in Athens-headquartered OPAP, has agreed an all-share tie-up with OPAP that will see the combined group renamed Allwyn.It will give Allwyn a presence on the stock market, with plans to retain OPAP’s Athens listing for the merged group, and to launch an additional stock market listing in either London or New York.For many years OPAP was a state-owned gambling monopoly.

The company holds the exclusive rights to run lotteries and sports betting in Greece.In 2022, Camelot lost the licence to run the lottery in the UK to rival Allwyn.The billionaire media mogul Richard Desmond had also been bidding for the contract, and is suing the gambling regulator in a bitter dispute that opened at the high court last Thursday.He has brought a £1.3bn damages claim against the Gambling Commission.

Last year, the Guardian revealed that Allwyn was borrowing millions from Kremlin-owned banks when it won the UK’s largest public-sector contract.Allwyn is ultimately owned by the Czech billionaire Karel Komárek.Rachel Reeves must avoid “a half-baked dash for revenue” or risk damaging economic growth as the chancellor seeks to close a large gap in next month’s budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.The tax and spending thinktank has warned there was a danger the chancellor would create “unnecessary economic damage” if she chooses to stitch together unrelated tax-raising measures to cut the shortfall in government revenues and keep within her fiscal rules.In a chapter from a report due to be published later this month, the IFS said Reeves could raise tens of billions of pounds in extra revenue without breaking Labour’s manifesto pledges, but cautioned that higher rates on longstanding, poorly designed taxes would have a detrimental effect on incentives to work, productivity and economic growth.

Two decades after the material was first produced, some UK firms have reaped its potential but others are struggling,I’ve talked to some of them,After graphene was first produced at the University of Manchester in 2004, it was hailed as a wonder material, stronger than steel but lighter than paper,But two decades on, not every UK graphene company has made the most of that potential,Some show promise but others are struggling.

Extracted from graphite, commonly used in pencils, graphene is a latticed sheet of carbon one atom thick, and is highly effective at conducting heat and electricity.China is the world’s biggest producer, using it to try to get ahead in the global race to produce microchips and in sectors such as construction.In the UK, a graphene-enhanced, low-carbon concrete was laid at a Northumbrian Water site in July, developed by the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) at the University of Manchester and Cemex UK.“The material when it came out of academia was hyped to death … but the challenge is going from lab to fab,” says Ben Jensen, the chief executive of 2D Photonics, a startup spun out from the University of Cambridge that makes graphene-based photonic technology for datacentres.Jensen also invented Vantablack coatings, made of carbon nanotubes – rolled-up sheets of graphene – and known as the world’s “blackest black” because it absorbs 99.

96% of light, at the UK company Surrey NanoSystems that he founded in 2007.The material’s artistic rights were sold exclusively to the sculptor Anish Kapoor, and BMW used it on its X6 coupe to create the “blackest black car” six years ago.Victoria Scholar, head of investment at the trading platform interactive investor, has looked at the moves in markets this morning.The FTSE 100 has opened higher, although it is logging more modest gains than the DAX and CAC 40.Defence stocks are under pressure with Babcock, BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce at the bottom of the UK basket.

Fresnillo is the top gainer on the FTSE 100 after a short squeeze for silver,In France, Sébastien Lecornu announced a new cabinet on Sunday after his reappointment as prime minister last week, helping to at least temporarily avoid a full-blown political crisis in Paris,Fears of escalating trade tensions between the US and China have pushed stocks in Asia into the red again with the Hang Seng and the CSI300 falling sharply,This is outweighing better than expected trade data from China with forecast topping imports and exports failing to lift sentiment,US markets fell sharply on Friday with the S&P 500 shedding 2.

7%, its biggest drop since April and the Nasdaq plunging over 3.5% with tech stocks hit hardest because of their reliance on rare earths from China.Although futures are pointing to a partial rebound at the US market open.Gold and silver prices are also scaling new highs.Spot gold rose more than 2% earlier and is now up 1.

3% at $4,071 an ounce.The precious metal logged its eighth week of gains last week.Meanwhile silver is up nearly 5% today, and platinum has risen by 2.7% amid a rally in precious metals.Scholar said:The flight to safety trade has continued to propel gold and silver, fuelled by Trump’s unpredictability with the threat of fresh tariffs on China that raises concerns about an escalating trade war between the two superpowers