The Guardian’s money and economics editors Hilary Osborne and Heather Stewart answered your questions on energy prices, tax thresholds and the global events pressuring the economy.

FelonMarmer asks: What is going to stop landlords just transferring their tax increase onto tenants, while complaining about how hard done by they are?

Heather says: Unfortunately, there’s nothing to stop landlords passing their higher tax bills onto their tenants, aside from what the local rental market will bear. Indeed, the Office for Budget Responsibility did suggest one result of this and other recent policies (the 2p rise this year followed another 2p last year) could be “a steady rise in rents,” as some landlords whack up rents and others leave the market altogether. I think John Healey’s answer would probably be a fairness one - that income made through renting out property should be taxed more heavily than that earned through work.

Heather says: That’s a really good question: Labour strategists are adamant that they wouldn’t. I can’t help thinking that voters were so convinced the public services were in a dire state, they could have accepted the argument that taxes needed to rise. Certainly, the Tories didn’t seem to get much electoral credit for Jeremy Hunt’s desperate cuts to national insurance contributions in his last couple of budgets. But we’ll never know.

Another question is whether Labour should have bust the manifesto promises - either when they first got in, on the basis the public finances were worse than they thought; or at some point in the last year, given the impact of the Iran war (which has added £14bn to the government’s interest costs this year alone).

The Federal Reserve opted to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged — but investors widely expect the central bank to raise rates at its next meeting in December to combat stubborn inflation.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

The Federal Reserve opted to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged — but investors widely expect the central bank to raise rates at its next meeting in December to combat stubborn inflation.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

Having lost the first round of Brazil’s presidential election to far right rival Flávio Bolsonaro, incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spectacularly triumphed in the second. The Guardian’s Latin America corrrespondent Tom Phillips answered your questions on what’s next for Brazil.

Jeremy Hurley asks: Why did the Brazil stock market tank after the election result, and will it recover?

Tom: Basically, because the markets had been convinced that Flávio Bolsonaro was going to win and that after taking power he would implement a “chainsaw” style austerity programme inspired by Javier Milei’s government in Argentina, deal with Brazil’s budget deficit, and bring down interest rates. Lula’s victory came as a shock to investors who believe his fourth presidency will see increased and unsustainable public spending.

Yes, I’m sure things will stabilise at some point soon after the initial panic – during Lula’s previous administrations investors made a lot of money, particularly during his first two terms. There is talk of Lula naming his vice-president, the centre-right politician Geraldo Alckmin, as finance minister in order to calm markets down. Another possible name is Rafael Fonteles, a mathematician who is the governor of Piauí and used to run that state’s finances.

Tom: That’s a really good question and, as someone who lives in Rio de Janeiro, it is one that has been on my mind a lot. The far right has been very good at blaming “soft” left wing policies and federal government incompetence for the failure to control armed violence. It was a huge part of the campaign against Lula in the run up to this election.

But public security is a state matter and Rio state has largely been governed by the right for years now. Their hard-line, shoot first ask questions later approach has not worked - in fact many believe it has made the violence even worse and led to massacres such as the one I covered in the Complexo da Penha almost exactly one year ago. It must be said that similar tactics have been used in Bahia state, which has a huge problem with violence and is governed by the Worker’s party (PT). My colleague Tiago Rogero has written about this.