Central banks from Ulaanbaatar to Pretoria and Washington to London have unleashed aggressive tightening to combat some of the worst inflation numbers seen in a generation. And the blitz of rate hikes this week may be far from the last, with policymakers indicating they’re willing to tolerate recessions in order to control inflation. (Meanwhile the Bank of Japan roiled currency markets by intervening to prop up the yen for the first time since 1998.) John Authers writes in Bloomberg Opinion that—now that investors sense there won’t be a Fed pivot in the near term—the question is how much damage the economy will sustain. The key point Fed Chair Jerome Powell wants to convey, Authers says, is that he’s the second coming of Paul Volcker, a predecessor whose repeated rate hikes in the early 1980s are thought to have slain inflation. 

Vladimir Putin escalated his war on Ukraine, staging what have been widely condemned as sham referendums in areas Russia occupies while ordering a draft of hundreds of thousands of Russians. More darkly, he and his deputies are threatening the possible use of nuclear weapons to keep what may soon be annexed parts of Ukraine. Protests erupted around Russia and flights abroad sold out, developments that were followed by the announcement of some exemptions to the massive call-up. US President Joe Biden said Putin’s moves should make everyone’s “blood run cold” as Washington decides how to deter any nuclear attack in Ukraine—or respond if one occurs. 

Donald Trump’s legal problems mounted as New York Attorney General Letitia James sued him and three of his children for allegedly inflating the value of his real estate company’s assets. And US Attorney General Merrick Garland is rapidly approaching a choice likely to shape American politics for decades: whether Trump will be the first former president charged with a crime.

The pandemic home-buying boom in America has come to an abrupt end, replaced by a sense of market paralysis. Buyers and sellers are trapped in place amid mortgage rates that have topped 6%. Rent prices are at a record high, though they may have peaked. “Economic inequality this decade will largely be defined by those who bought homes before 2022 and those who didn’t,” Conor Sen writes in Bloomberg Opinion.

Hurricane Fiona left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean, knocking out Puerto Rico’s beleaguered electrical grid while underscoring the growing, global warming-fueled intensity of the world’s weather disasters. Though catastrophic floods have devastated Pakistan and record drought and heat has spread across Europe, China and Africa, such is the gravity of other crises facing the United Nations that climate change didn’t top the agenda at the General Assembly this week.

A resident of Puerto Rico removes mud from their home after the La Plata river flooded the two-story house. Photographer: Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

After more than two years, the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan will open its doors to travelers. But there’s a catch: It’s asking visitors to pay an extra $200 dollars a day each for “sustainable development.” For the high-rollers, there’s the return of airship travel. Sweden-based OceanSky Cruises is betting millions of dollars that people will pay $200,000 for a 36-hour North Pole sojourn on a helium-powered “air cruise.”

• Deadline for a must-pass funding bill for the US government.
• Last day of trading in mainland China before Golden Week.
• Italians look set to vote in a far-right government.
• Tesla and Elon Musk could unveil its humanoid robot at “AI Day.”
• Germany’s Scholz is in the Mideast amid an energy crisis.

Citadel’s Ken Griffin Is Remaking Miami

If Ken Griffin has his way, he and his billions of dollars will remake the city of Miami in his image. The Citadel founder who is worth $29.6 billion has ditched Chicago for “Wall Street South,” a state with a like-minded governor whom Griffin said he’d back for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump. But Griffin’s transition hasn’t been seamless, and not everyone in Miami is convinced it will be for the better.

Construction workers atop the 830 Brickell building in Miami. Photographer: Saul Martinez/Bloomberg

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