Bloomberg Businessweek-Europe Edition November 8, 2021

● Global coronavirus cases have topped 247 million, and 7.1 billion vaccine doses have been given, but 5m have now died. Pfizer moved closer to offering the Covid-19 shot it developed with BioNTech to kids age 5 to 11 in the U.S. after getting backing from regulators. The drug is expected to generate about $36 billion in revenue this year. ● The Fed said on Nov. 3 that it will trim its monthly asset purchases by $15 billion. Buying fewer Teasuries and mortgage-backed securities, the central bank will begin winding down its program to shield the U.S. economy during the pandemic. The Fed also decided, unanimously, to maintain the target range for its benchmark policy rate at zero to 0.25%. ● As Ethiopian government troops tried to halt Tigrayan rebels advancing toward the…

After decades of sustaining a relatively modest nuclear arsenal, China is moving swiftly to build more and better doomsday weapons. The trend would be dangerous at any time. But given the precipitous decline in relations with the U.S., a catastrophe is becoming all too likely. Both sides need to restore stability to this relationship before the world faces a devastating new nuclear arms race. China’s amped-up nuclear ambitions have been hard to miss in recent months. Satellite images suggest the country has been building fields of new intercontinental ballistic missile silos. It’s deployed ICBMs that are harder to target and faster to launch. It’s been bolstering its fleet of ballistic-missile submarines and developing nuclear-capable bombers. More exotic weapons, including a hypersonic system China tested over the summer, might one day evade…

▶ The European Central Bank holds an online banking supervision forum Nov. 9-10. Among the participants: The ECB’s Christine Lagarde and Santander’s Ana Botín. ▶ SuperReturn, in Berlin Nov. 9-12, is the world’s largest conference for the private equity and venture capital industry, which has seen record deal flows this year. ▶ Heads of state and company leaders will convene Nov. 11-13 at the Paris Peace Forum to talk about global governance, security, and the pandemic response. ▶ Argentina holds legislative elections on Nov. 14. Voters will choose half the seats in the Chamber of Deputies and a third of the seats in the Senate. ▶ The Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference, Nov. 15-18, hosts representatives from the energy industry to discuss the continued rise of oil and gas prices. ▶ SoftBank reports…

With virtual life increasingly indistinguishable from everyday reality, it makes sense: Just as the price of dog-inspired cryptocurrencies Dogecoin and Shiba Inu coin have exploded, so has demand for—what else?—living, breathing shiba inus. While Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency created from a meme back in 2013 using the image of a shiba inu, enjoyed a burst of popularity this summer, it was recently overtaken in market value by the slightly less creatively named Shiba Inu coin. In classic crypto style, it sounds like a joke but is immensely valuable, with investors pushing up its price almost 800% in the past month, even though a coin still costs a tiny fraction of a cent. At the same time, shiba inu breeders across the U.S. say they’re seeing more business than ever since cryptocurrency trading brought…

Dave Helminski will drop off his last package for United Parcel Service Inc. on Christmas Eve 2022 and retire after four decades as a driver in Chicago. He joined UPS after four years in the Marine Corps and a yearlong stint installing carpet. He put in a few years loading trucks, then became a driver and was set for life. After Helminski drops off that last package, he’ll have pensions that provide almost the same $100,000 a year he makes now. “I came out of the lower middle class, and I’m living the dream,” Helminski says, as he heads home from his shift at a large UPS facility in the northern suburb of Palatine. Helminski’s dream industry has lately become more of a nightmare scenario at rival FedEx Corp. The massive…

The pandemic made China the world’s top exporter of Covid-19 vaccines, mostly to nations that haven’t been able to afford or procure more effective ones from the U.S. and Europe. Now the country is using that newfound leverage to make an aggressive overseas push for its vaccines against other diseases such as Japanese encephalitis and pneumonia, competing with giants including Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. Studies have found the Chinese Covid shots to be less effective than some Western ones, such as the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna Inc., and there have been repeated questions about the transparency and data standards of its vaccine makers. Even so, developing nations that have had little access to other coronavirus vaccines are poised to grow more dependent on Chinese companies for shots…