Bloomberg Businessweek-Europe Edition February 20, 2023

● The great balloon hunt continues. As of Feb. 12, four objects had been shot down over the US and Canada, but the Biden administration suspects the last three served commercial purposes and weren’t used for spying. They “could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Feb. 14. ● The US consumer price index in January climbed 0.5% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most in three months. It’s up 6.4% from a year ago. The Commerce Department says retail sales rose in January by 3%—the biggest jump since early 2021. Both data points suggest the Fed is likely to keep raising rates to cool the economy. ● Regulators say Starbucks’s union busting broke the law. The National Labor Relations Board…

After winning reelection in November with almost 60% of the vote, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had political capital to spend on any number of priorities. Sadly, he’s settled on one of the most ill-considered choices available: allowing the public to carry concealed firearms without a license. The policy is as bad as it sounds. It removes any requirement for a gun owner to obtain a license or take a training course to carry a concealed weapon in public. (A license is still required to carry a firearm visibly.) The bill is advancing through the legislature, and given its Republican supermajority and the governor’s backing, it’s likely to become law. Florida would thus become the 26th state to legalize “permitless carry” (or “constitutional carry,” as fundamentalists call it). It’s a disappointing turn only…

▶ The US Bureau of Economic Analysis releases its Core PCE Price Index on Feb. 24. The Federal Reserve weighs this gauge against Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates. ▶ Central bankers elsewhere are also closely monitoring inflation: Japan reports its year-over-year rate on Feb. 23, along with France on Feb. 28 and Germany on March 1. ▶ GfK Group publishes its Consumer Sentiment Study for Germany on Feb. 24. It’s inched up every month since October, as Europe’s economic outlook has gradually improved. ▶ Walmart and Home Depot report earnings on Feb. 21, Rio Tinto on Feb. 22, Alibaba and Deutsche Telekom on Feb. 23 and Dell on March 2. ▶ Works by Chagall, Kandinsky, Munch, Picasso, Richter and other masters of modern and contemporary art go on auction at Sotheby’s London Sales on…

When a large country attacks a smaller, poorer one—with about a quarter its population and one-ninth its economic output—it’s not unreasonable to expect some manageable financial strain for the aggressor and catastrophic devastation for the victim. A year into Russia’s war in Ukraine, the economic fallout could indeed be described in those terms: Much of Ukraine has been reduced to rubble, with millions of citizens huddled in the cold and dark, while life in Russia, if you’re not a soldier on the front lines, remains fairly comfortable. But as the war enters its second year, it’s becoming clear that the cost to both sides will turn out to be intolerably high. There’s no outcome that looks good for anybody, and the longer the conflict lasts, the higher the economic toll will…

On an average day in Ukraine, the opposing armies lob as many as 30,000 shells at one another. That’s more than 200,000 a week, almost 1 million a month—without including the bullets, land mines, hand grenades and other munitions being deployed as Vladimir Putin’s invasion enters its second year. While Russian troops typically fire about twice as many rounds as Ukrainian forces do, stockpiles on both sides are shrinking. Ukraine’s ammunition use is “many times higher” than the current rate of production of its allies, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels on Feb. 13. That’s set up a scramble to get more ammunition and weaponry to the front, making the war as much a battle of factories as of troops. Neither side is at risk of totally depleting its…