Bloomberg Businessweek-Europe Edition September 26, 2022

● Vowing to crush inflation, the Fed on Sept. 21 raised interest rates by 75 basis points, for the third straight time, bringing the benchmark federal funds rate to 3% to 3.25%. Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled even more aggressive hikes may lie ahead. ▷ 26 ● War in Ukraine ▶ Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization on Sept. 21, drawing on as many as 300,000 additional troops after battlefield losses underlined Russia’s shortage of manpower. ▶ The Kremlin plans to stage votes in the parts of Ukraine’s Donbas it occupies to approve annexation, effectively declaring the territory Russian and giving Putin political cover to proclaim he’s acting in self-defense. ▶ Singer Alla Pugacheva, a household name in Russia for decades, publicly criticized the war as seeking “illusory aims” in Ukraine that have made…

The cryptocurrency market has granted US policymakers the opportunity of a lifetime. Less than a year ago, it was on the verge of becoming a systemic threat, gathering disciples, leverage, and political clout faster than regulators could get a grip. Then the danger miraculously dissipated: The market imploded before reaching critical mass, entering the “crypto winter” that persists to this day. The reprieve might not last long. Rulemakers should act now. The problem areas are clear. No. 1 is stablecoins, digital tokens that purport to be worth a dollar and are used by speculators to gain leverage or to park funds between bets. At their peak, such coins had attracted more than $160 billion, which their issuers invested in assets ranging from corporate debt to Bitcoin to nothing at all. A…

▶ Vice President Kamala Harris, traveling to Japan and South Korea Sept. 25-29, will lead the US delegation to the state funeral of former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sept. 27. ▶ EU energy ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Sept. 30. With cold weather approaching and Russia shutting off oil and gas supplies, Europe faces surging energy bills. ▷ 28 ▶ Porsche starts trading on the German stock exchange on Sept. 29. The IPO, valuing the carmaker at as much as €75 billion, will test investors’ nerves in the jittery market. ▶ Latvia’s parliamentary elections will be held on Oct. 1. As in its neighbors Estonia and Lithuania, political discourse has been dominated by fears of a Russian attack after the invasion of Ukraine. ▶ NASA will make a third attempt…

In October 2020, Chamath Palihapitiya raised $2.4 billion from investors for three blank-check companies. He used a previously obscure financial vehicle known as a SPAC. All he had to do was find startups to buy, and he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars. The Facebook-executive-turned-venture-capitalist loves high-stakes poker, and it looked as if he’d found a can’t-lose bet. Other financiers agreed, and for two years it seemed like anyone with some name recognition—including Shaquille O’Neal and Paul Ryan—had a SPAC. The same Reddit investors who made Dogecoin and GameStop Corp. soar earned huge returns by buying shares of almost any SPAC. Palihapitiya called it “IPO 2.0” and reserved the ticker symbols IPOA to IPOZ, one SPAC for each letter of the alphabet. In November 2020 he told Kara Swisher…

Five years ago, General Motors Co. boss Mary Barra was the bold one. She announced a plan to spend $20 billion developing a fleet of electric vehicles—20 models by 2023, she promised—underpinned by a new battery pack the company now calls Ultium. Overnight, investors started to think of GM less as a 20th century relic and more like a heavyweight challenger to Tesla Inc. In the following years, GM twice increased the promised investment, to $35 billion, and by early 2021 its share price had doubled. In the meantime, GM fell behind key rivals—namely Ford Motor Co., which introduced the Mustang Mach-E in 2019 and, earlier this year, an electric version of its F-150 pickup, the bestselling vehicle in the US. South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Corp. and Kia Corp. have come…

Alarm bells sounded on Wall Street in early 2021 when a financial-technology outfit backed by Walmart Inc. lured two highly regarded executives away from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The world’s largest retailer had been trying for years to expand into financial services. Perhaps, the thinking went, it was finally poised to take on big banks. Eighteen months later, the fintech business—known as One—is emerging from the shadows with an upgraded app and a looming marketing push. For now, the venture looks less like a threat to the masters of the financial universe and more like a tool for Walmart’s push to keep pace with Amazon.com Inc., which has grown beyond its e-commerce roots into a behemoth offering consumers everything from prescription drugs to their favorite television shows to groceries. But traditional…