The Economist Asia Edition October 8, 2022

In the first round of Brazil’s presidential election Jair Bolsonaro, the populist incumbent, did better than expected. He had been trailing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist ex-president, by double digits in the polls for months, but on the night he was only five points behind. The two candidates now head to a run-off on October 30th. Mr Bolsonaro, a fan of Donald Trump, falsely suggests that the election is likely to be rigged, and may not accept the result if he loses. Russia went through the motions of illegally annexing four provinces of Ukraine, following sham referendums held at gunpoint. Vladimir Putin now claims that these provinces are part of Russia, but his spokesman was unable to say exactly where the borders might be. Russia does not fully…

Elon Musk changed course and offered to go ahead with his $44bn deal to buy Twitter, but only if a forthcoming trial that could force him to complete the takeover is stopped. A recent preliminary hearing in the case did not go well for his legal team. The mercurial Mr Musk offered to take Twitter private in April, said the offer was on hold in May, and abandoned the deal in July, prompting the legal action. He has suggested that he will turn the platform into “X”, an everything app, similar perhaps to the superapps that combine messaging, shopping and services in Asia. A cruel summer Stockmarkets rallied briefly over the first two days of trading of the fourth quarter, after a brutal sell-off at the end of the third…

FOR MONTHS there has been turmoil in financial markets and growing evidence of stress in the world economy. You might think that these are just the normal signs of a bear market and a coming recession. But, as our special report this week lays out, they also mark the painful emergence of a new regime in the world economy—a shift that may be as consequential as the rise of Keynesianism after the second world war, and the pivot to free markets and globalisation in the 1990s. This new era holds the promise that the rich world might escape the low-growth trap of the 2010s and tackle big problems such as ageing and climate change. But it also brings acute dangers, from financial chaos to broken central banks and out-of-control public…

LIKE A SUDDEN encounter with an anaconda, it was tighter than expected. Several polls had shown Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president, beating Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing incumbent, by double digits. Some predicted that Lula would win over 50% in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, making a second round unnecessary. But in the actual vote on October 2nd he won only 48% to Mr Bolsonaro’s 43%. (The reason the polls undercounted Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters is uncertain, but it may be that many are “shy”, or suspicious of pollsters and reluctant to share their views with them.) The two candidates will face a run-off on October 30th, and Brazil faces a further month of polarisation (see Americas section). Lula remains the narrow favourite, not least because…

“I GET IT,” said Liz Truss, the prime minister, in an address to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on October 5th, “and I have listened.” She doesn’t, and she hasn’t. On September 23rd Britain’s government spooked markets because it decided to embark on a borrowing spree to pay for big tax cuts. That caused a jump in yields on British government bonds and prompted the Bank of England to intervene in markets. At this week’s conference the Tories offered a small change of policy, a masterclass in internecine warfare and little sign that they understand how much things have changed. Start with the change in policy. By reversing his planned abolition of the top rate of income tax, Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor of the exchequer, headed off an immediate…

IF A LIST were made of the most reviled species in the professional world, only investment bankers would stand between management consultants and the top spot. Sceptics portray these corporate consiglieri as snake-oil salesmen, bamboozling chief executives and politicians with management gibberish and glossy charts while gorging on fat fees. Indeed, the profession was once the subject of a five-season skewering in a star-studded TV series. Its title: “House of Lies”. Recent events have provided even more reasons to hate consultants (see Business section). “When McKinsey Comes to Town”, an exposé published on October 4th, drags its subject through the mud with evidence of decades of scandalous behaviour. On September 30th prosecutors in South Africa brought criminal charges against the firm. (McKinsey says the book is a misrepresentation and denies…