Ease yourself into the new week
(Bloomberg) —
Well, hello again.
All set for the new PM then? Here’s a little something in the meantime to tide you over for the new week.
The big reveal: To be fair, if Rishi Sunak were to sneak this one, it would rank as one of the bigger political shocks out there. So, barring something truly unexpected, Liz Truss will fly to Balmoral on Tuesday where the Queen will ask her to form the next government. Our Economics team looks into how her plan to turbo-charge the economy by slashing taxes is already worrying investors.
The big debut: Laura Kuenssberg’s new flagship Sunday TV program on the BBC included interviews with Sunak and Truss. Sunak said he’d stay on as an MP even if he loses the leadership race while Truss promised to “act immediately” on energy bills. The foreign secretary added that it was the Bank of England’s job to control inflation.
The big project: One of Boris Johnson’s final signoffs was to commit the government to fund the Sizewell C power station on the Suffolk coast — possibly something that Team Truss hadn’t bargained for. Rachel Morison explains why the “go big” gambit on nuclear power is a long shot.
The big market thought: Britain’s mid-cap index, made up of companies that are heavily dependent on the local economy, is down 20% this year and on course for its biggest-ever annual underperformance against the exporter-heavy FTSE 100. With recession looming and the pound plunging, it’s hard to see any improvement on the horizon, write Joe Easton and Michael Msika.
The big choice: 50 or 75? With the looming economic crisis looking just as nasty in Europe as it does in the UK, Christine Lagarde and her team at the European Central Bank will decide whether to raise interest rates by half a point or an unprecedented three-quarters of a point. It’s a decision made all the more complex by Russia’s decision to keep the Nord Stream pipeline shut indefinitely.
The big meeting: A couple of weeks after Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdulaziz said the oil markets was “in a state of schizophrenia,” OPEC+ ministers gather on Monday to debate whether to start rolling back recent production increases, or hold steady for now. It’s also worth noting that EU energy ministers hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday.
The big autopsy: NASA engineers are pondering whether to start the slow process of coaxing the Artemis I spacecraft back to its hangar after scrubbing the planned flight for the second time in a week. Leak inspections and repairs mean a launch is unlikely until at least late this month.
The big match: The Champions League is here again with a load of second-tier clubs yapping at the feet of the big dogs. It’s a welcome diversion for some from the early frenzy of the Premier League. Getting your Premier League fix is proving more expensive than ever, Matthew Musindi reports, and you can probably blame Amazon for that.
The big buy: Zeinab Diouf asks what £1 million could get you these days in London’s housing market. Answer: not much more than an average detached home.
And finally, at the other end of the London property spectrum, listen to our “In the City” podcast. A guy known in the game as The Secret Agent gives David Merritt and Francine Lacqua the inside skinny on how to buy and sell the capital’s most expensive homes.
Good luck this week. See you on the other side.
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