Are investors right to be less gloomy?

Hello from London,

Take a deep breath, because you won’t have a moment to catch another one this week.

Start with the biggest picture: from November 15th you’ll officially be sharing this planet, says the UN, with 8bn other humans. I’m looking forward to meeting the new neighbours, but perhaps you fret about the demographic shifts? If so, have a read of our piece on it (spoiler: you shouldn’t be worried).

Then there’s America. The Republicans flopped in the midterms. They failed to flip the Senate and it remains unclear if they’ll get control of the House. The big loser was Donald Trump. He’s got a rotten electoral record—falling short when the Republicans would otherwise expect big triumphs. The candidates he backs generally do poorly, too. Will that stop him from announcing a presidential run? I think he’ll go for it.

What about his potential nemesis, Ron DeSantis? On the back of the Floridian’s big victory in the governor’s race last week, he may be getting ready for a presidential run, too. Some media groups that used to favour Mr Trump are cheering him instead. Get the popcorn: this could be a bruising contest.

Then there’s the schedule of the actual incumbent at the White House. Joe Biden has pulled off some remarkable feats in his two years as president. Nonetheless, there’s a strong case, made by our Lexington columnist, that he should call it quits and say he won’t be running again.

Mr Biden has plenty to do this week. There’s his meeting with Xi Jinping, at the G20. They have lots to discuss, from climate change, to Taiwan, to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. What’s most important, however, is to establish better communication between America and China. That this is their first in-person meeting as presidents is shameful.

The G20 itself is a meeting that matters. Our editor-in-chief spoke to Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, Indonesia’s president, ahead of the global gathering. Have a read of our curtain raiser on the event.

After that, we’ll focus afresh on climate change and the COP27 meeting in Egypt. Keep an eye out for what I hope will be a big deal to help wean Indonesia off from burning coal.

Meanwhile my colleagues covering business and economics are having a hectic time of it. The bankruptcy of FTX, declared on November 11th, was the latest example of how the world of crypto is falling to bits. Have a read of our piece on that, and look out for more in the coming days. Markets, in contrast, are more hopeful at the moment, after some relatively encouraging inflation figures in America. In China there is renewed hope for the property section. And while it might be premature to talk of being past the worst on inflation, some investors’ gloom has been lifting.

Then there’s the ongoing drama in Ukraine. Cheer the fact that the Russians have fled from Kherson, the only regional capital they’d managed to capture during the war. Ukrainian forces are steadily retaking their country. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president appeared in Kherson on Monday. Vladimir Putin’s needless, utterly reckless invasion of Ukraine in February has been a disaster all round for Russia. His actions have killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, and now he watches his army in retreat. May he pay a heavy price.

Finally, we’ll be watching as Britain’s government unveils its delayed “autumn statement” late in the week. In brief, this is when Britons learn by how much our taxes are set to rise—and by how much public spending on services will fall—to plug a massive hole in public finances.

Reader feedback:

As always, thanks for your many messages. Branden Allenby says that I overstate things by calling climate change the biggest threat to our planet, arguing that a nuclear conflict is an even more serious worry. Maybe so, Branden. One is a steady, creeping and certain threat; the other a potentially huge and dramatic one. I’m not sure how to go about weighing one against the other. Mohammed Dore, at Brock University in Canada, writes that he is perplexed by our reporting on Ukraine and doubts there has been “any attempt at independent verification” when we talk of Ukrainian forces pushing back the Russians. I think that’s deeply unfair, Mohammed. I trust the reports of my colleagues who risk their lives on the ground in Ukraine, often very near the front line, in addition to the widespread evidence that the Russians are pulling back.?

Adam Roberts, Digital editor

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Economist reads:

What to read to make and drink better cocktails

“Anyone can make good cocktails,” wrote David Embury, a tax attorney with a hobby of drinking and studying them. “The art of mixing drinks is no deep and jealously guarded secret.” However, he pointed out, few people have a go—and that remains as true as it was in 1948, the year his classic “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks” was published. That is a shame. Nearly as much history, culture and science can be found in cocktails as in cuisine. Do not be too put off by the theatre and skill on display in the modern, snazzy cocktail bar: the craft is approachable and can be learned by doing, starting with a few basic skills and guiding principles. Though each of these books contains plenty of recipes, this list is not a selection of favourite mixtures. Embury also wrote that out of every 100 recipes in a book “perhaps three or four will be really good and another half dozen can be made respectable by readjusting proportions.” The rest, he said, were “conceived in ignorance”. These are the books to banish that ignorance; to think analytically about all the components of cocktails, and thereby to readjust those proportions; to hone the techniques of the efficient (and occasionally theatrical) barkeep; and to get coupette-sized doses of all that history and cocktail culture.

Our latest column on workplace culture:

Elon Musk’s challenge to management thinking

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter raises questions of policy: is it right for the world’s richest man to own such an important forum for public debate? It raises issues of law: is his decision to get rid of so many workers within days of completing the acquisition above board? And it raises questions of strategy: can Twitter make money by moving from a business model based on advertising to one based on subscription? But it is also an extremely public test of a particular style of management. In the way he thinks about work, decision-making and the role of the CEO, Mr Musk is swimming against the tide.

Most read by subscribers this week:

• Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange files for bankruptcy
• After the midterms, America and its democracy look stronger
• Joe Biden should not seek re-election
• On what terms could the war in Ukraine stop?
• Russia claims to have completed its withdrawal from Kherson

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