UK inflation hits 40-year high

Hello from London. I returned from Lebanon yesterday to find the UK’s months-long drought had been replaced by storms and flash floods. As the skies opened, inflation hit double digits for the first time in four decades. At 10.1 per cent, the UK’s inflation rate is the?highest of all the G7 countries.

Allies of Tory leadership hopeful Liz Truss have pointed the finger at Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and his monetary policy colleagues for allowing spending to rise too quickly after the coronavirus crisis. In this incisive analysis, economics editor Chris Giles asks:?has the Bank of England lost control?

My choices this week

1.?Multinational companies are starting to draw up?contingency plans in the event of a US-China military conflict, following Beijing’s aggressive military exercises around Taiwan this month. The FT speaks to business executives looking to move their operations out of China.?(Free to read)

2.?If Liz Truss wins the Tory leadership, what should be her first course of action? Our chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley explains?why attempting to unify the Tory party is a terrible idea.

3.?Brazil has become the world’s number one soy producer on the back of China’s growing meat consumption, but the resulting land clearances are alarming ecologists. Correspondent Michael Pooler asks?if the savannah farming boom has gone too far.

4.?When David Solomon became chief executive of Goldman Sachs in 2018, he made it clear he would do things differently — for a start he demanded a private plane. Four years on,?has Solomon pulled off his reinvention of Goldman?

5.?“Liz Cheney’s fixation on bringing about Donald Trump’s political demise has turned her into?America’s most celebrated electoral suicide.” In this excellent column, Edward Luce explains what Cheney’s defeat in Wyoming tells us about American democracy.

6.?Have you ever wondered why there are so many American sweet shops on Oxford Street, London’s premier shopping destination? Us too. In our latest investigation,?we explore the rise of the delinquent candy store.?(Free to read)

Thanks for reading,

Roula

PS?Don’t forget that we have a special subscription offer. Readers of this newsletter can?receive 50 per cent off?a standard digital subscription, and get access to FT.com as well as our excellent newsletters, including Inside Politics and The Climate Graphic: Explained.

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