Wallets are hurting and the American consumer is worried. Prices are rising at the fastest clip since 1982 and there’s no immediate respite, though some economists see inflation falling to 3% as 2022 progresses. For now though, it’s getting sticky by almost any measure, John Authers writes in Bloomberg Opinion. Grocery shelves are empty of seemingly random products and the global supply chain is reeling again from the effects of Covid-19’s omicron wave. Take the humble head of lettuce for example: farmers are struggling to work out when demand will spike, and prices are surging as a result. Another sign that today’s normal is divorced from the old reality? U.S. adults say they need to earn on average $128,000 to feel they’re in good financial shape.

Covid-19 in 2022 will be more manageable than last year, according to some political leaders in Europe. But in the U.S., the burden on the health-care system is spreading. In China, an absolutist approach has wrought further damage to that nation’s economy. And everywhere, people underestimate the fallout of Long Covid at their peril.

Crypto exchanges are looking to diversify into the more traditional world of equities trading, treading on the toes of the likes of Robinhood. And Bloomberg Wealth explains how the world’s biggest crypto fortune, not far off Mark Zuckerberg’s billions, began with a friendly poker game.

The next 18 months will be pivotal to making battery-powered flying taxis mainstream rather than expensive gimmicks. One investor wants to make his airborne version as cheap as a yellow cab. For something less out there, check out Bloomberg Businessweek's list of 50 companies to watch.

Mukesh Ambani says he’s spending $76 billion on clean energy as part of a bet to make Reliance Industries carbon neutral by 2035. It’s an ambitious target for Asia’s richest man, especially since his company’s bottom line depends heavily on oil refining and petrochemicals. In California, regulators want to cut subsidies for solar rooftop panels—a plan that’s riled up everyone from Elon Musk to Mark Ruffalo.

There’s rarely been a better time to hit the road and go roaming in a jacked-up overlander. And for some tips on what may be the breakout new foods to try in 2022, you could start with an Amazonian superfruit called a buriti—it could eventually be the new acai.

For France’s Macron, It’s the Economy, Stupide

For five years, Emmanuel Macron has been fending off challenges from the fringes of mainstream French politics. It began in the 2017 election runoff against far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen, continued through a showdown with the yellow vests protest movement and is culminating in a culture-war clash with ultra-right-wing polemicist Éric Zemmour. But as Macron seeks reelection in April, the president who was nurtured in the top echelons of the French technocracy has a potential knockout punch to throw: the robust economy.

Emmanuel Macron

Photographer: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency

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