Lots of rate hikes

Widely expected to be confirmed to a second term, Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed to indicate Tuesday that 2022 will be the year the central bank unwinds its pandemic policies while maintaining flexibility in the fight against inflation. Two other Fed officials said they back raising interest rates as soon as March, and a third urged the central bank to start shrinking its balance sheet sooner rather than later. Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

The amount of government bonds hitting the private sector is set to swell this year, pressuring yields upward as investors absorb bigger helpings of debt. The $2 trillion drop in central bank demand will provide a real-world test of how much appetite actually exists. The increase in supply comes to about $230 billion.

Bob Michele is JPMorgan Asset Management’s fixed-income chief and a four-decade market veteran. In October, he warned the world that surging inflation would force the Fed into faster rate hikes. The world—as well as the Fed and the market—are just catching up. Now Michele has a new read on where your money should go.

U.S. President Joe Biden sought to rally support for voting-rights legislation Tuesday as Republican-controlled states across the country move to restrict voter access, politicize election agencies and empower legislators to discard results. The federal bill would roll back many such efforts, but passage will require modifying the Senate filibuster, an obstruction strategy that’s been narrowed over time. Likely standing in his way—as is the case with his “Build Back Better” bill—are Republican senators joined by two of Biden’s fellow Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. “The goal of the former president and his allies is to disenfranchise anyone who votes against them,” Biden said on social media, referring to Donald Trump. “That is the kind of power you see in a totalitarian state–not in a democracy.”

Though America in general and New York in particular are bearing the brunt of the omicron surge, the nation’s sixth Covid-19 wave so far, things are looking grim in Europe, too. More than half of its population may be infected with the variant within weeks if current transmission rates hold, as the fast-spreading mutation represents a “west-to-east tidal wave,” said Hans Kluge, regional director of the World Health Organization for Europe. While omicron has (so far) inflicted lower hospitalization and death rates than previous waves, healthcare systems are buckling under the sheer number of patients. The WHO has repeatedly warned against underestimating the strain and said it’s too early to consider whether Covid-19 is moving into an endemic phase, as some would suggest. Such a transition would bring “stable circulation of the virus at predictable levels,” said Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer at WHO Europe. She added however that “what we’re seeing at the moment coming into 2022 is nowhere near that.” Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

After one of roughest patches ever for Bitcoin enthusiasts, holders of the digital currency are facing an ominous technical price pattern with a name that suggests more pain ahead. Crypto bulls, meet the Bitcoin death cross.

That old joke about how the highest-paid government employees are state college football coaches isn’t getting any laughs in Congress. A senior House Democrat is expanding his inquiry into whether the compensation packages for some coaches run afoul of laws for tax-exempt organizations. How much are we talking about? Try an $89 million contract for the University of Miami’s Mario Cristobal and the $95 million package for Michigan State University’s Mel Tucker.

There have been a lot of questions about America’s so-called Great Resignation—what’s causing it (other than the pandemic) and what those people will do with their lives. But there’s a related phenomenon underway, one that’s equally significant. It’s called the “Great Retirement,” and now we know who is behind it.

From Malibu to Montauk, educated and affluent consumers are reorganizing their free time around so-called overlanding—a precious term for moneyed folk traveling in comfort toward the great outdoors. The surge of interest and cash has transformed the formerly humble backcountry into a playground for six-figure rigs kitted out with thousands of dollars of glamping “necessities.”

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