Bloomberg Weekend Reading

US central bankers sent diverging signals over the size of the next interest-rate hike ahead of next week’s economic meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But the overall message was clear: strong pushback against investor bets the Federal Reserve would soon reverse course, even if some prices, and especially gasoline, are falling. All eyes will be on Chair Jerome Powell, who at last year’s meeting said the surge in inflation was “likely to prove temporary.” Powell “surely hopes this year’s speech will prove more prescient,” Bill Dudley writes in Bloomberg Opinion, in conveying that the Fed won’t ease until it’s done enough to bring inflation down to its 2% target. Investors don’t seem bothered—in fact, as one market strategist says, “very few fear” the Fed right now.

What you’ll want to read this weekend 

Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s CFO, pleaded guilty to tax fraud, earning prosecutors a possible witness in their case against the company owned by the embattled former president. Meantime, Trump spent the week complaining about the FBI search of his home at Mar-a-Lago, in which highly classified files were discovered. There’s a way out: President Joe Biden could pardon him, on the condition that he not run for office again. “Seriously,” Stephen Carter writes in Bloomberg Opinion.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is working to secure an unprecedented third term as his problems mount at home and abroad. Surging Covid cases and a worsening drought are hurting the economy, as relations with the US show no signs of improvement. China launched fresh patrols around Taiwan to “fight back” against another Congressional delegation’s visit. “We sleepwalk into conflict,” Singapore’s incoming prime minister Lawrence Wong warned in an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.

Apple is set to expand ads on the iPhone and the iPad in search of its next big revenue driver. The company is aiming to hold a launch event on Sept. 7 to unveil the iPhone 14 line, along with new Macs, iPads and three Apple Watch models. After many delays, the company has also set a Sept. 5 deadline for corporate employees to be in the office at least three days a week.

Steve Jobs announces the since-discontinued iAd service in 2010. Photographer: David Paul Morris

The Glazer family is considering selling a stake in the storied English soccer club Manchester United, one of the biggest brands in world sports. There’s a chance United could be bought outright—money talks, especially when sports and business collide. Two latest examples: Paramount is paying more than $1.5 billion to show Europe’s Champions League (United didn’t qualify for this season). And Fox, CBS and NBC will fork out $1.1 billion a year to show Big Ten conference sports.

A list of lists: The highest-paid CEOs. Six cities that are emerging as new expat hot spots. The best places in the US to buy a vacation home that pays (hint: water is good). 

What you’ll need to know next week

  • Fed officials convene in Jackson Hole with inflation on their minds.
  • European factory data will show another hit from the war in Ukraine.
  • Tesla’s split will bring the shares toward a more affordable $300.
  • Britain’s summer of strikes extends to attorneys and a key port.
  • Manchester United may be up for grabs, but first comes Liverpool.

What you’ll want to read in Businessweek

Climate Stories From a Simmering Subcontinent

The 1.9 billion people who inhabit the Indian subcontinent are waking up to the possibility that punishing heat may be the new normal. Bloomberg News dispatched reporters to four locations where heat is changing life, from tribal villages in India where a centuries-old way of life is under threat from forest fires, to Jacobabad, Pakistan, where the combination of temperature and humidity has been known to surpass the level that is considered tolerable for humans,

Local commuters enduring a June heatwave in Allahabad, India. Photographer: Ritesh Shukla/NurPhoto/Getty Images