| He’s not the head of the US Federal Reserve anymore, but like that famous stockbroker commercial long ago, when Ben Bernanke talks, people listen. Following a much-celebrated June pause in the year-long battle to squash inflation, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to resume hiking rates this month. But his famous predecessor, veteran of the 2008 financial crisis, says it may be the last. Closing the book on the Fed’s landmark tightening campaign is emblematic of a growing belief in a soft landing for the US economy: Unemployment remains at half-century lows as inflation cools. Add to that the end of the pandemic and a suite of massive legislative programs unlike anything since the New Deal, and one could think the 2024 election was President Joe Biden’s to lose. But even with his potential Republican rival facing multiple prosecutions, you would be wrong. White House officials started to worry about a month ago that Americans weren’t giving the Democrat sufficient credit for his economic achievements. Despite its vigor, a majority of Americans nevertheless feel sour about the economy. They may still be smarting from two years of historically high prices for everything, and those bruises could be overshadowing Biden’s accomplishments: He defused the GOP-induced debt-ceiling crisis. He passed through Congress sweeping bills to boost the green energy economy, subsidize the construction of new semiconductor factories, expand broadband access and repair hundreds of roads and bridges. But as of right now, “Bidenomics” may not be enough. —David E. Rovella Blackstone has become the first private equity firm to manage $1 trillion. That said, it’s been rough going of late, what with a dealmaking slump that weighed on second-quarter results. Distributable earnings, which measures profit available to shareholders, tumbled 39% to $1.2 billion, the lowest in two years. Blackstone slowed the pace of doing new deals and cashing out of existing bets as more buyers and sellers struggled to agree on valuations for private assets. The results underscore that, for all its heft, the world’s largest alternative-asset manager isn’t immune to an industrywide dealmaking rut. Still, 13 figures is nothing to sneeze at.  Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg The US Federal Trade Commission may pause its in-house trial against Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, opening the door to potential settlement talks. The step is a win for Microsoft and Activision as they seek to close the largest-ever gaming deal despite regulatory challenges in the US and the UK. If your company wants to damage its ability to recruit the best candidates, there’s a surefire way to accomplish that, writes Sarah Green Carmichael in Bloomberg Opinion: Mandate five days a week in the office. A new report finds that firms that require employees to come to the office every day are adding employees at a slower rate than those that offer flexibility. A five-day-a-week mandate sends a signal about a company’s culture, Carmichael writes—and it’s not a positive one. Vladimir Putin, as an accused war criminal, may be trying to avoid arrest by skipping a personal appearance at the BRICS conference in South Africa. And South Africa may be relieved at not having to fulfill its legal obligation to clap him in irons. But the controversy doesn’t mean the organization is unpopular. Quite the opposite, according to Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador to the group. He says more than 40 nations have indicated an interest in joining the bloc of major developing economies as it seeks to expand and grow its political clout. Following the Wagner mercenary mutiny, and the deal Putin allegedly hatched to—as the head of the UK’s foreign intelligence service said—to “save his skin,” some observers predicted the Kremlin leader would lash out to firm up his position. His recent move to kill off a grain deal with Ukraine could be seen as part of that. He’s also attacked Ukrainian grain storage facilities and warned that all vessels heading to Ukrainian ports would be considered potential carriers of military supplies. But there are consequences to those actions: Ukraine now says that any ships heading to Russian ports may be considered military targets, too.  A downed Russian missile crashed into this house during a Kremlin attack on Odesa, Ukraine, on July 18. Ukraine said the strike had damaged facilities at the southern port, a main transit hub for grain. Photographer: Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP Zimbabwe plans to sell 40,000 tons of corn to Rwanda, marking its first export of the crop since 2001. The African nation has endured intermittent food shortages since the government began violent land seizures in 2000. The eviction of about 4,500 former White farmers led to a plunge in agricultural production, forcing the southern African nation to depend on corn imports mostly from neighboring South Africa. Zimbabwe last exported corn more than two decades ago. An online economics forum known for sexist, racist and abusive commentary included posts that originated at many prominent US universities as well as the Federal Reserve, according to a new study. Economics Job Market Rumors, a site started in 2008 to aid newly minted doctorate holders in their job searches, has become notorious for hateful and damaging content—all anonymous. Around the time of the 2008 launch of the Indian Premier League, billionaire Anand Mahindra was asked to invest in the now-hugely successful short-format cricket tournament that transformed the global fortunes of the sport. The tycoon, who heads the automotive and industrial conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., wasn’t particularly interested in what he considered a dull, passive vanity project. But it did spark an idea. “It’s much more fun to create a league and take maybe an Indian sport and give it a professional sheen,” Mahindra said. But “how do you come in and even occupy some legroom with cricket in India?” On this episode of Next in Sports, we have an answer to that question: Kabaddi.  Photographer: Saurabh Sirohiya/NurPhoto/Getty Images Get the Bloomberg Evening Briefing: If you were forwarded this newsletter, sign up here to receive it in your mailbox daily along with our Weekend Reading edition on Saturdays. Bloomberg Building a Green Economy for All: Societies are seeking to challenge the status quo in order to achieve decarbonization. What emerging power technology will be the most disruptive, and which power sources are accessible, affordable and can scale? Executives from Octopus Energy Generation, Sustainable Energy for All, and Andretti Autosport will discuss this and more on July 28 in London and virtually. Learn more here. | 
