| Happy Sunday.
We’re kicking off an experiment from our newsroom this weekend. Each week we’ll set out which trends and stories we expect to occupy us in the coming days. I’d like to hear whether you find our tea-leaf reading helpful. Send me an email at economisttoday@economist.com with your thoughts.
Start with the economy. The Fed meets midweek, and though we don’t expect an increase in rates just yet, this is a delicate moment. Inflation is creeping up the political agenda; investors are jittery at the prospect of tightening later in the year. We’ll also get data on GDP growth in America (and other countries, including France) in the last quarter of 2021. Plus we’ll get a sense of how the big tech firms are faring when they deliver earnings reports later in the week. However rosy such figures turn out to be, keep in mind there are longer-term problems in the economy. America’s labour market, for example, may face a permanently shrunken pool of potential workers.
Then there’s the troubling possibility of war in Europe. In recent weeks the Ukrainian story has mostly been a diplomatic one in which little is achieved. Are we entering a different, scarier, phase now? This weekend Britain claimed that Russia was planning to install a puppet government in Kyiv. But Russia denies it is planning to invade Ukraine (which that would surely imply). And the lack (so far) of propaganda efforts on Russian television suggests Vladimir Putin is not preparing his people for imminent fighting. On the other hand, Joe Biden said he expects Russian forces to “move in” soon. What are Russia’s military options? And what sort of fighting might unfurl if, say, tanks roll over the border?
There’s smaller—not always lighter—fare to consider, too. Transparency International, an activist group, dishes up its annual index of corruption perceptions around the world on Tuesday. A Nordic country is likely to shine (yawn), but which of South Sudan or Somalia will endure the indignity of last spot?
Otherwise look out for the fates of three leaders in Europe. Soon, perhaps this week, Emmanuel Macron will say what everyone knows: he’s running to retain the French presidency at the election in April. Boris Johnson’s spell as an (inadequate) British prime minister, meanwhile, could be cut short. Sue Gray, a civil servant, will report shortly on boozy parties among politicians and officials. And then there’s poor old Italy. At least the comically awful, octogenarian Silvio Berlusconi, is no longer in the running to become its head of state. But even if Mario Draghi, the very far from awful prime minister, gets the job, trouble still looms. We crowned Italy as our most-improved country of the year only last month, yet it already threatens to disappoint.
I’ll also be watching to see if cases of Omicron in the United States peak in the week ahead.
What are our subscribers reading? Our cover leader on the parable of Boris Johnson was one of the most-read articles this week. A piece from our Science & technology section on a startup’s $3bn bet on finding the fountain of youth was also popular, as was our analysis of Microsoft’s $69bn acquisition of a video-game company.
May your own week ahead be lively, but in a good way. | 
