Show notes
1. Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, suggested that the central bank will soon cut interest rates. In a keenly awaited speech at the meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, he said that “time has come for policy to adjust”. The inflation rate is close to the Fed’s 2% target. Meanwhile, data suggest that America’s economy is slowing; unemployment jumped to 4.3% in July. The Fed’s next monetary-policy meeting is in September.
美國聯邦儲備委員會主席傑羅姆·鮑威爾表示，央行將很快下調利率。在懷俄明州傑克遜霍爾舉行的中央銀行家會議上，備受關注的演講中，他表示“政策調整的時機已經來臨”。目前通脹率接近聯準會設定的2%目標。同時，數據顯示美國經濟正在放緩，失業率在7月份上升至4.3%。聯準會的下一次貨幣政策會議將於9月舉行。
2. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, travelled to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, where he met the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Mr Modi urged Ukraine to **engage in **peace talks with Russia. He is the first Indian prime minister to visit the country. Traditionally, India has been closely aligned with Russia. Mr Modi visited President Vladimir Putin in July as Russia launched a missile barrage on Ukraine.
印度總理納倫德拉·莫迪前往烏克蘭首都基輔，與該國總統沃洛季米爾·澤連斯基會面。莫迪先生敦促烏克蘭與俄羅斯進行和平談判。他是首位訪問烏克蘭的印度總理。傳統上，印度與俄羅斯關係密切。今年7月，在俄羅斯對烏克蘭發動導彈襲擊時，莫迪先生曾拜訪俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾·普丁。
3. Robert F. Kennedy junior joined Donald Trump on stage at a rally in Arizona after dropping his independent presidential campaign and endorsing Mr Trump. “Don’t you want a president that’s going to make America healthy again?” said Mr Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist. His candidacy “inspired millions and millions of Americans”, claimed Mr Trump. Mr Kennedy’s withdrawal is unlikely to affect America’s presidential racedramatically.
小羅伯特·F·甘迺迪在亞利桑那州的一場集會上與唐納德·川普同台，之前他已結束了獨立參選的總統競選，並宣布支持川普。甘迺迪先生，一位環保律師和反疫苗活動家，說道：“難道你們不想要一位能讓美國再次健康的總統嗎？”川普聲稱，甘迺迪先生的參選“激勵了數百萬美國人”。然而，甘迺迪的退出不太可能對美國的總統選舉產生重大影響。
4. Russia’s security service killed four prisoners who attacked a penal colony’s guards and took a dozen people—eight prison employees and four other inmates—hostage. In videos posted online the attackers said they were Islamic State militants. Four guards were fatally** stabbed** at the prison in southern Russia. In March Islamic State killed 137 people in an attack on a concert hall in Moscow.
俄羅斯安全部隊擊斃了四名襲擊監獄守衛並劫持十二名人質的囚犯——其中包括八名監獄員工和四名其他囚犯。在網上發布的影片中，攻擊者聲稱他們是伊斯蘭國武裝分子。這起事件發生在俄羅斯南部的一所監獄，四名守衛在此事件中被刺身亡。今年三月，伊斯蘭國曾在莫斯科的一個音樂廳發動襲擊，造成137人死亡。
5. Police in Germany are hunting a knife-wielding attacker who killed three people and injured eight more on Friday evening. The victims were attending a festival in Solingen, a city in the country’s west. The police believe a lone suspect** carried out** the stabbings but have not yet suggested a motive or shared details on the identity of the attacker.
德國警方正在追捕一名持刀襲擊者，此人在週五晚上殺害了三人並造成另外八人受傷。受害者當時正在該國西部城市索林根參加一個節日活動。警方認為這次刺殺是由單一嫌疑人所為，但尚未透露動機，也未公佈襲擊者的身份訊息。
6. Nestlé’s shares fell more than 3% after the surprise departure of Mark Schneider, the chief executive, on Thursday. The world’s biggest food company has underperformed in recent years. Consumers have cut back on treats amid the cost of living crisis, and concerns about the health impacts ofultra-processed food have dampened demand. Laurent Freixe, a company insider, will succeed Mr Schneider.
雀巢的股價在週四因執行長馬克·施耐德意外離職後下跌了超過3%。這家全球最大的食品公司近年來表現不佳。在生活成本危機中，消費者減少了對零食的消費，而對超加工食品健康影響的擔憂也抑制了需求。公司內部人士洛朗·弗雷克斯將接替施耐德先生的職位。
7. America’s justice department and eight states sued RealPage, a software company that it says sells an algorithm to landlords that helps them unlawfully** coordinate** price increases. The lawsuit alleges that the firm uses nonpublic data, shared by landlords, to provide daily pricing recommendations. It accuses RealPage, which said it would contest the allegations, of curbing competition and maintaining an illegal monopoly in its own field.
美國司法部和八個州對軟體公司RealPage提起訴訟，指控該公司向房東出售一種算法，幫助他們非法協調租金上漲。訴訟稱，該公司利用房東共享的非公開數據來提供每日定價建議。RealPage表示將對這些指控進行抗辯。該公司被指控壓制競爭並在其領域內維持非法壟斷。
**小撇步小分享: **
Why companies get inflation wrong?
Bosses should pay less attention to the media
1) They find that an unexpected one-percentage-point rise in CPI inflation produces a 0.7-percentage-point rise in expectations of future inflation in the days after, and continues to exert influence in the weeks that follow.
他們發現，意外的消費者物價指數（CPI）上升一個百分點會導致未來通脹預期在隨後幾天內上升0.7個百分點，並在接下來的幾週內繼續產生影響。
2) ..in Israel, where an unexpected rise in inflation of one percentage point was associated with a 0.5-percentage-point rise in expectations.
在以色列，通脹意外上升一個百分點與通脹預期上升0.5個百分點有關。
3) Higher inflation readings pull expected prices up by more than lower inflation readings drag them down.
高通脹數據對預期價格的上拉作用比低通脹數據的下拉作用更強。
4) They assumed that firms obtained information about inflation from media outlets, rather than directly from the national-statistics agency. Between 2019 and October 2022, when CPI peaked at 11.1%, British inflation rose six-fold; by the same point, media coverage had also risen six-fold from its average in 2010-19. But during the period in which inflation subsequently fell, media interest declined.
他們假設企業從媒體而非國家統計局直接獲取通脹資訊。從2019年到2022年10月，當CPI達到11.1%的峰值時，英國通脹上升了六倍；到那時，媒體報導量也從2010-2019年的平均水平上升了六倍。然而，在隨後通脹下降的期間，媒體的關注度也隨之減少。
5) An old journalistic saying is that “if it bleeds, it leads”. Similarly, writing about the pain of rising inflation is more attractive to journalists than writing about the joy of falling inflation. This, in turn, distorts how companies perceive the state of the economy.
老話說得好，“有血腥，就有頭條”。同樣地，寫通脹上升帶來的痛苦比寫通脹下降帶來的喜悅更吸引記者。這反過來扭曲了企業對經濟狀況的看法。
6) It seems that corporate leaders do not owe their career advancement to sophisticated economic analysis.
看來，企業領袖的職業晉升並不是因為精密的經濟分析。
7) Media coverage, therefore, is one way in which high inflation begets even higher prices. By writing about rising inflation more than falling inflation, journalists make the final mile tougher still.
因此，媒體報導是高通脹導致更高價格的一種方式。通過更多地報導通脹上升而非下降，記者們使最後的難關變得更加艱難。
8) The Economist is just as guilty of this as any other publication. Although it is tempting to lay the blame for persistent inflation solely on chief executives, your columnist offers his apologies.
《經濟學人》與其他刊物一樣有責。儘管將持續的通脹完全歸咎於首席執行官似乎很誘人，但本專欄作家為此致歉。
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