What a difference a few decades make. Rheinmetall, Germany’s behemoth arms maker, announced last week that it will begin the production of gun barrels in the U.K. as part of a new defense agreement between London and Berlin—Europe’s two top military spenders.
In Germany, the highly-regarded ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment plunged from 19.2 in August to 3.6 in September. Analysts had expected a reading of 15.5.
The wars around the world are getting expensive. Using a million-dollar missile to shoot down a million-dollar drone a few dozen times a day in Israel, Ukraine, or the Red Sea begins to add up.
The U.K.’s economy contracted 0.3 percent in last year’s final quarter, which followed a 0.1-percent decrease in the second quarter, putting the nation into a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of economic shrinkage.
Japan’s economy shrank 0.4 percent in 2023’s final quarter, surprising economists and falling into a technical recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Kyiv last week and he came bearing gifts, promising Ukraine more than $3.2 billion in military assistance in the next year—the largest commitment from the U.K. yet for the war against Russia.
Inflation in British grocery prices fell to 9.7 percent in the four weeks ending 29 October, the first time monthly food price gains have been limited to single digits since July 2022, research service Kantar reported.
The U.K.’s economy showed no growth in this year’s third quarter from the second, “entering what is expected to be a protracted period of stagnation on the cusp of a recession,” The New York Times reported.
In connection with an Orwellian named “AI Global Safety Summit” held this past week in the U.K., thousands of AI industry workers and experts have signed onto a letter arguing that AI is destined to become a “force for good” in the world, and not disaster.
Britain’s economic output grew 0.2 percent in August after contracting 0.6 percent in July, the Office of National Statistics reported. The increase matched the expectations of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.