John Authers, Columnist

Have the UK’s Keystone Cops Hit Peak Markets Chaos Yet?

Britain is the current epicenter of global macroeconomic risk. This week will be crucial to getting the crisis somewhat stabilized, even if it’s not over. 

Jeremy Hunt as chancellor may eventually be running the UK.

Photographer: Carlos Jasso/Bloomberg
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China’s party congress is in the process of confirming a third five-year term for President Xi Jinping, making him the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The war in Ukraine has reached an even greater intensity, as Ukrainians make inroads on the ground while Russian missiles pummel the cities. OPEC+ countries are attempting to push up the price of oil, to an outraged response from Washington. Midterm elections in the US may well change the balance of power in a country that is growing ever more terrifyingly polarized.

And yet, once again, it is the Keystone Cops performance of Britain’s leaders and their attempt to set an economic policy that dominate attention as a new week begins. Here, then, is what you need to know ahead of a tense start of trading: