We can brace for the first year one-year decline in corporate earnings since 2020. Microsoft reported a particularly gloomy outlook for the four-year 2023. Tech enjoyed a massive bounce at the start of the pandemic as demand ticked up due to everyone working at home. However, those demand levels are starting to normalize and tech firms are starting to cook costs as a result. It's driving these layoffs and stocks.
Fixing the complex, creaking pension system remains central to President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda of reforms. But leaving it alone is central to French identity—so workers are striking, again, in huge numbers. Our correspondent lays out why 2023’s first earnings season is so gloomy. And America is providing more legal protections for polyamorous “throuples”.
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