Hello and welcome to the intelligence from the Economist.

In New York, I'm John Fassman.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Russia has lost more tanks in Ukraine than France, Britain and Germany possess combined.

Armies will always need armored transport.

Do the prevalence of drones and shoulder-fired missiles mean the tanks are becoming obsolete?

And many of the Ukrainians who have taken up arms to defend their country are not professional

soldiers.

They're ordinary people, including the occasional pop star and songwriter, able to turn

out a steady stream of rousing, darkly comic war anthems.

America's Central Bank increased its main interest rate by 0.75% yesterday, the largest

increase since 1994.

The Federal Reserve faces a tricky problem, how to curb soaring inflation without triggering

a recession.

That difficult calculus got even harder last week, when the latest figures revealed that

prices for everything, from food to cars to airline tickets to gasoline, are still rising.

So that's shocking, that's the most expensive that I ever paid for gas ever.

And it's not just the Fed that's in a tough spot.

Joe Biden has watched his popularity sag as Americans worry about the rising cost of

living.

My administration can continue everything.

We can't lower the prices of the American people and the Congress has to act and they

...