Evening Briefing: Americas

Bloomberg Evening Briefing Americas | | There are several lessons Europe and the US should take away from Russia’s unprecedented decision to send drones into Poland as part of another Kremlin attack on Ukraine, Marc Champion writes in Bloomberg Opinion. One is that nobody should ever again dismiss the idea that Russia—struggling so mightily in Ukraine—would ever take on a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member. It just did, Champion writes. Nineteen drones entered Polish airspace, according to Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, enough to make clear it was deliberate and for Poland to invoke NATO’s Article 4, calling on allies to consult when a member is under threat. European leaders told the Associated Press they believe the incursion was an intentional expansion of Russia’s war on Ukraine rather than being a mistake. “Russia’s war is escalating, not ending,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the AP. “What Putin wants to do is to test us. What happened in Poland is a game-changer.” Champion says the overnight incursion over one of NATO’s best-armed member states also shows the corrosive effect of Europe’s military incapacity and America’s lack of political will. The combination has allowed Russia to seize the initiative in Ukraine this year. This drone maneuver, Champion writes, was just a warning shot. —David E. Rovella | | What You Need to Know Today | | | | Deutsche Bank’s US distressed-products desk is said to have notched more than $100 million in profit this year betting on securities affected by the dramatic near bankruptcy and subsequent windfall at Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar. The unit traded and took positions in both equity and debt throughout EchoStar’s various units, getting a major lift in recent weeks after EchoStar announced wireless spectrum sales that will bring in about $40 billion. Distressed debt is a key revenue maker for Deutsche Bank, which has been rebounding from an era of painful losses and legal scandals. In recent years, the unit made about $1 billion betting on the recovery of Zim Integrated Shipping Services. It also spearheaded litigation over Lehman Brothers securities once discarded as worthless—but which are now set for a payout. | | | | | | Klarna Group shares jumped 30% in their opening trade after the financial-technology company and some of its backers raised $1.37 billion in an initial public offering. The company’s shares opened at $52 each in New York, above the IPO price of $40, after a first-time share sale left about half of prospective investors empty handed. The trading values the company at nearly $20 billion. To Klarna Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the IPO cements the evolution of Klarna’s business beyond its buy-now, pay-later roots. The firm, which rose to prominence during the pandemic-era jump in e-commerce, has more recently been making a push into offering other banking products like savings, checking accounts and credit cards. | | | | | Dollar-strapped Bolivia is relying on increasingly sophisticated operations to raise hard currency that it can use to pay its foreign debt. In recent months the Bolivian central bank has raised $589 million against the delivery in a year’s time of 5.4 tons of gold. The futures contracts are just the latest gold operations launched by the central bank, which has been buying bullion in local currency from small domestic producers and flipping it for badly needed dollars. Bloomberg reported earlier this year how the operations allowed Bolivia to raise more than $3 billion despite potential negative environmental impacts in the Amazon rainforest where much of the gold is sourced from. | | | | What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow | | | |