Why the Stock Market Keeps Plunging

After the Warhol, the next biggest prize this auction season is likely to be a Basquiat. An orange-hued 1982 untitled work by the expressionist is expected to go for as much as $70 million. The seller, the Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, bought it just six years ago at Christie’s for $57.3 million. Next week Sotheby’s will offer a 1969 Cy Twombly blackboard painting and Francis Bacon’s “Study of Red Pope 1962, 2nd Version 1971,” estimated at $40 million to $60 million, respectively. Those two come from the remainder of the Macklowe collection, the fruits of the bitter divorce between the real estate developer Harry Macklowe and his former wife Linda.

“She’s an important beacon of stability for Russia’s financial system.”

— Elina Ribakova, the deputy chief economist of the Institute of International Finance, an industry group in Washington, on Elvira Nabiullina, the head of Russia’s central bank, who has been praised for her ability to steer Russia’s wartime economy, but also criticized for becoming a key aide in Putin’s war on Ukraine.

The scientist supply chain

The war in Ukraine could transform the dynamics of the international innovation race. The Biden administration, which is growing impatient with supply chain slowdowns and is antsy about China’s tech rise, is angling to attract scientists and tech workers fleeing Russia. Nabbing that talent now would serve two significant U.S. needs, robbing Russia of innovators while helping the U.S. compete with China for tech primacy.

President Biden says the U.S. needs to “up our game.” On Friday, Biden told workers at an Ohio metals manufacturer that investing in innovation would improve economic and national security. He urged Congress to pass the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which aims to boost U.S. manufacturing and includes $52 billion for domestic semiconductor production amid a pandemic chip shortage. “Getting products faster and cheaper and reliably and outcompeting the rest of the world. That’s what it’s about,” Biden said. The House and Senate will be reconciling differences between their versions of the legislation this week.

Russia offers an opportunity to catch up. The Russian Association for Electronic Communications said it expects that about 10 percent of the industry’s work force, or about 150,000 to 170,000 people, will have fled the country by month’s end. The Biden administration hopes to capitalize on the exodus. In a funding proposal to Congress, it has asked to ease visa barriers for Russians with advanced degrees, with a focus on attracting experts in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, semiconductors and robotics.