Guns and Ammo.

CNN+ is doomed.

1. The International Monetary Fund yesterday said it expects global economic growth to slow significantly this year as the repercussions of the war in Ukraine spread world-wide, a setback for many nations already grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic and rising inflation and interest rates. The IMF sees the world’s economy expanding 3.6% this year, down from 6.1% last year. The new forecast is 0.8 percentage point lower than its projection in January and a 1.3 point cut from its October 2021 outlook. The multilateral group, in its flagship World Economic Outlook report, also reduced its 2023 global growth projection to 3.6%, down 0.2 point from its January forecast. (Sources: wsj.com, imf.org)

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2. Almost eight weeks after Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine, with military losses mounting and Russia facing unprecedented international isolation, a small but growing number of senior Kremlin insiders are quietly questioning his decision to go to war. The ranks of the critics at the pinnacle of power remain “limited,” spread across high-level posts in government and state-run business. They believe the invasion was a catastrophic mistake that will set the country back for years, according to ten people with direct knowledge of the situation. All spoke on condition of anonymity, too fearful of retribution to comment publicly.  So far, these people see no chance the Russian president will change course and no prospect of any challenge to him at home. More and more reliant on a narrowing circle of hardline advisers, Putin has dismissed attempts by other officials to warn him of the crippling economic and political cost, they said. (Source: bloomberg.com)