Crypto News: A pinch and quite a punch

Today, strikes may find you housebound, perhaps with children under your feet. So if you've been observing Dry January, here's a Bloomberg piece for you.

Lisa Jarvis suspects many may be — perhaps even as you read this — hovering next to the fridge, about to swap Dry January for a February "Free-for-All."

First of all, she takes a look at the benefits: Just a few weeks off repairs the liver, improves insulin resistance and blood pressure in even moderate drinkers. Permission granted to feel smug.

But what of the rest of the year? Jarvis cites a UK study suggesting those who took part in Dry January felt more in control of their drinking six months later.

Because of this, Jarvis ends up with a strong recommendation not so much for a teetotal 2023, but to sprinkle some of "the Dry January philosophy" into the rest of the year.

Whether or not you are receptive to this idea may strongly correlate with whether you've spent today moonlighting as a teacher.

Photographer: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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The stories you need to know about this evening

Prices in UK shops rose at their highest rate since at least 2005 in January, according to the British Retail Consortium.
Billionaire Gautam Adani is no longer the richest person in Asia — or in his country.
Overseas property owners who haven't registered with British authorities could face the prospect of financial penalties or prosecution.

A pinch and a punch indeed for the first day of the month. February is upon us and bringing with it plenty of punches, namely the up to half a million union members out on strike today.

Bloomberg Economics has charted the sheer cost of the strikes to the UK economy and the top line is actually, well, not that much. In the final quarter of last year alone, industrial action shaved about 0.2% off economic output putting the cost of the strikes at £1.5 billion.

For Dan Hanson, the "macroeconomic impact of the strikes has been small and will likely remain so. A return to the 1970s this is not."

If you cast your mind back perhaps a week, the mood music between the government and the unions seemed better — around then there had even been briefing that rail workers may have been on the cusp of settling. That hasn't materialized. It all feels like it's dragging on. Bloomberg's strikes reporter Eamon Farhat takes us through the state of play with each of the different rail unions and it's a fairly mixed bag:

"The RMT union said it would consider a new offer from Network Rail. It is currently considering a separate offer from Britain's train companies, who have also proposed a deal to the TSSA, another major labor group. Wednesday's strike is due to walkouts by drivers belonging to the Aslef union, which is expected to hold out longer for a more generous pay hike."

But for some of you, the pain today stems from it also being the largest teachers' strike in 10 years. If so, you may enjoy this by Bloomberg Opinion's Parmy Olson who sits near me in the mother ship. With kids herself, Parmy has been experimenting (so you don't have to) with ChatGPT's abilities in home schooling.

Her conclusion: "Students should get used to corroborating any facts the system shares with other online information or with an expert...Use it with discretion and a healthy dose of skepticism, especially in education."

Allegra Stratton worked for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor and runs an environmental consultancy, Zeroism.

UK house prices fell for a fifth month in January, the longest string of declines since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, according to Nationwide Building Society.

The declines mark the longest losing streak since 2008 and follow a jump in mortgage rates and the tightest cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Those factors are squeezing the spending power of home buyers, putting the cost of property out of reach for more people.

Get ahead of the curve

Latest on the Protocol. Rishi Sunak must sell the Northern Ireland Brexit deal to the DUP and Tory Brexiteers, write Ellen Milligan and Alex Wickham.

Vaccines demand. GSK reported better-than-expected profit and said earnings will advance this year.

Bleak forecast. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt was told to cut taxes by Conservative MPs following yesterday's IMF report.

Struggling. Pubs survived the pandemic, but now the selloff is starting, write Sabah Meddings and Jack Sidders.

Brexit shift. William Shaw looks at the surge in top earners at JPMorgan's European business.

US strategy. Biden's escalation in Ukraine is about diplomacy, not victory, writes Hal Brands.

$18,000

A Porsche blunder put a sportscar on sale for about one-eighth of the actual starting price: $148,000

One key story, every weekday

Sean Penn Photographer: 731; Photos: Penn: Chris Pizzello/AP Photo

Sean Penn's CORE saved American lives during the pandemic. Employees say it has also failed to shield them from alleged sexual harassment or address financial mismanagement.

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Please send thoughts, tips and feedback to readout@bloomberg.net. You can follow Allegra on Twitter.