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It’s central bank week, uncertainty over omicron remains, and Turkey’s lira tumbles past 14 per dollar. Decisions timeAbout 20 central banks [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( It’s central bank week, uncertainty over omicron remains, and Turkey’s lira tumbles past 14 per dollar. Decisions time About 20 central banks are [due to hold meetings this week](, including the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues are expected to announce the [acceleration of asset purchases tapering]( on Wednesday as the U.S. faces the [hottest inflation since 1982](. For the ECB meeting Thursday, the decision seems [more finely balanced]( with economists seeing little change to the [previously announced policy path](. At the Bank of England, last month’s dashing of [expectations to hike rates]( is likely to be repeated as [fresh concerns over the pandemic]( outweigh inflation fears. Omicron If second-guessing a raft of monetary policymakers is not enough of a headache for investors, they also have to keep an eye on the rapidly-spreading [omicron Covid-19 variant](. Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the U.K. is facing a “[tidal wave](” of infections from the new strain. At least 30 U.S. states are reporting cases of omicron. While the spread of the virus is very fast, markets continue to take solace in evidence that it doesn’t appear to be [causing severe disease](. Even so, company plans for returning to offices are [again being delayed](, and the knock-on economic effects from a wide outbreak may [still be serious](. Experiment  With so much focus on central bank policy decisions this week, it is worth keeping an eye on Turkey where the lira [tumbled past 14 per dollar]( this morning. Despite investors now saying a [500-basis-point rate increase]( is needed to stop further weakening of the currency, Turkey’s new finance minister said this morning that the country remained [determined not to raise rates](. S&P Global Ratings lowered the outlook on Turkey’s sovereign rating on Friday citing risks from the “extreme currency volatility.” Central bank policy makers are expected to cut rates again when they meet on Thursday. Markets rise Bets that China will raise fiscal stimulus are helping buoy sentiment and lifting global commodity prices, while investors remain optimistic the omicron spread will not lead to severe disease. Overnight the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.2% while Japan’s Topix index closed 0.1% higher. In Europe the Stoxx 600 Index had risen 0.5% by 5:50 a.m. Eastern Time, with miners the best performers. S&P 500 futures pointed to a [gain at the open](, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 1.472%, oil held close to [$71.70 a barrel]( and gold rose. Coming up... It’s a quiet start to the week on the economic data front with no release of note this morning. Oil traders will closely watch OPEC’s monthly oil market report for the cartel’s latest outlook on global demand. The [Group of Seven finance ministers]( are meeting, with the surge in inflation the main topic for discussion. There are no major company earnings reports today. What we've been reading Here's what caught our eye over the weekend. - Odd Lots: Why the [price of wooden shipping pallets]( has soared. - What could possibly go wrong? These are the [biggest economic risks]( for 2022. - [Deadly collapse at Amazon warehouse]( puts spotlight on phone ban. - Blinken says Russia-Germany pipeline [offers leverage over Putin](. - Zero taxes, golf and beach houses create a [crypto island paradise](. - Biden’s economic package risks [languishing in Senate]( into 2022. - European and Chinese [cooperation on Mars](. And finally, here’s what Joe’s interested in this morning The price of goods is going up. But the dollar isn't going down. On some level, you'd think by definition, if a basket of goods and services (that make up the CPI) is on the rise, then that would represent some kind of weakening of the currency. But it's not really the case. For one thing, the dollar index has been very strong all year. So at least by this measure, clearly the dollar isn't going down But you might say that this is just a comparison against other fiat currencies, and that they're all rapidly losing their value as well due to the same inflation. Except this isn't the case. Inflation in the U.S. is higher than many of the other major peers, especially Japan where inflation has been very quiet. And yet the dollar has rallied nicely against the yen this year. What's more, people aren't acting like they're worried about the dollar losing value and the price of goods running away from them. [As Matt Klein at the Overshoot]( has been noting, not many consumers are describing this moment as a good time to buy large durables or vehicles because the price is only going to keep going up. In other words, if people were genuinely worried about an upward inflationary spiral, people would say now is a very good time to buy these items, because they expect them to be more expensive in the future. They're not saying that.  Meanwhile, the drivers to inflation have generally been pretty skewed by a few large movers. There maybe some broadening out, but there's still a high level of variability between items, as this thread from [Bloomberg's Mike McDonough shows](. If the inflation story were about the denominator, as opposed to the various numerators, we'd expect to see more evenness in price gains across the categories. Finally, how does the crypto boom play into it? Isn't this evidence of a flight from the dollar? No, not really. For one thing, assets grow all the time for non-monetary reasons. We had a bubble in internet stocks in the late 90s, when inflation was low and real interest rates were much higher. Sometimes things just happen. What's more, as [FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried]( has pointed out, the dollar itself is the base pair of the crypto universe. The crypto world revolves around dollars and dollar stablecoins. And this is true in crypto trading even outside of the U.S., in places where the dollar isn't the official currency. So arguably crypto is helping to dollarize parts of the world, or at least cementing the dollar as the standard unit of account. High inflation isn't good. But it’s important to understand that to some extent we appear to be paying a price for an ultra-rapid recovery in the labor market, as opposed to some fundamental anxiety over the currency itself, which would be far more problematic. Follow Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on Twitter [@TheStalwart]( Like Bloomberg's Five Things? [Subscribe for unlimited access]( to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. 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