Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.

On today's podcast:

(1) French President Emmanuel Macron spent much of his tenure persuading bankers and fund managers to flock to Paris after Brexit. His decision to call snap elections may give some in the industry pause.

(2) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of the country’s 16 federal states discussed plans to outsource asylum procedures to a third country, inspired by similar initiatives in the UK and Italy.

(3) As the cheap-money era fades into history, the world’s biggest real-estate investor Blackstone is moving into riskier new terrain in the hunt for stellar returns. 

(4) The Bank of England breathed fresh life into hopes for an imminent cut in interest rates, hinting that more of its officials may be close to backing a pivot away from the highest borrowing costs in 16 years. UK consumer confidence improved for a third consecutive month to the strongest level in 2 and 1/2 years, reflecting a rosier economic outlook ahead of the general election.

(5) Keir Starmer is preparing a blitz of planning reforms if his Labour Party wins the UK election next month, aimed at immediately boosting housebuilding in Britain as he seeks to deliver 1.5 million homes over five years.

(6) A pair of large bets in the fed funds futures market are attracting attention on Wall Street by setting aside the market-implied consensus for the Federal Reserve’s first interest-rate cut.