The Local Sweden (May 20)
“It might be appealing to make the conclusion that Sweden has managed to keep the epidemic under control, without having to restrict individuals and businesses or pressing pause on the country’s whole economy to the same extent as elsewhere in Europe. But that would be a dangerous conclusion to draw…. What Sweden cannot teach others is how to stem the pandemic without a high human cost.”
Tags: Conclusion, Dangerous, Economy, Epidemic, Europe, Human cost, Pandemic, Restrict, Sweden
Bloomberg (May 19)
“Australia’s success in curbing Covid-19 infections is allowing it to slowly ease some restrictions even as it remains largely closed off from the rest of the world, taking its economy back to the pre-globalization era.” Stimulating domestic consumption prove essential “to drive any rebound,” but complicated by consumer worries. “Even before Covid-19, Australian households were among the most indebted in the developed world, with debt almost double disposable income.”
Tags: Australia, Closed off, Consumption, COVID-19, Developed world, Economy, Households, Indebted, Pre-globalization, Restrictions, Success
Chicago Tribune (May 15)
The Coronavirus presents major challenges—a “wrecked economy, less office space demand, scarce financing”—to Chicago’s megadevelopments, calling in question whether many “can continue, if they’ll be pushed into the next construction cycle, or worse, go the way of the never-built Chicago Spire and Miglin-Beitler Skyneedle.”
Tags: Challenges, Chicago, Chicago Spire, Construction cycle, Coronavirus, Demand, Economy, Financing, Megadevelopments, Miglin-Beitler Skyneedle, Office space, Wrecked
Time (April 22)
“Greece has an elderly population and a fragile economy,” but despite being a tourist mecca has somehow “escaped the worst of the coronavirus so far….with only 2,245 confirmed cases and 116 deaths as of April 21, one of the lowest counts in the European Union.” Some of this may be luck, but experts are attributing the early imposition of stringent “measures, and the way Greeks have largely abided by them.”
Tags: Confirmed, Coronavirus, Deaths, Economy, Elderly, EU, Fragile, Greece, Greeks, Population, Stringent “measures, Tourist
South China Morning Post (April 17)
“China’s economy shrank by 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, the first contraction since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, confirming the economic damage done by the coronavirus pandemic.” The massive contraction “was worse than predictions of minus 6.0 per cent from a survey of analysts’ forecasts by Bloomberg.”
Tags: Analysts, China, Contraction, Coronavirus, Cultural Revolution, Economic damage, Economy, Pandemic
Wall Street Journal (April 16)
“Can we please stop talking about “reopening” the U.S. economy?… There is no on-off switch. Swaths of the economy—restaurants, travel, retail shops—were already shrinking before governments ordered them shut, because people were afraid to dine, travel or shop. These fears will abate gradually, with the pace dictated by the course of the virus, not by anybody’s decree.”
Tags: Economy, Fears, Governments, Pace, Reopening, Restaurants, Retail, Travel, U.S., Virus
Wall Street Journal (April 5)
“At least one-quarter of the U.S. economy has suddenly gone idle amid the coronavirus pandemic… an unprecedented shutdown of commerce that economists say has never occurred on such a wide scale.”
Tags: Commerce, Coronavirus, Economy, Idle, Pandemic, Quarter, Scale, Shutdown, U.S., Unprecedented
Institutional Investor (March 20)
“The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the world’s economy into a slowdown that may lead to default rates jumping as high as 10 percent in the next twelve months, according to analysts at S&P Global…. The sudden stop in global economic activity, the recent drop in oil prices, and record market volatility are all putting pressure on the creditworthiness of companies.”
Tags: Analysts, Coronavirus, Default, Economy, Oil prices, Pandemic, S&P, Slowdown, Vlatility
New York Times (March 17)
The U.S. economy is shutting down “as pandemic measures take hold. The fast-spreading virus has put an end to movies, date nights and other economic activity, prompting some economists to call a U.S. recession.” By Monday, “it was clear everywhere that most of the American economy was grinding to an unparalleled halt and would remain that way for months.”
Financial Times (March 10)
“At some point the music stops playing for investors.” That happened yesterday. “The initial shock was the cornonavirus outbreak’s impact on the global economy. Then came the blow of an oil price war. Next is escalating financial contagion. Markets are likely to burn until the fuel of high debt levels and aggressive risk taking is extinguished.”
Tags: Cornonavirus, Debt, Economy, Financial contagion, Investors, Markets, Music, Oil price war, Risk-taking, Shock