Investment Week (October 20)
“The UK’s credit rating has been downgraded by Moody’s amid a looming economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic and the forthcoming Brexit deadline.” The UK’s sovereign debt status dropped “one notch to Aa3, from Aa2,” with the ratings agency “noting that Britain’s growth has been meaningfully weaker than expected and is likely to remain so in the future.”
Tags: Aa3, Brexit, Coronavirus, Credit rating, Deadline, Debt, Downgraded, Economic hit, Looming, Moody's, Pandemic, Sovereign, UK
Denver Post (October 20)
“Poor people around the world who were among the hardest hit by the virus pandemic are also likely to be the last to recover from it.” The vaccines showing the most promise “need nonstop sterile refrigeration to stay potent and safe.” This isn’t available for over a third of the population. “Nearly 3 billion of the world’s 7.8 billion people live where temperature-controlled storage is insufficient for an immunization campaign to bring COVID-19 under control.”
Tags: COVID-19, Immunization, Pandemic, Poor, Population, Potent, Recover, Refrigeration, Safe, Sterile, Storage, Temperature, Vaccines
The Times (October 19)
“The pandemic has laid waste to high streets, costing thousands of jobs in the process.” A recent PWC study starkly illustrates the observation that “shop closures soared at a record rate in the first half of the year as coronavirus lockdowns hit the high street.” During that period, “Britain lost 6,001 more chain stores than it gained in the first half, up from a loss of 3,509 in the same period last year.”
Tags: Britain, Closures, Coronavirus, High streets, Jobs, Lockdowns, Pandemic, PwC, Shops, Stores, Waste
Reuters (October 19)
“China’s economic recovery accelerated in the third quarter as consumers shook off their coronavirus caution, although the weaker-than-expected headline growth suggested persistent risks for one of the few drivers of global demand.”
Tags: Caution, China, Consumers, Coronavirus, Drivers, Expected, Global demand, Growth, Persistent, Recovery, Risks, Weaker
The Financial Times (October 19)
As the second wave of COVID-19 strikes, “Europe’s economy is sliding towards a double-dip recession, with economists warning that rising coronavirus infections and fresh government restrictions on people’s movement are likely to cut short the region’s recent recovery.”
Tags: COVID-19, Double-dip, Economists, Economy, Europe, Government, Infections, Movement, Recession, Restrictions, Second wave
The Economist (October 17)
“The prime minister’s election victory in December ought to have banished the memory of Theresa May’s hobbled premiership and rendered him dominant,” but he now bears “than a passing resemblance to his predecessor.” The first COVID-19 “wave cost Mr Johnson a great deal of his political capital. If the government’s record does not improve, the second could exhaust it.”
Tags: COVID-19, Election, Exhaust, Hobbled, Johnson, May, Political capital, Predecessor, Premiership, Prime minister, Resemblance
Washington Post (October 16)
“Europe set a record this week for new coronavirus infections, overtaking the United States in cases per capita.” With the new surge, Covid-19 has become “Europe’s fifth-leading cause of death” and there is now the potential that “death rates on the continent this winter could be five times as bad as the April peak if people are not strict about masks and social distancing.”
Tags: Cases, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death rates, Europe, Masks, Peak, Record, Strict, U.S.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (October 15)
“Wisconsin’s crisis is one of the worst in the country.” New COVID-19 cases “have continued their meteoric rise unfettered since September, the daily average more than quadrupling in six weeks, so it’s likely that hospitalization and death numbers will become even more dire in coming weeks.” With coronavirus patients tripling in the last month, “hospitals across the state are at or near capacity.”
Tags: COVID-19, Crisis, Death, Hospitalization, Meteoric, Patients, Quadrupling, U.S., Unfettered, Wisconsin, Worst
Wall Street Journal (October 14)
“The two economies will be factors driving the choices voters make in November. The reality for Mr. Trump: Many achievements of his first economy have been wiped out by the second.” The post-Covid economy was “historically bad. It sent unemployment to depths unseen in post-Depression records before reversing itself quickly but only partially, leaving the U.S. with an outlook that’s especially hard to forecast.”
Tags: Achievements, Choices, Depression, Economy, Historically bad, November, Post-Covid, Trump, U.S., Unemployment, Voters, Wiped out
San Francisco Chronicle (October 13)
“As coronavirus cases swell across much of the United States and the nation lurches toward a uniquely tumultuous election day, California has held off another pandemic upswing. Public health experts, however, warn the state is still vulnerable.” The nation “topped 50,000 new cases on four of the past seven day, the highest numbers since August.”
Tags: California, Cases, Coronavirus, Election day, Experts, Pandemic, Public health, Swell, Tumultuous, U.S., Upswing, Vulnerable
