Washington Post (February 20)
“China has an immense challenge coping with the outbreak. Its success or failure will affect the whole world. It has now mounted an enormous containment effort. But these early weeks of the epidemic reveal the hazards of an authoritarian system that hides the truth from its own people” as President Xi Jinping knew about the threat on January 7, if not earlier.
Tags: Authoritarian, Challenge, China, Containment, Epidemic, Failure, Hazards, Outbreak, Success, Truth
Bloomberg (February 19)
“For all the stimulus measures that officials are rolling out to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus, lower interest rates and bigger budgets are unlikely to make people feel immune. And it’s consumer behavior that will influence the magnitude of any hit.”
Tags: Budgets, Combat, Consumer behavior, Coronavirus, Economic impact, Immune, Interest rates, Officials, Stimulus
Reuters (February 18)
“The aversion to allowing work from home is unwelcome news for the government, which wants companies to let their employees telecommute during the Olympics to make travel easier for Games participants and spectators on Tokyo’s notoriously packed trains and roadways.”
Tags: Aversion, Companies, Employees, Government, Home, Olympics, Participants, Spectators, Telecommute, Tokyo, Work
CNN (February 17)
“Japan’s economy is flirting with recession, and the novel coronavirus could push it over the edge.” To some, a recession now looks “inevitable.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Economy, Flirting, Japan, Recession
Time (February 16 edition)
Despite amassing enormous power, President Xi has struggled to manage major issues. “These include popular unrest in semiautonomous Hong Kong, a disruptive trade war with the U.S. and now an unfolding health crisis.” The coronavirus appears to be the biggest challenge. It “threatens to undermine further his mission to have China stake out the next century as America did the last.”
The Economist (February 15)
“Scottish independence has grabbed headlines since Brexit, but it is time to recognise the chances of a different secession from the United Kingdom. Sinn Fein’s success at the election is just the latest reason to think that a united Ireland within a decade or so is a real—and growing—possibility.”
Financial Times (February 14)
The Climate Leadership Council relaunched a carbon tax initiative “with support from ten energy companies (including BP), JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and MetLife. “If nothing else, this shows the pressure that Wall Street leaders feel on the issue from investors and their own employees.” It could also mark an important shift where “the concept might gain traction with Republicans.”
Tags: BP, Carbon tax, Climate Leadership Council, Concept, Employees, Energy companies, Goldman Sachs, Initiative, Investors, JPMorgan, MetLife, Republicans, Wall Street
Time (February 14)
“The number of patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus aboard a quarantined cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan has continued to rise—making the ship the largest cluster of the deadly virus outside China.” The cruise ship now “accounts for more than one third of all cases detected outside mainland China” and also boasts the highest infection rate worldwide. “Nearly 6% of the 3,711 passengers and crew members now infected.” In contrast, Wuhan’s infection rate is less than 0.3%.
Tags: China, Cluster, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Cruise ship, Infection rate, Japan, Patients, Quarantine, Wuhan, Yokohama
Responsible Investor (February 12)
“The UK’s government and financial regulators have laid out a series of plans to bolster climate disclosure and become the first country in the world to have mandatory TCFD reporting, despite growing uncertainty over its ability to host a successful COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.”
Tags: Climate disclosure, COP26, Glasgow, Mandatory, Regulators, TCFD reporting, UK, Uncertainty
New York Times (February 12)
“The coronavirus outbreak in China has generated economic waves that are rocking global commodities markets and disrupting the supply networks that act as the backbone of the global economy…. Whether the downturn is a blip or a serious shock is as much a question of epidemiology as economics.”
Tags: China, Commodities markets, Coronavirus, Disrupting, Downturn, Economic waves, Epidemiology, Networks, Outbreak, Supply
