USA Today (March 29)
“Investors are looking for the number of infections to slow before markets can find a bottom, analysts say. Last week, the U.S. topped China as the global leader in virus cases.”
Tags: Virus cases
New York Times (March 29)
The Covid-19 crisis has awakened “a sleeping giant” in China. “How the ruling Communist Party manages the coming months will help shape how hundreds of millions of young people see its authoritarian political bargain for decades to come.” The “generational awakening… could match the defining effects of World War II” and it “could disrupt the social stability on which the Communist Party depends.”
Tags: Authoritarian, Awakened, CCP, China, COVID-19, Crisis, Disrupt, Sleeping giant, Social stability, WWII, Young
Chicago Tribune (March 26)
“This isn’t a drill. It’s real life. The illness is hitting all age groups and in Illinois, cropping up in at least 35 counties so far. Grateful to health care workers? Want to offer a sincere thanks? Then stay home.”
Tags: Stay home
The Guardian (March 26)
“How did Spain get its coronavirus response so wrong? Spain saw what happened in Iran and Italy – and yet it just overtook China’s death toll in one of the darkest moments in recent Spanish history.”
The Times of India (March 26)
“On day one of lockdown, supply of fruits and vegetables took a hit, despite the government having marked it out as an ‘essential service.’ Wholesale suppliers…say there are multiple logistics issues.” The largest “is the closure of state entry points and tolls across India. Some 1.2 crore trucks are said to be stranded across India” with some drivers “getting no food or water as dhabas remain closed for miles along highways, even as essentials rot inside the trucks.”
Tags: Closure, Essential service, Food, Fruits, Government, Highways, Lockdown, Logistics, Stranded, Supply, Tolls, Trucks, Vegetables, Water, Wholesale
CNN (March 25)
“Scientists have been more concerned about West Antarctica, where the ice has been melting faster in recent years.” They are now realizing East Antarctica brings perils as well, especially the Denman Glacier. This “giant glacier” has already “retreated almost three miles” and if it “fully thaws, sea levels would rise almost 5 feet.”
Tags: Denman Glacier, East Antarctica, Ice, Melting, Perils, Retreated, Scientists, Thaws, West Antarctica
Institutional Investor (March 25)
Due to the “historic buying opportunity,” a few “hedge funds legends” are “quietly contacting investors” These “superstar managers” are “making an exception” and reopening their funds to new investors citing “the massive drop in asset prices catalyzed by the novel coronavirus pandemic.”
Tags: Asset prices, Buying opportunity, Coronavirus, Hedge funds, Historic, Investors, Legends, Reopening
Bloomberg (March 25)
“It’s the worst epidemic of our times, a health emergency that has now left more than 420,000 infected, 18,800 dead and paralyzed the global economy. The scale has been clear for weeks.”Yet the same “baffling” decisions are “being repeated, over and over again. From Italy to the U.S. and Britain, each government first believes its country to be less exposed than it is, overestimates its ability to control the situation, ignores the real-time experience of others and ultimately scrambles to take measures.”
Tags: Baffling, Dead, Decisions, Emergency, Epidemic, Global economy, Health, Infected, Italy, Paralyzed, Repeated, U.S.
Reuters (March 23)
“China is consciously uncoupling from Western peers on rates. Its central bank has held lending benchmarks steady as global peers slash…. The People’s Bank of China’s relative immobility has surprised many economists…. The spread between 10-year Chinese government bonds and U.S. Treasuries is nearly two percentage points, its widest since 2015.”
Tags: Benchmarks, Central bank, China, Economists, PBOC, Rates, Spread, Steady, U.S., Uncoupling, Western
The Guardian (March 23)
“Canada said it will not send athletes to Tokyo Olympics, New Zealand said it would consider boycotting Tokyo 2020 and Australia told its olympic athletes to prepare for the games to be held next year, in 2021 – all in the wake of Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, saying postponement could be an option.”
Tags: 2021, Abe, Athletes, Australia, Boycott, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Olympics, Tokyo 2020