The Economist (March 14)
“All governments will struggle” with Covid19. “As they belatedly realise that health systems will buckle and deaths mount,” how well the governments and their leaders cope will be determined by “their attitude to uncertainty; the structure and competence of their health systems; and, above all, whether they are trusted.”
Tags: Attitude, Buckle, Competence, COVID-19, Deaths, Governments, Health systems, Struggle, Trust, Uncertainty
New York Times (March 13)
“China bought the West time. The West squandered it.” In the U.S. and Europe, the attitude has largely “been bizarrely reactive, if not outright passive… governments in those regions have let pass their best chance to contain the virus’s spread.” Why did “so many countries watch the epidemic unfold for weeks as though it was none of their concern?”
Tags: Bizarre Reactive, China, Epidemic, Europe, Governments, Passive, Spread, Squandered, Time, U.S., Virus
Slate (March 12)
“The NBA’s decision to suspend its season is a wake-up call.” Others have since followed suit. “Right now it seems like the NBA is one of the best-run organizations in American life because they took the lead on this in a really precarious time…. They were willing to make a hard decision when a lot of other people were not. They stuck their necks out there. For that they should be applauded.”
Tags: Applauded
Time (March 10)
“While Chinese cities experiment with slowly reviving activity, other countries are canceling public gatherings, encouraging remote work and…following China’s lead with a lockdown on affected regions.” But it will still be a while before China is fully back to normal..if that’s even possible. Chinese factories, for example, “are gradually reopening but aren’t expected to reach normal production until at least April.”
Tags: China, Factories, Lockdown, Normal, Production, Public gatherings, Remote work, Reviving
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
Washington Post (March 10)
The lack of candor “is now causing confusion and panic as Trump and his political lieutenants paint a picture of the spreading coronavirus that is utterly at odds with what the nation’s public health experts are saying…. As global markets plunged on Monday and the virus continued its inexorable spread, Trump continued comparing the virus to the ‘common Flu,’ during which ‘nothing is shut down.’”
Tags: Candor, Confusion, Coronavirus, Experts, Flu, Global markets, Panic, Plunged, Public health, Trump, Virus
Wall Street Journal (March 9)
“The biggest activist hedge funds are jumping on the wave of socially responsible investing.” The “latest latest trend in shareholder activism” is strategic. “Highlighting ESG could help activists win the support of the big funds that is crucial to their success—and ignoring the issues could make their backing harder to win”.
Tags: Activists, Backing, Hedge funds, Shareholders. ESG, SRI, Success, Trend, Win
Reuters (March 9)
Two black swans have collided. “Financial markets have been thrown into turmoil following Saudi Arabia’s response to the collapse of OPEC+ talks and concerns about the global spread of the coronavirus.”
Tags: Black swans, Collapse, Collided, Financial markets, OPEC, Saudi Arabia, Turmoil
Bloomberg (March 7)
“A second hit could be coming for China’s economy after its initial shock from the coronavirus…. While China has seen new cases of the virus slow,” growing cases in “the U.S. and Europe…could knock a half percentage point off of China’s gross domestic product for the year as demand for Chinese goods slows.”
Chicago Tribune (March 6)
“We walk the Earth’s crust, we erect vast cities, we boast of our achievements. We see ourselves as the mistresses and masters of our fate.” With the coronavirus, however, “nature once again reminds us who’s boss.” The “little living form that now roils humanity is a virus” and it does not discriminate “in selecting its victims; great wealth has its privileges, but immunity from epidemics isn’t one of them.”
Tags: Achievements, Boss, Cities, Coronavirus, Earth, Fate, Humanity, Immunity, Nature, Victims, Wealth
