Barron’s (August 19)
“Apple is the first U.S. company to achieve a valuation of $2 trillion,” a valuation that Saudi Aramco has also achieved. There are three other “stocks with a valuation above $1 trillion.” Amazon.com and Microsoft are each about $1.6 trillion with Alphabet trailing at $1.0 trillion. “Facebook (FB) is the next-closest U.S. stock to the 13-digit level, with a valuation of $748.1 billion.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (August 18)
“Atlanta’s once mighty convention and trade show industry has been shredded by the pandemic.” The Atlanta Market trade show drew just a fifth of normal attendance, but it was “the only major convention or trade show to be held in metro Atlanta since March after dozens of others were canceled. And it’s likely to be the last for the year.”
Tags: Atlanta, Attendance, Canceled, Convention, Pandemic, Trade show
New York Times (August 17)
“As public health officials look to fall and winter, the specter of a new surge of Covid-19 gives them chills. But there is a scenario they dread even more: a severe flu season, resulting in a ‘twindemic’” with more sufferers and similar symptoms. “Even a mild flu season could stagger hospitals already coping with Covid-19 cases.”
Tags: COVID-19, Fall, Flu season, Hospitals, Officials, Public health, Surge, Symptoms, Twindemic, Winter
Billboard (August 17)
The UK music scene “may soon be unrecognizable because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged the U.K. economy into its worst recession on record.” While socially-distanced live music has resumed, under a third of venues can meet the requirements and most “would lose too much money on these reduced-capacity shows for it to be economically feasible.” Music Venue Trust, a charity which represents 670 grassroots venues, estimates that “more than 400 across the country are in crisis.”
Tags: Capacity, Coronavirus, Crisis, Feasible, Grassroots, Live music, Pandemic, Recession, Socially-distanced, UK, Unrecognizable, Venues
Financial Times (August 15, 2020)
“Forecasters least understand what is going on, and so make their biggest errors, when an economy is hit by a shock that is both novel and large. The coronavirus pandemic is both.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Economy, Errors, Forecasters, Novel, Shock, Understand
Institutional Investor (August 14)
“There are about 5,300 public pension funds in the U.S. today, overseeing some $4 trillion in assets. The 25 largest account for more than half the total. The rest of the market is highly fragmented, with thousands of public pension portfolios managed independently and locally. Fragmentation results in less efficient portfolios and higher operating costs…. There must be a better way.”
Tags: Assets, Costs, Efficient, Fragmented, Pension funds, Portfolios, Public, U.S.
The Guardian (August 13)
“Forget doom-laden headlines, the dollar has not gone into terminal decline.” In fact, the dollar’s resiliency has been upheld even though “Donald Trump’s administration has done more than any in living memory to disrupt US trade” and has transformed the nation into an unreliable alliance partner. And yet, “the currency’s international role has not diminished significantly.” The simple truth is “there is no alternative. The euro is not an alternative…. Nor is the yuan a viable alternative.”
Tags: Alliance partner, Alternative, Currency, Decline, Diminished, Disrupt, Dollar, Doom, euro, Resiliency, Trade, Trump, U.S., Unreliable, Yuan
Wall Street Journal (August 13)
“The U.K. recorded a steeper second-quarter contraction than its peers, suffering the worst economic hit from the coronavirus in Europe as well as reporting the highest death toll there.” Great Britain’s GDP “shrank 20.4% in the second quarter, equivalent to an annualized rate of 59.8%,…. In the same period, U.S. and German output declined by around 10%, while Italy lost 12%, France 14% and Spain 19%.”
Tags: Contraction, Coronavirus, Death toll, Economic hit, Europe, France, GDP, Germany, Italy, Output, Peers, Suffering, U.K., U.S.
Detroit Free Press (August 12)
“After a spring of wishful thinking, a summer of flimflamming, and 48 hours of confusing, closed-door debates, the Big Ten has finally canceled its fall sports season, which to most fans means: football.” This was no surprise and “shortly thereafter, the Pac-12 did the same…. All the other conferences should follow suit.”
Tags: Big Ten, Canceled, Conferences, Confusing, Fall, Football, Pac-12, Sports season, Spring, Summer, Surprise, U.S., Wishful thinking
Washington Post (August 11)
“If the economy is in a rut, the party in power usually tries to maximize the power of incumbency to improve conditions before an election,” but these are strange times. “This White House and the current Senate Republican majority… are doing everything in their power to minimize or even prevent a stimulus deal.” Perhaps “Trump still does not understand he has wrecked the economy.” Come November, it looks like “he and a whole lot of Republicans are going to join the list of the unemployed.”
Tags: Economy, Election, Incumbency, Majority, Power, Prevent, Republican, Rut, Senate, Stimulus deal, White House, Wrecked
