Forbes (April 9)
“Watching Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management hedge fund stumble triggers more traumatic memories than global finance veterans like to admit.” The parallels with “the 1998 blowup of Long-Term Capital Management and Hwang’s forced liquidation of more than $20 billion worth of stocks on March 26” are clear. “The underlying forces—heavily leveraged positions colliding with the hubristic belief that past crises can’t happen again—are essentially the same.”
Tags: 1998, Archegos, Blowup, Finance, Hedge-fund, Hubris, Hwang, Leveraged, Liquidation, LTCM, Stocks, Traumatic
Scientific American (April 7)
“We need to suppress the level of SARS-CoV-2 in as many humans as possible as quickly as possible.” We should “celebrate the fact that a half-billion doses of COVID vaccines have been administered globally,” but “more than seven billion people have not received a shot (and may be months or years away from receiving one). As long as this remains the case, vaccinated Americans, Canadians and Europeans have no reason to want a passport to jet around the world for fun (or even for nonessential work).”
Tags: Nonessential
New York Times (April 7)
“Businesses and universities want fast, easy ways to see if students and customers are vaccinated, but conservative politicians have turned ‘vaccine passports’ into a cultural flash point.”
Tags: Businesses, Conservative, Cultural, Customers, Easy, FAST, Flash point, Politicians, Students, Universities, Vaccinated, Vaccine passports
Boston Globe (April 5)
“After a year of forced dormancy, the restaurant industry is scrambling to get ready for an expected boom this summer…. Despite a massive labor pool, some restaurants say they are having trouble finding people willing to return to the business. The pandemic, it seems, prompted some to reconsider life in an industry notorious for difficult working conditions.”
Tags: Boom, Dormancy, Industry, Labor pool, Notorious, Pandemic, Reconsider, Restaurants, Scrambling, Summer
Tampa Bay Times (April 5)
“Physical distancing and masks are being credited for a decline in common viruses.” Pediatric hospitalizations for respiratory illness are down 62% while only a single child has died of the flu, an illness that usually claims the lives of 100 – 200 children per season in the U.S. Beyond masks and physical distancing, other pandemic factors also play a role. “It’s become a serious societal faux pas to go anywhere with a fever – so parents don’t send their ailing kids to school.”
Tags: Ailing, Credited, Distancing, Faux pas, Fever, Flu, Hospitalizations, Illness, Masks, Pandemic, Pediatric, Respiratory, School, U.S., Viruses
Financial Times (April 3)
“Trading by amateur US investors has ebbed as popular bets stumble and vaccine programmes prompt consumers to focus on holidays and big purchases rather than have-a-go market speculation.”
Tags: Amateur, Bets, Consumers, Ebbed, Holidays, Investors, Market speculation, Popular, Purchases, Trading, U.S., Vaccine
The Economist (April 3)
There are now “growing worries that, like a ship which is too big to steer, supply chains have become a source of vulnerability…. As they battle the pandemic and face up to rising geopolitical tensions, governments everywhere are switching from the pursuit of efficiency to a new mantra of resilience and self-reliance.”
Tags: Efficiency, Geopolitical tensions, Governments, Pandemic, Resilience, Self-reliance, Supply chains, Vulnerability, Worries
Washington Post (April 2)
“At the onset of the pandemic, analysts feared it would mark a disaster for women.” All of their “concerns proved to be true. But the social damage wrought by what’s been dubbed the ‘shadow pandemic’ may be felt for decades to come.”
Tags: “Shadow pandemic”, Analysts, Concerns, Disaster, Onset, Pandemic, Social damage, Women
Reuters (April 1)
“Global equity markets surged on Thursday, with U.S. and European benchmark indexes hitting record highs, as the strongest manufacturing data around the world in decades and a drop in bond yields drove investor optimism.” Support is strong with “multiple tailwinds— stimulus, expectations of record earnings, vaccines—driving stocks higher.”
Tags: Benchmark, Bond yields, Earnings, Equity, Europe, Global, Indexes, Investor, Manufacturing, Markets, Optimism, Stimulus, Surged, Tailwinds, U.S.
NBC News (April 1)
“Japan’s famous cherry blossoms reached their peak earlier than ever before this year, with experts suggesting the record-setting date is the result of climate change.” Kyoto hit peak bloom on March 26, which was “10 days ahead of the 30-year average” and “the earliest peak bloom in more than 1,200 years.”
Tags: Cherry blossoms, Climate change, Earliest, Japan, Kyoto, Peak bloom, Record
