Market Watch (May 22)
“Sweden’s policy of keeping schools, restaurants and businesses open while practising social distancing to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from spreading was seen as bold, but now it has now it has the highest deaths per capita in Europe from COVID-19.”
Tags: Businesses, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths, Europe, Pandemic, Prevent, Restaurants, Schools, Social distancing, Sweden
Wall Street Journal (May 15)
“It is always hard anticipating successful drugs, but those wagering on coronavirus treatments face unique challenges. Some of the most innovative and promising approaches are wholly unproven. Companies are competing with foreign nations and not-for-profit organizations determined to achieve their own breakthroughs. Successful drugs or vaccines may run into pricing, manufacturing and distribution difficulties.” Issues like these explain why “big investors aren’t betting it all on a coronavirus cure.”
Tags: Breakthroughs, Challenges, Coronavirus, Distribution, Drugs, Innovative, Manufacturing, NPOs, Pricing, Unproven, Vaccines
Chicago Tribune (May 15)
The Coronavirus presents major challenges—a “wrecked economy, less office space demand, scarce financing”—to Chicago’s megadevelopments, calling in question whether many “can continue, if they’ll be pushed into the next construction cycle, or worse, go the way of the never-built Chicago Spire and Miglin-Beitler Skyneedle.”
Tags: Challenges, Chicago, Chicago Spire, Construction cycle, Coronavirus, Demand, Economy, Financing, Megadevelopments, Miglin-Beitler Skyneedle, Office space, Wrecked
South China Morning Post (May 12)
In Hong Kong, the “coronavirus crisis is shaping the future of office space…. Net absorption of office space has fallen to an 18-year low…. In the long run, the Covid-19-induced trend towards flexible working arrangements will drive office decentralization.”
Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Crisis, Decentralization, Flexible working, Hong Kong, Net absorption, Office space, Trend
Institutional Investor (May 5)
“Institutional investors have a remedy for the mounting pile of public debt accumulating during the coronavirus crisis: Tax private equity.” In a recent survey 62% of respondents suggested “increasing taxes on private equity, carried interest or performance fees, and special purpose vehicles” as ways “their national governments should adjust tax policies to offset stimulus spending.”
Tags: Carried interest, Coronavirus, Crisis, Governments, Institutional, Investors, Performance fees, Private equity, Public debt, SPVs, Stimulus spending, Survey, Tax
New York Times (May 5)
There are merits to “the distance learning the New York City school system instituted when the coronavirus pandemic hit…. I have been doing distance learning since March 23 and find that I am learning more, and with greater ease, than when I attended regular classes. I can work at my own pace without being interrupted by disruptive students and teachers who seem unable to manage them.”
Tags: Classes, Coronavirus, Disruptive, Distance learning, Ease, Merits, New York, Pace, Pandemic, Students
Chicago Tribune (May 4)
“To defeat the coronavirus and prevent future outbreaks, Americans need to reassess some ingrained social customs and lax sanitary practices.” It’s time to adapt the Japanese customs of “bowing instead of handshakes, using face masks and removing shoes before entering homes are deep-rooted and hygienic.”
Tags: Bowing, Coronavirus, Face masks, Handshakes, Ingrained, Japan, Outbreaks, Reassess, Shoes, Social customs, U.S.
Boston Globe (April 25)
“Say it loud, say it clear: Donald Trump needs to resign over his handling of the coronavirus.” With about 4% of the world’s population, the U.S. has so far “had about one-third of all global coronavirus cases and one-quarter of the fatalities.” The “catastrophic failure” is largely due to President Trump. This is “not just the catalog of screw-ups…. It’s that Trump represents an ongoing danger to the health and well-being of the American people.”
Tags: Catastrophic, Coronavirus, Failure, Fatalities, Health, Ongoing danger, Resign, Screw-ups, Trump, U.S., Well-being, World
The Guardian (April 24)
“Amid the misery and chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there are some short-term consolations. The precipitous drop in road and air traffic has left the air cleaner and the skies clearer.” Hopefully, when it is finally “safe to emerge from economic survival mode,” we will reflect “on which kinds of productive activity actually enrich our lives – and which among these our planet can sustain.”
Wall Street Journal (April 23)
“As U.S.-China tensions increase, the chance of a miscalculation grows,” especially in the South China Sea. “China’s recent behavior has badly damaged its claims to be a global stakeholder that plays by the rules. The U.S. is right to make clear that it remains a Pacific power and that the coronavirus hasn’t lessened its resolve.”
Tags: Behavior, China, Claims, Coronavirus, Miscalculation, Pacific, Resolve, Rules, South China Sea, Tensions, U.S.
