Time (April 22)
“Greece has an elderly population and a fragile economy,” but despite being a tourist mecca has somehow “escaped the worst of the coronavirus so far….with only 2,245 confirmed cases and 116 deaths as of April 21, one of the lowest counts in the European Union.” Some of this may be luck, but experts are attributing the early imposition of stringent “measures, and the way Greeks have largely abided by them.”
Tags: Confirmed, Coronavirus, Deaths, Economy, Elderly, EU, Fragile, Greece, Greeks, Population, Stringent “measures, Tourist
Washington Post (April 21)
“When the price of oil seemingly stepped through the looking glass Monday and tumbled into negative value, it summoned up an image of the world of petroleum turned wrong-side-round.” This shocker “was fleeting, and symbolic, more than anything, and it won’t have much effect on the price of gasoline at the pump. But it showed just how much the coronavirus pandemic has crushed the world’s energy markets — and how the global effort to stabilize them was failing.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Energy markets, Failing, Fleeting, Gasoline, Negative value, Oil, Pandemic, Petroleum, Price, Symbolic
Reuters (April 20)
“Income tax was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1799 to fund the Napoleonic Wars against France. America imposed the tax in 1861 to pay for its civil war. The coronavirus pandemic is not literally a war. But it will lead to massive debts and eventually higher taxes.”
Tags: Civil war, Coronavirus, Debts, France, Fund, Income tax, Napoleonic Wars, Pandemic, Taxes, U.S., UK
New York Times (April 19)
“Tokyo may have been lulled into complacency during the weeks when Japan contained the coronavirus while avoiding economically devastating lockdowns.” Aa the Government urges a 80% reduction in contact, there is too much normalcy. “It seems too many people are trying to squeeze into the 20 percent.”
Tags: Complacency, Contained, Coronavirus, Devastating, Government, Japan, Lockdowns, Normalcy, Tokyo
South China Morning Post (April 17)
“China’s economy shrank by 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, the first contraction since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, confirming the economic damage done by the coronavirus pandemic.” The massive contraction “was worse than predictions of minus 6.0 per cent from a survey of analysts’ forecasts by Bloomberg.”
Tags: Analysts, China, Contraction, Coronavirus, Cultural Revolution, Economic damage, Economy, Pandemic
Bloomberg (April 13)
“OPEC+ group of countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, finally agreed to a record cut in their oil production in response to the coronavirus-triggered collapse in demand. But the deal will come under pressure when the world becomes a more normal place again.” When demand returns, “the great battle for market share between the Americans, the Saudis and the Russians will probably restart.”
Tags: Battle, Collapse, Coronavirus, Demand, Market share, Oil production, OPEC, Pressure, Record, Russia, Saudi Arabia
Chicago Tribune (April 10)
“The coronavirus crisis maddens in myriad ways, and for many victims one of the most vexing is the inability to get tested…. Broader-scale testing is beginning to occur, but the progress is unacceptably slow.” We need to ramp this up to provide “more detail about where exactly the pandemic has struck.” Until we do, “the country will never be able to defeat the coronavirus — and get the economies of Illinois and the rest of the country back on track.”
Wall Street Journal (April 5)
“At least one-quarter of the U.S. economy has suddenly gone idle amid the coronavirus pandemic… an unprecedented shutdown of commerce that economists say has never occurred on such a wide scale.”
Tags: Commerce, Coronavirus, Economy, Idle, Pandemic, Quarter, Scale, Shutdown, U.S., Unprecedented
The Economist (April 4)
“The unicorn reality check was under way before America declared a national state of emergency over covid-19 on March 13th. Venture capitalists reckoned that a third of American unicorns would thrive, a third would disappoint and a third would be taken over or die.” With the coronavirus acting as an accelerator, we might find out the fate for the 450 or so global unicorns more quickly than expected. “A shake-out looms.”
Tags: Accelerator, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Disappoint, Emergency, Reality check, Shake-out, Thrive, Unicorn, VCs
Bloomberg (April 3)
“The cost of the coronavirus pandemic could be as high as $4.1 trillion, or almost 5% of global gross domestic product, depending on the disease’s spread through Europe, the U.S. and other major economies,” according to the Asian Development Bank.