Seattle Times (July 1)
“And on the 476th day, Washington returned—sort of, mostly, cautiously, officially if not practically—to normal.” COVID-19 related restrictions began across the state on March 11, 2020. “One year, three months, two weeks and five days later, the last of those major restrictions melted away on Wednesday.” It’s not as easy as flipping a switch. COVID-19 and government-issued restrictions effectively “pulled the emergency brake on Washington’s economic and social life.” It is going to “take more than just releasing that lever to get the engine back to full throttle.”
Tags: 476 days, Brake, COVID-19, Economic, Emergency, Government, Life, Normal, Restrictions, Social, Washington
New York Times (April 28)
“Delaying the Tokyo Games by a year already poses enormous economic, political and logistical challenges, including whether Japan can hope to recoup its $10 billion investment.” Without a vaccine, however, a 2021 “timeline may be optimistic.”
Tags: Challenges, Delay, Economic, Investment, Japan, Logistical, Optimistic, Political, Recoup, Timeline, Tokyo, Vaccine
US News & World Report (April 6)
The Covid-19 pandemic has “exposed gaping cracks in our social, political and economic systems. The most pervasive of those cracks is discrimination against women, which persists in every country in the world.” But the pandemic might also “be the watershed we need to upend the systems that hold girls and women back. It brings a chance to make health care and education truly universal, to improve conditions and pay for millions, and to strengthen safety nets.”
Tags: COVID-19, Cracks, Discrimination, Economic, Education, Health care, Pandemic, Social, Upend, Watershed, Women
The Economist (February 1)
“Two things explain why a new infectious disease is so alarming. One is that, at first, it spreads exponentially…. conjuring speculation about a health-care collapse, social and economic upheaval and a deadly pandemic. The other is profound uncertainty. Sparse data and conflicting reports mean that scientists cannot rule out the worst case—and that lets bad information thrive.”
Tags: Alarming, Collapse, Deadly, Disease, Economic, Exponentially, Health care, Infectious, Pandemic, Social, Speculation, Uncertainty, Upheaval
The Economist (November 2)
“Investors betting on Aramco as the last oil major standing in 30 years’ time will have to consider the risk of revolution or invasion. Aramco’s flotation is a sign that the end of oil could be in sight. But it is also a reminder that the black stuff’s capacity to cause economic and political havoc will be undiminished for decades to come.”
Tags: Aramco. Oil majors, Economic, Flotation, Havoc, Invasion, Investors, Political, Revolution, Risk, Undiminished
Bloomberg (August 28)
“India’s economic numbers have for some time looked better than the facts warranted, feeding an overconfidence in New Delhi about the country’s prospects. Thankfully, that’s begun to change. The Reserve Bank of India, the International Monetary Fund, investment banks and ratings agencies have all recently cut their estimates of 2019 growth sharply.” This is “best news in years… India’s government finally seems to recognize the scale of the problems it faces.”
Tags: Economic, Estimates, Government, IMF, India, Investment banks, Overconfidence, Ratings agencies, Reserve Bank of India, Scale
Equities.com (May 30)
“Ultimately, we believe at present that the majority of important economic, financial, and market indicators, as well as the established historical pattern, suggest that a final period of rally and exuberance lies ahead before the bull market that began in March 2009 finally ends. It may be that this rally is led by smaller U.S. companies, by non-U.S. companies, or by commodity-oriented stocks. The culmination of the rally could take place later this year, or more probably be delayed until 2019 or 2020.”
Tags: Bull market, Commodity, Companies, Economic, Exuberance, Financial, Indicators, Market, Rally, Stocks, U.S.
The Atlantic (April 25)
“More and more Americans are first sharing a home, then having children. Marriage comes later, if at all.” According to the Pew Research Center “35 percent of all unmarried parents are now living together, up from 20 percent of unmarried parents in 1997” and less than 1 percent in 1968. Aside from changing social norms, much of the trend appears to be linked to economic reasons and financial instability. “In response to an unintended pregnancy, a couple is three times more likely to move in together than get married.”
Tags: Children, Economic, Financial instability, Marriage, Parents, Pew, Social norms, U.S., Unmarried
Los Angeles Times (August 16)
“America’s top business executives may have bristled over President Trump’s ban on refugees, his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and his decision to bar transgender Americans from the military.” Still, “it wasn’t until the embattled president all but defended white supremacists in the aftermath of the deadly clashes over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va., that the country’s corporate elite decided they had had enough.”And, “by Wednesday, so many executives had resigned from Trump’s economic advisory and manufacturing councils, including the heads of General Electric Co., Intel Corp. and Campbell Soup Co., that the president announced on Twitter that he was disbanding the panels.”
Tags: Advisory councils, Ban, Business, Campbell Soup, Charlottesville, Clashes, Deadly, Economic, Embattled, Executives, GE, Intel, Manufacturing, Military, Paris accord, Refugees, Transgender, Trump, U.S., White supremacists
Bloomberg (May 24)
“More young adults now live with parents than partners. It’s the first time that this has happened in the U.S. in more than 130 years.” Much of the cause is economic, but “millennials and their parents may also simply be more comfortable with living together” than previous generations.
Tags: Economic, Millennials, Parents, Partners, U.S.
