For the hotel chef who can’t afford his nine prescriptions, losing a job could be a matter of life and death. Even among the employed, fear of what’s around the corner is almost as paralysing. It’s enough to put the minor inconveniences of working from home — the unrealistic homeschooling curricula, the crick in your lower back, the maddeningly slow ...

When research firm GlobalData surveyed Americans on which stores they were most looking forward to visiting once the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, one household name came out near the bottom, and well below its department-store peers: JC Penney. That helps to explain the news that the retailer — which began life in 1902 as a store called The Golden Rule — ...

There are reasons to be optimistic about corporate America getting more comfortable with work-from-home arrangements brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Workers gain more flexibility around their working and living arrangements. Both companies and workers stand to save money by relying less on high-cost real estate. If it results in no loss of productivity, what’s not to like? But as ...

The great “flu” pandemic of 1889 started in Russia, infecting more than half the inhabitants of Saint Petersburg, then spread rapidly through Europe. Its victims included Prince Albert Victor, the grandson of Queen Victoria. Americans felt safe for a few months — until the first infections appeared in New York, and rail travel quickly spread it to other cities across ...

Bloomberg China’s state-backed funds pumped $2.25 billion into a Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) wafer plant to support advanced-chip making as Washington tightens technology restrictions on the Asian nation. The Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp plant’s registered capital jumps from $3.5 billion to $6.5 billion after the investment, the company said in an announcement. The chipmaker’s stake in the Shanghai facility ...

Bloomberg India will open up its space facilities, mineral blocks and power distribution to private companies, as it seeks new investments to help shore up an economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration will also allow foreign investment up to 74% in defense manufacturing to attract investments, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in New Delhi. The ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s cash handout included in a host of relief measures promised by the government could be received by eligible recipients as early as July, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said. The HK$10,000 ($1,290) handouts will be received mid-July if recipients opt for electronic registration with banks to collect the money in their personal accounts — the fastest channel for ...

Bloomberg The Philippines’ fight against the coronavirus is likely to become more complicated with the onset of typhoon season, during which it typically has to evacuate tens of thousands of people from storm-hit areas. “As the rainy season approaches, the battle against the virus will become more challenging,” the finance department said in a May 15 bulletin. “The flu season ...

Bloomberg Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest metropolis, faces an increasing risk of flood disasters given rapid infrastructure expansion driven by economic growth, according to McKinsey Global Institute. The chance of such events could increase five to 10 times by 2050, resulting in economic and infrastructural damage that could cost billions of dollars, according to a McKinsey report, dated April. ...

Bloomberg China and South Korea have asked Japan to join them in relaxing controls on business travel as virus cases tail off, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information. Japan remains reluctant to loosen what are currently some of the tightest border controls in the developed world, which were introduced over the past few weeks in ...