Opinion

Follow the science— these are reassuring words in a pandemic like Covid-19, when widespread fear of a deadly virus can be exploited by unscrupulous politicians, snake-oil salesmen and cranks. Public trust in scientists has risen recently. But we may be hitting the limits of this trust, just as many countries enter the crucial phase of reopening their economies with a ...

A small fraction of a large number can be a significant number. So, although the fact that there are a significant number of ninnies among the 329 million people in this country is embarrassing, it is not surprising. What is puzzling is that specimens such as Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen Mark A Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs ...

Vietnam is pulling ahead in the race to reopen Southeast Asia to city-hoppers and sunseekers. International arrivals were down 98% in May from a year earlier, after a record 2019. Yet success in containing the coronavirus epidemic means domestic travel has already restarted. Thailand, by comparison, is still under a state of emergency, and other neighbours in the tourism-friendly region ...

Warren Buffett says “nothing can stop America.” To put his money where his mouth is and spend some of his $137 billion stash before this crisis is over, he wouldn’t have to look far. If there’s one company that warrants the dealmaker’s attention, it may be Costco Wholesale Corp, a retailer in which Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc already owns a ...

The many demonstrations on the streets of the US fill with both hope and dread. More Covid-19 cases would kill more people, and African-Americans die disproportionately from the disease. They also suffer a disproportionate financial burden from the economic slowdown caused by the virus. This pandemic really must be brought to an end sooner rather than later. So if you ...

Of the 21.4 million nonfarm payroll jobs that disappeared in the US from mid-February to mid-April, 17.6 million, or 86%, were in the six lowest-paid (as measured by average weekly wages in February) of the 11 supersectors into which the Bureau of Labor Statistics divides our economy. In May, those supersectors together added 3 million jobs, or well more than ...

Money is many things, but it’s not fake news. So why block WhatsApp from spreading it around? India is the laboratory of choice for Western tech firms to test out their mobile payment capabilities so they can be rolled out from Bangladesh to Nigeria. Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg entered the fray two years ago by enabling the popular messaging ...

Perhaps the most notorious of the many full-airline-cabin photos recently posted on Twitter is one taken by a cardiologist on his return trip to California after helping treat Covid-19 patients in New York City: Passengers wearing a variety of surgical and makeshift masks fill every seat. “I guess @united is relaxing their social distancing policy these days?” the caption asks. ...

The Federal Reserve has responded aggressively to market strains and the sharp drop in the economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The central bank cut short-term interest rates nearly to zero, bought hundreds of billions of dollars of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities and it introduced a plethora of special liquidity facilities designed to support markets. The Fed’s actions have largely ...

Military leaders don’t like using troops for domestic purposes. It violates every rule they’re taught. You could see that wariness in the face of Gen Mark A Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, after President Trump told governors that he’d just put Milley “in charge” of cracking down on protestors. Following Trump’s exhortation to the governors to ...