Opinion

The federal government is moving at a breakneck pace to respond to the coronavirus recession. In the states, however, the preliminary data suggests staggering job losses, exceeding economists’ expectations of just a week ago. If the pattern holds, it will mark the sharpest downturn in the labour market on record. A spike in initial claims for unemployment insurance is among ...

The $8.3 billion spending bill that President Donald Trump signed last week to address the coronavirus crisis contains a provision that could be costly: When a vaccine for the virus becomes available, the law says, the government can spend no more than a “fair and reasonable” price for it. But it does not require the drugmaker to accept such a ...

Add doctors to hospital beds and lab testing on the list of things that risk being in short supply as the coronavirus continues to spread in the US. America has 2.61 physicians per 1,000 people, ranking it 26th out of 35 countries in an OECD database. Not all of these professionals are best suited to meet the current crisis due ...

From Donald Trump to Emmanuel Macron to Boris Johnson, world leaders have rushed to echo Mario Draghi’s words as the European Central Bank prepared to deal with the financial crisis: We will do “whatever it takes.” And yet there is no consensus on what exactly is required — not on the magnitude of relief, not on the timing of different ...

At a moment when Americans have new appreciation for the government professionals who protect against global threats, the Trump administration is weighing cuts in funding and staff for the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), created after September 11, 2001, to shield the homeland from attack. The debate about trimming the NCTC, as it’s known, is part of a broader examination ...

Flanked by his chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser, Boris Johnson didn’t so much announce an escalation in the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis as signal a sharp course correction. Exactly why the government has changed direction was confirmed later, when the Imperial College Covid-19 Response Team, whose epidemiological modelling helps inform UK policy-making, published a bombshell report ...

The temptation with antitrust cases — especially involving a company as high-profile as Apple Inc – is to identify an ulterior motive. Why have the authorities attacked this particular target? Why is the fine so big? Surely there’s a hidden agenda at work, with broader implications. Sometimes, though, it’s as simple as a firm breaking the rules and getting caught. ...

When it comes to the US stock market, this is not yet the historic buying opportunity some investors have been waiting for. Contrary to their reputation for weak stomachs, ordinary investors appear to be hanging on to their stocks, judging by the chatter online and continuing net positive flows to exchange-traded funds favoured by long-term stock investors. But after a ...

Europe is increasingly determined to pull out all stops to fight the coronavirus crisis. French President Emmanuel Macron declared “war” on Covid-19 with a raft of measures to keep citizens in lock-down mode, including a ban on non-essential travel, just a few days after ordering business closures and shutting schools. Germany’s Angela Merkel rolled out similar “drastic” moves to shut ...

Images of queues to get into supermarkets, and shelves stripped bare, are stoking fear. Worries about the supply of food and staples do not end there. A shortage of online delivery slots is causing concern too, with people now expected to stay at home for lengthy periods. Grocers also have to address the likelihood that their staff will contract the ...