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Germany’s Covid-19 tracing app won’t work

Life isn’t about finding perfect solutions but making difficult trade-offs. So it is with the contact-tracing apps that are proliferating faster than I can keep up with. In Germany’s newly launched “Corona App”, it has got several trade-offs wrong, and should have learned from the experience of nimbler countries like Singapore. The goal, of course, is the same for all ...

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The Fed doesn’t need to buy corporate bonds

The Federal Reserve realises that it doesn’t have to buy US corporate bonds, right? I ask this question only somewhat in jest. In a surprise move, the central bank announced that it would start to buy individual company bonds under its $250 billion Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, specifically by following a diversified index of US corporate bonds created expressly ...

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United Air to borrow $5bn against frequent-flyer plan

Bloomberg United Airlines Holdings Inc is planning to raise $5 billion by borrowing against its frequent-flyer program, pioneering a new tool for US carriers to boost liquidity amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays Plc and Morgan Stanley have committed to provide the financing and arrange syndication, United said in a statement. The deal, which is expected to ...

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