As Election Day nears, the possibility of a disputed presidential election is worrying a lot of people. You’ve heard the scenarios: An embittered Donald Trump loses but refuses to leave the Oval Office. An embittered Joe Biden loses but refuses to concede. Absentee ballots that arrive after November 3 aren’t counted. Or they are counted. The angry left takes to ...
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Coronavirus world is undernourished
Bumper harvests and healthy stockpiles coming into 2020 have helped the world dodge the worst of food-security worries triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Staples have been plentiful enough — and oil cheap enough — to avoid a repeat of the 2007-2008 crisis, and supply lines have held. Nutrition has suffered anyway. That’s the result of migrant labourers being kept home, ...
Read More »Foreclosures likely to follow housing boom
The housing market is booming. Is this another indication that the recovery from the Pandemic Recession is complete for the rich, while low-income households are left behind? No, it isn’t. It’s primarily driven by the usual suspects in any market: supply and demand. But serious challenges are looming for low-income homeowners. Expect a wave of foreclosures in 2021. A slew ...
Read More »Trump’s economy was better than Obama’s
Joe Biden has argued that President Donald Trump didn’t so much build a strong economy as inherit one. It’s good line — but it ignores the successes, at least before the pandemic, of Trump’s unconventional policy. If Biden is elected president, he should continue Trump’s economic approach rather than returning to Barack Obama’s. Between December 2009 and December 2016, the ...
Read More »Boeing to slash 7,000 more jobs as hopes for ‘cash’ fade
Bloomberg Boeing Co is almost doubling its planned job cuts as the coronavirus pandemic and prolonged grounding of the 737 Max jet dim prospects for a financial recovery next year. With the outlook for aircraft sales still uncertain, executives abandoned a forecast that Boeing would stop burning cash next year and said they would eliminate an additional 7,000 jobs. That ...
Read More »Dutch reject KLM cost-cutting plan linked to $4 billion bailout
Bloomberg The Netherlands has rejected a cost-cutting plan put forth by Air France-KLM’s Dutch arm and withheld a portion of a $4 billion government bailout until it approves the restructuring plan. The Dutch government won’t grant a second tranche of state aid because pilot union VNV rejected a pay cut, Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra and Infrastructure and Water Management Minister ...
Read More »IAG sees oil-hedging losses widen to $1.9b
Bloomberg IAG SA, owner of British Airways, said it is conducting a review of hedging policy after the coronavirus pandemic sparked a mammoth loss on oil derivatives contracts. The company uses such contracts to try and limit its fuel bill — usually the single biggest expense for airlines — but lost 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion) as a result of ...
Read More »Steinhoff ex-CEO fined for insider deals
Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV former Chief Executive Officer Markus Jooste has been fined more than 162 million rand ($9.9 million) by a South African regulator for insider trading ahead of the retailer’s near collapse almost three years ago. Jooste sent a text message to four people warning them to sell their stock in the company in the days before ...
Read More »India’s IndiGo to cut its fleet size over two years
Bloomberg IndiGo will trim its fleet size over the next two years as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on Asia’s biggest budget airline by market value and other carriers around the world. “Fleet count will be stagnant, go down a little,†CEO Ronojoy Dutta told analysts during a conference call. “In 2022, we will be down slightly, by 2023, ...
Read More »Trump, Biden close final race with sprint to election day
Bloomberg The final stretch of the race for the White House between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has been fraught with dramatic twists — a hospitalised president, a resurgent pandemic, the death of an iconic Supreme Court justice, and the rapid confirmation of her successor. Yet none of it appears to have altered the course of the race that was ...
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