Here’s one more issue to add to the bonfire of tensions with China brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The country is reportedly reopening its wet markets, the fresh produce stalls associated with Covid-19’s early spread in Wuhan. It’s understandable that countries now in the grip of the first wave of infection might be outraged. Many blame wet markets for ...

As the Black Death scythed through Europe in 1348 and 1349, workers across the continent discovered that they had power for the first time in their lives. Textile workers in St. Omer in northern France asked for and received three successive wage rises within a year of the Great Plague’s passing. Many workers’ guilds struck for higher pay and shorter ...

It’s still early, but I think we can already say that Donald Trump is totally failing when it comes to economic leadership during the coronavirus recession. The thing about the 10 million — 10 million! — people who have filed for unemployment in the last two weeks is that everyone has seen this coming for some time. Indeed, it is ...

The coronavirus has already dealt a vicious blow to key sectors of the US economy. If the pandemic drags on into the fall, though, it’s likely to devastate yet another area that has so far escaped with minimal damage: higher education. The problems confronting the nation’s colleges and universities long predate today’s crisis. But if current trends continue, the pandemic ...

The photo stopped me in my tracks: Californians jogging, walking and cycling along a crowded bike path. Surely it must have been snapped weeks ago, before “social distancing” became a phrase on everyone’s lips? No: The photo was dated March 28, almost 10 days after Governor Gavin Newsom issued a “stay at home” order to combat the coronavirus pandemic in ...

In 2017, the British billionaire Richard Branson agreed to cut his stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd to just 20% by selling one-third of the airline to Air France-KLM. In December, he had a change of heart about that 220 million-pound ($274 million) deal, and opted to keep his shareholding in the company he founded at 51%. America’s Delta Air ...

Bloomberg Stocks jumped in Europe and Asia alongside US equity futures after the reported death tolls in some of the world’s coronavirus hot spots showed signs of easing over the weekend. The dollar strengthened and Treasuries fell. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index opened solidly higher after Italy said it had the fewest deaths in more than two weeks, while France ...

Bloomberg Asia stocks are not out of the woods yet, despite the recent bear-market rally, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Investors who may be getting optimistic that markets across the region have bottomed should resist that notion, strategists led by Timothy Moe said in a note on Monday. The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index has rebounded some 12% since ...

Bloomberg A slowdown in the growth rate of new US coronavirus cases may help put a floor under stocks and dampen volatility, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The Cboe Volatility Index has been tracking data associated with the global spread of cases and has shown a relationship with growth at the US state level, technical strategists Jason Hunter and ...

Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) cut the amount of cash that some banks have to put aside as reserves, injecting liquidity to encourage lending as the world’s second-largest economy is set for the slowest growth since 1976. The required reserve ratio (RRR) for rural banks and small city commercial banks will be lowered 1 percentage point, the PBOC ...