From the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute (BFI) — named for Milton Friedman and Gary Becker, two of the university’s 30 Nobel laureates in economics — comes this warning: Recovery from the pandemic’s economic damage will be protracted and perhaps made more so by some of Congress’ intendedly ameliorative measures. In their report “Covid-19 Is Also a Reallocation Shock,” ...

Covid-19 became a pandemic because airplane passengers carried the new coronavirus with them around the world. As that became clear, airlines grounded nearly all of their fleets, governments issued travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines, and tourist attractions and conferences closed down. With no reason to fly, a quick recovery for air travel seemed unlikely. Warren Buffett dumped his airline stocks, ...

The story of Covid-19 has been pretty bleak, from the scale of the novel coronavirus’s death toll to the pain of draconian lockdowns imposed by, in many cases, unprepared and under-resourced governments. But several weeks after the tentative lifting of tough stay-at-home restrictions in several major European countries, there are reasons to be optimistic about the risk of a second ...

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has said Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China after a monthslong crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. This has paved the way for the Trump administration to strip the territory of some of its privileged trade status. But alas, if Hong Kong would have been just another Chinese city. Hong Kong is defined by ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG may have won its battle for state aid, but its surrender of airport slots to appease regulators heralds heightened conflict between European aviation’s old guard and low-cost challengers. A rivalry that’s been simmering for years has been given fresh impetus by the coronavirus crisis, with former flag carriers falling back on government support as discounters including ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s government provisionally agreed to allocate at least 21 billion rand ($1.2 billion) to the country’s embattled national airline to help repay debt and resume operations after the lifting of Covid-19 travel bans. The proposed package includes about 17 billion rand that will go towards repaying South African Airways (SAA) creditors, according to a draft copy of a ...

Bloomberg Party City Holdco Inc, the retailer that has been trying to reduce its $2 billion debt load as social distancing scraps celebrations, will try to convince creditors to sign a deal that would trim its borrowings and inject fresh cash into the company. The company reached an agreement with holders of more than 52% of its bonds that would ...

Bloomberg Top Airbus executives are planning to assess additional measures that may be necessary to address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter. Among the topics to be discussed at a meeting are production rates for the plane-maker’s top-selling A320-series narrow-body jet, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential deliberations. ...

Bloomberg More than 200 UK travel and hospitality executives, including the head of London’s iconic Ritz hotel, joined a chorus of airlines and airports calling for the government to introduce air bridges to boost tourism and scrap contentious plans to quarantine visitors. The group of 217 — spanning hotel chains and travel agents to chefs — also want the foreign ...

Bloomberg Chinese officials and state media needled the Trump administration over race-related protests and looting that have engulfed US cities in recent days, after weathering criticism and threats from Washington over Beijing’s own moves to quell unrest in Hong Kong. Over the weekend, China’s foreign ministry and state media seized the opportunity to fire back at Trump. Chinese propaganda outlets ...