The US Space Force — which has been dismissed variously as a fantasy, a presidential folly and a prospective Pentagon turf war — was finally set to launch for real on Saturday — as 86 newly minted space warriors graduate from the Air Force Academy. The surprise in this space startup, so far, is that most of the bad things ...

Judging by the number of motor vehicles being stolen in New York City right now, cars have become no less desirable during a lockdown. Burglary rates aren’t a reliable economic indicator, but they’re far from the only sign that car demand could prove more resilient than might appear from recent record sales declines. If unemployment doesn’t surge even higher — ...

President Donald Trump’s reopening guidelines for states are more cautious than you might expect from someone who consistently calls for a rapid return to economic activity. The “gating” metrics that states are supposed to meet before reopening are fairly robust: They should see a two-week downward trajectory of flu and Covid-like symptoms, and a two-week downward trajectory of documented cases ...

The coronavirus pandemic and its devastating effect on the US economy has ensured that big government—the one that’s already spending some $4.7 trillion in the current fiscal year—is poised to get even larger. As in past crises that led to massive government interventions, new initiatives will largely stay in place once the business downturn ends to the long-term detriment of ...

The US has surpassed 28,000 dead from Covid-19, which is almost certainly an undercount, and is bracing for more. President Donald Trump’s partisan and incoherent response — the sum of his positions is that he has both total authority and zero responsibility — has made the crisis more political than it might have been. Multiple governors have shown a better ...

The coronavirus pandemic has gutted many US businesses. Amazon.com Inc, of course, is one of the notable exceptions. The e-commerce giant is thriving as self-isolating consumers make more and more of their purchases online rather than risk Covid-19 infection by shopping outdoors. To illustrate the magnitude of the recent ramp-up, the company announced earlier this week it plans to hire ...

So much of the news around Covid-19 is scary, but there is a hopeful item to share: A steep rise in the learning curve of doctors treating critically ill coronavirus patients. Doctors are learning more about just how weird this disease can be when people get sick enough to be hospitalised. Some say that unlike typical cases of severe pneumonia, ...

Bloomberg The pandemic has many of us acting in unusual ways, and the world’s largest e-commerce company is no exception. In a stunning reprieve from the prerogatives of capitalism, Amazon.com Inc. has begun discouraging users from buying things they don’t need. Amazon is suppressing extraneous consumption in various ways, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It isn’t ...

Bloomberg By mid-March, John Lyotier’s travel software business Left Technologies Inc. was cratering with the spread of the pandemic. Seeking to cut costs, he reached out to his office landlord, who offered rent relief. Then he contacted Amazon.com Inc., asking to “explore creative financing opportunities” for his monthly cloud-computing bill. The response was succinct. “’Nope, that’s the way it is,’” ...

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co. is warning of significant damage wreaked by a tornado in South Carolina this week that knocked out a BorgWarner Inc. auto-parts plant supplying a key component for the automaker’s most profitable models. The Seneca, South Carolina, parts factory makes transfer cases, an important component of four-wheel-drive systems that Ford uses in its F-150 pickup, its biggest ...