November, 2020

• 16 November

  India’s better tomorrow won’t fix issues right now

  

  India’s currency is strong, the stock market is surging, and long-term interest rates are under control. The technical recession that blighted the June and September quarters is probably already over. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rolled out the red carpet for industries ranging from automobiles and solar panels to specialty steel. The iPhone supply chain is keen to set up ...

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• 16 November

  France offers another hope on Covid

  

  When Nobel Prize-winning economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee urged France’s Emmanuel Macron in September to impose a tough three-week circuit-breaker lockdown to halt the spread of Covid-19 in time for Christmas, they were politely ignored. Macron’s health minister, Olivier Veran, dismissed such planning as “pie in the sky” and said lockdowns were to be avoided. Six weeks later, the ...

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• 16 November

  Zambia careening towards debt debacle

  Zambia has been careening towards a debt debacle for months, even years. Now it has become the first African nation to default on sovereign payments since the pandemic began. That’s bad news for everyone involved, from the bondholders who refused to agree to a standstill, to Chinese lenders, multilateral institutions and the government. A protracted restructuring lies ahead. More transparency ...

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• 16 November

  America’s voting system is underperforming

  The administration of the 2020 election wasn’t the calamity some had feared. Warnings of armed violence and voter intimidation came to nothing. Polling sites were sufficiently staffed, the system coped with the Covid-related surge in mail-in ballots, and Election Day lines remained manageable even in historically underserved areas. With few exceptions, voting equipment functioned properly. In the most encouraging sign ...

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• 16 November

  Amazon lures food-stamp shoppers as e-comm rises

  

  Bloomberg Ian Babcock used to take the bus from his home in northern Michigan to get groceries, a trip that was inconvenient before the pandemic made it dangerous. For the last several months, he’s been using his food-stamp benefits to get groceries delivered by Amazon. “It potentially is a lifesaver for me,” he said. Babcock is among one million-plus US ...

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• 16 November

  Burberry aims to slash markdowns to shore up profitability

  

  Bloomberg Burberry Group Plc is betting there are still enough consumers who would be willing to pay more for its trenchcoats and purses, even amid the pandemic. The company said it will reduce markdowns, a measure that may hurt second-half sales though should improve long-term profitability. The stock rose as much as 5.8% after first-half sales declined less than expected ...

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• 16 November

  Boeing upbeat in China with aircraft orders forecast

  

  Bloomberg Boeing Co expects China to continue to be the main driver in aviation growth worldwide over the next 20 years, saying Chinese airlines are likely to buy 8,600 new airplanes worth $1.4 trillion during the period. The US manufacturer said its outlook reflects an expected robust recovery for China from the Covid-19 pandemic, driven by its expanding middle-class, economic ...

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• 16 November

  Covid tests needed even with vaccine: Heathrow

  

  Bloomberg Airline passengers will need to take Covid-19 tests before flying long after a vaccine for the viral infection is introduced, according to the head of the airport that was Europe’s busiest before the pandemic struck. The time required for a global vaccine roll-out means testing must go hand-in-hand with inoculation if international travel is to return to meaningful levels, ...

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• 16 November

  Australia retail sales surge by record

  Bloomberg Australian household spending surged by a record last quarter, led by cafes and clothing and footwear stores as Covid restrictions in much of the country were unwound, underscoring the central bank’s contention that economic growth “increased solidly” in the period. Quarterly retail volumes advanced 6.5% in the three months through September, after declining 3.5% in the prior quarter, the ...

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• 16 November

  Trump tweets that Biden won election, says vote was ‘rigged’

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump appeared to accept for the first time that Joe Biden had been elected the next president, tweeting on Sunday that the Democrat “won because the Election was Rigged.” “NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for ...

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