June, 2020

• 1 June

  Europeans need to increase solar power

  

  Bloomberg Europeans need to urgently increase the solar power that their economies generate or face a reckoning with climate change they could regret. Those are the stark choices outlined by top European Union scientists whose advice will be published by Elsevier BV. They see massive new solar investments not only for the bloc to meet its 2030 climate goals, but ...

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• 1 June

  JinkoSolar doubles its capacity with new plant

  Bloomberg JinkoSolar Holding Co, the world’s biggest solar panel maker, started operations at the first phase of a massive 11 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) factory in China’s eastern Zhejiang province that will eventually double its manufacturing capacity. When finished, the entire plant is designed to produce 16 gigawatts of panels a year in Yiwu city, a division of the local ...

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• 1 June

  Can Congress expedite US’s economic recovery?

  

  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,” ...

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• 1 June

  We all might be flying in planes soon

  

  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, ...

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• 1 June

  Is worst of Covid-19 pandemic behind us?

  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 ...

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• 1 June

  If Hong Kong were just another Chinese city

  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 ...

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• 1 June

  Lufthansa bailout to trigger turf war from low-cost rivals

  

  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 ...

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• 1 June

  S Africa agrees to $1.2b national airline bailout

  

  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 ...

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• 1 June

  Distressed retailer Party City may cut debt with bond deal

  

  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 ...

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• 1 June

  Airbus set to reassess output after virus hits jet demand

  

  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. ...

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