May, 2020

• 10 May

  Covid-19: Are we in the great economic purge?

  

  If you’ve been paying attention to the economic news over the past couple of decades — we’re talking here about long-term trends, not cyclical shifts — you know that one of the great disappointments is the lackluster performance of productivity. You’ll recall that productivity is economists’ jargon for what most people call efficiency. Productivity gains are the ultimate source of ...

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• 10 May

  Amazon is vulnerable to incursions

  

  The e-commerce rebels are making their advance. Last October, Shopify Inc CEO Tobi Lutke said his company’s goal was to “arm the rebels” against the Amazon.com Inc empire. Since then, the mantra has become a rallying cry for Shopify’s employees and the merchant customers that use its e-commerce store software. And now, the business turmoil sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic ...

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• 10 May

  Hydrogen economy’s time is approaching

  What sort of green stimulus does the world need? Technologies that reduce carbon emissions are one of the most effective targets for the trillions of dollars of spending tied to coronavirus relief programs, more than 200 central bankers, Group of 20 finance ministers and top academics concluded in a study. There are three sets of clean power technologies that policymakers ...

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• 10 May

  Do Chinese banks have a deposit problem?

  China’s banks have a deposit problem. The timing couldn’t be worse. The virus shutdown pushed households to put their money in a safe place in the first quarter, with system-wide deposits rising by a record 6.47 trillion yuan ($912 billion). Some large banks did the same, parking their own cash at smaller peers that offer higher returns. At China Construction ...

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• 10 May

  Don’t waste great online learning experiment!

  

  When we were told over the Lunar New Year holiday that schools in Hong Kong would be closed to prevent the spread of a then still-distant illness, I went through all the stages of grief. Shock, denial, anger, bargaining. I settled on depression for a good while. With three primary-age children, my vision of juggling a new job, school, chores ...

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• 10 May

  Georgia’s reopening is going really slowly

  

  Growing numbers of states are allowing their shelter-in-place orders to expire and letting businesses reopen. This has Republicans rooting for a rapid economic recovery as people get back to work and Democrats fearing a renewed spike in virus transmission. But take it from me, a Georgian who’s been legally permitted to get a haircut or a face tattoo for two ...

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• 10 May

  Why America can make semiconductors but not swabs

  

  Among the many uncomfortable truths revealed by the coronavirus pandemic is, apparently, this: America can’t build anymore. Faced with an unprecedented emergency, US factories have struggled to make even relatively simple products such as swabs, masks and protective gear. This is more surprising than it seems. While millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost over the past two decades as ...

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• 10 May

  Obama blasts Trump’s virus response as ‘chaotic disaster’

  

  Bloomberg Former President Barack Obama delivered a blistering attack on Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it “an absolute chaotic disaster” as well as “anemic.” Obama’s remarks, first reported by Yahoo News, came in a leaked call as the former president exhorted members of his administration to rally behind presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The comments were ...

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• 10 May

  Chinese city near North Korea closed over virus cases

  

  Bloomberg Shulan, a Chinese city in the northeastern province of Jilin bordering North Korea, was ordered to partially close some facilities after a surge in the number of coronavirus cases. Jilin ordered stringent curbs in Shulan city, closing all but most essential services and requesting residents to stay at home, the province said in a statement on its website. The ...

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• 10 May

  HK police arrest protesters, fire repellents

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong police arrested at least 10 people and fired “pepper balls” in an attempt to disperse groups of pro-democracy demonstrators who defied social distancing rules, local media reported. Demonstrators appeared in malls across Hong Kong, including the Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, Taikoo Shing and Sha Tin districts, chanting anti-government slogans and singing protest songs. The police warned ...

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