May, 2020

• 6 May

  Taiwan urges WHO to defy China, let it join key meeting

  

  Bloomberg Taiwan urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to allow it to rejoin a key global health assembly later this month despite objections from China, as Taipei pushes for more inclusion in international bodies. Taiwan needs a seat at the WHO’s annual decision-making meeting, the World Health Assembly (WHA), on May 18 to allow it access to firsthand information about ...

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• 6 May

  Johnson says changes to UK lockdown likely

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he will lay out the next steps in his UK government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, and some changes to the nationwide lockdown are likely to take effect the following day. As part of its plans to exit the lockdown, the government has already said it will roll out a mass program ...

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• 6 May

  To escape lockdown, follow the health data

  

  The most important trait of any Covid-19 contact-tracing app is that people actually use it. Without widespread adoption, we may all be locked down for a lot longer. Just how widespread? In the UK, at least 80% of smartphone users, covering 56% of the total population, will need to use the app to be effective in tracing contacts with those ...

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• 6 May

  Think about your post-lockdown office

  

  Whether working from home has been a productivity and wellness-enhancing revelation or a burden to be shouldered with stoic resolve depends on your job, your home setup and your personality. It may even depend on the day. But just as air travel changed beyond recognition after 9/11, traditional offices appear set to become safer, cleaner and less pleasing environments too. ...

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• 6 May

  Should we watch the unemployment data?

  If IMF estimates are accurate, this will be the first time since the Great Depression that both advanced and emerging economies could be in recession. The potential of unemployment rising to double digits is also reminiscent of the depression of the 1930s. Some of the great economic ideas of our time were forged in the experience of that previous economic ...

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• 6 May

  Germany’s top court deserves our thanks

  So orderly, so nit-picking, so German. This week, Germany’s constitutional court in Karlsruhe finally delivered its verdict on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) most prominent bond-buying program. Weighing in at 110 pages, this ruling was historic. For the first time, a national court in effect overruled the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Well spaced out because of the new ...

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• 6 May

  Malaysia is crucial to Asia’s Covid-19 damage control

  

  Asia has a new public emergency: breathing life into moribund economies. Months after severely curtailing social and commercial activity in a bid to contain Covid-19, governments are scrambling to reboot activity. They confront a coronavirus that isn’t out of business but economies that very nearly are. The policy priority is shifting from suppressing infections at almost any cost to combating ...

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• 6 May

  Trump lies weaken the US democracy

  

  President Donald Trump is a liar — hardly the first but certainly the worst among US presidents. By one count, he has made about 18,000 false or misleading claims, an unmistakable sign of his willingness to deceive. His supporters do not seem especially bothered. They focus on what Trump does, not on whether he tells the truth. Which raises a ...

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• 6 May

  America’s reopening will depend on one thing: Trust

  

  As America’s economic reopening fitfully proceeds, it is becoming clear that it will require a precious resource often in short supply: trust. Americans are about to see a new referendum on how strong is the glue that holds them together. Should you show up again for work? It depends how much you trust the pronouncements of your employer that the ...

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• 6 May

  US equity-index futures gain with Europe stocks; dollar up

  

  Bloomberg US equity-index futures gained on Wednesday after President Donald Trump pushed again to reopen the economy, while stocks in Europe drifted amid mixed corporate earnings and more dismal economic data. The dollar steadied and Treasury yields edged higher. The Stoxx Europe 600 index struggled for direction after advancing the most in almost three weeks on Tuesday, with gains for ...

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