May, 2020

• 5 May

  EU top court faces ‘war’ from German judges

  

  Bloomberg The European Union’s top court faced the most stinging attack in its 68-year history — not from Brexiteers, but from its German counterpart. In a long-awaited ruling on the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing (QE) program, Germany’s constitutional court in Karlsruhe accused the EU Court of Justice of overstepping its powers when it backed the ECB’s controversial policy. German ...

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• 5 May

  India races to restore order after protests over ‘lockdown’

  

  Bloomberg State governments across India rushed to restore order after violence and chaos broke out when the country started relaxing its stringent virus lockdown, with migrant workers clashing with police in western India. In Mumbai, India’s financial capital, local police said on Twitter that from Tuesday standalone shops would issue tokens to customers to avoid crowding around storefronts. It used ...

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• 5 May

  Dems to challenge Trump’s choice to review virus funds

  Bloomberg Senate Democrats are ready to challenge a vow of “fairness and impartiality” by Brian Miller, President Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee trillions of dollars being spent in the effort to rescue the economy from the coronavirus pandemic. “I will be vigilant to protect the integrity and independence of the Office of Special Inspector General” and will work “to uncover ...

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• 5 May

  Virus will change not just how, but what, we buy!

  

  During the coronavirus lockdown, a particular meme has been doing the rounds on Instagram and Twitter. It shows a woman in a pink ballgown, complete with tulle train billowing out behind her. She’s not standing on a glitzy red carpet. She is in a supermarket produce section, clutching a bunch of carrots in one hand and reaching for a red ...

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• 5 May

  J Crew is first of many retail casualties

  

  Even as some retailers begin to open stores again, the pain across malls and main streets continues to take its toll. J Crew Group Inc said it would begin pre-arranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and enter into a $1.65 billion debt-for-equity swap with its lenders, becoming the first major US retailer to succumb to the economic convulsions caused by the ...

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• 5 May

  Can video conferencing be superior meetings?

  The inevitable video-call backlash is well underway. Videoconferencing is exhausting, people complain. Our brains have to work harder than they do in face-to-face interactions. And so we give each other advice on how to combat Zoom fatigue and speculate whether it’s worse for extroverts. However, some people have been having the opposite experience. Since they got the hang of video ...

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• 5 May

  Covid-19: Tax revolts aren’t out of question

  Thanks to coronavirus-induced declines in tax revenue — and record filings for unemployment benefits — state and local governments are in crisis. Many have underfunded pension systems and few have significant reserves. None can run deficits as readily as the federal government. Like so much of the economic news as of late, the closest precedent is the Great Depression. In ...

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• 5 May

  Airlines got the sweetest Covid-19 bailout around

  

  The US Treasury Department has asked more than 200 public companies that received almost $1 billion in loans under the Paycheck Protection Program to return the money, even if they technically qualify as small businesses. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said the program wasn’t intended for these companies because they have access to the capital markets. Yet consider the federal ...

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• 5 May

  Is India’s reopening a ‘coloured’ mess?

  

  India is reopening, but a partial end to the world’s harshest coronavirus lockdown is failing to bring cheer. Anxiety still clouds the outlook amid a lack of meaningful fiscal help for workers and companies. Starting from May 04, PM Narendra Modi’s government relaxed restrictions on the production, sale and transport of goods in districts identified as green and orange. However, virus ...

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• 5 May

  The best reason to protect workers from Covid-19

  

  Harvard economist Melissa Dell recently won the 2020 John Bates Clark medal, which is given to outstanding economists younger than 40. Dell’s most famous research concerns the importance of institutions in a country’s long-term political and economic development. It carries a dire warning for the US as well as other nations. What is an institution? To most people it means ...

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