April, 2020

• 14 April

  Joe Biden’s quarantine reading assignment

  

  Because the United States’ unrivaled resources of human and physical capital have only been idled, not obliterated, the recovery might begin with a bang, propelled by a burst of pent-up animal spirits. The recovery could, however, be unnecessarily anemic, for two reasons. First, the receding pandemic (caused by a virus roughly one ten-thousandth of a millimeter in diameter) will leave ...

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• 14 April

  Masayoshi Son’s impatience cost $17b

  

  For a man with a 100-year vision, Masayoshi Son sure seems impatient. We already know that the SoftBank Group Corp chairman wasn’t content letting Adam Neumann be slightly crazy in his plan to upend the short-term office rental market; indeed he encouraged the founder of The We Co to be even crazier. And when a young Ritesh Agarwal was building ...

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• 14 April

  How bankers keep the vision fund going?

  Forget that $24 billion writedown on investments that SoftBank Group Corp. It’s bad. But it’s only paper. The Japanese conglomerate faces a far more tangible problem as the value of portfolios plummet and credit ratings get slashed. The issue is cash. Specifically, at the $100 billion Vision Fund. Most venture capitalists operate by taking in money from limited partners and ...

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• 14 April

  Covid-19 chaos is the IMF’s biggest test ever

  Finance ministers and central-bank governors logging in for this week’s virtual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank will say the right thing, promising to work together to confront the economic fallout of the coronavirus. The question is whether they will do the right thing and take concrete steps to allow the necessary cooperation and coordination. Many ...

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• 14 April

  Can Donald Trump delay the presidential election?

  

  It is alarming, to say the least, that people are even asking this question: Does President Donald Trump have the legal authority to postpone or cancel the 2020 presidential election? The answer is entirely clear: He does not. Start with the Constitution itself: “The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall ...

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• 14 April

  EU’s pandemic failure isn’t just about money

  

  A “great day for European solidarity” is how Germany’s finance minister described last week’s $590 billion euro-area virus rescue package, clinched even as Europe’s North and South haggle over the cost of cleaning up the economic wreckage left by Covid-19. The package would allow countries to borrow from the euro region’s rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, for health-care spending ...

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• 14 April

  Post-pandemic future of public protest may be grim

  

  So in light of the coronavirus pandemic, what is the future of public protests? In the 1960s, the US seemed almost defined by the mass demonstrations against Jim Crow and the Vietnam War. In recent years, people have marched through the streets so often, and on behalf of so many different causes, that no one could possibly keep track. In ...

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• 14 April

  Stocks, US futures climb after earnings season kicks off

  

  Bloomberg Stocks advanced on Tuesday along with US index futures at the outset of one of the most uncertain earnings seasons on record, after the coronavirus pandemic upended the global economy. Oil edged up, while gold slipped from a seven-year high. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index opened in the green, with the benchmark up 20% from its 2020 low. Futures ...

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• 14 April

  This Malaysian stock skyrockets 800% by lowering power bills

  

  Bloomberg Malaysia’s best-performing stock surged more than 800% in the past year by helping people lower their electricity bills. Shares of Kejuruteraan Asastera Bhd., or KAB, have gained 108% to 80 sen just this year, after it started offering energy-saving services to hotels and offices in 2019. That helped its order book to reach 355 million ringgit ($82 million), enough ...

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• 14 April

  Kuwait stock exchange delays trading debut

  Bloomberg The Kuwait Stock Exchange is delaying the listing of its shares due to restrictions on work triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The listing, scheduled for April 19, has been postponed until further notice “due to exceptional circumstances that are imposed by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic,” the bourse said in a statement. The coronavirus outbreak has disrupted business ...

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