April, 2020

• 13 April

  China vows equal treatment for Africans over Covid-19

  

  Bloomberg China rejected criticism about the alleged mistreatment of Africans by authorities in the southern city of Guangzhou, a dispute that could set back Beijing’s diplomatic outreach to help the continent cope with the coronavirus pandemic. The government has treated foreigners equally and attaches great importance to their life and health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said in ...

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• 13 April

  Kim raises sister profile with Politburo post

  

  Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un raised the standing of his sister as a key player in the secretive state and bolstered his new foreign minister in a cadre shuffle that comes as he tries to fend off the coronavirus pandemic. Part emissary, part personal assistant, Kim Yo Jong was reinstated to her position as an alternate Politburo member of ...

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• 13 April

  Indonesia ramps up virus testing over new infections

  

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s government is ramping up its coronavirus testing capacity and expanding the partial lockdown to areas outside the capital after facing criticism for having one of the region’s lowest testing rates per capita. President Joko Widodo said the country will increase its testing capacity by 9,000 samples per day while regulators extended stricter social distancing measures, which includes closing ...

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• 13 April

  Covid-19 is reshaping the defense strategies

  

  Even as the Covid-19 pandemic nears its peak, defense analysts are beginning to assess how the global spread of this deadly disease should change how we think about warfare. “This has exposed some genuine gaps in military planning and readiness, as well as vulnerabilities in our national preparedness,” messaged Derek Chollet, a former assistant secretary of defense who’s now executive ...

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• 13 April

  Hong Kong’s canary in virus economy

  

  Hong Kong led the world in adopting helicopter money. Now the city’s long-term wage subsidies have again put it at the forefront of global efforts to blunt the impact of the coronavirus. Other economies should pay attention. The government said that it will fund 50% of affected workers’ salaries for six months, capped at the equivalent of $1,160 a month. ...

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• 13 April

  No, America’s GDP isn’t going to shrink 30%

  In the US, the headline gross domestic product number reported every quarter by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is the percentage change in GDP from the previous quarter, annualised. Other countries, and international economic-statistics compilers such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, tend to report just the quarterly percentage change and skip the annualising. I don’t know ...

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• 13 April

  Yet another US-wide housing slump coming

  A US housing crisis is coming and although it won’t be anything like the last one, that won’t make it any less painful. Even though there has been no rampant speculation or subprime mortgage fraud, housing is still overvalued. And the dearth of inventory that’s plagued the current cycle will reverse in violent fashion once the worst of the virus ...

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• 13 April

  And the coronavirus now comes for my hometown!

  

  Those photos of famous public spaces in Paris or Manhattan in the age of corona-lockdown convey an eerie absence. The eyes search the frame for the people who aren’t there. The empty Main Street of my hometown will never be mistaken for the Tuileries or Times Square. Outside the new Vietnamese restaurant, which opened just before the coronavirus swept all ...

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• 13 April

  Next pandemic? Run Trump plan in reverse

  

  “Allow me to say as I told her personally today, the governor of Oregon, Governor Kate Brown — her unilateral decision to send 140 ventilators … to New York, to me was in the very highest American tradition of loving your neighbor. And when I talked to Governor Cuomo, Mr. President, he said they never asked Oregon for the ventilators ...

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• 13 April

  Greece shows how to handle coronavirus crisis

  

  The Covid-19 epidemic has exposed poor leadership and governance worldwide. From Spain to the UK to the US, politicians have waited far too long before taking the dramatic steps needed to protect their citizens. Greece has been one noticeable — and perhaps surprising — exception to this trend. The government imposed severe social distancing measures at a much earlier stage ...

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