March, 2020

• 31 March

  Southwest CEO seeks cost cuts with airline ‘living day to day’

  

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co is “in intensive care,” its chief executive officer said, urging employees to keep cutting expenses wherever possible as the new coronavirus continues to erode travel. The US discounter is evaluating the $50 billion federal programme that will provide loans and cash payments to help carriers meet payroll and other employee costs. It’s premature to know “how ...

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• 31 March

  Spirit Air halts flights to LaGuardia, Newark

  Bloomberg Spirit Airlines Inc is temporarily suspending service at five airports in the US Northeast because of heightened government travel advisories aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus. The pause begin this week at New York’s LaGuardia and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International, Spirit said in an email. The discounter is also halting service to Hartford, Connecticut, and two destinations ...

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• 31 March

  All our choices are bad, but some are even worse

  

  We’ve been here before. Unemployment is high and rising. Americans fear for the future. Politicians of both parties are unsure about what to do, though they’re quick to criticise the other party’s suggestions. Regardless of which way they turn, the choices seem dismal. Sound familiar? It’s not 2019 or 2020, and the subject is not the coronavirus. It’s late 1970s ...

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• 31 March

  Covid-19: Is US a civilisation in decline?

  

  Crises such wars, depressions, natural disasters and pandemics can reveal differences in how effectively a society organises itself. In the 1600s and 1700s, for example, Britain’s more advanced tax system allowed it to outspend Spain and France, while Prussia’s efficient army let it overcome larger opponents such as Austria. In the Civil War, the Union’s industrial prowess allowed it to ...

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• 31 March

  What does Black Death make us think about?

  All upheavals leave their marks. Some fade away, some linger. Following the Black Death, the plague that’s believed to have killed 60% of Europe’s population in the second half of the 14th century, the realisation that life is short, played a big role in shaping interest rates in late medieval Europe, stretching all the way to the Enlightenment. Could we ...

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• 31 March

  Markets don’t know how to define ‘safe’ now

  If the recent selloff in markets proves anything, it’s that for too many years too many people were focussed solely on returns with zero consideration for risk or safety. The last time anyone really thought about safety in markets was during the financial crisis more than a decade ago, when investors couldn’t get enough government bonds or cash. But as ...

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• 31 March

  Confirmed virus cases is an ‘almost meaningless’ metric

  

  It doesn’t matter that the United States doubled China in reported Covid-19 cases because those numbers (164,610 and 82,198 respectively as of March 31) don’t tell us how many people actually became infected in either country. Nor do they tell us how fast the disease is spreading, since only a tiny portion of the population in the United States has ...

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• 31 March

  Covid-19: Congress, Fed are saving lives

  

  Authorities’ efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus have plunged the US economy into a sharp contraction, leading some to argue that the cure may be worse than the disease. This misguided thinking ignores a crucial consideration: As Congress and the Federal Reserve have demonstrated, we can improve the trade-off by lowering the cost of saving lives. No doubt, ...

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• 31 March

  Can you sell house on Zoom and WhatsApp?

  

  The UK housing market — that obsession of middle-class Brits — has been placed in suspended animation. Buyers and renters have been told to delay moving home to limit the spread of coronavirus. While a few transactions are still going through, a functioning market depends on prospective buyers and surveyors being able to view people’s homes. Mobility restrictions and distancing ...

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• 30 March

  Covid-19: Expo 2020 Dubai could be moved to next year

  

  Dubai / WAM Expo 2020 Dubai has convened a second virtual meeting of its Steering Committee, with representatives of the countries taking part in the event, as part of ongoing consultations that the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) will have on global preparations of Expo 2020 Dubai. Participating countries briefed the Steering Committee on the global precautionary measures that have to ...

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