March, 2020

• 21 March

  Is Covid-19 recession already here and now?

  The federal government is moving at a breakneck pace to respond to the coronavirus recession. In the states, however, the preliminary data suggests staggering job losses, exceeding economists’ expectations of just a week ago. If the pattern holds, it will mark the sharpest downturn in the labour market on record. A spike in initial claims for unemployment insurance is among ...

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• 21 March

  US should buy Covid-19 vaccine before invention

  

  The $8.3 billion spending bill that President Donald Trump signed last week to address the coronavirus crisis contains a provision that could be costly: When a vaccine for the virus becomes available, the law says, the government can spend no more than a “fair and reasonable” price for it. But it does not require the drugmaker to accept such a ...

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• 21 March

  Plastic surgeons in virus fight in US? Doctors are doctors

  

  Add doctors to hospital beds and lab testing on the list of things that risk being in short supply as the coronavirus continues to spread in the US. America has 2.61 physicians per 1,000 people, ranking it 26th out of 35 countries in an OECD database. Not all of these professionals are best suited to meet the current crisis due ...

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• 21 March

  Johnson’s virus response keeps getting bigger

  

  From Donald Trump to Emmanuel Macron to Boris Johnson, world leaders have rushed to echo Mario Draghi’s words as the European Central Bank prepared to deal with the financial crisis: We will do “whatever it takes.” And yet there is no consensus on what exactly is required — not on the magnitude of relief, not on the timing of different ...

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• 21 March

  Economic crash may dent EV revolution

  

  Bloomberg The electric vehicle revolution that by most accounts was ramping up in 2020 faces one of the biggest threats since EVs started to go mainstream in the last decade. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in late December has paralysed key parts of the Chinese economy. By early March, the virus spread further across Europe and into the US. ...

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• 21 March

  GameStop falls on view Covid-19 outbreak may force store closures

  

  Bloomberg GameStop Corp shares tumbled after analysts wrote that the video-game retailer would likely have to close stores in response to the coronavirus outbreak, disputing the company’s reported view that it was an “essential” retailer. Kotaku reported that GameStop believes its stores are “essential retail,” like grocery stores or pharmacies, and therefore able to remain open despite the pandemic. “We ...

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• 21 March

  Locked-down lawyers warned Alexa is hearing calls

  

  Bloomberg Hey Alexa, stop listening to my client’s information. As law firms urge attorneys to work from home during the global pandemic, their employees’ confidential phone calls with clients run the risk of being heard by Amazon.com Inc and Google. Mishcon de Reya LLP, the UK law firm that does corporate law, issued advice to staff to mute or shut ...

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• 21 March

  Global central banks go into overdrive as crisis deepens

  

  Bloomberg Central banks stepped up their emergency efforts to calm financial markets and support their economies in a historic week of market losses as more of the world shuts down to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Meeting into their nights, policy makers at the Federal Reserve launched a program to support money market mutual funds, hours after those at the European ...

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• 21 March

  Indonesia cuts rate for second month

  

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for a second straight month and slashed its economic growth forecast, joining global policy makers seeking to shore up their economies amid the coronavirus crisis. Bank Indonesia lowered the seven-day reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 4.50%, in line with the forecasts of 14 of 26 economists surveyed by ...

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• 21 March

  India’s HDFC ramps up corporate loans

  

  Bloomberg India’s most-valuable bank is betting big on the nation’s businesses at a time when a slumping economy and souring loans have forced peers to retreat. HDFC Bank Ltd.’s lending to large and small companies surged 63% over the two years through December 31 as India’s economy went from world-leading growth to its slowest expansion in six years. Behind the ...

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