March, 2020

• 17 March

  In America, upward mobility remains real

  

  The bipartisan Cassandra caucus includes Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (“the rich get richer while everyone else falls behind”) and Senator Bernie Sanders (“our standard of living has fallen”) and Republican Senator Marco Rubio (“we have been left with an economy and a society no one is happy with”) and Josh Hawley (“Over the last several decades, inflation-adjusted wages for the ...

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• 17 March

  Covid-19: Europe freezes economy

  

  Like the eye of a hurricane, the epicenter of coronavirus disease Covid-19 has shifted from Asia to Europe, bringing with it a rising toll of infections, deaths and economic damage. After a messy few weeks in which the region’s leaders seemed incapable of hitting on a common response to the crisis — which has hit healthcare, consumer confidence and financial ...

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• 17 March

  What caused junk-muni ETF to go into freefall?

  No one seems to know quite what to make of the stunning price drop in the largest high-yield municipal-bond exchange-traded fund. The VanEck Vectors High Yield Municipal Index (ticker HYD), with $3.6 billion in assets, was the picture of tranquility for much of the past three years. From the start of 2017 through February, its share price traded in a ...

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• 17 March

  Coronavirus: Fed, RBA, RBNZ — all move fast

  The coronavirus pandemic is giving birth to a new doctrine in central banking. What matters most isn’t transparency or forecasts, but the ability to move quickly. One of the big themes coming out of the global financial crisis was the idea that central banks should flood the zone with information — be it dot plots, forward guidance, statements, interviews or ...

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• 17 March

  President Trump’s energy dream submits to reality

  

  One of the more notable ideas to float up last week — or, as I like to call it, my year indoors — was a federal bailout of some sort for US oil and gas producers. Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources Inc and sometime energy adviser to the president, called on the Trump Administration to help domestic frackers fight ...

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• 17 March

  Biden did what he had to do in debate

  

  In what’s likely be his final nomination debate, former vice president Joe Biden started strong and ended strong when he talked about the coronavirus pandemic. And he did well enough in the rest of the two-hour event on March 15 with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Biden had given a solid speech laying out a plan for how the government should ...

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• 17 March

  South Korea’s short-selling ban makes sense

  

  Markets dominated by companies sensitive to global business cycles may have little choice when investors start to use them as a proxy for general pessimism. In that light, South Korea’s measure to ban short selling for six months, the first such restriction since 2011, isn’t as rash as it might seem. The coronavirus outbreak came at the worst time for ...

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• 16 March

  Abu Dhabi launches economic stimulus package

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM The Abu Dhabi Executive Council announced on Monday a dynamic economic stimulus package, in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, with the follow-up of HH Sheikh Hazza bin ...

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• 16 March

  Oil plunges to lowest since 2016 as demand collapse triggers rout

  

  Bloomberg Oil’s spectacular collapse deepened as widening global efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus looked set to trigger the most severe contraction in annual oil demand in history. Futures tumbled more than 9% after losing a quarter of their value last week. Demand for jet fuel, gasoline and diesel is falling off a cliff as a result of ...

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• 16 March

  Smart Dubai launches ‘100% Paperless Stamp’

  DUBAI / WAM The Smart Dubai Department launched the ‘100% Paperless Stamp’ initiative as part of its contribution to the ‘Government Development Track’ – one of six tracks announced by Dubai Council, which was inaugurated at the beginning of 2020 by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. ...

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