Y OU KNOW by now, if you've been paying attention, that the coronavirus pandemic is, if not a turning point in history, then the midwife to profound change or, at the very least, an opportunity for a bit of a rethink. Everything has changed—except, perhaps, minds. Those who expected China (or the European Union or shareholder capitalism) to blow up are now more convinced it will. Believers in globalisation's retreat, or inflation's comeback, have fewer doubts.
Yet if these vices seem more apparent, so does the virtue of diversification. The ideal diversifier is not just something other than what you own, but something that contrasts with it. The typical portfolio is rich in dollar assets—in Treasuries and the leading American shares. It needs a counterweight, an anti-dollar trade. A benchmark basket of emerging-market stocks is a good one.
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'The economy is literally in free fall': Economist
U.S. retail sales fell at a record pace in March , with many retail categories seeing jaw-dropping declines. And economists are scrambling to find the right words to illustrate the rapid deterioration of the U.S. economy, as the world attempts to deal with the deadly coronavirus pandemic .
JPMorgan economist Michael Feroli writing in a note Wednesday, "all the toilet paper in the world can't clean up this [retail sales] report."
Headline retail sales plunged a record 8.7% during March, which was worse than the 8% decline expected by economists. Core retail sales, excluding the volatile auto and gas components, fell 3.1%, better than the 5.2% estimated decline. Retail sales dipped 0.4% and core retail sales sank 0.2% in February.
Senior economist says the $2 trillion stimulus bill isn't big enough - Business Insider
"One of the best things about the CARES Act is how big it was," Shierholz begins. "That really, really matters because we are facing something like we've never seen before." The fact that Congress didn't even entertain serious dissent about the size of the CARES Act signifies that lawmakers understand the scale of the disaster that we are facing down. She's impressed, too, with "the fact that Congress moved quickly."
"Maybe even more important, or at least as important" as shoring up unemployment insurance, she said, is the pandemic unemployment assistance expansion, which "will give benefits to hundreds of people who fall through the enormous gaps in our standard unemployment insurance system." Without this expansion, self-employed people, workers with short work histories, and people who have to stay home to tend to their children can claim unemployment benefits.
The world after covid-19 - By invitation: Kevin Rudd on America, China and saving the WHO | Open
THE THING about a crisis—a real one, rather than a confected one—is that it exposes realities for what they are, as opposed to how the political class would wish to present them, either to their own people or the world at large. The uncomfortable truth about the current coronavirus crisis is that much of the complex web of national and global institutions established to deal with global pandemics and economic implosions has failed.
To be fair to those in leadership today, not since the Spanish flu or the second world war has the world had to contend with semi-synchronous public-health and economic crises, including the physical working arrangements of those having to manage it.
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US job losses mount as economic pain deepens worldwide - ABC News
Trump planned to announce new recommendations later in the day to allow states to reopen, despite warnings from business leaders and governors that more testing and protective gear are needed first.
The government said 5.2 million more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the four-week total to about 22 million out of a U.S. work force of roughly 159 million — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record. The losses amount to about 1 in 7 workers.
Video conference of economics and finance ministers - Consilium
Ministers will exchange views on the latest assessment of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a presentation by the European Commission.
The Croatian presidency will present the state of play and further work needed on the legislative proposals for coordinated socio-economic measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank will report on the implementation of the measures taken so far and give an overview of planned initiatives.
Economists find carbon footprint grows with parenthood -- ScienceDaily
Increased time constraints and the need for convenience in raising children appear to offset parents' concerns about the future when it comes to their carbon footprints, according to new research by University of Wyoming economists and a colleague in Sweden.
UW's Jason Shogren and Linda Thunstrom, along with Jonas Nordstrom of the Lund University School of Economics and Management, have documented that two-adult households with children emit over 25 percent more carbon dioxide than two-adult households without children. Their research appears April 15 in PLOS One , a journal published by the Public Library of Science.
LISTEN: Denali lodge owner weighs economics and ethics of late opening amid coronavirus
Camp Denali and the North Face Lodge are naturalist-oriented
accommodations in the heart of Denali National Park. The business is
just one many in the Denali area depending on tourism income that, for
the foreseeable future, is nonexistent due to coronavirus related
travel restrictions.
Add to that an announcement Tuesday by the National Park Service
to indefinitely close the only road into the park, and Camp Denali’s
owners, Simon and Jenna Hamm, are grappling with the economic and
ethical implications of a late opening, or possibly none at all.
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