Category Archives: Economics
Top Daily News Podcast: Economic Recovery, Covid-19 Surge & Virtual Democratic Convention
The consensus among economists is that the U.S. recovery will most likely be something in between a V and a W — a sharp drop, a relatively small bounce back, and then a long period of slow growth.
- Time to pay attention again: The coronavirus surge is real, and it’s everywhere in the United States.
- And Axios co-founder Mike Allen tells us what to expect at the virtual Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.
Guests: Axios’ Felix Salmon, Sam Baker, and Mike Allen.
Global: Police Violence In America, China Trade & Pushkin’s Lockdown
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: Police violence, race and protest in America, How will China’s Belt and Road Initiative survive? (10:30) And, Alexander Pushkin’s productive lockdown (23:10).
Health Infographic: “The Wide Impact Of The Covid-19 Lockdown” (BMJ)
Business: “Understanding The Economic Impact Of Covid-19” (Harvard)
Predicting the path ahead has become nearly impossible, but we can speculate about the size and scale of the economic shock. Economic contagion is now spreading as fast as Covid-19 itself. Social distancing, intended to physically disrupt the spread, has severed the flow of goods and people, stalled economies, and is in the process of delivering a global recession.
Predicting the path ahead has become nearly impossible, as multiple dimensions of the crisis are unprecedented and unknowable. Pressing questions include the path of the shock and recovery, whether economies will be able to return to their pre-shock output levels and growth rates, and whether there will be any structural legacy from the coronavirus crisis.
This Explainer explores several scenarios to model the size and scale of the economic shock and the path ahead.
Based on the HBR article by Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, Martin Reeves and Paul Swartz
Economy: “The U.S. Is Racking Up Debt. Will It Be a Problem?” (WSJ Podcast)
The federal government is spending big to combat the economic damage of the coronavirus crisis, and federal debt has climbed to record levels.
WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath explains the debate over the impact of all that debt.
Reopening The Economy: “What The Year Ahead Might Look Like” (NY Times)
Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science and health reporter for The New York Times, discusses how the Coronavirus lockdown might end what it would look like.
While the economy is likely to reopen slowly, there is hope that society will adapt to manage the uncertainty of our new circumstances. Here’s what experts say the next year (or more) will look like.
Global News: China And The Pandemic, Saudi Arabia & Britain’s Glossy Mags (The Economist Podcast)
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, is China the pandemic’s big geopolitical winner? (8:30) Saudi Arabia has declared a ceasefire in Yemen, but the Houthis are fighting on. (14:13) And, how Britain’s glossy magazines are adjusting to a gloomy world.
Medical Economics: Virus Exposes America’s “Broken Healthcare System” (2020)
From The Guardian (April 16, 2020):
“As this epidemic makes clear, at any moment, any of us could become sick, could become hospitalized, could be on a mechanical ventilator,” said Adam Gaffney, an ICU doctor in Boston. “And that, in the United States, could mean potentially ruinous healthcare costs.”
With over 21,000 people dead and more than a 547,000 infected with the coronavirus in the US the last question on a person’s mind should be how they will pay for life-saving treatment.
There were 27.9 million people without health insurance in 2018, and record-high unemployment will increase that figure by millions
But as the death toll mounted, a patient who was about to be put on a ventilator in one of New York City’s stretched to capacity intensive care units had a final question for his nurse: “Who’s going to pay for it?”
Post-Pandemic: Reopening Companies Into The New Reality (The Economist)
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the business of survival—those companies that survive the coronavirus crisis will need to master a new environment. Plus, how to reopen factories after covid-19 (9:23) and Venezuela’s navy battles a cruise ship, and loses (17:41).
