Rescue Mission
The World
President Trump, under growing pressure to rescue an economy in free fall, said that he may soon loosen federal guidelines for social distancing and encourage shuttered businesses to reopen — defying public health experts, who have warned that doing so risks accelerating the spread of the novel coronavirus or even allowing it to rebound. (Washington Post)
Business activity crashed to a record low in the eurozone as the coronavirus health emergency morphed into an economic crisis. The IHS Markit flash composite purchasing managers’ index for the eurozone plunged to 31.4 in March from 51.6 in the previous month. This is the lowest reading since the series began in the late 1990s. (Financial Times)
Last year’s summer was so warm that it helped trigger the loss of 600 billion tons of ice from Greenland – enough to raise global sea levels by 2.2mm in just two months, new research has found. The analysis of satellite data has revealed the astounding loss of ice in just a few months of abnormally high temperatures around the northern pole. Last year was the hottest on record for the Arctic, with the annual minimum extent of sea ice in the region its second-lowest on record. (The Guardian)
The status of more than 4,200 foreign doctors who were chosen to do medical residencies in American teaching hospitals — hospitals that will desperately need their help to cope with Covid-19 — is in doubt because the State Department has temporarily stopped issuing the visas most of them would need to enter the country. (Stat)
Finance
There is an intense strain at the heart of a financial system struggling to cope with an economic shock of huge, but uncertain proportions. The ease of buying and selling even the safest, most high-quality assets has deteriorated dramatically. JPMorgan has dubbed it the “Great Liquidity Crisis”, noting that it has piled extra volatility on to already fragile market conditions. (Financial Times)
The dispersion between different types of bear markets is significant. “Structural” bear markets, which are triggered by deep-seated economic imbalances and financial bubbles unwinding, have on average meant a 57 percent slump, and taken 111 months to return to their previous peak. The more garden-variety “cyclical” bear markets, where rising interest rates damp economic activity and depress corporate profits, have typically led to a 31 per cent peak-to-trough drop for the US stock market, and it has on average taken 50 months to recover. Meanwhile, “event-driven” bear markets are those triggered by some kind of one-off shock, such as a war, spiking oil prices, an emerging-markets crisis or a brief financial calamity like the Black Monday crash. This seems to fit the coronavirus scenario best. (Financial Times)
A broad set of bond exchange-traded funds are trading out of sync with their underlying assets, testing investors’ faith in a fast-growing part of the investment world. (Wall Street Journal)
The Federal Reserve, determined to try to keep the spread of the coronavirus from devastating the American economy, rolled out a series of sweeping new programs on Monday meant to shore up large and small businesses and keep markets functioning. As mortgage markets showed signs of crumbling, companies struggled to sell debt and stresses plagued the entire financial system, the Fed announced several never-before-attempted actions to try to calm the turmoil. (New York Times)
Innovation
Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new device for connecting the brain directly to silicon-based technologies. While brain-machine interface devices already exist – and are used for prosthetics, disease treatment and brain research – this latest device can record more data while being less intrusive than existing options. (Science)
The technology that animated movies like “Toy Story” and enabled a variety of special effects is the focus of this year’s Turing Award, the technology industry’s version of the Nobel Prize. Patrick Hanrahan and Edwin Catmull won the prize for their contributions to 3-D computer graphics used in movies and video games. (Associated Press)
A rare freshwater reserve has been discovered underneath the sea off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand, which could help head off future droughts and mitigate the impact of climate change in the coming years. The offshore freshened groundwater (OFG) was discovered through a combination of seismology and electromagnetic wave scanning techniques, which were used to build up a 3D map of the aquifer under the sea. (Science Alert)
Smart Links
450 free Ivy League university courses you can take online. (Quartz)
How to clean and disinfect yourself, your home, and your stuff. (Wired)
Modern Monetary Theory is about to be put to the test. (Bloomberg)
In the meantime, tell your friends!