Record Jobless
The World
The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits shot to record of more than 3 million last week as strict measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic ground the country to a sudden halt, unleashing a wave of layoffs that likely brought an end to the longest employment boom in U.S. history. Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose to 3.28 million in the latest week from a revised 282,000 the previous week, eclipsing the previous record of 695,000 set in 1982, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims would rise to 1 million, but estimates had ranged to as high as 4 million. (Reuters)
California’s top medical advisor says that coronavirus cases continue to double in the state every three to four days, a fast pace on par with New York‘s, where some hospitals are overwhelmed, a makeshift morgue was set up outside Bellevue Hospital, and the city’s police, their ranks dwindling as more fall ill, were told to patrol nearly empty streets to enforce social distancing. Health officials have hinted that it’s possible that California’s coronavirus crisis could look like Italy’s soon. In L.A. County, officials are now requiring all individuals who are presumed positive or have tested positive for COVID-19 to self-isolate, and for all close contacts of such individuals to self-quarantine. And in a desperate attempt to conserve supplies, county officials are advising doctors and nurses to reuse face masks and wear gowns and masks that are expired. (Los Angeles Times)
China-US tit-for-tat claims cast shadow over G20 crisis talks: Chinese and Americans are persisting with finger-pointing over the coronavirus crisis despite a senior Chinese diplomat stressing the need for the two countries to cooperate to contain the pandemic. The accusations cast doubt over whether the United States and China will agree to work together when their top leaders take part in a Group of 20 virtual summit on the crisis on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Chinese vice-minister for foreign affairs, Luo Zhaohui, said China and the US must team up to fight the pandemic and not let their efforts be hampered by differences on other issues or xenophobic slurs by politicians. (South China Morning Post)
North Korean authorities have “secretly” appealed for international help with coronavirus testing even as officials have publicly insisted there are no confirmed cases of the virus inside the country, the Financial Times reports. Citing a relevant document and several people familiar with the matter, the FT reports that officials in Pyongyang have privately pleaded with their international contacts to help ramp up testing in recent weeks. “The government has testing kits for Covid-19 and they know how to use them, but [the number of kits are] not sufficient, hence, [officials are] requesting all organisations . . . to support them in this regard,” the FT quoted one source as saying. Another source said at least 590 people who returned to North Korea from overseas in January had been tested, and all had been negative. Experts say the country’s weak health-care system, food shortages, and international sanctions make it especially vulnerable to the pandemic. (Financial Times)
Protesters on the Mexican side of the border blocked the Mexico-bound lanes in the twin border cities of Ambos Nogales for several hours Wednesday to express their displeasure with the Mexican government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The protesters demanded greater controls and screenings on southbound traffic at the U.S.-Mexico border out of concern that travelers from the U.S. could import new cases of the coronavirus into Mexico. (USA Today)
In a dramatic turn of events, the Blue and White Party that served as the alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2 election, broke up on Thursday after party head Benny Gantz decided to enter Netanyahu's government. There will be a rotation in the Prime Minister's Office between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gantz. Netanyahu's allies will start off as finance minister and Knesset speaker. Gantz will serve as foreign minister, MK Gabi Ashkenzi defense minister and many other MKs from Hosen L'Israel will be ministers. (Jerusalem Post)
Finance
The finance industry will be a central cog in the machine Washington is assembling on the fly to distribute emergency economic relief to contain coronavirus fallout. The sector is also poised to achieve some long-sought policy wins in that $2 trillion package the Senate passed late Wednesday. Several of the changes trace a straight line from the last economic crisis, when the industry — rather than a rogue pathogen — was the source of the problem threatening an economy-wide meltdown. More than a decade later, financiers are working to make the most of the fact that they are no longer on defense. And the bill, now facing a Friday morning vote in the House, both eases some of the post-crisis rules imposed on them and restores some federal help they haven’t enjoyed since the throes of that downturn. (See the final text of the 880-page bill here.) Among the industry’s wins: 1) A delay in tough new accounting rules; 2) 2. Lower capital requirements for community banks; 3) The FDIC will once again backstop bank debt. (The Finance 202)
Senate’s Coronavirus Stimulus Deal Offers Little Relief for Private Equity: Private-equity firms will likely find it a challenge to get access to the stimulus funds intended to soften the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic, experts say. (Wall Street Journal)
Harvard Kennedy School Professor Karen Dynan, Ph.D. ’92, served as chief economist and assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2014 to 2017. She’s currently teaching an economics course called “The Financial Crisis and the Great Recession.” Kenneth S. Rogoff, Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and an author of an influential history of global financial crises, “This Time Is Different” (2009), with Kennedy School economist Carmen M. Reinhart. Dynan and Rogoff spoke about recent moves by the Fed to calm jitters on Wall Street, the relief package, how deep the damage may go, and how soon the economy might bounce back. (Harvard Gazette)
Nouriel Roubini writes that the shock to the global economy from Covid-19 has been faster and more severe than the 2008 global financial crisis and even the Great Depression. In those two previous episodes, stock markets collapsed by 50% or more, credit markets froze up, massive bankruptcies followed, unemployment rates soared above 10% and GDP contracted at an annualised rate of 10% or more. But all of this took around three years to play out. In the current crisis, similarly dire macroeconomic and financial outcomes have materialised in three weeks. (The Guardian)
Technology
Google Podcasts is now available on iOS, with a new iPhone app available now. The new app is organized around three tabs: Home, Explore and Activity. The Home tab features a feed of new episodes and gives you quick access to your subscribed shows. When you select an episode you want to listen to, you’ll now see topics or people covered in that podcast, and you can easily jump to Google Search to learn more. (Google)
Scooter rental startup Lime, one of the hottest startups in tech two years ago, is trying to raise emergency funds at a valuation slashed by 80% from last year, two people familiar with the matter said. The company is seeking funds from new investors at a valuation of just $400 million, compared with the $2.4 billion level at which it last raised money, the people said. (The Information)
According to "The 2020 Study on Staffing the IT Security Function in the Age of Automation," 51% of respondents believe that automation will cut the headcount in the security department, up from 30% in last year's study. Also, 37% of respondents think they will lose their jobs in the next four years. (Tech Republic)
Smart Links
Orange juice futures are the best performing asset so far this year. (BBC News)
How coronavirus will alter natural gas markets. (Axios)
The Cheesecake Factory tells landlords across the country it won’t be able to pay rent on April 1 (LA Eater)
A new carnivorous feathered dinosaur, coyote-sized with razor-sharp teeth and claws, has been discovered in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin. The small but formidable predator called Dineobellator would have stalked these open floodplains 70 million years ago. (Smithsonian)
Book sales surge as self-isolating readers stock up on ‘bucket list’ novels (The Guardian)