Society

Corona Capital: Bankers, Virus vices, Student digs

8 Oct 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Japan’s Mizuho tries to get its employees to take it easy; smokers and gamblers struggle to kick the habit during lockdown; UK landlord Unite Group finds even student property is not immune to Covid-19.

Corona Capital: Tech upgrades, Ruby Tuesday

7 Oct 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Indian IT giant TCS is betting the work-from-home boost to its earnings marks the beginning of a years-long boom; U.S. restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday’s bankruptcy offers a lesson in creative culinary destruction.

Corona Capital: Fiscal stimulus, Fitness riches

6 Oct 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Central bankers including the Federal Reserve’s Jerome Powell urge more fiscal help as Covid-19 cases rise again; and the owner of NordicTrack treadmills raises cash at a $7 billion-plus valuation.

HK migrants likely to give UK only a tiny boost

6 Oct 2020

The British government thinks 200,000 Hong Kongers will take up the former colonist’s offer of legal residence. That would add less than 1% to GDP, only a rounding error in comparison to the likely post-Brexit pain from lost EU migrants, and possible retaliation from Beijing.

Corona Capital: NYC

30 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: New York City’s economic reboot comes up against a new outbreak.

Guest view: Another lost decade for Latin America?

29 Sep 2020

The region is grappling with three challenges, which when combined pose the gravest threat seen in over a century, argues former Citibank Chairman William Rhodes. Leaders can, and must, use the Covid-19 crisis to make long overdue reforms, build institutions and expand trade.

Corona Capital: U.S. sports’ virus-bubble success

29 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Professional hockey and basketball associations scored victories keeping infection rates low or at zero in spectator-free games. And less traveling and more sleep helped players up their game. Wall Street take note.

Corona Capital: Vaccines, Olive Garden, Oil

24 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Vaccine concerns are bad for the economy; cravings for never-ending pasta bowls return; and oil practitioners tell sad truths.

Corona Capital: Millionaire tax, Rent the Runway

18 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: New Jersey taxes the rich to help close a budget gap; and high fashion has trouble competing against sweats.

Cox: When ’shrooms go public, markets are peaking

17 Sep 2020

Compass Pathways, which treats depression with a psilocybin-based compound, is raising $107 mln. It has no revenue. Its risk factors are like a bad trip. But as investors throw cash at blank-cheque firms promising visions of the future, taking a punt doesn’t seem so risky.

Corona Capital: Fed’s optimism, Package holidays

16 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Jay Powell and crew at the U.S. central bank reckon the nation’s economy is doing better, just, than they expected; Anglo-German travel company TUI may raise 1 bln euros as the virus whacks new bookings.

Corona Capital: Kraft Heinz, U.S. poverty

15 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The food giant is boosting advertising outlays, even as it continues cutting costs; and the poverty rate in the United States hit a low at the end of 2019, according to new data, only to run into a Covid reversal.

Hadas: Policymakers fly blind on economic health

10 Sep 2020

Governments and central banks try to respond to reality, as measured by growth, employment, inflation and financial markets. The indicators are hopelessly messed up by fear and the pandemic, so errors are hard to avoid. Still, policies that further favour the rich can be avoided.

Corona Capital: Palantir presents

9 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Potential shareholders have had their first look at the data company ahead of its planned direct listing later this month. One of the more memorable moments was boss Alex Karp making his pitch from a nature trail.

AstraZeneca delay dents hope of fast Covid cure

9 Sep 2020

The $144 bln pharma group halted trials for its coronavirus vaccine after a human guinea pig fell ill. Such events are routine in drug development, but it shows that a remedy will take time and face setbacks. That means more travel and social curbs, and a slower recovery.

Corona Capital: Bumble IPO, SPACs

2 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The Blackstone-backed dating site may be eyeing an $8 bln valuation if it goes public next year, more than twice its pre-virus price tag. Ex-MGM exec Harry Sloan adds online gaming to his blank-check company empire.

Cox: Republicans mostly rant about fake socialism

28 Aug 2020

The GOP wrapped up a four-day confab-cum-reality TV show combining glowing testimonials about Trump’s achievements with venom against his opponents. Yet the greatest enemy was a phantom economic threat. America’s rich-world allies see socialism as normal, not a disaster.

Corona Capital: Davos delay, Political TV ratings

26 Aug 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The World Economic Forum’s annual winter meeting becomes a summer gathering; and in the U.S., the Democrats’ online spectacle leads TV ratings over the Republicans’ more traditional convention.

The Exchange: Telecoms mogul David McCourt

25 Aug 2020

The pandemic has made connecting rural areas a global priority. The Irish-American cable entrepreneur explains to Aimee Donnellan why he returned to Dublin to roll out a 3 billion euro broadband programme, and how the Covid-19 crisis created an opportunity to transform business.

Ireland’s Golfgate can reveal a more responsive EU

24 Aug 2020

The Irish public are outraged about an elite golf jolly that flouted Covid-19 restrictions. One minister has resigned and European Commissioner Phil Hogan is under severe pressure. A swift departure would help Brussels look less like a technocratic refuge from popular politics.