Society

Corona Capital: Texas bank merger

26 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Texas Capital and Independent Bank ditched their almost $3 bln deal as Covid-19 played havoc with oil-and-gas loans. It is, at least, a mutual decision.

Big Elevator faces a cable-free race to the top

26 May 2020

Social distancing is accelerating the ascent of next-generation lifts from Otis, Thyssen, Kone and Schindler. Powered by magnets, cars will whizz round a circuit like a vertical bullet train rather than shuttling passengers up and down a rope. Eat your heart out, Roald Dahl.

New data will track reopening in real time

21 May 2020

Plenty of financial-market information is available instantaneously, but economic metrics can be months out of date. In the ongoing pandemic, that has proved too slow. Novel sources like Klaviyo's online spending tracker and TomTom's traffic flows may have staying power.

Viewsroom: Reopening after the pandemic

21 May 2020

Major economies like Italy and Switzerland are attempting to return to normal, but with notable differences, as columnists in both countries discuss. And Sharon Lam in Hong Kong talks about the future of leisure and business travel with Global Editor Rob Cox.

Icky cash gets shove towards eventual obsolescence

20 May 2020

Lockdowns and fear of contamination have made banknotes less relevant. Such habits will stick. Although central banks won’t yet call time on cash, misgivings over handing too much power to private payment players mean the stars are aligning for government-backed digital money.

Handshake will be relic of a more trusting time

19 May 2020

Finance will be different after Covid-19, and not just because the disease turned markets and economies upside down. Social shifts that outlast the pandemic – as simple as the reluctance to shake hands – will eat at trust. That’s the last thing a misanthropic Wall Street needs.

Cox: Quarantine in Switzerland is surprise luxury

19 May 2020

As the country reopens, the cliché of neighbours chastising you for not sorting recycling properly is to be praised. The key takeaway: a society that prizes self-responsibility, respects rules and institutions and plans for rainy days is a good place to shelter from the storm.

Viewsroom: Cashing out of BlackRock

14 May 2020

Boss Larry Fink has lost his biggest shareholder, and former owner as U.S. bank PNC sells its 22% stake in the world’s largest money manager. But the exit could be beneficial for both firms. Plus: Sweden’s Covid-19 plan will be hard to replicate. And: online dating in a pandemic.

Hadas: Welfare states will be big Covid-19 winners

13 May 2020

National systems of income support and social care are being expanded in the fight against the pandemic. Some of the special welfare measures are going to become permanent parts of governments’ repertoire. That will benefit marginalised groups, especially in the United States.

Swedish virus outcomes will be hard to copy

12 May 2020

The only Western state not to enforce a lockdown has a higher death rate than Nordic peers but lower than Britain or Italy. Its economy will emerge less scarred. But that’s also because of generous welfare and the fiscal room it’s using to compensate companies for lost sales.

Critical workers hold keys to higher minimum pay

6 May 2020

U.S. ambulance drivers make under $15 per hour, EMTs under $20. And “essential” retail staff make about $13. These and others indispensable in a lockdown and at risk on the Covid-19 front line are under-rewarded. Any post-virus rethink of supply chains must also include wages.

Will casual sex get shafted by the pandemic?

6 May 2020

That’s what dating apps like Tinder, Match and Bumble are trying to answer. Diseases like AIDS changed intimacy patterns before. Covid-19 will make it harder for lovers to swipe right with peace of mind. But more engagement, if fewer hookups, may benefit the matchmaker model.

Virus state aid needs taper to avoid tantrum

5 May 2020

As governments lift restrictions, they face tough choices about weaning companies and workers off public support. Different industries require different timetables. Withdrawals should also be phased. The state can’t help indefinitely, but a sudden break would be too big a shock.

Offices will get roomier when the virus passes

4 May 2020

Conventional wisdom seems to be that after the pandemic commercial landlords will be crushed as staff stay home. But there’s a counterargument that cooped-up workers will crave interaction, employers will need to space them further apart and put an end to unhealthy hot-desking.

Review: A grim look at bad American exceptionalism

1 May 2020

“Deaths of Despair” analyses the sharp rise in U.S. mortality from suicide, alcohol and drugs, especially among poor whites. As Covid-19 further widens social divisions, the lament of economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton looks prescient. America fails its weakest residents.

Phones will restore freedom at the cost of privacy

30 Apr 2020

Contact-tracing apps like Apple-Google’s will allow more public mobility but only if related testing is quick and easy, and everybody plays ball. That means democracies will wave sticks, disguised as carrots, to encourage use. Good results would outweigh the Orwellian overtones.

U.S. moviegoers will never again fill theaters

29 Apr 2020

Attendance was already declining, and Covid-19 has completely shut down the likes of AMC. Netflix is ascendant, and Comcast's Universal managed a successful release of "Trolls" without cinemas. Add wariness of social contact, and the industry's bleak future may already be here.

Earth Day’s 50th comes at just the right moment

22 Apr 2020

Half a century ago, Americans protested in droves for cleaner air and water. But progress has slowed, or been undone, while air pollution costs the global economy $3 trln a year. The pandemic has given a taste of a less smoggy world that could bolster efforts to cut emissions.

U.S. virus bailouts portend Occupy Wall Street 2.0

20 Apr 2020

Uncle Sam is helping out everyone from Harvard to hedge fund managers to Potbelly in its emergency relief programs. A hastily structured deal and inadequate oversight are allowing room for taking advantage. That may be a necessary evil, but it will also fuel the backlash.

Review: Facebook and Instagram deserve each other

17 Apr 2020

The social network had a tense relationship with the photo-sharing app it bought in 2012. Sarah Frier’s “No Filter” offers fresh insight into the troubled $1 bln deal. A bigger problem was that their common pursuit of a higher purpose obscured the threat they posed to society.