Sunday Links: 1 March 2020

A Woolshed, Victoria, 1889, John Mather, Art Gallery of NSW

Macro & Markets

• Coronavirus contagion spawns climate of panic on share markets – ABC, Verrender
• Central banks may mount a coronavirus rescue. It may not be enough – Reuters
• From the Fed to Bank of England, central banks must up their game – Guardian
• The coronavirus is making the weakest parts of the U.S. corporate debt boom wobble. Analysts say brace for things to get worse – MarketWatch
• Analysts and investors lose their bearings in the coronavirus fallout – Guardian
• Will the Federal Reserve rescue the stock market from coronavirus? – MarketWatch
• Outbreak starts to look more like worldwide economic crisis – AP

Asia

• China February factory activity contracts at record pace as coronavirus bites – Reuters
• Coronavirus: a chance for China to boost its world standing? – SCMP
• How Disease X, the epidemic-in-waiting, erupted in China – SCMP
• Coronavirus: China’s factory activity plunges to all-time low, worse than global financial crisis, February data show – SCMP
• Coronavirus: China’s consumers will not rescue economy when outbreak is over, survey shows – SCMP
• As India counts dead, brutality of Hindu-Muslim riot emerges – AP

Americas

• Coronavirus stigma adds to long-term challenges for North American Chinatowns – SCMP
• New U.S. Cases Suggest Coronavirus Has Broken Out on West Coast – Bloomberg
• Powell Says Fed Poised to Act If Needed on ‘Evolving’ Virus Risk – Bloomberg
• Cooling consumer spending, inflation put spotlight on Fed amid coronavirus – Reuters
• The declining elasticity of US housing supply – VoxEU
• Oregon, Washington state report suspected cases of unknown origin: The latest on coronavirus – Politico
• Sanders in command as Super Tuesday nears – Politico
• Fed Chair Powell pledges to use tools to support economy – AP

Europe

• Turkey says it will let refugees into Europe after its troops killed in Syria – Reuters
• Coronavirus Piles More Woes on Business in Italy’s Economic Heartland – Bloomberg
• UK house prices rise at fastest rate for 18 months – Guardian
• Housing insecurity, homelessness, and populism: Evidence from the UK – VoxEU
• One million Britons will be on zero-hour contracts by end of 2020 – The Conversation
• Could COVID-19 coronavirus trigger a European recession? – Euronews
• Coronavirus hits heart of Italy’s economy – DW

Terra Incognita

• Australia to start Iran travel ban on Sunday – Ninefax
• Sam Aziz withdrew $50,000 days before flight to Egypt, court hears – Ninefax…your ‘for rigid disclosure and enforcement’ case vis S144 of the Commonwealth Constitution, and useful example of the risks of having politicians with access and allegiances to other nations can start with this Liberal mayor of a Melbourne city council…..
• Labor’s deadline is near. Do we have an Opposition? – Pearls and Irritations, Roberts…it would appear not…
• How good is the labour market? – Pearls and Irritations, Keating…utterly rooted is the answer…
• Why the Kiwis are not coming to OZ any more – Pearls and Irritations, Rizvi
• What should Australia do about its politics being too white? – Pearls and Irritations, Chiu… are circa 80% of Australians of British or Irish descent?…
• What do the Chinese think of the US-Australian Alliance? – Pearls and Irritations, Scrafton
• In defence of an apolitical, professional public service – Pearls and Irritations, Podger & Sports rorts shows need for public sector re-think – The Mandarin, Patton…Australian public services, the Commonwealth in particular, have been trashed over the course of a generation by embedding of a cult of personality in the senior executive and executive levels, ideological blinkering, and the letting go of data and transparency in public policy decisionmaking, and they need major reform…
• Coalition ministers ‘kept no records’ of meeting overturning advice and awarding $5m to party donor – Guardian…that’s the way Australian politicians (and senior public servants) like it – ‘no records’…
• Coronavirus U-Turn: virus far worse than thought – Michael West, Freeman
• Ranking Australia’s billionaires as taxpayers – Michael West…Uncle Rupert is taking you for a mug…
• The Great Australian Cop-Out – Slate
• Coronavirus scare at Gold Coast beauty salon after beautician tests positive following trip to Iran – ABC

 …and furthermore…

• The Gig Economy Has Never Been Tested by a Pandemic – The Atlantic
• The Problem With Telling Sick Workers to Stay Home – The Atlantic…we probably all work with someone who comes in coughing and sneezing…
• The World’s Refugee System Is Broken – The Atlantic
• Political connections, privileged access to credit, and welfare costs – VoxEU
• Globalisation: What’s at stake for central banks – VoxEU
• Liberal Democracy and Its Enemies – Project-Syndicate, Patten
• The True Price of Carbon – Project-Syndicate
• ‘My job went abroad because of globalisation’ – BBC
• Slouching towards dystopia: the rise of surveillance capitalism and the death of privacy – New Statesman

 …and Coronavirus…

• Chinese laboratory that first shared coronavirus genome with world ordered to close for ‘rectification’, hindering its Covid-19 research – SCMP
• What’s at stake in the Coronavirus crisis? – Pearls and Irritations, Beeson
• Four Reasons Why the Coronavirus Is Such a Terrifying Economic Menace – Slate
• What the Coronavirus End Game Will Look Like – Bloomberg
• Coronavirus and the geopolitics of disease – New Statesman
• Quarantines Won’t Save Us From Coronavirus – FiveThirtyEight
• Cruise industry buoyant despite negative coronavirus PR – DW
• Will coronavirus cause a global recession? We still don’t know. – Vox
• How long can coronavirus survive on surfaces? – Japan Times
• Korean woman reinfected with coronavirus after recovery – Korea Times
• How early signs of the coronavirus were spotted, spread and throttled in China – Straits Times