Easter Saturday Supplement: 11 April 2020

The Great Rock: Dusk, 1977 Lloyd Rees, Art Gallery of NSW

Macro & Markets

• How the Pandemic Wiped Out Oil Demand Around the World – Bloomberg
• Saudi-Russia Oil Deal Under Threat as Mexico Walks Out of OPEC+ Talks – Bloomberg
• Coronavirus: Worst economic crisis since 1930s depression, IMF says – BBC
• It’s Getting a Lot Harder to Ship Food Around the World – Bloomberg
• The Normal Economy Is Never Coming Back – Foreign Policy, Tooze…good read…
• Saudi, Russia outline record oil cut under U.S. pressure as demand crashes – Reuters
• Is a Food Supply Crisis the next big hit? – Pearls & Irritations, Cribb
• Coronavirus is hurting America’s place as a world leader while China appears to rise – ABC
• The Day The Fed Nationalized The Bond Market: The Complete Summary Of Everything The Fed Did Today – Zero Hedge
• OPEC+ deal won’t save Covid-19 crashed oil prices – Asia Times

Asia

• China’s US$1 trillion consumer loan bubble is bursting as army of borrowers flinch under pandemic strain – SCMP
• Coronavirus: China’s manufacturing prices plunge further in March, with consumer inflation easing – SCMP
• Asia must brace for new age of protectionism – Nikkei Asian Review
• Coronavirus: is China re-pegging the yuan to the US dollar to avert a financial crisis? – SCMP
• For first time in 11 years, BOJ lowers forecast for all Japan regions – Japan Times
• Don’t Count on China to Lift the Global Economy – Foreign Affairs…nicely maps out what has always been the inherent trap of shackling global capitalism to the CCP…
• Indonesia borrows big to avoid Covid-19 collapse – Asia Times

Americas

• Fed rolls out $2.3 trillion to backstop ‘Main Street,’ local governments – Reuters
• Cascading Job Losses Shred U.S. Safety Net: ‘We Were Unprepared’ – Bloomberg
• How Did the U.S. End Up with Nurses Wearing Garbage Bags? – New Yorker
• U.S. banks prepare to seize energy assets as shale boom goes bust – Reuters
• ‘Sudden black hole’: The US economy is cratering at astonishing speed – Ninefax
• Fox News Set the Stage for America’s Poor Coronavirus Response – Slate
• We’re Now Living the American Carnage Trump Promised Would End at His Inauguration – Slate
• America’s Other Epidemic – The Atlantic
• Fed Puts Treasury on the Spot With Loan Initiative – Bloomberg
• Coronavirus Shock Is Destroying Americans’ Retirement Dreams – Bloomberg
• Coronavirus Crisis Legacy: Mountains of Debt – WSJ, Hilsenrath…very good read…
• Coronavirus: Chile’s elite scolded for escaping by helicopter for Easter holiday amid outbreak – SCMP
• Economists Expect U.S. Unemployment to Hit a Post-Depression Record – Bloomberg

Europe

• How Europe failed the coronavirus test – SCMP
• Europe could fall, Italy warns as divided EU seeks coronavirus rescue deal – Reuters
• EU must address pandemic’s effects on economies – DW
• E.U. Backs Half-Trillion Euro Stimulus, but Balks at Pooling Debt – NY Times
• Britain’s scientists knew coronavirus explosion was coming, but they were slow to raise alarm – SCMP

Terra Specufestor

• A peculiar Australian disease: the total dislike of parliamentary democracy – Crikey
• The Coronavirus Boost — is the new JobSeeker Payment as generous as it seems? – Medium
• Turn super into income for ‘overnight pay increase’, Tony Shepherd says – Ninefax
• Snap back to what? We need a steady march to reform – and a broader tax base – Ninefax, Hewson
• Pathology giants seek 50% rent reduction from hard-pressed Australian GPs amid coronavirus crisis – Guardian…a nice little look at one of the vested interests nestled in Australian health…
• Morrison talks of ‘snapping back’ but the economic recovery from coronavirus will be slow – Guardian, Jericho
• Coronavirus: what causes a ‘second wave’ of disease outbreak, and could we see this in Australia? – Conversation
• Ruby Princess: battle begins to hold someone accountable for cruise ship coronavirus debacle – Guardian…worthy of a Royal Commission on its own…
• JobKeeper is quick, dirty and effective: there was no time to make it perfect – Conversation
• Have Australia and New Zealand stopped Covid-19 in its tracks? – Guardian
• Boomers vs Millennials: arts funding dropped, hits young artists over high-brow establishment – Michael West, Roy
• Boomers vs Millennials: the gig economy breaks & enters the Australian Public Service – Michael West, Wilson
• Up to a third of mortgage holders don’t have a buffer for virus downturn – Ninefax
• Coronavirus gives China an edge as it expands sway in the Pacific – Nikkei Asian Review
• False Assumptions a Threat to National Security – Pearls and Irritations, Leckie

…and furthermore…

• Bank of England to directly finance extra government spending – FT.com
• Treating people as customers rather than citizens – Pearls & Irritations, Cox
• COVID-19 and preparing for global warming – Pearls & Irritations, Scrafton
• Coronavirus highlights the painful political truth about health inequality. Is social democracy the answer? – The Conversation
• This Pandemic Is a ‘Fork in the Road’ for Gig Worker Benefits – Wired
• Forget old screen ‘time’ rules during coronavirus. Here’s what you should focus on instead – Conversation
• How Private-Equity Firms Squeeze Hospital Patients for Profits – New Yorker
• Coronavirus: Inflation or Deflation? Why we need a Modern Debt Jubilee Now – Patreon, Keen
• Vice, Vice, Baby! Americans (Ab)Use Porn, Booze, & Chocolate To Cope With Lockdown – Zero Hedge
• Artificial intelligence as a central banker – VoxEU
• Globalisation and financial contagion: A history – VoxEU
• Rethinking occupational entry regulations – VoxEU…interesting charts…
• The Pandemic Will Accelerate History Rather Than Reshape It – Foreign Affairs
• Total system failure will give rise to new economy – Asia Times, Escobar
• Pandemic Socialism – Project-Syndicate, Buiter
• Rethinking globalization in a post Covid-19 world – Asia Times
• The Human-Capital Costs of the Crisis – Project-Syndicate, Eichengreen

…and coronovairus…

• Coronavirus: 68 per cent of cases confirmed in China in past eight days had no symptoms – SCMP
• Coronavirus May ‘Reactivate’ in Cured Patients, Korean CDC Says – Bloomberg
• China seeks to contain new coronavirus ‘silent carriers’ – Reuters
• Coronavirus replicates in throat making it easy to transmit, German scientists say – SCMP
• The coming battle for the COVID-19 narrative – VoxEU