Powell’s Warning, Germany’s Nose-Dive, Dollar Supremacy: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Thursday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• The U.S. economy faces unprecedented risks if policy makers don’t rise to the challenge, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said while pushing back against the notion of negative interest rates
• The British government’s call to restart the economy may have sounded good, but there’s little evidence the country is taking heed. Meanwhile, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak warned the U.K. faces a significant recession and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey hinted more bond purchases are on the way
• German GDP data this week will reflect not only how Europe’s biggest economy began a nose-dive in March, but also that its stalling engine was already in need of repair
• Russians are running out of money after six weeks of lockdown and minimal government support, pushing President Vladimir Putin to start reopening the economy even as the country’s virus total surges to the second-highest in the world
• Italy is trying to prop up its economy with a second stimulus package worth 55 billion euros ($60 billion). It may not be enough
• For all the toll it has wreaked on the U.S., the coronavirus crisis has reinforced the most important vestige of American power in the global economy: the supremacy of the dollar
• While the rest of the world has sheltered at home, Swedes have continued eating in restaurants, shopping, and going to work. The Swedish model trades more disease for less economic damage
• The pandemic is threatening to turn the long-lasting fault line between Europe’s richer north and poorer south into an economic chasm putting its currency at risk. Meanwhile, ECB officials signaled the euro zone has hit the low point of its economic slump
• Australia is the most China-reliant economy in the developed world, leaving it vulnerable to blowback after the prime minister called for a probe into the origins of the coronavirus
• Get ready for the New Normal 2.0 -- more appropriately, 2-point awful
• Renewed protests between police and protesters in Hong Kong, and the threat of a second wave of virus cases, raise questions about whether the storied financial hub will ever regain its past prominence

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.