Crisis of Capitalism, GDP Plunges 4.8%, Fed’s Clarida: Eco Day

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

• The biggest bailouts yet are sparking a crisis of confidence in capitalism, write Enda Curran and Garfield Reynolds
• Bloomberg Economics’ global GDP growth tracker plummeted 4.8% in April, writes Dan Hanson, adding that what comes next will depend on the pace at which containment restrictions are eased
• Fed No. 2 Richard Clarida mixed a sobering acknowledgment of the damage inflicted on the U.S. economy by the coronavirus pandemic with an optimistic outlook for the second half of the year
• India will deploy commercial jets, military transport planes and naval warships to bring back hundreds of thousands of citizens stranded across the world, in what’s set to be the biggest-ever peacetime repatriation exercise in history
• New Zealand’s jobless rate rose and wage growth slowed in the first quarter as the pandemic pushed the economy toward recession
• Canadians don’t expect to be in much of a spending mood even after pandemic-related lockdowns are lifted
• Hong Kong’s retailers will need to get creative to survive the deepening recession that’s enveloped the city as tourists from the mainland are unlikely to come to the rescue this time
• The ECB responded to a German court ruling criticizing its bond-buying program by pledging to do everything necessary to revive inflation. In Sweden, the Riksbank stepped up its battle against lawmakers in an effort to defend its right to buy corporate bonds
• Supply disruptions that came with the global coronavirus pandemic are obscuring business distress in the two biggest Gulf Arab economies
• For years, the Fed warned that too many companies were engaging in fuzzy accounting that bumped up their earnings -- making it easier for them to obtain loans. The practice was driving up corporate debt to excessive and worrisome levels, regulators chastised

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