Your Evening Briefing
Your Evening Briefing
(Bloomberg) --
Just four months after surfacing in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the novel coronavirus has infected 1 million people across the globe. More than 51,000 have died and just a handful of countries remain free of the scourge. Some governments are taking drastic steps to halt its spread, including locking up those who disobey social distancing restrictions. And a county in central China was shut down again after a flare-up of new cases. Meanwhile, the global economy is expected to shrink by 2% in the first half of 2020. U.S. jobless claims have surged, with a total 10 million seeking unemployment benefits over the last two weeks.
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Here are today’s top stories
The demand by states for masks, ventilators, gloves, face shields and even body bags has outstripped the Trump administration’s capacity to respond, leading governors to make pleas to private benefactors. In New York City, ambulances are taking almost three minutes longer than usual to respond to the most critical distress calls as the city’s health services buckle. For those who make it to the hospital, doctors making life-or-death decisions about their care risk being sued. Here’s the latest.
China rejected allegations that Beijing concealed the extent of the coronavirus epidemic, and accused President Donald Trump of seeking to shift blame for his own mishandling of the outbreak in the U.S., which has the most infections of any country in the world. And that includes the military: A Navy captain commanding an airrcraft carrier pleaded for help from the Pentagon as infection spread among the thousands of sailors aboard the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt. The Pentagon responded by taking away his command.
Some of the most contested pieces of the 2017 Republican tax overhaul are up for debate again. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the next coronavirus response bill should suspend the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes that disproportionately hit Democratic-leaning states. Trump wants to restore a tax break for corporate client outings, dinners, sporting games, concerts and cruises, which were limited under the controversial law.
America’s blue-collar jobs took a historic beating in the last downturn. The current crisis may be even worse. Across the nation, what Trump had been hyping as a “blue-collar boom” going into November’s election is quickly turning into a blue-collar bloodbath.
Mortgage lenders are preparing for the biggest wave of delinquencies in history. Some 30% of Americans with home loans (about 15 million households) could stop paying if the U.S. economy stays hobbled by shutdowns through the summer. For homeowners lucky enough to still have jobs, there’s more incentive to refinance: rates fell for a second straight week.
Oil prices jumped as much as 24% after Trump tweeted a heavily qualified—and immediately doubted—claim to have brokered a deal that would have Saudi Arabia and Russia dramatically ratchet down production. U.S. stocks rode the wave, surging along with crude prices. Liam Denning breaks down the reality of the situation in Bloomberg Opinion: This is performance art. Trump, Vladimir Putin and Prince Mohammed bin Salman all gain from pretending to have power over an oil market already spinning out of control.
What’s Joe Weisenthal thinking about? The Bloomberg news director says that in the aftermath of the last financial crisis, there was a major debate about why unemployment remained high for so long. Those who took the cyclical view believed there was weak demand for goods and services, and thus for workers to provide them. The structuralists said stimulation was pointless, since any attempt to get people into the workforce faster would just result in more inflation. Though the former camp won and unemployment fell below what most thought was possible without a rise in inflation or rapid wage growth, Joe expects the debate to occur again now that unemployment is soaring.
What you’ll need to know tomorrow
- Democrats postpone their nominating convention until August.
- The Trump administration is likely to urge Americans to wear masks.
- Nations with mandatory TB vaccines report fewer virus deaths.
- Boeing is expected to offer all employees voluntary buyouts.
- SoftBank abandons $3 billion deal with WeWork investors.
- Small businesses, outgunned in Washington, worry about survival.
- There’s no good reason to hoard anything, especially food.
What you’ll want to read tonight in Businessweek
Workers suddenly thrust into flexible work environments (living room couches, kitchen counters, unfinished basements, large closets) also need flexibility from managerial expectations, according to Barbara Larson, an executive professor of management at Northeastern University. Here’s her crash course on how to recalibrate your style as the pandemic ushers in this new work-from-home reality.
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