U.S. Gender Inequality, WTO Award, Fixing Capitalism: Eco Day

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

• The pandemic is disproportionately affecting women and threatening to wipe out decades of their economic progress. As the crisis drags on, some of the biggest pain points are among women of color and those with young children
• Growing up under communism taught Kristalina Georgieva to value free markets and competition. Now, confronting the global economy’s worst downturn since the Great Depression, the IMF chief sees an opportunity for reform
• The transatlantic trade conflict isn’t showing signs of winding down any time soon, and a ruling from the World Trade Organization means that a fresh round of retaliatory tariffs could jeopardize the nascent economic recoveries in both the U.S. and the European Union
  • The Trump administration is asking the International Trade Commission to open a Section 201 probe into whether blueberry imports are harming U.S. growers of the fruit​​​​​​​
• The U.S. government has used emergency pandemic aid to purchase more than $355 million in bonds issued by companies in the battered oil and gas industry, according to a report being released Wednesday by critics who say the investments amount to a bailout
  • Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats are awaiting Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin‘s counter-offer to their stimulus plan as time is running out to get a deal before the election
• The Bank of England’s chief economist has called out overly negative interpretations of the U.K. recovery, saying such anxiety could become self-fulfilling and as harmful to Britons’ wellbeing as Covid-19
• Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Germany will return to normal spending levels as soon as possible as she defended the country’s unprecedented borrowing to overcome the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic

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