Coronavirus Leaves World Playing Catch-Up

(Bloomberg) --

School closures, travel restrictions, a state of emergency in California, promises of fiscal measures — world leaders are now taking serious steps to clamp down on the coronavirus.

But they are late, very late. From the outset, when China’s leaders moved slowly on news of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, authorities have been behind the curve. In the U.S., President Donald Trump — whose administration has repeatedly proposed cuts to the nation’s pandemic response system — at first played down the threat.

This dawdling on key global issues risks becoming a recurring theme. Think climate change, which some key leaders deny even exists.

With many businesses partially shut down, and with workers, shoppers and tourists staying home, the coronavirus is delivering a one-two economic punch that could last for years. Perhaps measures promised by governments and central banks around the world can limit the impact, but the damage has been done.

No one expects leaders to act in perfect unison — politics is a messy business. But even finding agreement on baselines has been tough. Such as: Respect science and prepare for the worst, and when there are signs it’s coming, move quickly to deal with it.

The danger, in turn, is that having gotten off the starting blocks slowly, some governments over-react. That could create a host of other problems.

Global Headlines

Rocky road | Bernie Sanders faces a harder path to the Democratic presidential nomination than a few weeks ago: The electoral map, momentum and demographics favor a resurgent Joe Biden. The next primaries are in states likely to lean to Biden, including Michigan with its autoworkers and African-American population, Florida with older residents, and Ohio, where voters may embrace Biden’s working-class roots.

• Liberal firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez still backs Sanders, but she’s not going to tear the party apart over it.
• Read about Michael Bloomberg’s exit from the race after his all-in Super Tuesday strategy foundered.
• (Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News)

Extraordinary rebuke | U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts chastised Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for making “threatening” statements about two justices at an abortion-rights rally outside the court. Schumer said Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh “will pay the price” if they oppose access to abortion. The court is hearing arguments in an abortion case for the first time in four years.

Economic reality | The weakest productivity since the Industrial Revolution is something Boris Johnson’s government must contend with just as the U.K. enters a critical juncture. As Lucy Meakin and David Goodman explain, it’s perhaps the biggest challenge to an administration aiming to make Britain a powerhouse outside the European Union — with or without a trade deal with the bloc.

Image problem | Through its worst slowdown in more than a decade, India has had a constant positive to show investors: political stability. But as Archana Chaudhary reports, street protests which culminated in a riot that killed more than 46 in New Delhi could see investors tempering expectations for Asia’s third-largest economy.

Facing its past | In Burundi, a tiny African coffee producer that counts Starbucks as a customer, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is exhuming mass graves from waves of turmoil since independence from Belgium in 1962. The program has been criticized by the opposition as a bid to boost the ruling party before a presidential election in May and comes at a time of tension in Africa’s Great Lakes region.

What to Watch

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan meet today in Moscow to try to smooth out relations over the conflict in Syria and avoid any damage to their deep economic ties.
• South Africa’s Tshwane municipality, which includes the capital, Pretoria, has been placed under administration by the provincial government to fill a leadership vacuum from a protracted power struggle.
• China and Japan agreed to delay the first state visit of a Chinese leader to Tokyo in about a decade due to coronavirus worries.

Tell us how we’re doing or what we’re missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally … Japan’s conveyor-belt sushi restaurants have fallen victim to the coronavirus. Sushi chains halted the belts that normally carry plates directly to customers’ tables, asking diners to order via touch panels. The virus also threatens to disrupt the famed cherry blossom season, usually one of Japan’s top tourist drawcards. Tokyo’s government urged residents not to gather for traditional blossom viewing parties in city parks.

--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter, Ruth Pollard and Anthony Halpin.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.