Opinion

When America has recovered from the coronavirus crisis and people are back to work, Representative Adam Schiff thinks Congress should consider a 9/11-style independent commission to examine why the nation was so unprepared for the pandemic. Schiff, a California Democrat, told me in an interview that his staff has already ...

What was once sacrosanct is no more. Apple Inc seems to have blinked. Bloomberg News reported on April 1 that Apple has relaxed its rules requiring a 30% cut for any content sold inside video apps on its iOS platform. The tech giant said its programme allows “premium subscription video” ...

The coronavirus crisis is still unfolding, but it’s not too soon to think about lasting financial impact and how to limit the fallout. One major financial crisis that may hit later this year or early in 2021 is the ever-looming collapse in state and local employee pension funds. Although the ...

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) has put out a signal of intent: More government bond supply is about to come thick and fast. The amount of gilts to be sold in April will be raised from 20 billion pounds ($22 billion) to 45 billion pounds. Boris Johnson’s government needs ...

As fashion retailers shutter their storefronts across Europe and North America due to the coronavirus, some of the world’s most vulnerable workers are feeling the pain — and getting shafted. In Bangladesh, garment factories have already furloughed more than 1 million workers thanks to at least $3 billion in cancelled ...

The Covid-19 epidemic is a fight with an invisible enemy. What’s also worrying is that we just don’t know how bad the disease really is. Many people wonder whether we’re overestimating its deadliness, since countries find it impossible to test those with few or no symptoms. The case fatality rate ...

Lakeside shopping centre, just outside of London, is a mecca of consumerism. It’s situated in the county of Essex, which loves shopping so much that a reality TV show captures the exploits of its glamorous, bauble-buying residents. But since last week, the mall has been open for only essential purchases, ...

Among western nations, Italy has been the canary in the mine of the Covid-19 epidemic. For the past month, the daily life of Italians has been marked by a dreadful combination of a rising death toll and tightening restrictions. Soon, it turned out that the rest of the world was ...

In the pre-coronavirus world, retailers big and small were in an arms race over free and fast delivery. In New York City, where I live, that meant you could get a range of items from toothpaste to batteries within 48 hours or less without paying an extra fee. Now, the ...

During the past few weeks the spreads on corporate bonds relative to Treasuries with comparable maturities have risen sharply. This kind of increase is a natural part of recessions, as investors demand more compensation for the default risks of corporate debt issuers. But a key and unusual part of the ...