How COVID-19 is Interrupting Children's Education

This Economist article tackles the issue of school closings as a result of the coronavirus, or COVID-19. Nearly 1 billion students in the world have had schooling interrupted to some extent by the virus spreading across the globe. At the time of publish, over 100 countries have closed or partially closed their schools.

It remains to be seen if these measures will slow the spread of the virus. Countries like China and Italy have already lost thousands of lives from the pandemic, and many other countries are still at least a week behind those in the growth of their infection rate. Either way, the virus forcing governments to close down schools is maybe the better of two bad options (that and keeping them open for education purposes but risking the viral infection).

A scary statistic from a 2009 study to consider is that if schools are closed for a month, between 6% and 19% of key healthcare workers will have to stay at home to take care of their children. There are other externalities to consider from closing schools other than the obvious effect of moving to online courses.

The courses themselves are not necessarily the problem; online education has tons of potential, especially as a way to educate those in poorer areas with a lack of quality schooling (or any schooling at all). However, the middle of a pandemic is one of the worst places for the ramping up of such programming to occur. We will see if K-12 and higher education are able to handle this very tall task.

https://www.economist.com/international/2020/03/19/how-covid-19-is-interrupting-childrens-education

The Fed Wants to Loosen Rules Around Big Banks and Venture Capital

A proposal from the federal reserve would loosen the restrictions on banks ability to make risky investments with customer deposits. “ Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell said the changes would “permit banks to provide limited services to covered funds in ways that do not raise the types of concerns the Volcker rule was intended to address.” Opposition claim the move will weaken the safety net and encourage the behavior the Volcker Rule was meant to prevent. The proposed changes would allow big banks to diversify the risk and make more money. It has been said this change could potentially help small banks to get involved in investments they currently could not get into on there own now. It would also allow tax advantages when investing in startups. The biggest concern is that the big banks capital investments would fail and destabilize the banks and need government bailouts which would drive up the price of insurance and hurt the small banks.

The coronavirus economic 'disaster' scenario: Stagflation

Due to the recent increase in cases of COVID-19 and global widespread, the U.S Federal Reserve has announced that they will be employing interest rate cuts down to zero, and the Trump administration is working on unveiling a stimulus plan. The virus has resulted in a global economic shock, and financial markets have taken a deep plunge. All three U.S indexes were nearly 20% below their average highs, and Italian stocks fell over 30%. Oil prices suffered their worst day since 1991 on Monday, concluding a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. U.S oil prices dropped over 34%, the greatest in a four year low, and all of this has happened in a matter of days. Most economists are predicted that even thought the threat of a recession is something that can be controlled, stagflation (slow growth coupled with high prices) is a real threat. Global supply shocks, labor shortages due to the fear of the virus, coupled with slashed interest rates could be a strong cause of possible stagflation. With China slowly recovering from the virus and somewhat stabilizing, the economic disaster is slowly creeping into the United States.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/investing/stagflation-economy-coronavirus/index.html

Virus Causes World Stock Markets to Plummet

World stocks have tumbled as the coronavirus continues to spread. Today, March 9th, Wall Street had its worst day since the financial crisis in 2008. The Dow fell more than 2,000 points and London's FTSE fell 100 points in three years. More than 9,000 people in Italy have the virus and over 650 people have it in the U.S. The Italian Prime Minister announced that he will issue a nationwide containment for the country as Germany and Spain have reported cases of the virus as well. Facebook even shut down it's office in London for the time being. Many small businesses and schools have closed down as well. Many people have been pulling out of the market for safety measures, it should be interesting to see how things turn around.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/live-blog/coronavirus-updates-live-northern-italy-lockdown-anxiety-grows-d-c-n1152886

Italy Extends Virus Containment Measures to Entire Country

Italy Extends Virus Containment Measures to Entire Country  (link)

Amidst all of the coronavirus drama, Italy has taken another step to try and contain the virus by putting the entire country on lockdown until April 3rd. Italy is the second most effected country following China due to the fact that it has the 2nd oldest aging population, following Japan. According to the article, there is allowed to be no travel outside or into the country, no public gatherings, and schools have already been closed until further notice. In addition, most businesses are required to close by 6pm.

Italy has also been experiencing riots in their prisons and protests outside of them asking them to allow amnesty to its prisoners due to the virus.

What economic consequences could you see as a result of these drastic changes? Do you think Italy will remain on lockdown until April 3rd? Can you think of a more effective way this could've been handled?

Wall Street clobbered as crude plummets, virus crisis deepens

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/wall-street-clobbered-as-crude-plummets-virus-crisis-deepens-idUSKBN20W1IF

As the oil prices continue to decrease, combined with the spread of coronavirus (COVID19), and its impact on world economy, Wall Street suffered its biggest one day loss since the 2008 financial crisis. Energy stocks were hit hard as the oil price war escalated between Saudi Arabia and Russia.  Slowly, but surely, we see panic among investors and shareholders. Some analysts believe that signs of recession can be seen quite clearly, and therefore there will be a slowdown in economic activity. Do you believe that we are nearing towards recession?

Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Half Percentage Point to Combat Virus Fear

The Fed has cut rates once again by a half percentage point due to recessionary pressures resulting from the coronavirus. The federal funds rate is now between 1%-1.25%, however, the stock markets fell anyway. While this shock is considered temporary, there is no way of telling how long this might last and how much output will decline. While an interest rate cut doesn't address the cause of the downturn, Jerome Powell said he hoped it would soften damage to spending and confidences, stem financial-market disruptions and speed a recovery once any epidemic is under control.

Do you believe this is the best method of action by the Fed to address a potential recession? If not, what could they do to make a bigger impact rather than just adjusting interest rates?

Economists Slash Global Growth Forecasts as Coronavirus Spreads

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/business/economy/global-economy-coronavirus.html

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that economic growth will be cut in half as the coronavirus spreads to the world outside of China. It is hard to tell because of our lack of information on the effect on the businesses in China. The predicted decrease in growth in the United States is 1.5%. Recessions are looming all over the world. It is suggested by the OECD for countries to invest in health care early and start preparing ahead of time. Some of these preparations include decreasing unnecessary travel, shorter workdays, delay tax days for small businesses, lowering interest rates, and stronger government policies.

What are some other preventative measures that can help our economy once the recession and coronavirus hits?

Goldman Sachs Warns of Recession Risks From Coronavirus

Financial analysts have predicted that the United States will avoid an outright recession, but the risks have clearly grown over the past few weeks. The outbreak is weighing down more meaningfully on economic data, and investors are expecting volatility to increase in the coming days.  Goldman Sachs has predicted that the U.S would only grow 0.9% in the first quarter, and not grow at all in the second quarter - the worst six month growth predictions since the Great Recession. Central banks are aggressively intervening in order to prevent negative fallout due to the virus. Anticipation grows to see the next direction of interest rates when the Fed meets next on March 18th. The U.S is no longer immune to the virus, nor to the effects of the global economy. There is a growing threat to investment, jobs, growth, and lives all over the world, and there is no clear distinction on how severe the impacts of this virus will be.

https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/articles/2020-03-02/goldman-sachs-warns-of-recession-risks-from-coronavirus

Are we near a recession?

If the coronavirus becomes pandemic, as it spreads exponentially, then a global recession is likely. While a great percentage of manufacturers live in China, and the Corona virus has been a huge blow to the Chinese economy, it is quite possible that the global economy will tank following the Chinese economy.

Chinese business travel and tourism is very low, and the amount of goods being shipped in and out of China has decreased substantially as fears of the spread of the virus rise. If China does not produce, then the consumers who rely on their products will suffer, along with the economies that they affect.

Do you believe that the Coronavirus will be influential enough to cause a global recession? Will we cure it in time?

World Economy is in Survival Mode

 The coronavirus has certainly been a huge focal point in economic news lately, and rightfully so. The early optimism for the economy in 2020 is now virtually wiped away as the pandemic has halted all economic momentum early on in the year. Experts believe that the global economy is completely in survival mode amidst this tremendous economic shock. Travel, trade and supply chains are taking the largest hits worldwide rather quickly. Just last week the U.S. stock markets had one of their worst days ever as now a major sell off is fully underway.

Knowing the financial markets are sensitive to swings like this, do you think this latest swing is out of line given basic economic theory, or is the coronavirus on a trajectory to make 2020 a terrible year for the global economy?

Trump Administration Sees No Threat to Economy From Monopolies

This article's talks about the Trump administration denying the fact that monopolies are going to hurt the U.S. economy. The democrats have proposed that big companies need to be split up to keep the economy growing and to keep competition alive. Main companies they talked about were communication and tech companies and they said that they think these type of monopolies are hurting competition and consumers. In the annual economic report of the President, Trump and his administration dismissed the research on how some companies are dominating the industry and said that the info is flawed and that the rise of large companies may not be bad for consumers. They also mention that it is important that antitrust enforcement and competition policy doesn't punish firms for their success.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/business/trump-economy-monopoly.htmlDo you think that the Trump administration is right or wrong?

Coronavirus Impact

As we progress farther into the cycle of the Coronavirus it's important to look at facts to truly estimate how much we have/will be affected by this epidemic. Stock markets are feeling the impact and investors have their tails tucked in-between their legs, but just how far will this virus take the world economy? We see that stack markets worldwide have suffered and we also see that major conferences have been halted in the fear for the safety of corporate employees.

The question that stands at the end of all of this turmoil is how far will this go? How much will not only the US be affected, but the world economy as a whole? While Asia has taken the blunt end of the impact is it only a matter of time before the US is to come to the same fate or are we going to be able to stick it out until a solution is found? What do yo think? How do you think is everyone going to be affected and how long do you think it's going to take us to recover?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html

The Fed Can't Stop Coronavirus From Slamming the Economy, but it Could Ease Pain.

The market has dropped by 300 basis points since the first coronavirus death. The fed is considering doing multiple stages of rate cuts. The hope is that rate cuts will ease the mind of investors and help to stimulate economic growth. The Fed can only help so much though, they wouldn't be able to prevent a supply shock, which is still a possibility.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-fed-cant-stop-coronavirus-from-slamming-the-economy-but-it-could-ease-the-pain-2020-02-28

U.S. Incomes, Spending Rose in January Ahead of Coronavirus

Personally, I haven't noticed many changes in popular areas or people avoiding being in public spaces. In fact, I would agree with the article that spaces are actually getting more crowded. 

For instance, I traveled to Indiana this weekend and it was so hard to find a parking spot at the mall there and traffic was extremely backed up (on a Saturday!). 

People receiving tax refunds could be part of the reason but I really just don't think that the Corona Virus is as complex as the media is making it. 

In both Ohio and Indiana I observed a lack of urgency or concern. Kids are still running around in crowded public places like schools of fish. 

What have you observed in regard to changes in population in public areas? Do you think that people will start avoiding public spaces once they spend all of their tax refunds? 

Global Economy Headed for Worst Year Since Financial Crisis

Economists predict that certain factors such as the coronavirus will lead the global economy to have its lowest level of growth since the Great Recession. GDP growth is currently predicted to be around 2.8%, which would be the first year to come in under 3% since the financial crisis in 2009. GDP growth in China alone is expected to drop .7% due to the impacts of the virus such as decrease in trade and tourism. Other Asian countries are also expected to see a decline because of the dramatic drop in tourism that is currently being seen. Some of the key factors that are predicted to decrease GDP and growth besides the coronavirus include the U.S.-China trade war, political uncertainty, and weakness in Japan and certain South American countries. The upcoming U.S. presidential election also casts uncertainty for the end of 2020, as their trade war with China could greatly change under democratic leadership. Despite the hit to global economic growth, economist do not see a recession occurring as a result of this.

Do you agree with the prediction that a recession is unlikely in the upcoming future or do you believe that it is still possible due to the current and future struggles of the global economy?

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/27/worlds-economic-growth-could-be-worst-since-financial-crisis-bank-of-america-says.html

Coronavirus Fears Are Driving Interest Rates Down, a Bad Omen for the Economy

The emergence of the coronavirus has had a severe detrimental effect on the global and the American economy, and this has correspondingly led to a drop in global interest rates. The drop in global interest rates specifically “reflects expectations that the Federal Reserve and other central banks will cut interest rates or take other actions to try to contain the economic damage” of the coronavirus. As the article notes, continually decreasing the rate of interest also leaves the global and the American economy “vulnerable if things were to really take a turn for the worse,” and it will also limit the ability of the Federal Reserve to pursue effective monetary policy. Overall, economists and investors are expecting two to three more interest rates cuts, and this leaves little room for further economic stimulus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/upshot/coronavirus-interest-rates-economy.html

The World's Most Famous Economist Sets Out the Case for Socialism

Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the 21st Century, has a new book coming out; Capital and Ideology. This work is largely a sequel to his last entry, but with a different twist; his earlier novel was focused more on the logic of the economic mode of capitalism that Karl Marx's Das Kapital focused on.

The newer entry is a sociological analysis of how the capitalists maintain power over the lower and middle classes. It is essentially a social study of the wealthy and their influence on the economy, and by extension, the world as a whole.

Why is this relevant? For one, Piketty has one of the economically-soundest arguments for socialism in the 21st Century; he has been commonly referred to as the "21st Century Marx". Therefore, his books are typically highly commended and criticized by those on the opposing ends of the economic ideological spectrum. His book overall is highly critical of exorbitant personal wealth (who does that sound like), but he uses historical data to back his claims, which is accurate and yet dated all at once.

 In a world where redistributive populism looks to take from the uber-wealthy and give to the less fortunate, a study focusing on the critical aspects of the wealthy and their power could certainly spark a debate in any country currently in the midst of an election year. Bernie Sanders. anyone?

https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/02/29/the-worlds-most-famous-economist-sets-out-the-case-for-socialism

Companies Gauge the Coronavirus Impact

The Coronavirus outbreak has negatively affected many companies in the US. Broken supply chains and disrupted manufacturing has decreased demand for all products. The S&P lost 11.5% of its value this week. The worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. Microsoft announced that the virus has hindered computer and tablet sales, cutting their future forecasts. Apple said their sales in China dropped due to closing of stores. MasterCard also cut their forecasts because people are taking less international trips due to the fear of the virus. Investors are also less reluctant to lend them money. Jerome Powell of the Federal Reserve stated they would cut interest rates to incentivize spending and investing. He issued a statement saying these cuts would "act as an appropriate support for the economy" and "as a way to stem panic." Do you believe another economic recession is imminent?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/business/economy/companies-coronavirus-economy.html

U.S. markets drop into correction territory, extending brutal week of losses

Recently, the Dow Jones has been on a constant decline. This past Thursday, it decreased by 4.4%. It has not seen a decline like this since the financial crisis in 2008. The Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq also fell. The Dow Jones is down nearly 13% from its recent high. It has been decreasing for 10 days, and it has not decreased this quickly since 2011. This only adds to the fears investors are already having because of the coronavirus. This fall has erased one third of stocks' gains since Trump's 2016 election.

Investors fears are only increasing since the first US case of coronavirus that could not be linked to travel or contact has just recently occurred in California. With this, companies and musicians have began canceling conferences and concerts due to fear of the virus. These companies stocks are being affected by this. This Thursday, Tesla's stock price fell 13%. Some Wall Street veterans believe that the coronavirus was an external shock that scared investors.

The US will average 1.25% growth for the first half of the year. While this epidemic has negatively affected the US economy, Europe is in worse shape. Germany and Italy run close to being in a recession, and they do not have the tools to fix it because of there previous weak growth and financial crises.

How much longer do you believe the coronavirus will continue to affect the US economy? Since many different countries are being affected by the virus, what do you think this means for our future?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/27/stock-market-dow-coronavirus/

Goldman sees zero earnings growth for US companies this year because of coronavirus

According to Goldman Sachs, the earnings growth for the companies in the US will stagnant in this year because of the coronavirus. Goldman' s chief US equity strategist David Kostin said that " US companies will generate no earnings growth in 2020." This rapid spreading of the virus had cause the historic decline in the Dow Jones in which they dropped more than 8% since Feb 24. The S&P 500 fell about 8.6% and Nasdaq fell about 2.9%. Investors are still optimistic that market will bring it back up after the virus. but Goldman didn't think so, because the virus's impact on the supply chain had caused most of the big companies like Apple or Nike. So, with this virus going around the world, and stock markets declining in the past week, is this the start of another recession? Should people be worried?

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/27/goldman-sees-zero-earnings-growth-for-us-companies-this-year-because-of-coronavirus.html

Brexit to Boost Public, Private UK Investments

After having left the European Union to end the month of January, it appears that new certainty in the future of Britain will help boost re-investing, per Bloomberg. With the leave officially completed and new agreements begin to be worked out, confidence in the British economy has boomed. Boris Johnson wishes to do the same as private corporations, and also invest more into the country, with money that may have been used to help support the EU in the past. With British companies soon to reinvest profits into growing both in the UK and the EU, this will only help further demonstrate the positive aspects of why the UK has decided to leave.

Do you believe that company and consumer confidence will be enough to maintain a positive post-Brexit UK, or will the full ramifications of Brexit hurt these investments in the long run without EU membership?

The Country is Desperate for More Immigrants Under the Trump Administration

This article depicts and goes over the main concerns economists have when it comes to the future economic growth. The issue being that the United States needs more immigrants. Over hundred's of years, the country was built by immigrants and growth has been great because of immigrants but the net flow of immigration in the U.S. has been slowing down since 2007 and continues to drop rapidly since the Trump administration. On the opposite side of that, the baby boomer population is slowly hitting the retirement age and are drifting out of the work force. The combination of this fact, mixed with the statistics of severe drops in birth rates since, has economists concerned about the slowing labor force which will lead to significant drops in economic growth, production, and productivity. The National Foundation of American Policy predicts a 30% drop in immigration by 2021 and as a result, a 35% drop in the average annual growth of the labor force in the U.S.

Previous annual immigration numbers were at 1 million a year, whereas now, they have been cut by half (500,000). If this continues, it is predicted that the national GDP (gross domestic product) will drop by 700 million by 2030. The number one argument against immigration is that domestic wages suffer because of immigrants taking jobs, but the evidence behind that is limited. This is seen to only happen with a small population of the labor force that ended up dropping out of high school. Even with this being an issue, economists have proposed a simple different design can solve the problem.  The United States has a high supply of high-skilled workers and because of that, there are less and less low-skilled workers to do the lower level jobs. Over the years, the people that have been doing these jobs have been poor immigrants that came to the U.S. in search of a better life. With the slow-down of immigration, these jobs will be in more and more demand, without the supporting labor force to take these jobs, there may be an economic crisis. The article argues that with a continued immigration constrain, and a lowering fertility rate, the economy will suffer in the long-run and the nation's debt burden will increase. 

Based on this, what do you think would be the best way to go about avoiding the consequences of cutting immigration?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/business/economy/immigration-economy-mulvaney-trump.html

Stocks trim earlier gains as coronavirus fears linger

The coronavirus continues to cause a plethora of problems for consumers and producers all around the world. As the stock markets and the indexes that represent them continue to fall, the market will begin to show many signs of adding to the global recession. As signals that show that a recession is coming have continued to go off, there is also little progress with containing the coronavirus. As the article describes it, the global supply chains have been hit incredibly hard as some of the largest exporters of goods have been hit hard, and no other countries are wanting those goods as the fear that they may bring over contamination. Which other signs outside of the stock market should we be looking at more closely now that stocks have in fact showed signs? Also, how can stocks recover from this shock?

Link to article- https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/stocks-trim-earlier-gains-as-coronavirus-fears-linger/ar-BB10ocnq

Huawei Is Winning the Argument in Europe, as the U.S. Fumbles to Develop Alternatives

Huawei, the large telecom giant has been a topic of contention for most international governments. Whether they should side with the United States and reject Huawei from their networks or forgo U.S. warnings and decide to build new 5G networks with Huawei.

Both sides have received wins and losses. The U.S. has some success in getting Huawei banned from
Australia and Japan while Huawei has some success in getting permission to build 5G networks in the UK and possibly Germany with strict monitoring and other conditions. This is a problem for the U.S because the two European countries are close allies when it comes to intelligence-sharing and the worry that China will be given a back door to spy.The problem with this is that despite U.S. warnings, the U.S. has not come up with a cheaper alternative to Huawei. Nokia and Ericsson are alterantives but are more expensive and there are no American firm that have developed an alternative for 5G.

But a huge reason for the inclusion of Huawei in the UK and Germany is due to China being a critical trading partner and fear of retaliation from China. With the UK leaving the EU, their trading relationship with China will be a top priority along with the U.S. The UK will need to balance their relationship with both superpowers without alienating the other which will be harder to do. Germany's economy is mostly export dependent (ie. Daimler, BMW, Mercedes-Benz,etc) with a large portion of those exports going to China. This is a problem that many countries are facing: choose the U.S. and potentially be locked out of 5G advancement or Chinese retaliation on goods or choose to include Huawei and have 5G networks and Chinese goodwill or possible Chinese espionage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/us/politics/us-huawei-5g.html?auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tap

Post-Brexit Immigration Havoc

As post-Brexit immigration plans begin to be unveiled by the government, there are five new immigration laws that will affect workers. Low-skilled workers will not get visas under these plans, because the government is urging employers to move away from cheap labor and invest in staff retention and automation technology. Home Secretary Priti Patel said that the government wanted to "encourage people with the right talent" and "reduce the levels of people coming to the UK with low skills". The UK is suggesting the introduction of a points based system that would value immigrants with higher education and job skills over those who are low-skilled. According to the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the impacts of the new immigration legislation would be "devastating" for Scotland.

 The population growth stalling in Scotland is one main argument for needing more immigration, as it would boost the working-age population and keep the economy going. The new immigration laws being imposed by Westminster will disproportionately affect Scotland because of their demographics. That is why the Scottish Parliament is proposing a different immigration policy as their situation is sufficiently different from that of the rest of the UK. Currently, migration policy is controlled by Westminster but Scottish ministers are advocating for extra powers to set up their own system. The proposed system would add a Scottish-specific visa to the immigration system. The requirements for the visa would be decided by the Scottish government and would assess applications before sending them to the UK government for security checks. Do you think the UK government will accept this proposal?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-51558830

The State of New York Won’t Appeal T-Mobile Merger Verdict

New York Attorney General Letitia James said the state won’t obstruct the merge of T-mobile and Sprint.  This legal decision removes barriers between the cellphone carriers and their long-planned combination.

“After a thorough analysis, New York has decided not to move forward with an appeal in this case,” Ms. James said in a statement released on Feb 16th. “Instead, we hope to work with all the parties to ensure that consumers get the best pricing and service possible, that networks are built out throughout our state, and that good-paying jobs are created here in New York.”

In the Obama era, T-Mobile and Sprint talked about mergers but these negotiations ended in failure, in order to avoid monopoly advantages and the formation of a bastion of industrial interests. For mergers of large telecommunications operators, the competent authority will usually evaluate them carefully. Such telecommunications mergers are most often opposed. For example, AT&T failed to acquire Time Warner. In 2011, AT&T tried to acquire T-Mobile, but it failed to get approval to do so. In 2014, T-Mobile tried to sell to Sprint, but in the end, it was also blocked, due to a threat from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  In 2016, T-Mobile and Sprint started to negotiate again, but the two sides did not reach a consensus. With T-Mobile and Sprint now ranked as the No. 3 and No. 4 corporations in telecommunications, the merger would inevitably affect the overall telecommunications industry in the United States. The merger would attract great attention from US antitrust agencies, which have not ruled out examining it in more aspects.

However, T-Mobile and Sprint will have a set of persuasive legal arguments to convince the authorities. After the merger, New T-Mobile will have more network spectrum. In addition to the past 600 MHz and 700 MHz, Sprint's 800 MHz and an increase in speed will also be added. The speed of GHz is helpful to the development of 5G networks and access to business opportunities in the fixed-line broadband market. New T-Mobile promises to invest 30 billion U.S. dollars in building new networks and deploying new services in the next three years. It plans to increase the average national network speed by 15 times by 2024.

In addition, New T-Mobile emphasizes that its coverage network will help improve rural Internet access and reduce the digital gap between urban and rural areas. It is expected to open hundreds of new stores in rural communities, thereby creating more job opportunities, including network engineers, network installations employees, call center specialists, and new store staff, etc., by establishing in-state call centers to increase various customer needs.

On the other hand, gathering silver bullets to build a 5G network at a lower cost and scale will further promote competition in the telecommunications industry and reduce tariffs, ultimately increasing transmission speed and expanding services.  At the same time, fortunately, prices will decline. After all, China has a positive attitude towards the development of 5G mobile networks, even ahead of the United States. Whether the merger can change this pattern and reverse the backward situation will be a topic of concern to the US government.

The U.S. telecommunications industry as a whole will continue to witness intense competition among the three leading corporations (Verizon, AT & T and New T-Mobile). New T-Mobile subscribers will exceed 100 million consumers, and the total number of subscribers can compete with those of Verizon and AT & T. After the merger, the United States will deploy its widest-ever coverage, and its highest-capacity mobile network. 

What do you think is the impact of the merger of t-mobile and Sprint on the telecommunication industry in the United States? Is that good or bad?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-wont-appeal-t-mobile-merger-verdict-11581884506?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1

Japan's economy is shrinking and a recession looks 'all but inevitable'

Japan's economy is on the edge of entering a recession. This global power is the world's third largest economy. However, it has been consistently declining in growth without a current end in sight. Japan has been heavily impacted by the outbreak of the coronavirus in China. The Chinese and Japanese economies are closely tied to one another. With the slow down of China's economy, Japan has struggled to improve their already poor economic situation.
Japan's tourism industry has been greatly effected by the spread of the virus. Last year Japan welcomed 8.1 million Chinese tourist into their country. Japan sees more visitors from China than any other country in the world. With the effort to contain the disease a top priority, tourism has declined.
Do you believe Japan will enter a recession? Is there anyway to prevent the 'inevitable'?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/17/economy/japan-gdp-economy/index.html

Energy Companies Are Facing Looming Amounts of Debt

U.S. oil and gas companies are in need of cash, but it won't come cheap. As of now, explorers and producers have more than $85 billion in debt maturing over the next four years. Companies with poorly rated debt will have a difficult time engaging in capital markets in 2020, which increase the risk of waves of defaults. According to Moody's analyst, Sajjad Alam, "Despite our expectation of a generally low interest rate environment globally, such companies face greater risk because of continuing overproduction, depressed natural gas prices and widespread investor risk aversion toward the exploration and production sector". The difference in pricing of interest rates based upon the borrowing of certain natural gas producing companies emphasizes how investors have become increasingly selective in a sector where they have lost massive amounts of money through bankruptcies due to the crash in oil prices back in 2015. It is still a credit picker's market.

If more of these companies default, is there an expectation that we will see a surge in the price of oil? If so, will that persuade interest rates to rise significantly? What impact will this have on the economy?

HSBC plans to cut 35,000 jobs as profit drops 33%

Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is one of the largest players in the Asian banking industry, and has placed itself across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada alongside. Due to the growing impact of the Corona Virus, the company's profits went down by over one third since 2019, resulting in a reduced global headcount by laying off 15% of their workers. The bank requires a large restructuring plan, and since it has underperformed in U.S markets, they plan to close over a third of their branches and shift them to the Middle East instead. Furthermore, they are shrining their assets by $100 billion, and this restructuring is costing them an added $7.2 billion by 2022. Additionally, the falling interests rates in China have been severely damaging to the financial sector, resulting in several banks rethinking their development strategies. If the virus continues to grow, the bank will face $600 million in further credit losses. Mainland China was a core engine of growth for the country, but now faces deteriorating impacts with many multinational corporations and banks such as Apple facing a decline in their production and performance. Do you believe other banks and corporations will restructure their production plans and geographical placements if the virus continues to grow? If that is the case then how would China's economy recover from this economic downturn without the help of foreign invesmtnets?


https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/18/business/hsbc-results-2019-announcement/index.html

US producer prices post biggest gain in more than a year

In the United States, producer prices were the Highest in January than they have been in over a year. This is due to health care costs and hotel accommodation along with machine and vehicle production. The producer price index increased .5% last month. There was also an increase in consumer prices in January. These rises have economists worried about our inflation rate as the US is trying to reach their desired 2% inflation. The Fed decided to leave interest rates alone in January and delay monetary policy measures another year. What do you think there is to worry about as producer and consumer prices rise?

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/19/us-producer-price-index-january-2020.html

Silicon Valley Heads to Europe, Nervous About New Rules

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/16/technology/europe-new-AI-tech-regulations.html

European Union lawmakers are currently debating on passing a new digital policy which enhances regulation on companies, which use, Artificial Intelligence. This includes Google, Facebook, and Apple among others. These three gigantic companies have made big investments in Artificial Intelligence and U.S. government has been funding greatly to help grow this new technology. In the US and Canada, the number of international PhD students graduating in AI continues to grow, and currently exceeds 60% of the PhDs produced from these programs. AI labor demand is growing especially in high-tech services and the manufacturing sectors. However, in the case of Europe, the debate is to draw attention towards potential risks by adopting Artificial Intelligence; privacy concerns, trusting complex algorithms to diagnose diseases, and the use of self-driving cars. To what extent, digital economy will be impacted by these regulations? In your point of view, what are the ethical challenges which government should be concerned of, in regard to, AL use?

Companies warn of economic crisis as China fights the coronavirus

The coronavirus and the panic surrounding it have put China into difficult place economically. Leaders in China predicted GDP growth of 7.5% at the beginning of the year, but those predictions have sharply decreased. Share prices in mainland China have fallen by 10% since January 20th. The quarantine of the Hubei province promises to have large-scale consequences on its own. Because of roadblocks, chicken farmers do not have enough feed and have suggested that their chickens might starve, which would likely cause a food shortage. Others think that if the lockdown continues, many could lose their jobs. Economic activity is stagnating because of the virus as few people want to leave their houses. Predictions for China's economic growth have been revised to be much lower than they were initially.

What do you think the future holds for China's economy if the virus and quarantine continue? What can the Chinese government do to manage the impacts of this?

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/02/04/companies-warn-of-economic-crisis-as-china-fights-the-coronavirus

Here Are Vulnerable Parts of the U.S. Economy That the Corona Virus May Infect

China's economy is taking a big blow due to the new corona virus. But the U.S. economy will also suffer from the virus. Goldman and Sachs predict the virus will slow our economy by 0.6% which is a fairly large hit to an economy that grows at 2% annually. The virus is mostly affecting industrial progress and imports from China. This will likely last for a large chunk of 2020. On the upside, household spending is staying strong in the U.S. and our economic growth will be driven by the consumers.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/here-are-vulnerable-parts-of-the-us-economy-that-coronavirus-may-infect-2020-02-15

Why is the Labor Force Participation Rate Not Recovering?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/15/powell-labor-force/

Many people are quick to point fingers at welfare programs for people choosing not to work and dropping out of the labor force. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell seems to think that that's not the issue. For one, many of the U.S.'s programs that help those in poverty require that those who receive aid must be working or actively seeking a job. Secondly, in real terms, the amount of aid that people have been receiving has pretty steadily declined. Presumably, if these accusations were to hold true, people would be more likely to seek work if their benefits were going down. Instead, the opposite is happening and benefits are going down at the same time as the labor force participation rate slacking. The real problem, according to Powell, are education and the opioid crisis.

As education becomes harder for many people to attain, whether they are getting priced out of higher education or not receiving proper help in under-funded public schools, they are less likely to find work. Since jobs are increasingly likely to require some sort of college degree, those who don't make it past high school are out of luck and may become discouraged enough to stop seeking work. The raging opioid crisis doesn't help as more people become dependent on drugs and find it harder to maintain a career. Powell claims that boosting the labor force participation rate is a top national priority.

Everyone Loses on Huawei

Everyone Loses on Huawei 

The Uk government has introduced a new policy on Huawei equipment in its telecom network on January 28, 2020. And everyone was lost on it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has given his own administration a black eye because they are against lots of Chinese companies. 

President Trump and US officials want Britain and other allies to ban Huawei equipment on security grounds because the US believes that Huawei’s poorly understood relationship to China’s Communist Party government is something that may threaten their countries’ security.  

Under the influence of the US, Britain’s National Cyber Security Center starts to question whether Huawei equipment threat to security. The UK allowed HUAWEI’s components in noncore functions but they set restrictions around sensitive sites and also a cap of 35% on Chinese equipment in the network.  

The Uk thinks a comprehensive trade agreement with the US and continued deep security cooperation are more important to the UK. However, Mr. John­son maybe worry about offending Bei­jing since Britain’s trade with China is still very important to the UK after Brexit. There is a doubt about the UK's action. If the UK's government really thinks Huawei threatens national security why they still allow Chinese equipment used in telecom networks. 

The most important reason why the UK worries about it is that they are afraid that excluding Huawei will slow the development of the UK's internet. This is a common concern in Europe. Because of the very high cost, Europe did not develop its internet technology, which the internet is very slow than China and the US.  Huawei's 5G technology is the best hope to achieve connection speeds and service other countries' internet technologies. 

The reason that the US has tried to ally forces against Chinese overseas companies is because of the Us-china trade war. The US considers China to be the leading cause of its trade deficit. However, the US trade deficit is a perennial, not a year or two, and America's trade deficit is not just with China but with everyone. Therefore, the trade war is caused by trade imbalance, not by China alone. A strategy that slows the growth of the global Internet is not a good solution to a trade war between China and the United States. How do you think the trade war heats for global economy and technology development？

https://www.wsj.com/articles/everyone-loses-on-huawei-11580255468

American, United pull Boeing 737 Max from summer schedules until past mid-August

United Airlines on Friday pulled the Boeing 737 Max from its schedule until Sep. 4 and expects to cancel more than 7,700 flights from June through September, after the manufacturer warned last month that it doesn't expect regulator approval for the planes until mid year.

American Airlines followed suit with a schedule adjustment on Friday, removing the planes from its summer flying plans until Aug. 18 “based on the latest guidance.” The move comes after Southwest Airlines said Thursday, removed the 737 Max from its schedules until mid-August, as carriers prepare for another peak summer travel season without the fuel-efficient planes. Boeing told airlines and suppliers that it didn’t expect regulators to sign off on the 737 Max until the middle of 2020, much later than the manufacturer’s previous predictions. The 737 Max has been grounded since March after two fatal crashes — in Indonesia in October 2018 and in Ethiopia less than five months later — killed all 346 people on the two flights. A flight-control system aboard the planes was implicated in both crashes. Even if the 737 Max did return before Sep. 4, United does not plan to swap it for any of its summer flights, according to Scott. The airline continues to take measures to ease disruptions from the 737 Max grounding, including automatically rebooking affected customers. 

What will be the share prices of these airlines after this decision ? 

Global oil demand outlook from the IEA

Global oil demand is now expected to see its first quarterly contraction in over a decade, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), as the new coronavirus and widespread shutdown of China’s economy hits demand for crude.

Demand is now expected to fall by 435,000 barrels a day (b/d) in the first quarter of 2020, down from the same period a year ago, and marking the first quarterly contraction in more than 10 years, the IEA said in its monthly oil market report Thursday.The expected decline in demand prompted the agency to cut its 2020 growth forecast by 365,000 b/d to 825,000 barrels a day, the lowest since 2011. Lower-than-expected consumption in the OECD countries trimmed 2019 growth to 885,000 b/d, it also said.

The forecast downgrade comes as the coronavirus, which has infected over 59,000 worldwide and killed over 1,300 people, continues to weigh on global market sentiment and China's economic activity with factories and businesses closing and travel restricted both to and from China and within the country. The negative impact on oil demand hit oil prices hard as the virus took hold in January with a barrel of Brent crude falling by around $10 to fetch below $55 a barrel.

Will the coronavirus have a further affect on the world oil prices? 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/13/global-oil-demand-outlook-from-the-iea.html

China struggles to balance coronavirus with economic cost as millions return to work

China is facing new problems as many Chinese employees return to work after the outbreak of the coronavirus. The Chinese government is having to find middle ground between keeping the virus contained and not allowing the economy to be damaged any further. This week many companies will be opening their doors again and resuming production. With foreign buyers seeing a shortage of Chinese imports, this is creating more stress on firms.
A solution many people are coming up with is working from home. Many workers in the software industry have been given the ability to continue work from their homes in order to lessen the potential exposure of the disease. This would also fix the problem of the growing transportation shortage that people are facing. Workers are having trouble even finding a way to get to work.
The government has assured its people that the containing of the virus is their top priority. However, they are aware production can not be at a stand still for much longer. Encouragement of workers returning to they jobs has increased. Firms must file permission to reopen their doors from the government, which has slowed down production that much more. Returning workers are required to wear masks and have their temperatures checked twice a day as a precaution.
Do you believe containing the virus or unfreezing the economy should take priority? Is there a way to balance both?

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3050210/china-struggles-balance-coronavirus-containment-economic-cost

A Growing Presence on the Farm: Robots

As the world population continues to grow the need for food climbs with it. The world is in need of solutions to help increase food production without using more land then what is already in use. In the article by Knvul Sheikh posted in the NY Times, we are introduced to the TerraSentia and many other devices like it. The TerraSentia is a robot that goes across rows of crops and measure various parts of the crops which is called Phenotyping. The process has been used for hundreds of years in order to help farmers grow better crops that help produce more output.

The world is going to be put in a situation where innovations to agriculture will need to be made in order to keep up with the ever growing population but will tech ideas like the TerraSentia be a piece to solving the puzzle or just another failed idea? Revolutionary ideas and products like the TerraSentia would not only help farmers, but would also push the robotics/tech industry forward in more sectors of the market. How do you see it? Will ideas like this be the change needed to push the agricultural sector forward? or is this just another false hope that will likely fail?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/science/farm-agriculture-robots.html