Forced deleveraging and the oil crash are compounding the COVID-19 costs and hangover for Canada. Manulife chief economist Frances Donald explains it well in this clip.
Canada’s economy is far more vulnerable to COVID-19 shock than the U.S.: Manulife’s Donald. Here is a direct video link.
This is an important and complex topic as we consider the financial challenges sweeping the world today. Flatter tax rates and less money influencing politics seem inevitable.
Are billionaire philanthropists a powerful force for good in the world? Or key contributors to the problems they seek to solve? Anand Giridharadas makes the case for the latter in his book, “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.” The Agenda looks at the new age of billionaire philanthropy.
Here is a direct video link.
The IMF has declared the recession of 2020 the worst since the Great Depression, assuming that the virus goes away in the second half and the economy gets back to growth. This chart shows the IMF’s projections for the G7 economies in this best-case scenario.
In the more likely scenario that the virus abates over the next month on social distancing but then returns in the summer as life tries to resume, these forecasts are probably optimistic. Hoping for the best while preparing for worse outcomes is the prudent course.
“The world has been put in a great lockdown,” the IMF’s chief economist, Gita Gopinath, told reporters. “This is a crisis like no other.” Here is a direct video link.
