Food Chain
What You Need To Know
Like the newsletter? During this trial period, you get the Founding Member Rate — 50% off the regular cost. Continued thanks to everyone who already has done so!
The World
The largest US meat company, Tyson Foods, says the country’s complex food chain is “breaking” and warned of shortages for consumers, as Covid-19 spreads to refrigerated packing plants. Almost a third of US pork processing capacity and 14 per cent of beef capacity is now offline. With meat-processing slowing, farmers are left with terrible choices: Piglets aborted, chickens gassed. (Financial Times, Reuters)
Crude whipsawed near $11 a barrel after a major index tracked by billions of dollars in funds bailed out of near-term contracts for fear prices may turn negative again. (Bloomberg)
Bankers rebuke SBA as loan system crashes in flood of applications (New York Times). From the American Bankers Association CEO:
Nearly a fifth of the total workforce in Europe’s five biggest economies — Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain — applied to have their wages paid by the state via short-term leave schemes designed to stop unemployment skyrocketing in the coronavirus. (Financial Times)
Americans support state restrictions on businesses and halt to immigration during virus outbreak, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. (Washington Post)
In the worldwide race for a vaccine to stop the coronavirus, the laboratory sprinting fastest is at Oxford University. With an emergency approval from regulators, the first few million doses of their vaccine could be available by September — several months ahead of any of the other announced efforts. (New York Times)
Harvard University announced it is leaving the door open for a fall semester without students on campus, given uncertainty caused by the pandemic. (Wall Street Journal)
To mitigate the financial burden, a growing number of colleges has announced employee pay cuts, furloughs and layoffs. (Inside Higher Ed)
JetBlue will require passengers to wear masks starting May 4. (CNBC)
Economy
More companies have suspended or canceled their dividends so far this year than in the previous 10 years combined, with companies scrambling to preserve cash as the coronavirus pandemic saps revenue. (Wall Street Journal)
CNBC Fed Survey: The US will need to spend trillions more as economy takes until 2022 to fully recover; GDP will decline by 24% this quarter; the unemployment rate will rise as high as 19% and remain elevated through next year; rates will remain at zero the rest of year; stocks will finish lower from here; and there is a strong chance of a second contagion. (CNBC)
Jordan’s King Abdullah II writes that it’s time to return to globalization. (Washington Post)
Deutsche Bank analyst says the evidence suggests that bailouts make recessions worse. (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks may be able to look through a dismal earnings season or two, and the deepest economic contraction in modern history, according to analysis by Goldman Sachs. (Bloomberg)
Saudi Arabia takes 5.7% stake in Live Nation. (Los Angeles Times)
Technology
Zoom selects Oracle for cloud deal, bypassing Amazon, Microsoft. (TechCrunch)
The global coronavirus pandemic is prompting a dramatic reversal of fortune for the tech giants. Amazon and Facebook are capitalizing on the fact that they are viewed as essential services, while Google and Apple are building tools that will enable state health departments to provide a critical public service, tracing the course of potential new covid-19 infections. (Washington Post)
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is asking the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into Amazon, citing reports that he says suggest the company has used “predatory and exclusionary data practices to build and maintain a monopoly.” (CNBC)
Google’s medical AI was super accurate in a lab. Real life was a different story. (MIT Technology Review)
Business and finance coverage is the fastest-growing area of news and information content during the coronavirus era. (Axios)
Smart Links
Netflix to air top-secret Michelle Obama documentary based on “Becoming” on May 6. (Hollywood Reporter)
75% chance 2020 will be hottest year since measurements began: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (The Guardian)
How did the universe grow? (Carnegie Institution for Science)
LA Lakers return small-business loan program money. (Los Angeles Times)
Syracuse University offers Class of 2020 half off grad school tuition. (Syracuse.com)
Cornell suspends ACT/SAT testing requirement for 2021 applicants. (Cornell University)
Remote learning is breaking parents. (New York Times)
Good News
They got married in the middle of the friendliest street in town — and the neighbors all came to help. (Washington Post)
New York’s Metropolitan Opera is streaming a free show every day. (Metropolitan Opera)
Blue Angels + a beautiful day in NYC = this Tweet:
Thanks for reading. Did you like the newsletter? Why not subscribe now?