The dollar is in high demand, prone to dangerous appreciation
AMERICA’S CURRENCY was not always as coveted as it is in today’s troubled times. In the 1960s European central banks had more dollars than they felt comfortable holding. To discourage them from converting their greenbacks into gold, the Federal Reserve introduced its first “swap line” in 1962, allowing foreign central banks to obtain dollars in…
Why America’s financial plumbing has seized up
HOUSEHOLDS ARE frantically stocking up on essentials such as loo roll. But in financial markets, the staple that no one can do without in times of stress is cash—the flushing mechanism of the world economy. In theory, it should never dry up; money can be printed. But when firms are desperate for cash it puts…
If covid-19 takes hold in India the toll will be grim
IT WAS CALLED the Spanish influenza, but given the number of Indians it killed, the flu pandemic of 1918-19 should perhaps have carried a different name. Some 18m are thought to have died, or 6% of the country’s population at the time. A century later, with covid-19 lapping at India’s now far more crowded shores,…
Binyamin Netanyahu vows to protect Israel from the virus
BINYAMIN NETANYAHU, Israel’s prime minister for the past 11 years, is never one to waste a crisis. In recent days he has used his televised briefings on the covid-19 pandemic to exhort the leader of the opposition, Benny Gantz, to join an emergency unity government—under Mr Netanyahu, of course. The prime minister seems undeterred by…
Another ancient bird skull is another bit of avian history
Mar 21st 2020FOSSIL BY FOSSIL, the story of the birds becomes clearer. It is now well established that modern birds, the Neornithes, are actually a relict group of dinosaurs which survived a cosmic collision, 66m years ago, between Earth and an asteroid or comet. This impact wiped out the rest of the Dinosauria, along with…
A new way to review scientific literature is being tested
Mar 21st 2020HOW DO YOU measure progress? That is the question Kyle Van Houtan, an ecologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in California, found himself asking when he faced the task of working out whether methods of boosting the populations of endangered species in the wild have improved over the years.In normal circumstances, those keen…
Venues may close. Trading should remain open
Mar 21st 2020INSOFAR AS STOCK exchanges used to worry about viruses, it was of the type that infect the computers through which virtually all trading is done. But on March 18th the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) became the latest venue to announce that its trading floors would close in response to the covid-19 disease,…
The agonies of stock-picking in a falling market
Mar 21st 2020I SUSPECT THAT this not a common feeling, but part of me is excited about the crash in stock prices. It is the part of me with a personal-account portfolio. I have long-term financial goals. I want to hold equity risk, even as others run from it. If I can buy streams of…
The American currency is in high demand, prone to dangerous appreciation
AMERICA’S CURRENCY was not always as coveted as it is in today’s troubled times. In the 1960s European central banks had more dollars than they felt comfortable holding. To discourage them from converting their greenbacks into gold, the Federal Reserve introduced its first “swap line” in 1962, allowing foreign central banks to obtain dollars in…
Exchange-traded fundamentals
Mar 21st 2020JEREMIADS HAVE long argued that if some of the $6trn-odd of assets underpinning exchange-traded funds (etfs) are illiquid, then the funds must be too, posing a big risk to their investors. But so far there are signs of strain but not panic. During the current turmoil, some etfs are trading at a discount…