What We’re Reading
Investing:
Between 1980 and 2019, the world’s population increased from 4.4 billion to 7.6 billion or by 73.2 percent. The time price of commodities fell by 74.2 percent.
— Downtown Josh Brown (@ReformedBroker) May 1, 2020
Thomas Malthus would be amazed.
via @HumanProgress https://t.co/KY4Scugcjp pic.twitter.com/vW8J7LiHcb
—The hospital industry, in a bid to increase profit, slashed inventory of all supplies. Rather than bulk up after the swine flu, hospitals turned to inventory-tracking software to winnow stocks of protective gear and other supplies, hoping to be able to replenish it as needed.
—Manufacturers got bitten during the swine flu, ramping up production only to be left with few buyers when that crisis abated. Many mask and other device makers rebuffed later calls to build back emergency capacity, ceding a chunk of the market to overseas makers.
Since last summer, however, the number of people feeling stressed has risen 14 percentage points and the number feeling worried has climbed 21 points, representing 53 million more worried adults, Gallup reports.
New York City’s multitentacled subway system was a major disseminator – if not the principal transmission vehicle – of coronavirus infection during the initial takeoff of the massive epidemic that became evident throughout the city during March 2020. The near shutoff of subway ridership in Manhattan – down by over 90 percent at the end of March – correlates strongly with the substantial increase in the doubling time of new cases in this borough.
Editors have drawn up lists of employees they expect to lay off, and are figuring out how to relate to them in the meantime so they won’t be surprised by the call from H.R.; its more tightly run rival, Hearst, has avoided those measures. Executives have taken salary cuts — 50 percent for Mr. Lynch; 20 percent for Ms. Wintour, who has also begun a campaign, A Common Thread, aimed at helping the fashion industry with which her future, and Vogue’s, remains inextricably linked.
Have a good weekend, stay safe.