How bad could it get? America’s ugly election

Massachu-

setts

, a first for the state.

Joseph Kennedy, a congress-

man, failed to wrest a Senate

seat from Ed Markey in the

Democratic primary. 

Coronavirus briefs

The World Health Organisation

recommended the use of

cheap, everyday 

steroids

for

the treatment of severely ill

covid-19 patients, after a meta-

analysis of data found they

reduced deaths by over a third.

The 

United States

passed 6m

cases in total; the number of

new cases continues to fall.

France

and 

Spain 

recorded

their most infections in a day

since March. 

Argentina

regis-

tered its biggest jump since the

start of the pandemic. 

India

reported 2m infections

in August, the highest monthly

tally for any country since the

outbreak of the coronavirus. It

has recorded 3.9m cases in all. 

As in many other countries,

pupils in England started

returning to 

school

for the first

time since March. New York

City postponed the reopening

of its schools as it resolved a

dispute with teachers over

testing (for covid-19, not stu-

dents’ academic ability). 

Weekly confirmed cases by area, ’000

To 

6am GMT September 3rd 2020

Confirmed deaths*

Per 100k

Total

This week

Peru

88

29,068

1,067

Belgium

85

9,898

19

Spain

62

29,194

223

Britain

61

41,514

49

Chile

59

11,344

354

Italy

59

35,497

39

Brazil

58

123,780

6,115

Sweden

58

5,820

17

United States

56

185,249

6,002

Mexico

51

65,816

3,740

Sources: Johns Hopkins University CSSE; UN; 

 

The Economist    

*Definitions differ by country

600

400

200

0

India

S

A

J

J

M

A

M

US

Latin America

Other

Europe

---

6

The Economist

September 5th 2020

The world this week 

Business

Another raft of data under-

scored the toll that covid-19 is

taking on 

economies

, as more

countries reported record-

breaking contractions in quar-

terly 

gdp

. India’s economy was

around a quarter smaller in

April to June than in the first

three months of the year.

Australia’s 

gdp

shrank by 7%,

Brazil’s by 9.7%, and Turkey’s

by 11%. Those countries are in

recession, in Australia’s case

for the first time in nearly three

decades. 

The

dollar

fell to another

two-year low against the euro,

notching up a fourth consec-

utive month of losses, after

Jerome Powell announced a

major shift in policy at the

Federal Reserve

. The central

bank’s chairman said that

“maximum employment” and

a “strong labour market” would

guide future decisions, in

effect suggesting the Fed will

not raise interest rates for years

to come. It will now allow

inflation to run above 2%

sometimes, rather than strictly

target that figure as a goal. 

A first estimate showed that

the annual rate of inflation in

the 

euro zone

fell to -0.2% in

August, the first time in four

years that the currency bloc

has slipped into deflation.

Cheaper energy was the main

factor behind shrinking prices. 

Tesla

announced that it would

sell new shares “from time to

time” to raise up to $5bn on

capital markets. This came

after the electric-car maker

completed its stock split,

which provided existing in-

vestors with more shares but at

a lower price. Before the split

Tesla’s stock traded above

$2,210 a share, up by 500%

since the start of the year. It

reopened at $496. After the

split Elon Musk, Tesla’s boss,

joined the club of just five men

in the world who are worth

over $100bn.

Stockmarkets

had their best

August since 1986. The

msci

World Index of share prices

rose by 6.6% over the month.

Fuelled by a rally in tech

shares, and by quarterly earn-

ings from companies that were

more positive than had been

expected, the

s&p 500

and

nasdaq

are at record highs.