Banks are rushing to mitigate the economic impact of Covid-19. Some systems are better pre-pared than others. With central banks around the globe moving quickly to pump liquidity into financial markets in an effort to counter the supply shock and stunning collapse of demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the creditworthiness of most major banks appeared assured, at least in the short term. The question remains whether a looming deep recession will reduce demand for loans, which are the...

At the World Economic Forum meeting, governments altered the way their companies are taxed. On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January, the US and France were able to hammer out a truce on Paris’s plans to slap a tax on the profits of internet companies that have sales in France. What the US didn’t reckon with is that the truce only whetted the appetite of governments around the world to begin taxing all multinationals on their local profits, not just digital...

As the virus continues to spread and Chinese factories close, the world’s economy is taking the hit. It has long been clear that the coronavirus would have a huge local impact in China, with factories still shuttered over a wide swath of the country. Now the impacts of the illness—named Covid-19—are rippling across the global economy. Chinese components are critical to supply chains throughout Southeast Asia and Mexico, where such things as Chinese fasteners and circuit boards are added to...

Companies around the world are increasingly concerned about how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting their supply chains. With a mounting death toll from the coronavirus in China and severe restrictions on travel, companies around the world are increasingly concerned about how the illness is affecting their crucial supply chains. By February 5, the death toll in China stood at 490, with a total of 24,324 confirmed cases of the virus. The U.S. led a number of countries, as well as Hong Kong,...

The digital technology that made bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies possible is starting to be used in real estate—and it could soon disrupt how homes are bought, sold, and insured. Blockchain technology, which is basically a shared, online ledger, has the potential to lessen inspection and title insurance fees, cut down on sales commissions, and reduce mortgage fraud as it's rolled out over the next few years, say industry professionals. The advantage of the technology: Anyone within the...