Breakingviews

The tower of toilet paper grazed the roof of Killaloe’s SuperValu, in Ireland’s County Clare. To a weary traveller just arrived from London, where essentials like hand sanitiser and baby formula were nowhere to be found, it was a beacon of hope. It turns out the treasure trove was not unique to the west of Ireland. Grocery shops throughout the Emerald Isle were fully stocked, having doubled their warehouse capacity in anticipation of Britain’s departur

Hong Kong’s unique brand of autonomy has been a gift for China. The city has been a channel for the world’s most populous nation to get moderately richer without Beijing having to relinquish control over its economy and people. It is no longer essential to the mainland’s future prosperity, however. Stripping it of the right to be treated differently from the People’s Republic, as the United States has proposed, only shows how disposable that special status is.

Jack Dorsey can’t win. On Tuesday the Twitter chief executive sanctioned a simple advisory to one of Donald Trump’s tweets, incurring the wrath of the U.S. president – who has vowed to make life tough for social media companies. The political spotlight is more uncomfortable for Dorsey than his rivals, because he must give greater weight to the interests of short-term investors, including activist fund Elliott Management.

Empty sports stadiums could turn into Covid-19’s most abiding cultural legacy. Since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in March, virtually all sporting events have been cancelled, including this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo and Europe’s flagship soccer tournament, Euro 2020. Even those which have tentatively restarted, like South Korea’s KBO baseball league and Germany’s Bundesliga soccer division, have plied their trade in eeri

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared the Asian financial hub no longer autonomous from China, days after Beijing unveiled plans to ban sedition and subversion there. Breakingviews columnists in the city untangle what it means amid the trade war, pandemic and protests.  

Hong Kong’s financiers should study the lesson Man Group learned during the Chinese stock crash of 2015. Chinese authorities detained bankers and brokers, including the British hedge fund’s China head, as state media blamed foreign forces for sabotaging markets. Beijing’s proposed new security law will extend this attitude to Hong Kong. Traders and investors may have as much cause to worry as protesters.

The United States has found a new way to make China pay for Covid-19: by targeting Hong Kong.

The coronavirus may have done what euro zone crisis could not: persuade the European Union to shrug off its bond taboo. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday unveiled a plan to jointly borrow 750 billion euros to help EU states recover from Covid-19. There are obstacles. But the pandemic may help the 27-member union lose its aversion to joint borrowing.

After Covid-19 is tamed, inflation rates are going to rise fast and far. Or maybe lockdowns will be followed by years of global deflation. The pandemic has unleashed a furious debate between extremists on either side of the monetary divide. Policy and habit suggest they’re both wrong.