Stockholm (Ekonamik) – Digitalization has certainly mitigated the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, economies and personal lives. After all, digitalization offers the vital infrastructure for many of us to continue working from home and see our families, friends and colleagues even during lockdown. To a certain extent, we can count ourselves lucky that COVID-19 has struck us in a digitalized world. “COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for digitalization, both in people’s daily lives and at work,” Pasi Havia (Pictured), the fund manager of highly concentrated long-only hedge fund HCP Focus, tells ..read more

Stockholm (Ekonamik) – The spread of COVID-19 triggered panic among investors in the first quarter of the year and sent markets reeling and company valuations plunging. Among its many effects, the coronavirus-triggered market turmoil exacerbated one interesting phenomenon. The valuation spread between the market’s most expensive and cheapest stocks has risen to its highest level, wider even than during the dot.com bubble and the 2008 financial crisis. Investors are paying considerably more than usual for the stocks they love and a lot less for the ones they hate. Cliff Asness, the co-fou ..read more

Stockholm (Ekonamik) – Along with a handful of smaller European countries such as Austria and the Netherlands, Denmark is one nation that appears to have weathered the COVID-19 crisis relatively well (comparatively speaking). The small Nordic country grasped the dangers of the crisis early, shutting down society and its economy weeks before most other European countries. Consequently, it was among the first who were able to reopen their economies in late May. However, the country is now marred by high unemployment and a marked fall in GDP, with the economy not expected to pick up to pre-COVID ..read more

Stockhom (Ekonamik) – Given the coverage that Europe and the USA have received regarding the effects of COVID-19, it is easy to forget about the effects that the pandemic has had on emerging and frontier markets. However, ignoring the experience of these markets to obsess about the domestic trauma plaguing every economy is short-sighted. Many of these countries supply the manufacturing basis upon which modern consumption-based developed economies are based. To an extent, much as low paid “unskilled workers” are in the frontlines of the crisis ensuring the continued provision of essential serv ..read more

by Steve Waygood, chief responsible investment officer, Rick Stathers, senior ESG analyst and climate specialist, Mirza Baig, global head of governance all at Aviva Investors COVID-19 has thrown new light on the interdependencies in human and natural ecosystems, and the vulnerabilities of a closely networked world. Aviva Investors’ responsible investment specialists ask whether this will prove a turning point for environmental, social and governance issues. The outbreak of a global pandemic raises many profound questions. It is impossible to look at the global health crisis and its knock-on e ..read more

by John Butler, Macro Strategist, Wellington Management Many parameters will dictate what different countries’ economies look like coming out of their respective lockdowns — from the timing of any vaccine release to how fast containment measures are eased. But one critical element will be the fiscal response. Given the nature of this shock, how should we judge a good fiscal response? In my view, the nearer the response gets to absorbing all the private-sector losses on to the public-sector balance sheet, the stronger the subsequent recovery can be. Click here to continue reading this and ..read more

Stockholm (Ekonamik) – Europe faces twin internal and external challenges in the era of COVID-19 and rapid de-escalation of globalization. With the Trump administration’s “America First” approach to trade scorning the established multilateral approach to the global economy, and China’s economic power, the EU is caught in the middle of a new Cold War. At the same time, the EU, as a product of an age of multilateral globalisation, is at a disadvantage. While it has historically been positioned to thrive economically and politically when the outside world has reflected its own principles of free ..read more

Stockholm (Ekonamik) – As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the globe and as the world seeks to lift restrictions ahead of the summer break, it is easy to loose track of everything that has happened. Below, we review the state of play of the spread of coronavirus, its main figures and financial and policy reactions. The Spread of COVID19 Following its ravage through Asia in December and January and its spread to Europe in February and March, April saw Coronavirus contagion reach the Americas, particularly the USA and then Brazil, now the main geographical focus of the spread of ..read more

Stockholm (Ekonamik) – Given the demographic and financial challenges facing pension systems in developed countries, NordSIP was keen to reach out to Pensionsmyndigheten – the Swedish Pension Agency – to understand how one of the most advanced pension systems in the world works in practice. Pensionsmyndigheten and the AP Funds The Swedish Pension Agency carries out several functions in the management of the various parts of the country’s pension system. “Our mission is to administer and pay public pensions on behalf of the Swedish state. Pensionsmyndigheten is responsible for the central part ..read more

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