News Exercise #322

1. What kinds of American companies are being affected by the novel coronavirus?

2. At 5:54, what does Theo Leggett believe the outcome of this crisis be for China’s economic future?

3. From 7:30 Andrew Walker explains what governments and banks can do. What effect can the governments and banks have on the economy?

Answers
1. What kinds of American companies are being affected by the novel coronavirus?
Directly, businesses such as airlines, tourism are affected, but also any company that sells to china or buys raw materials from China are affected, such as Apple, Nike, Disney, United Airlines etc.

2. At 5:54, what does Theo Leggett believe the outcome of this crisis be for China’s economic future?
He thinks that China can recover from this but that worldwide companies that have relied on China to produce goods may look elsewhere, such as Bangladesh, because this crisis has happened before, with the SARS pandemic.

3. From 7:30 Andrew Walker explains what governments and banks can do. What effect can the governments and banks have on the economy?
It is very limited. They can offset the slowdown by interest rate cuts, increase in government pending, reducing tax… but spenders are reluctant to spend money. One thing governments can do that can have some effect is provide short-term lending to help businesses.