-The unseen covid-19 risk for unvaccinated people — seeing the crowds all across the country I wouldn’t be surprised if numbers go up again, soon.
-Does It Matter If There Was A Lab Leak? — The main answer is no. Will it be good to know where the virus comes from eventually, yes. But that can take years if not decades. What matters more is how good are we in dealing with the situation. And the US failed that test.
-What a work-from-home revolution means for commercial property — from all I can see talking to companies, employees in offices will be lower going forward, that means office space needs will be lower. It will be interesting when that will be reflected in office cost.
Globally, more than 103m square feet of office space has already been vacated since the pandemic began, according to Cushman and Wakefield, a brokerage. That is 18% more lost floor space than during the financial crisis of 2007-09. Vacancy rates rose steeply over the past year, reaching 18% in the spring in America (see chart 1). The forecasts are gloomy. Roughly one in five offices in America will be empty in 2022, according to Moody’s Analytics, a consultancy. Rents in America are projected to fall 7.5% this year; those in San Francisco, by 15%.
-How Swiss asset managers opened their doors to Lex Greensill — a story that gives on giving. People talk about smart and dumb money. But this story doesn’t only show the greed in the system, the challenge of there being too much money searching for returns, it also shows that smart money can be pretty dumb.
