fortune--2020-03-05--Want to solve America’s problems? Start with broadband

In October 1944, my grandfather William B. Benton delivered a clarion call in the pages of Fortune magazine. On behalf of the Committee for Economic Development (CED), a national coalition of business leaders, he offered a forward-looking agenda to deliver a more peaceful and prosperous future for all Americans—not just a few.
At the time, that future was difficult to imagine. Fifteen years prior, the Great Depression had roiled the American economy, driving unemployment rates to almost 25% in 1933. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal had re-started economic growth, but it took World War II to power a robust recovery. Now, with the end of the war in sight, it was time to chart a path for peacetime. “The good of all—the common good—is a means to the enduring happiness of every individual in society and is superior to the economic interest of any private group,” Benton wrote.
One of CED’s first principles was fostering competition. It is in the public interest, my grandfather argued, that corporations be allowed to grow if they provided useful service to the community: “Provided that the power that comes with size is not permitted to stifle competition and is not permitted in other ways to be abused, big business can serve the common good.”
Benton also recognized the connection between economic opportunity and democracy. “[A] free market open to the development of new, independent enterprises will continue to provide an economic basis for political freedom,” he wrote. Such competitive businesses “provide an element of balance that counteracts potential dangers to our democratic institutions.” In other words, distortions of the free-enterprise system don’t just harm competition; they can, in Benton’s words, “pull the democratic government down on top of them.”
Throughout my grandfather’s career as an entrepreneur and public servant, two key themes emerged: protecting the common good and recognizing the power of communications. Nearly 75 years after he wrote “The Economics of a Free Society: A Declaration of American Business Policy” as vice-chairman of the CED’s board of trustees, we at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society continue to make the case for bringing the 21st century’s essential communications medium to all people in the U.S. to deliver individual opportunity, strengthen communities, and ensure a thriving democracy.
We believe too many people in the U.S. have been left behind—because broadband networks don’t reach them, the service is unaffordable, or people don’t yet have the skills to make use of this powerful tool.
One reason for this? Broadband market concentration is stifling the benefits of competition for consumers. Nearly three out of four people in the U.S. are served by a broadband monopoly or duopoly offering Internet download speeds of 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of 10 Mbps. An estimated 35% of people have only one choice of broadband provider; another 37% have just two to choose from. Without competition, people—especially those with lower incomes or those who live in rural areas—are threatened with artificially high prices, lower-quality service, and little innovation. A Wall Street Journal report published last year found that low-income areas and high-income areas pay similar median monthly costs (about $66) for stand-alone internet, but poorer areas get 40% slower speeds for the price.
Wealthier communities are two to three times more likely to have more than two choices for broadband providers than are communities with lower-than-average household incomes. With limited competition, it is perhaps unsurprising that Americans pay the second-highest broadband prices among OECD countries. Yet when new competition is introduced in broadband markets, the benefits are demonstrable. Look no further than Kansas City, Kan.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Wilson, N.C.; and Longmont, Colo. for evidence that competition from a private or municipal broadband provider results in incumbent providers dropping prices and increasing speeds—but not in nearby areas the new competition didn’t serve.
“Lack of competition stifles the free market,” my grandfather wrote in Fortune three quarters of a century ago. “So-called monopoly practices…which remove the necessity of trying to undersell a competitor or to match or improve on his quality, induce complacency. Such practices have no place in a free-enterprise system designed to serve the common good.”
So, what can governments do? Right now, laws in 19 states restrict local communities from experimenting to increase broadband deployment. These laws should be revisited and repealed.
The federal government does disburse billions of dollars annually to mobile and fixed broadband providers to build their networks—but there’s a catch. Though the FCC voted in January to approve a $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund that will make grants to broadband providers to build broadband networks where there is currently no or substandard service, the money will be disbursed without any guarantee that the grant recipients will help to make broadband more affordable for low-income customers. We believe Congress and the FCC should require, as a condition for funding this broadband deployment, true high-speed service at actually affordable prices—for instance, service rated at 50 Mbps for upload and download with unlimited usage for $10 per month to eligible recipients.
What is alarming is that home broadband adoption rates aren’t improving. Approximately 73% of U.S adults use broadband service at home, but that figure has remained stable for the past three years. Too many people aren’t subscribing to broadband even when it is available to them. Affordable service is crucial.
The challenge is not to improve the lot of some people in America; it is to offer everyone the ability to connect, regardless of where they live, to empower all people using the network. Broadband will not solve every problem in America, but we cannot address our greatest challenges—those found in education, health care, agriculture, climate change, and the economy—without it.
High-performance broadband can give everyone in this country the tools they need to fulfill their potential, build stronger communities, and serve the common good. Its importance, then, is woven into the very fabric of American democracy.
Adrianne Benton Furniss is the executive director of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.


fortune--2020-03-05--Down $52,000 in a day: Furious Robinhood customers want payback following the app’s two day outage

The group behind one of America ’ s best restaurants is quickly expanding across Philadelphia

Talk about stress.
Following an outage that spanned two days, Robinhood co-founders wrote in a Tuesday post that they were working as quickly as possible to address the issue. “We now understand the cause of the outage was stress on our infrastructure—which struggled with unprecedented load,” wrote co-founders and co-CEOs Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev of the outage that spanned the majority of Monday’s trading hours, and a shorter, second one on Tuesday.
The company is reaching out to customers regarding compensation on a case-by-case basis. This compensation may include billing credits or other options, a Robinhood spokesperson said in separate statement.
Suffice to say Robinhood’s systems weren’t the only outlets feeling stressed, as customers were unable to use their accounts to trade during two of the most volatile trading days of the year.
“I had no idea what was going on, I thought the stock market crashed and the Robinhood app couldn’t handle it. I just didn’t know,” said Brandon Browne, a 27-year-old Robinhood user for the last year or so. Robinhood did not officially reach out to Browne via email until 3:16 p.m. about the outage that began at 9:33 a.m., leaving him to piece together the issue via Google or Twitter. Robinhood adds that it was updating users via Twitter as well as the website’s status page earlier in the day.
While Browne thankfully suffered no losses, he did miss out on a market rally that represented the large single-day point gain for the Dow Industrial Average and one that boosted the value of all companies on the S&P 500 by $1.1 trillion dollars. Browne had planned to buy shares of Facebook or perhaps Microsoft, which rallied about 2% and 5% respectively by Monday’s close. But the outage prevented that.
It was perhaps even more painful for 35-year-old Brad Finson, who had bought so-called put options—a bet that the market or a particular stock will fall. He had made a handsome on-paper-profit from the bet, and had wanted to liquidate part of the holdings on Monday.
“I wasn’t too nervous until I watched the single day increase in the stock market—while holding $113,000 worth of put options,” said Finson. “Literally the worst thing you could have. “
Unable to trade, Finson said his “account balance fell by $52,000” by Monday’s close. Adding to the frustrations: Finson had already put in a small order to sell a portion of his Boeing puts 15 minutes before the market open and received confirmation from Robinhood. About four hours later, as the app was struggling, and Robinhood informed Finson that the order had been cancelled.
As an olive branch, Robinhood told “Gold” members like Finson that they would get three months free membership—worth about $15, as a result of the outage—in addition to evaluating losses on a case-by-case basis.
But it’s too little too late for Finson, who recounted to Fortune his frustration trying to get information from Robinhood, or even speak to a real human being throughout the process. Interactions play out largely via email, with even the company’s customer service line directing users to digital forms.
He plans to sell his remaining put options when the prices rebound, and take what’s left to TD Ameritrade.
Fines and regulations
Stock-trading darling Robinhood, which was founded in 2013, had successfully sold itself to millions of users as a digital-native app for internet-savvy young traders. Generally mum on the numbers, the company says it has 10 million accounts up from six million in late 2018. Co-CEO Bhatt said the company was on the road to a public offering less than two years ago.
As Robinhood may be learning, one problem with those internet-savvy customers is that when things go wrong they know exactly how to vent their frustrations. The comments section of Robinhood’s Twitter page are besieged with furious calls for to compensate for missed trades or threatening lawsuits, often tagging the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
One Twitter user started an account calling for a potential class action lawsuit or arbitration from FINRA—a non government entity that regulates brokers and exchanges—that had amassed over 6,400 followers by Wednesday.
“We have been in touch with the firm and have been closely monitoring the situation,” a FINRA spokesperson said in an email. The Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment.
While brokerage outages have happened happened in the past, most have only lasted minutes. Vanguard and Fidelity, for instance, both suffered minutes-long outages in late February due to surging trading volumes, and even that left a trail of infuriated customers.
Learning from the outage and preparing for continued high volumes, Fidelity alerted its users Tuesday that it had simplified the website and app. “To help you navigate during higher than usual market activity, we’ve streamlined your client experience for the things you do most,” it told consumers.
While Robinhood has sought to protect itself legally through user agreements that disavow responsibility for “temporary interruptions in service” and “extended interruptions due to failures beyond our control,” it is still liable for a fine under FINRA standards, says Daniel Labovitz, a managing member at Global Markets Advisory Group who advises broker dealers on securities laws.
Firms regulated by FINRA are required to maintain a kind of emergency plan called the Business Continuity Plan, and Robinhood’s outage could signal a failure to produce a well-formed one.
Given the magnitude and furor surrounding Robinhood’s outage, “FINRA will be eager to see what rules they have violated,” Labovitz says. The incident also raises questions about whether the company may face stiffer regulation going forward at a time when technology is increasingly becoming mission critical in the markets ecosystem. (Robinhood declined to comment.)
“Anytime a firm suffers an outage, there’s a question over whether and how it could have been prevented,” says Tyler Gellasch, executive director of Healthy Markets Association. “Regulators have committed to ensuring that some firms that serve key roles in market infrastructure—such as stock exchanges—do what they can to prevent failures, but what are brokers doing? And should they be doing more to ensure they don’t fail?”
Reputation
Robinhood is facing mounting pressure to keep customers happy as competitors have raced to match its once innovative offering. Robinhood marketed itself on zero commission trading, many competitors quickly followed suit. Robinhood introduced fractional shares trading in December. Fidelity rolled out their version this winter while Schwab announced its own.
It’s an increasingly challenging space. All around brokerages are consolidating to stay competitive: Charles Schwab acquired TD Ameritrade in November while Morgan Stanley acquired E-Trade. Interactive Brokers Founder Thomas Peterffy meanwhile told CNBC in February that he is open to a merger.
“Our team has spent the last two days evaluating and addressing this issue. We worked as quickly as possible to restore service, but it took us a while. Too long,” the Co-CEOs continued in their note. “We take our responsibility to you and your money seriously.”
But it won’t be easy. Online, customers are asking for recompense for lost trades and opportunities—but it will be inherently difficult to make those calculations and judgement calls, says Labovitz—especially from a legal perspective. How, after all, do you prove a given person had the intention to trade a given stock at a specific time when an app was completely down for hours and left little to no paper trail, given the number of trades a Robinhood trader may execute today?
As rumors fly about a potential IPO and the Robinhood ages to a point where onlookers are wondering when early investors may find an exit, it’s not hard to wonder if the outage another dent in Robinhood’s often challenged valuation.
Worse, the outage comes on the heels of other recent snafus, including a misfire on the rollout of high yield accounts and a 2019 FINRA fine. And as public markets begin to take a more skeptical eye at unicorns, investors may rightly wonder: does Robinhood’s purported $7.6 billion hold up?
“They are—up until this week at least—a unicorn,” said Larry Tabb. “We aren’t sure what the valuations will be now.”
This story has been updated to reflect Robinhood’s response to the outage, and clarified to include context on the lengths of the outages.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Coronavirus spreads to a previously healthy sector: corporate earnings
—A Fed rate cut won’t cure what’s ailing the stock market
—How companies like Ernst & Young are going to extremes to avoid infections
—These cities have the most jobs with six-figure salaries
—Credit Karma was acquired rather than pursuing an IPO. Will more companies follow suit in 2020?
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fortune--2020-03-05--Lessons from the coronavirus front lines: What doctors in Wuhan have learned about treating Covid-19

The coronavirus exposed a flaw in global supply lines .
It ’ s time to build better ones

As the new coronavirus epidemic spreads across the globe, experts are turning to findings from China, where it originated, to better understand the disease. Since January, doctors at the outbreak’s epicenter in Wuhan have been studying the virus whose effects are mostly mild but can occasionally turn deadly.
Medical professionals who have been treating and studying Covid-19 patients in Wuhan shared their insights with reporters in Beijing on Wednesday. Here are three observations from the doctors.
Incubation and Transmission
Anecdotal reports that the novel coronavirus may have a long incubation have stoked fears that carriers can go undetected and unknowingly infect others.
Local authorities in another city in Hubei — the same province that Wuhan belongs to — reported on Feb. 22 that a 70-year-old man was infected by the virus but only showed symptoms 27 days later.
“From most of the publications right now the median incubation period is five to seven days, with the longest incubation period as 14 days,” said Du Bin, a member of China’s team of experts overseeing coronavirus treatment. “There’s no data showing that an incubation period longer than 14 days ever existed.”
In some patients, the onset of the virus happened very slowly with only a mild fever before their conditions deteriorated rapidly 10 days later, according to Li Haichao, deputy director of the respiratory department at the First Hospital of Peking University.
There’s also no evidence so far that people who have recovered and later test positive again for the virus can pass it on to others, according to Du, who is also the director of intensive care unit for internal medicine at Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
On Thursday, Chinese media The Paper reported that a man in Wuhan who had recovered from Covid-19 and tested negative for the virus died less than a week later from the infection. The report was later removed from the internet.
Younger Deaths
The coronavirus has a relatively low fatality rate and has largely claimed the lives of older patients with weaker immune systems, or those with pre-exisiting conditions. The deaths of some younger patients have been more difficult to explain.
Underlying diseases like hypertension and diabetes, the prolonged used of non-invasive ventilation and high doses of corticosteroids over a long period of time were major factors in those deaths, according to Du. He did not specify the age range he was referring to when speaking of younger patients.
Methylprednisolone, an immune-suppressing corticosteroid drug that’s in common use in China for severe cases, has been linked to “prolonged viral shedding” in earlier studies of MERS, SARS and influenza, according to the World Health Organization.
Lessons Learned
Du said if he could do it all over again, he would have pushed health care authorities harder to have all ICU staff work together in designated hospitals to better establish best practices for critical care.
He also would have been more aggressive in using invasive mechanical ventilation in all patients who showed “clinical deterioration” in their respiratory failure or low blood oxygen levels — known as hypoxemia.
Planning is the most important aspect of the virus response, according to Du, and countries need to know ahead of time how they are going to handle each patient entering a fever clinic, detect suspected cases, confirm if they have the virus in labs and isolate possible cases.
“You must have a plan to provide not only space but also supplies such as personal protective equipment for all the healthcare workers involved,” he said.
Du said it’s true that there is a decreasing number of patients in Hubei and more empty hospital beds, although it’s impossible to rule out the possibility of another spike in cases.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Before coronavirus, there were SARS and MERS. Do epidemics ever really end?
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—The Greek economy is roaring back—which could lead to mass evictions
—10 journalists who deserve justice immediately
—Fortune Explains: Tariffs and trade wars
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-03-05--The coronavirus is officially claiming its first corporate casualties

This article is part of a Fortune Special Report: Business in the Coronavirus Economy—a look at the impact of the pandemic on more than 50 industries.
The people most at risk from the coronavirus outbreak are those with underlying conditions—and the same may hold true for companies.
On Thursday, the beleaguered British airline Flybe went bankrupt, with all its flights being grounded and passengers being warned not to even try going to the airport unless they have flights lined up with another airline.
A major player in travel within the U.K. and to nearby European cities, Flybe had a tumultuous decade after its 2010 IPO. Hemorrhaging money in an extremely competitive market, it was bought and bailed out a year ago by a consortium called Connect Airways, comprising Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Aviation and Cyrus Capital Partners.
However, Flybe’s ongoing losses led it to ask the British government for what was effectively a rescue loan (and technically a deferment of a massive tax bill) at the start of this year. Much to the outrage of Flybe’s rivals, the government agreed—but then it failed to follow through. According to the Independent, the end was triggered this week by a fuel supplier cutting off Flybe’s credit, which then led airports to start impounding its planes.
Flybe may have been in irredeemable financial difficulties anyway, but it was the coronavirus outbreak that ultimately killed it. That much was made clear in this statement from Virgin Atlantic:
“With customers and staff at the front of our minds, over the past 14 months the consortium has invested more than £135 million [$174 million] to keep the airline flying for an extra year, maintaining 2,400 people in employment and ensuring customers could keep travelling…Sadly, despite the efforts of all involved to turn the airline around, not least the people of Flybe, the impact of COVID-19 on Flybe’s trading means that the consortium can no longer commit to continued financial support.”
The coronavirus pandemic (as governments are now labeling it) has been threatening devastating effects on airlines, due to travel restrictions and passengers’ increasing desire to stay away from crowded planes and airports.
Stay in the know on how the coronavirus outbreak is impacting the global business economy with our new daily newsletter, Outbreak.
Cathay Pacific has had to put 25,000 staff on unpaid leave; Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was warning of Asian airlines going to the wall even before the first deaths outside China were reported; on Wednesday United Airlines became the first U.S. carrier to heavily slash its domestic routes; and on Thursday Norwegian Air (another carrier that’s in serious financial difficulty, thanks to the Boeing 737 Max groundings) pulled its 2020 guidance “given the uncertainty and ongoing impact on overall demand for air travel.” Planemaker Airbus may reportedly also cut its output due to the slump in demand.
Also on Thursday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that revenue losses in the air-passenger business could run as high as $113 billion across the industry this year. That’s not even factoring in the air-cargo business, estimates for which are not yet available.
“Flybe has been on the brink too many times and the coronavirus tipped it over the edge,” wrote London Capital Group’s Jasper Lawler in a Thursday note. “For a bailout to happen Flybe needed debtholders to see a clear path to profitability this year. Instead most airlines are cutting capacity and gritting their teeth for what will likely be the worst period for the industry since the European debt crisis.”
Flybe may be the biggest company to go under as a result of the outbreak, but it is not the first. A few days ago, the Japanese cruise ship operator Luminous Cruising filed for bankruptcy protection, blaming customer cancellations that were triggered by the deadly contagion on the Diamond Princess.
Again, Luminous Cruising was a company that was already experiencing financial difficulties before the virus struck.
It is no surprise to see travel companies become the first corporate casualties of the coronavirus outbreak, given that travel restrictions were the first measures instituted in an attempt at containing its spread. With containment having failed, the question now is whether the sector is acting as a bellwether for others.
More must-read stories from Fortune :
—How to think about COVID-19
—Coronavirus spreads to a previously healthy sector: corporate earnings
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—Before coronavirus, there were SARS and MERS. Do epidemics ever really end?
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fortune--2020-03-05--Lawmakers urge Amazon and eBay to beef up fight against counterfeit goods

A bipartisan group of house lawmakers urged Amazon and EBay executives to take stronger actions against third-party vendors who sell fake, stolen, or unsafe goods on their shopping websites.
“Organized retail crime, selling counterfeits and stolen products, poses a threat to consumers who are unwittingly purchasing these items,” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, during a hearing Wednesday before a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee. “Online marketplaces need to place safety and accountability to consumers before profit,” Schakowsky said to a panel of consumer advocates and technology company executives.
Companies that complain their products are being unfairly counterfeited are up against digital marketplaces that say they work to combat fake merchandise, but have acknowledged that they don’t catch every listing. Jeff Myers, Apple’s senior director for intellectual property, said fraudulent sellers often use the iPhone-maker’s name, logo, and designs to deceive customers and sell products with compromised performance and safety.
EBay associate general counsel Amber Leavitt and Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president for customer trust and partner support, testified that their companies have invested in machine learning and other tools to identify fake listings and plan to continue to support law enforcement in their investigations of fraudulent sellers.
Amazon has been proactively scanning its website for vendors falsely claiming their products will cure the coronavirus, Mehta said. “There is no place for false claims or price gouging on Amazon,” he said.
Lawmakers, President Donald Trump, and internet companies are exploring new measures to curb the proliferation of fake goods from airbags to bicycles from being sold online. Republicans on the committee praised the Trump administration’s policies on counterfeit goods, while also raising alarms about the sheer volume of fake products flowing from China into the American marketplace.
“The administration should be commended for their leadership,” said Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington state Republican and subcommittee ranking member. “If we don’t step up, China will dictate the terms and rules for the future. The Chinese Communist Party will win with the playbook they’ve always used: by undermining human rights, stealing from our innovators, and cheating and harming Americans.”
The Department of Homeland Security in January released a list of recommendations for the federal government and tech companies to help stop pirated goods from being shipped from overseas to American consumers. The report followed an executive order signed by Trump last April that called for the department to draw up rules to combat counterfeit trafficking.
The department recommended that the Trump administration should seek permission to take legal action against third-party marketplaces that sell counterfeit merchandise, better track packages mailed from other countries, and launch a consumer-awareness campaign, among other measures. The report also called on tech companies to more aggressively screen their vendors and create restrictions on products that are more likely to be counterfeited.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News last month that the U.S. has a “huge problem” with counterfeit and contraband coming into the country from China, and Amazon “is a great enabler of counterfeiting.” Under the first phase of a broader trade pact signed by China and the U.S. in January, China said it would impose criminal penalties on anyone caught stealing commercial secrets and do more to stop the sale of pirated goods online.
On Monday, members of the House Judiciary Committee introduced a bipartisan bill that increases liability for companies that sell counterfeit goods that risk consumers health or safety. The bill from Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Doug Collins—respectively, the chairman and top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee—would impose liability on online sales platforms such as Amazon and EBay when third-party vendors on their sites sell dangerous counterfeits.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Ikea recalls 800,00 children’s dressers for possible tipping hazard
—Lowe’s falls further behind Home Depot on e-commerce growth
—Land O’Lakes wants you to know the farmer behind your butter
—How “for women, by women” Lola views its investor’s Trump ties
—WATCH: Inside the algorithm powering Stitch Fix
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fortune--2020-03-05--Biden’s big Super Tuesday helps markets get over that nasty virus (for now)

This is the web version of the Bull Sheet, Fortune’s no-BS daily newsletter on the financial markets. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here.
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Good evening, Bull Sheeters. This is Fortune finance reporter Rey Mashayekhi, filling in this week for Bernhard Warner.
It’s no secret that many in the finance world are skeptical, to say the least, of what a Bernie Sanders presidency would mean for business. But even the most ardent Bernie cynic must have been surprised at how the U.S. markets reacted to Joe Biden’s sweeping success on Super Tuesday.
Markets update
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei was up marginally, while the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s decision to follow central banks around the world and cut its interest rate by 50 basis points didn’t do much for the Hang Seng, which ended down only slightly after losing 300 points earlier in the day.
On mainland China, the markets shrugged off more negative economic data—this time in the form of the Caixin/Markit services PMI, which dropped into contraction territory in February. Shanghai’s SSE Composite ticked up more than half a percent, while Shenzhen’s composite and component indices both registered slight gains.
In Europe, investors took well to the European Central Bank’s indication that it would follow the Federal Reserve and slash already-negative interest rates further if necessary. London’s FTSE, Frankfurt’s DAX, Paris’s CAC 40, and the pan-European STOXX 600 all climbed more than 1%
But the global markets’ performance on Wednesday paled in comparison to what went on in New York. There’s still some way left to go, but Joe Biden appears to have put himself in pole position to secure the Democratic nomination for President of the United States by winning 10 of the 14 states up for grabs in the Super Tuesday primaries. And it appears it was enough to make investors forget (for the time being) about the coronavirus outbreak that continues to spread around the world.
While the Fed’s emergency interest rate cut couldn’t stop the Dow Jones Industrial Average from plunging nearly 800 points Tuesday, the Dow recovered those losses (and then some) on Wednesday—ending the day up nearly 1,200 points, or 4.5%. Likewise, the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 each registered gains around 4%.
The fact that Congress is poised to pass an $8 billion spending package to combat the coronavirus outbreak may have given the markets some confidence, but it’s hard to look past Biden’s impressive performance—and the degree to which it may have assuaged fears of what a Sanders presidency could mean for corporate America.
One only has to look at how health care stocks fared on Wednesday to get an idea of how unpopular some of Sanders’ policies—namely, his controversial Medicare for All proposal—are with segments of the market. Having lagged behind the broader market’s run-up through 2019 amid talk on the campaign trail of a comprehensive, government-run overhaul of the American health care system, Wednesday saw the S&P 500’s health care sector outperform the other 10 industry sectors tracked by the index and climb 5.8% on the day.
UnitedHealth Group, America’s largest health care provider, saw its shares jump nearly 11%, while fellow private health insurers Anthem (16%), Centene (16%), Humana (14%), and Cigna (11%) also posted big double-digit gains.
Elsewhere, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note ticked up slightly—but not before briefly dipping below 1% again on Wednesday—while gold was flat to down. On the crude oil front, the WTI notched up while Brent crude was down, and the U.S. dollar rose.
Up big on Monday, down nearly as much on Tuesday, and back up again on Wednesday—it’s enough to give investors whiplash. For now, have a pleasant evening and see you again tomorrow.
Rey Mashayekhi
@reym12
rey.mashayekhi@fortune.com
Today's reads
Up in smoke. Fortune’s Anne Sraders has an excellent deep dive into the troubles of publicly traded cannabis companies, many of which have seen their shares tumble just a year after they were the darlings of the market. Big names like Aurora and Tilray lost 70% and 60% of their value, respectively, in the second half of 2019, and accounting and compliance issues at some firms have observers wondering when—if ever—the fledgling industry will get its act together.
Wanna be like Warby. Online eyeglass retailer Warby Parker is one of the more notable success stories among the direct-to-consumer startups that have emerged in recent years—such that myriad new firms and their VC backers have taken to dubbing themselves “the Warby Parker of” their respective markets. But many have found that actually replicating Warby Parker’s success is easier said than done, Nicole Gull McElroy writes for Fortune.
The rich get richer. Those critical of income inequality in the U.S. will be piqued by Knight Frank’s 2020 Wealth Report, which notes that more than 13,000 new individuals in the country entered the ranks of those with fortunes exceeding $30 million last year. That’s more than any other country in the world; China ranked second, with nearly 8,000 new $30-millionaires, and Japan placed a distant third. Worldwide, the number of “ultra-high-net-worth” individuals increased 6% last year, according to the report.
Market candy
“If you’re not making $1 million this year as a loan officer, you’re grossly incompetent. I tell them, ‘We’re not working 40 hours a week, kiss your families goodbye.’”
That’s according to Eric Mitchell, an executive at Michigan-based mortgage lender Gold Star Mortgage Financial. We touched yesterday on how the Fed’s decision to slash interest rates could prove a boon to the real estate sector—and Bloomberg has a good read today on how home lenders are gearing up for what they expect to be a very busy 2020. Executives anticipate hiring thousands of employees to keep up with the demand for new loans and refinancings, while Quicken Loans CEO Jay Farner said that Monday was the busiest day for mortgage applications in the company’s 35-year history.


fortune--2020-03-04--In a first, Chinese company publishes purported evidence of CIA hacks

A Chinese cybersecurity company has published what it said is evidence the CIA has been hacking Chinese targets for over a decade.
The report by Qihoo 360, one of China’s premiere cybersecurity firms, said that some of the tools used to hack Chinese government, science, and industry targets since 2008 are the same ones that WikiLeaks revealed in 2017 as being developed by the CIA. That detail, according to Qihoo, along with the fact that a former CIA officer is on trial in New York City for the leak, ties the CIA to the hacks in China.
The CIA declined to comment.
The mere existence of the report is a remarkable departure from what’s typical from China, which often denies U.S. accusations of its hacking activity but doesn’t provide public evidence of the U.S.’s own activity.
The report comes three weeks after the U.S. government accused the Chinese military of hacking credit-monitoring firm Equifax in 2017, exposing the personal data of 148 million Americans.
Since 2013, western entities have regularly cried foul at alleged Chinese government hacking. Large cybersecurity companies like FireEye and CrowdStrike regularly publish detailed reports about what they say is Chinese hacking operations against their corporate clients. The U.S. Justice Department periodically charges Chinese government hackers by name, accusing them of using the information they steal to help Chinese companies get a competitive advantage.
The latest Equifax case is meant to establish a red line to dissuade China from engaging in similar activity in the future, current and former U.S. officials say. But with the Qihoo report, it’s clear that China has had enough of the U.S. government’s public spectacles, said James Mulvenon, author of the book Chinese Industrial Espionage.
“They’re sick and tired of being doxed and named and shamed,” he told Fortune. “And they just said ‘Hey, let’s give as good as we get.’”
Qihoo’s decision to cite the tools published by WikiLeaks as evidence of CIA responsibility— rather than publishing new details about the intrusions — is likely a calculated move. It means that China’s government doesn’t have to explain any of its own detection capabilities, which could compromise future monitoring of U.S. hacking..
The U.S. is widely known to engage in cyber-espionage. But unlike China, it says it draws the line at hacking that is intended to give domestic companies a competitive advantage.
Undermining the reliability of the Qihoo report is that it gets a number of basic facts about the CIA’s organizational structure wrong. For example, it mistakenly said the CIA is divided into five major directorates, not four— information that’s easily found on the agency’s website.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How 5G promises to revolutionize farming
—Did the ‘techlash’ kill Alphabet’s city of the future?
—College backlash against facial recognition technology grows
—In A.I., what would Jesus do?
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-03-05--Old Navy chief Sonia Syngal named CEO of all of Gap Inc.

A rare Nintendo Play Station prototype console could be the biggest of video game auction item ever

Old Navy chief executive Sonia Syngal gets to be a Fortune 500 CEO after all.
Syngal will become CEO of Gap Inc. on March 23rd, the company announced on Thursday. Two months ago, the apparel company pulled the plug on a spin-off of the Old Navy brand that would have seen Syngal, 49, become CEO of a stand-alone $8 billion-a-year business. Old Navy is the second largest clothing brand in the U.S after Nike, and generates about 55% of Gap Inc.’s revenue.
Syngal becomes the 37th female CEO in the Fortune 500 when she takes the reins. (However, that figure will fall to 35 later in the spring with the previously announced departures of the CEOs of IBM and KeyCorp.) In addition to Old Navy, Gap Inc. owns The Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta.
On her watch, Old Navy’s sales rose by $1 billion over a three-year period ending in early 2019. And Syngal, an engineer by training, also oversaw the fast growth of Old Navy’s e-commerce, now a $1.6 billion business, as detailed in a Fortune profile of Syngal last summer.
But more recently, the business has stumbled, hurt by intense competition from the likes of Target, T.J. Maxx, and even Walmart with their improved clothing apparel. Old Navy’s comparable sales fall 3% in the first three quarters of 2019. (Gap Inc. will report fourth quarter results next Thursday.)
Gap Inc.’s previous CEO, Art Peck, left abruptly in November after failing for years to reverse the sales slides at The Gap and Banana Republic brands. The chronically weak numbers at both brands coupled with hundreds of millions of dollars spent to spin off Old Navy rattled investors, who pressured the company to drop the spin-off plan.
Syngal is a natural choice for the job. She started with Gap Inc. in 2004 in technical roles such as supply chain management functions, sourcing, and production. After stints running The Gap and Banana Republic’s European businesses, and then Old Navy’s international business early last decade, she became head of supply-chain and product operations for all of Gap Inc. in 2013. That set her up to take the reins at Old Navy in 2016.
But Syngal has her work cut out for her when it comes to running the entire company. Thanks to consumers having so many choices, the once powerful Gap is a severely diminished brand without a clear place in the market. And Banana Republic has struggled for years to update itself at a time people dress more casually both for work and going out.
Still, those brands have their followings. And working in Syngal’s favor, Old Navy remains a juggernaut; Athleta, a Lululemon Athletica competitor, is set to soon hit the $2 billion sales threshold; and Gap Inc.’s online businesses are enormous.
“Sonia has all of the characteristics and experiences needed to effectively execute against the work ahead. She is an excellent operator who drives innovation and decisive action, and she leads with both vision and heart,” Bob Fisher, interim Gap Inc. CEO and chair of its board, said in a statement.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—H&M wants to help other fashion houses become sustainable—for a fee
—Target’s next frontier: Convenience stores and alcohol pickup
—Coronavirus is affecting everything, even Diet Coke
—How “for women, by women” Lola views its investor’s Trump ties
—How Home Depot turned itself into a Black Friday destination
Follow Fortune on Flipboard to stay up-to-date on the latest news and analysis.


fortune--2020-03-05--Facebook removes Trump campaign’s misleading ‘census’ ad

Old Navy chief Sonia Syngal named CEO of all of Gap Inc .

Facebook will remove ads from U.S. President Donald Trump that encouraged users to take the “Official 2020 Congressional District Census,” but included a link that led them to a re-election campaign survey unrelated to the official U.S. Census.
The social network, which has come under fire for its policy against fact-checking ads from politicians, makes exceptions for ads that share misleading information around certain categories, like voting or the 2020 Census.
The ads were published on March 4, according to Facebook’s ad library, and versions of the spot were still active as of 3 p.m. New York time on Thursday. A Facebook spokesperson said the ads are in the process of being rejected.
“There are policies in place to prevent confusion around the official U.S. Census and this is an example of those being enforced,” the company spokesperson said in the statement.
The ads were up long enough for some of Trump’s political rivals to notice them. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier Thursday that the ads were “very concerning” and called them “a lie.” Clicking on the ad brings users to a survey asking for a person’s age and party affiliation, and claims to be sponsored by Trump’s re-election campaign. Facebook’s planned removal of the ads was reported earlier by NPR.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Researchers found a hole in PayPal’s security. PayPal says it’s no big deal
—For $3, this app will sue data brokers that don’t delete your personal info
—After folding phone screens, get ready for unrolling displays
—Chinese company publishes purported evidence of CIA hacks
—When will PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X debut? With coronavirus, it’s anyone’s guess
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-03-05--A mobile, online voting effort doubled turnout last month outside Seattle, independent audit says

E-voting underwent its first major test last month when all eligible voters in a Seattle-area county were given the option to cast a ballot online for a local race.
This week, an independent audit released by the National Cybersecurity Center, a nonprofit promoting cyber innovation, found that the results of that election were accurately tabulated and there was no interference. What makes the test even more promising, according to online voting proponents, is that the county’s voter turnout doubled.
Last year, 3,241 votes were cast in the King County Conservation District board of supervisors election. This year, there were 6,280 votes—an improvement for an election with where 1.2 million people are eligible to vote, and voter turnout is historically under 1%.
“I think the part that was really interesting was voters had a choice. They could mark it [the ballot] on their phone or device and send it back electronically, or print it and mail it,” says Sheila Nix, president of Tusk Philanthropies, the nonprofit that partnered with King County to deploy mobile voting. “Virtually everybody did electronic submission.”
King County’s decision to try mobile voting was motivated by cost and the desire to boost voter turnout. State law requires the conservation district hold an election in the first quarter of the year, but sending out 1.2 million paper ballots can be a massive expense. Previously, people who wanted to vote had to request a ballot first, then mail it back.
Just as a person would vote by paper ballot, online voters were required to sign their name on their touchscreen device, so their signature could be validated.
Of the online votes cast, 23 signatures were challenged for not matching what was on filing. Even still, online signatures were challenged 1.25% of the time, compared to a rate of 1.5% with the paper ballots that were cast, according to the audit report.
Nix says the positive results showing the vote was tamper-proof, along with increased voter engagement, are proof that this could be rolled out in other municipalities, and on a larger scale, in the future.
“We have been reaching out to cities and counties and states for 2020, and have even started getting some inquiries for 2021 when there are more municipal elections,” she says. “There seems to be a lot of interest in doing this next year.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Are we undergoing an industrial revolution or a phase change?
—Twitter’s testing new ways to fight misinformation. Is open-source the answer?
—Meet Trump’s Giuliani-approved power broker—and Melania’s new senior adviser
—How the 2020 election could influence your personal finances
—WATCH: What happens to leftover campaign funds once a candidate drops out?
Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.


fortune--2020-03-05--A rare Nintendo Play Station prototype console could be the biggest of video game auction item ever

More than a quarter century after Nintendo and Sony’s efforts to team up to create a joint video game console collapsed, one of the prototypes of that failed partnership is going up for auction. And it may set an all-time high score for classic video game memorabilia.
Heritage Auctions has included the Nintendo Play Station Super NES CD-ROM Prototype (Nintendo Play Station for short) as part of an upcoming auction in Dallas. Pre-bidding for the system has already hit $280,000, with more than a week left before collectors will have a chance to escalate the price in a live auction on March 6.
And even Heritage Auctions officials say they’re unable to guess how high bids will eventually go. “I think it’s safe to say this prototype has already exceeded our expectations,” Valarie McLeckie, the auction house’s consignment director of video games tells Fortune. “There are a lot of rumors circulating about where the price will end up once the hammer falls.”
The Nintendo Play Station came about in the early 90s. The two companies collaborated to create a machine that would play games on both Super Famicon cartridges as well as CD-ROM.
As the prototype got close to production, the gaming giants got into a contract dispute. Nintendo opted instead to partner with Philips for a CD drive for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). Sony proceeded on its own, eventually releasing the PlayStation (one word) that went on to be a sensation (but didn’t play cartridge games) in 1994.
All of the prototypes for the Nintendo Play Station were thought to be destroyed.
The Nintendo Play Station is currently owned by Terry Diebold, who bought the prototype for $75, as part of a lot during a bankruptcy auction of Advanta Corp., where he worked as the company’s facilities maintenance manager. Advanta was run by Olaf Olafsson, a former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, who apparently kept one of the prototypes of the system he helped create.
Diebold’s son found the device in the family attic in 2015, and they have regularly taken it to exhibits and conventions over the past five years. Recently, though, Diebold decided to sell the rare item.
Now that the prototype is becoming available for sale, it’s attracting some high profile bidders, including Palmer Luckey, creator of the Oculus Rift.
“I am on a quest to digitize and preserve the history of physical videogames,” Luckey said on Twitter. “Perfect VR will ensure the original experience lives on forever, but we need to keep these things alive and functional in the meanwhile.”
The Play Station is also likely on the radar of Eric Naierman, a dentist and one of the world’s most avid video game collectors, who last year spent more than $1 million on a 40 title collection that includes ultra-rare, sticker-sealed games.
Heritage Auctions’ online bids are posted immediately, but the buyers are promptly vetted by the company. If they’re found incapable of backing up their bids, the previous high bid is reinstated. (That’s why the auction’s price has fallen from higher bids, some of which have exceeded $400,000.)
Bidders are responsible not only for their bid price, but also a 20% sellers fee on all lots, which bumps the $300,000 bid up to a $336,000 price.
While the Nintendo Play Station is certainly the marquis item in the Heritage auction, it’s not the only thing that has collectors salivating. An extraordinarily rare copy of Bandai’s Stadium Events is also up for bids, which so far, have hit $45,000. The title that was one of the video game industry’s first exercise games, but was recalled soon after its 1987 release, and there are only 200 known copies of the game are in existence. This copy of Stadium Events is in the best condition of any to ever go up for auction, and has an 9.2 rating from Wata, an independent assessment service that specializes in video games. McLeckie says another copy of the game, with a 6.0 rating, sold for $11,700 last November. And an unboxed version of the game, with a 4.5 rating, sold for $10,000 in February 2019.
“The game has commanded a pretty significant premium in the past,” she says. “When it comes to video game collectors, condition is pretty much everything at this point.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Apple corrects for coronavirus to keep next iPhones on track
—Did the ‘techlash’ kill Alphabet’s city of the future?
—How technology is changing how we volunteer
—Oracle and Google will face off in tech’s trial of the century
—A.I. is transforming the job interview—and everything after
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-03-05--NYC to Miami for $51: Coronavirus woes cause airlines to offer cheap flights and discounts

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It reads like a typo, as if there’s a digit missing: round-trip airfare, New York to Miami, for $51.
It’s right there on the Frontier Airlines website. Search a little more on Google and other absurdly low prices pop up: round trip Chicago to San Francisco for $137 or, on the Delta website, New York to London for under $500.
The cause, of course, is the coronavirus and the havoc it is wreaking on airlines. As more and more travelers scrap—or at least, postpone—their plans, demand for tickets is plunging, forcing Delta Air Lines Inc. and its rivals to slash prices to try to fill planes.
Southwest Airlines Co., United Airlines Holdings Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. have all warned about the impact of the virus as tourists curtail travel and companies cancel events. The S&P 500 index of the biggest airlines has plunged almost 30% this year as the impact deepens.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends avoiding nonessential travel to some nations, including China, Iran, South Korea and Italy. Older adults or those with medical conditions should consider postponing travel to Japan. For other nations, the CDC recommends travelers take the usual precautions.
The coronavirus has also altered consumer behavior across other industries: While airlines and restaurants appear to be losers, shoppers are snapping up items like disinfecting wipes and canned goods, creating some winners amid the broader decline of U.S. equities.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Testing for coronavirus should be free, but it’s not always that simple
—Coronavirus is mutating: Chinese scientists find second strain
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—The coronavirus is officially claiming its first corporate casualties
—Why the U.S. is so far behind other countries in coronavirus testing
—Travel insurance is booming, even though it doesn’t help flight changes and cancellations
—Six states are still not testing for coronavirus
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-05--Lawmakers brace for potential coronavirus cases on Capitol Hill

Members of Congress are bracing for the potential spread of the coronavirus on Capitol Hill, with some acknowledging an outbreak is only a “matter of time” even as they urge their constituents and fellow lawmakers to remain calm.
“I assume that we’re going to have infections on Capitol Hill,” said Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida. “I don’t think there’s any way to avoid that, to be frank.”
“We have visitors coming here from all over the world and all over the country, all of us travel, our staffs travel,” Rubio said. “There’s a lot of close contact, people in and out all the time. It’s just a matter of time before we have a case confirmed on Capitol Hill or we can confirm that someone who’s been on Capitol Hill has it.”
Rubio said his main concern is about the operations and continuity of government, noting that more than half of the Senate needs to be present for a quorum.
Protecting lawmakers from the coronavirus is especially important since many of them are old enough to be at higher risk than the general population. The average age in the Senate is 62.9 years, while the average age in the House is 57.6 years, according to the Congressional Research Service. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is 78. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will turn 80 this month.
Pelosi told reporters Thursday that there’s currently no plan to change Congress’s schedule due to the outbreak, although member offices and Capitol facilities are reviewing plans for working remotely. The House and Senate have a previously scheduled recess the week of March 16.
‘Stopping the spread’
Pelosi said she doesn’t see a need to change overall operations at the Capitol and said members have been developing “good habits” like hand washing to try to prevent the spread of disease.
“We have simply no idea of how much this may spread,” she told reporters. “Our focus has to be stopping the spread.”
Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and close confidant of President Donald Trump, wore a gas mask on the House floor Wednesday to vote for an emergency spending package funding the U.S. response to the virus. He defended himself against criticism for wearing the mask by characterizing lawmakers as “human petri dishes.”
Gaetz told TMZ, “We fly through the dirtiest airports, we touch everyone we meet, so if anyone’s gonna get coronavirus, it’s totally gonna be Congress.”
Gaetz was one of the lawmakers who spoke last week at the annual conference of AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group. The organization said in a Wednesday statement that some people attending from New York were “potentially in contact prior to the conference with an individual who contracted coronavirus.”
According to the statement, no one at the conference has tested positive, but the group urged participants to follow guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The statement is addressed to, among others, “Hill offices.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Testing for coronavirus should be free, but it’s not always that simple
—Coronavirus is mutating: Chinese scientists find second strain
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—The coronavirus is officially claiming its first corporate casualties
—Why the U.S. is so far behind other countries in coronavirus testing
—Travel insurance is booming, even though it doesn’t help flight changes and cancellations
—Six states are still not testing for coronavirus
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-05--Closing the say-do gap: How businesses can create more inclusive workplaces for all employees

Top companies have touted their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion for over a decade. But obstacles to inclusion persist, particularly for women and people of color.
In 2019, women were about 47% of the U.S. labor force, but only 40% of managers, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in 2018, white women held 32.6% of all management positions, while the share of women of color in management positions showed an even bleaker picture: Latinas represented 6.2% of management roles, Black women represented 3.8%, and Asian women represented 2.4%.
It’s clear there’s still a sizable gap between what companies say about diversity and inclusion and what they actually do. In a 2018 Allegis Group report, 72% of companies said they had a strategy for diversity and inclusion, yet only 37% reported having diversity hiring targets and just 31% described fairness in compensation as a goal. And in 2016, 78% of CEOs at U.S. companies listed gender diversity as a top priority, according to McKinsey. But, as the New York Times pointed out, as of 2018, women were outnumbered in top jobs at Fortune 500 companies by “men named John.”
In an increasingly diverse world, it is no longer enough to pay lip service to diversity, equity, and inclusion while carrying on with business as usual. For companies to drive the cultural conversation instead of just reacting to it, the challenge is to move from talking about inclusive workplaces to implementing it—and realizing the well-documented rewards.
Companies can and should work to close the “say-do” gap in three key areas: pay equity, board diversity, and male championship. These are important areas, because forward-thinking leaders, including men like Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, understand the benefits of getting them done, but are inconsistent in implementing them.
Establishing hard targets, including a timeline by which an organization expects to achieve goals like gender parity and proportionate representation of people of color in senior leadership positions, is a great start. Staying accountable for meeting those targets by setting achievable metrics and transparently tracking progress with quarterly or annual reporting similar to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index—and retooling ineffective efforts—are also essential to creating lasting change.
Instead of supporting the concept of equal pay in principle, companies must act decisively to close the pay gap. This requires ensuring equal pay for comparable work by conducting annual pay audits and setting aside funds to correct for identified wage gaps, and developing an infrastructure of gender parity across management levels. Pay equity can be achieved with greater transparency in compensation.
In addition to promoting fairness, publicizing salary bands makes it easier to hire and retain top talent and plan for future growth. Attaining equal representation at all levels requires a sustained, multi-pronged approach, including a commitment to equalizing compensation, offering flexible work arrangements (and ensuring there is no penalty for using them), and rooting out bias in performance review systems.
Every S&P 500 company now has at least one woman on its board—but smart companies won’t stop there. A 2016 study of 1,691 firms released by the international nonprofit European Corporate Governance Institute found “evidence that firms with a larger fraction of female directors on their board have greater dividend payouts.”
Greater diversity also yields better business outcomes: A 2018 McKinsey study of 1,000 companies in 12 countries revealed that companies with executive teams in the top quartile for gender diversity were 21% more likely to achieve greater-than-average profitability—and that “ethnic and cultural diversity” increased performance by 33%.
Of course, women and people of color cannot transform organizations alone. Most women and people of color do not hold top executive roles and cannot unilaterally include themselves; inclusion must be modeled from the top down. Because (mainly white) men are overrepresented in decision-making roles, it is essential for men to be gender partners to advocate for equality. Male leaders should commit, not only to sponsoring diverse and high-performing women and people of color, but to identifying and promoting workplace policies and culture they need to succeed, by measuring clearly defined goals, and by evaluating recruitment, promotion, and talent development processes for gender bias.
In addition to lowering morale, companies that fail to weed out barriers to women and people of color’s advancement will lose talented employees, customers, and a competitive edge in today’s global marketplace. The workplace of the future is one in which anyone with talent, drive, and innovation can advance—and thrive. The businesses that will lead in this new world are the ones that close the gap between talking about inclusion, and making it happen.
Lorraine Hariton is president and CEO of Catalyst.
More opinion in Fortune:
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—How Democrats’ impeachment campaign helped Trump
—Being a CEO is more tenuous than ever. How I survived 30 years at Aflac
—How Warren Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway
—Are the Houston Astros irredeemable cheaters? Or are they all of us?
Listen to our audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily


fortune--2020-03-05--Accenture’s Julie Sweet on evolving in real time

This is the web version of raceAhead, Fortune’s daily newsletter on race, culture, and inclusive leadership. To get it delivered daily to your inbox, sign up here.
When Julie Sweet became Accenture’s new CEO, she prepared to lead her more than 500,000 employees by deciding to learn out loud.
Accenture uses internal “learning boards,” a basket of activities or readings that help drive mastery around new skills or ideas. She decided to make hers public, to make sure employees knew she was walking the walk in a culture that values lifelong learning. “Even the CEO has to learn,” she told Fortune’s Clifton Leaf, in conversation at the Great Place to Work For All Summit in San Francisco yesterday.
For the record, Sweet’s first learning board was about digital manufacturing. This quarter, she’s learning the ins and outs of 5G.
I’m lucky that my job as a journalist requires me to learn new things, but I was inspired enough by Sweet’s discipline that I decided to make a quarterly commitment to learning something new. (I haven’t decided what it is yet, my brain is taxed by learning not to hug or touch people when we reunite at one of my favorite conferences. But I will share my inspiration when it hits.)
Sweet’s revelation is an example of the kinds of wonderful nuggets that emerge when people convene to talk about how work can and should be transformed for the good of the world. Transparent leadership is key, and evolving out loud, in real time , is essential. “Have the courage to change, and the ability to bring people along the journey,” says Sweet.
As I douse myself in hand sanitizer and get ready to head back home—with stories of inclusion success dancing in my head—I also wanted to let you know how Fortune is evolving.
We’ve launched a new paywall on our site, part of an extraordinary year of growth as an independent media company. We now offer more than a dozen in-depth newsletters, a new video portal, new mobile apps, new quarterly investment guides, and regular webinars, and some exciting new products in the works. Even the print edition feels premium now.
We’ve been busy.
In addition to our cutting edge tools, our deeply-reported stories will now be behind a paywall. Digital subscribers will be offered three tiers to choose from, starting at less than $1 a week for the very best of what we’ve got to offer.
Never fear, dear raceAhead reader, newsletters will remain free to read by email, but the online versions will be behind the paywall. If you’d like to subscribe and support the cutting edge journalism we’re doing—and I hope you will—we’re offering you a friends-and-family discount of 50%.
Questions or feedback? Hit us back at feedback@fortune.com for general questions, and support@fortune.com for specific questions about your own subscriptions.
I couldn’t do what I do without you. I’m sincerely grateful.
To an inclusive world and beyond.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On Point
It’s nearly International Women’s Day! Here’s the bad news A new survey from the the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) analyzed data from respondents from 75 countries. More than half of them feel men are better political leaders, some 40% believe men are better business executives, and a third believe that it’s fine for a man to beat his wife. The bias revealed by the first-of-its-kind gender social norm index, came as a shock. “We all know we live in a male-dominated world, but with this report we are able to put some numbers behind these biases,” said Pedro Conceição, of the UNDP’s human development report office. “While in many countries these biases are shrinking, in many others the biases are actually sliding back.” Another study by Equal Measures 2030 found that no country was on track to achieve gender equality as defined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The Guardian
Xenophobia is also “going viral” NPR’s Code Switch podcast asked its Asian American listeners to describe their lives in the time of COVID-19, and the flood of responses has been illuminating. In addition to plummeting sales in Chinatowns and restaurants, the bullying has been severe. One hot spot is public transportation, where people are glared at and confronted with racist comments. But children are also being bullied by other kids and also adults. One Costco vendor told a Korean American customer, with her 8-year-old mixed-race son in tow, to get away from the food samples. "It just reminds me that when people look at us, they don't see us as American," said her husband.
Code Switch
No, Southern Black voters do not need more information Please spare Elie Mystal, the justice correspondent for The Nation, any hot takes that suggest that Black voters lack insight or are anything other than clear-eyed in their support for Vice President Biden. After a fairly tough assessment of Biden’s debate performance, personal appearances, and policy record, he shares the issue facing Black voters: trust. “My read of the South Carolina vote is that Black people know exactly what they’re doing, and why. Joe Biden is the indictment older Black folks have issued against white America,” he says. They simply cannot be trusted to do the right thing. “They believe if you make white people choose between their money and their morality—they will choose their money every time and twice on Election Day.”
The Nation
Shaq lost a bet The friendly wager was with Dwyane Wade on who would win the recent contest Milwaukee and Miami; O’Neal incorrectly picked Milwaukee, and now he’s feeling the heat. Instead of payment, Wade asked for a more personal reward. In this clip from the NBA via TNT, O’Neal reveals something that has not been seen by the public in years: his natural hairline. In this brief clip, you will also enjoy the rare deployment of an ascot, and a fully delighted Wade. “You look like Charles S. Dutton!” he said.
Bleacher Report
On Background
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before Laugh and the world laughs with you, as the saying goes, unless you’re a woman, of course. This is the finding from new research from four industrial-organizational psychologists who studied 300 workers in a variety of work settings and performed two controlled experiments to isolate the effects of gender and humor. Yadda yadda yadda, they found that when men added humor to their presentations, they were seen as more capable leaders; when women added the same humor to the same presentation, they were seen as less capable leaders. Ladies, whaddaya gonna do? Stay funny, stay sane, and point out the bias to others. Maybe print it on a whoopee cushion, just to be sure.
HBR
Zora Neale Hurston and Eleanor Roosevelt collaborated on the first realistic Black baby doll Black children had long preferred playing with white dolls to Black ones. Studies dating back to the 1930s believed the culprit was internalized racism. Well yes but, posited some, it might also be because most available Black dolls were either racist stereotypes or white dolls painted a funny color. Activist Sara Lee Creech decided to create a beautiful and realistic Black doll, shared her idea with Hurston, someone else wrangled Roosevelt, who so loved the idea she held an informal focus group with Mary Bethune, Ralph Bunche, and Jackie Robinson to consult on the doll’s appearance. The Ideal Toy company manufactured the Sara Lee doll, which first appeared in the 1951 Sears Roebuck Christmas Catalog.
Open Culture
There was a moment when we started fighting about politics on television If you want to understand what started the nasty, counterpunching debate dynamic that is now commonplace on the evening news and the internet, you’ll need to go back to 1968, when cash-strapped ABC, then stuck in third place in TV ratings, hired conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. and the liberal Gore Vidal to participate in 10 debates on nightly television. Best of Enemies is a truly astonishing documentary about the debates, and reveals the actual moment when civility went out the window and television vitriol in service of deeply rooted ideological views became good business.
Best of Enemies (Trailer)
Tamara El-Waylly produces raceAhead and manages the op-ed program.
Quote
“It’s an important but complicated issue, and this racism or blaming of particular groups of people has happened with every pandemic and serious outbreak...Heading back as far as we know, it's partly because human beings are tribalistic in nature—we're socialized to evolve in small groups. And because most of the important infectious diseases that wiped out groups of people were brought in by foreigners, if you think about Europeans settling in the Americas [they] brought influenza and smallpox, which wiped out the indigenous people. So, we as humans, to some extent have a built-in xenophobia.”
—Steven Taylor, author of Psychology of Pandemics, in remarks to The Hill.


fortune--2020-03-05--Why travel insurance is booming during coronavirus, even though it doesn’t help flight changes and c

Why travel insurance is booming during coronavirus, even though it doesn’t help flight changes and cancellations

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Travelers booking flights now, be advised: Standard insurance policies will not cover flight cancellations and delays due to coronavirus. But that doesn’t mean you should swear off protection altogether. There are plans worth investigating that can help travelers recoup some costs, in the event they encounter coronavirus in their travels.
The primary reason that travel insurance won’t cover coronavirus is that the disease has dominated the news since January, so insurers consider it a known risk for travelers. In simpler terms, airlines think that anyone booking travel in the past month-and-a-half should have realized that the virus could upset their itinerary.
The specific cut off date for when COVID-19 became a known risk varies by insurance company, but most put it between Jan. 21 and Jan. 27, Kasara Barto, spokeswoman for insurance brokership Squaremouth, tells Fortune.
But standard travel insurance policies generally still cover medical costs, including treatment and evacuation, if a person is infected by the coronavirus while traveling, Barto says. So it might still be a worthwhile investment.
And though travel may be slowing—a Fortune poll shows nearly half of Americans are reconsidering international trips—interest in travel insurance is on the rise. According to Brandon Hughbanks, and agent with Travel Insurance Center in Omaha, sales and inquiries are about 200% higher than normal. Squaremouth has seen call volumes 300% above what they were before the outbreak, Barto says.
Travel insurance policy prices are based on age, trip cost, and duration. Standard policies usually cost about 7% to 10% of the total trip cost, which includes all non-refundable expenses purchased ahead of travel. But rates vary; policies for older adults can easily push past 20% of the trip cost, and cancelation policies are even more expensive.
For example, two travelers between 55 and 70 years old taking a weeklong trip costing $8,000 could pay as little as $472, according to Squaremouth’s calculator. That is roughly 29% of the overall trip cost per person.
But cancel-for-any reason trip insurance—also known as a cancellation policy—would still pay out. The question is, at what cost to you, the traveller? In the example above, upgrading to a cancellation policy would cost $661, a 40% increase.
Cancellation policies typically reimburse 75% of all non-refundable trip costs, though the amount can vary by policy, so travelers should always read the fine print, Barto cautions. Inquiries specifically about cancellation policies are up by 108%, she adds.
If the outbreak persists—and more and more health officials expect it to last for months—travel insurance prices could increase, Hughbanks says. The reason, is clear: “They have to spread out however much they pay out,” he adds.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How to think about COVID-19
—Coronavirus spreads to a previously healthy sector: corporate earnings
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—Before coronavirus, there were SARS and MERS. Do epidemics ever really end?
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fortune--2020-03-05--How coronavirus is rippling through travel, energy, financial markets

Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.
The economic effects of the coronavirus have preceded the spread of the virus itself, with financial markets swinging wildly, companies closing offices or asking employees work from home in affected areas, and throttling air travel across the globe. Following is a brief look at how things are changing in the economy and the workplace today as the outbreak widens.
Air travel
An industry group says the spreading coronavirus could cost airlines as much as $113 billion in lost revenue. That figure, released Thursday, is four times the number released just two weeks ago by the The International Air Transport Association, which is imploring governments for assistance. The group says the industry urgently needs help from governments in waiving some requirements and fees.
Southwest Airlines cut its revenue expectations for the quarter by $200 million to $300 million. “In recent days, the company has experienced a significant decline in customer demand, as well as an increase in trip cancellations, which is assumed to be attributable to concerns relating to reported cases of COVID-19,” the company said Thursday in a regulatory filing.
The struggling British airline Flybe collapsed Thursday as the outbreak quashed ticket sales. The British regional airline narrowly avoided bankruptcy in January, but the spread of the coronavirus sealed its fate, left passengers stranded, and is now threatening the viability of regional airports across the U.K.
Smaller carriers are particularly at risk. The low-cost carrier Norwegian Shuttle canceled 22 long-haul flights between Europe and the United States from late March to early May. The national carrier Finnair is laying off its entire staff based in Finland for two weeks to a month due to the economic impact of the outbreak.
Cruises
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a “small cluster” of patients with the new coronavirus in Northern California who were passengers of a Grand Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico in February, including a Placer County resident who died at a hospital Wednesday. It was the first death from the COVID-19 virus in California.
The Grand Princess’ chief medical officer says the ship is at sea off the coast of Mexico and will skip a scheduled stop in Ensenada and return directly to San Francisco, where CDC and cruise officials will meet to determine the next course of action. He said guests who sailed on the Feb. 11-21 voyage and are currently on the ship need to remain in their rooms until they are cleared by medical staff.
The ship is expected to dock in San Francisco Thursday.
Shares in Carnival Corp., which owns Princess Cruises, fell more than 10% Thursday and has lost 43% of its value since the beginning of 2020. Shares in other cruise line operators, such as Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, also fell more than 10%.
Malls
Already teetering due to a drastic transformation in the retail sector, the more than 1,000 malls in the United States are bracing for a drop in foot traffic. Big malls like American Dream and Mall of America and mall owner Taubman Centers Inc. say they’re adding hand sanitizer stations, and they’ve also stepped up disinfecting high-touch areas like doors and handrails. The International Council of Shopping Centers said its members are following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Employees working from home
More companies are reporting workers with infections in the United States. Facebook says it’s temporarily closing a Seattle office after a worker was diagnosed with the virus. The last time the employee came to the social network’s Seattle office was Feb. 21, so Facebook said the office will remain closed until Monday, when the incubation period ends. The company has encouraged its Seattle staff to work from home until March 31.
Amazon this week said one of its employees in Seattle, and two in Milan, Italy, had contracted the coronavirus. All were quarantined. The company told told its Seattle area employees to work from home if they can. Around 50,000 people work at the online retailer’s Seattle headquarters or its nearby offices in Bellevue, Washington.
Washington state has become a hot point, with most of the deaths in the U.S. being reported in a cluster there.
Microsoft asked its Seattle-area workers who can do their jobs outside of the office to do so until March 25. The directive also affects Microsoft employees in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Redmond, Washington, company said employees should still come in if they work at a data center, retail store or other location where their presence is needed, unless they have an underlying health condition, are over 60 or fall into other categories that health authorities say pose higher risks. Microsoft asked people to cancel travel to its Puget Sound and Bay Area campuses unless it is “essential for the continuity of Microsoft.” It has canceled non-essential travel to regions where the virus is active.
Energy
The oil-producing countries of the OPEC cartel on Thursday called for a deep production cut of 1.5 million barrels per day to support prices that are sagging due to the spread of the coronavirus. Air travel has plunged since the outbreak emerged in China, sapping demand for jet fuel. Manufacturing has been idled in China as cities with millions of residents locked down to contain the spread of the virus. Major companies around the world have halted business travel out of precaution. Despite the proposed cut, crude prices continued to decline. They have fallen 24% this year.
Market swings
The Dow tumbled more than 900 points Thursday, or 3.37%. Ten-year Treasury yields, which fall as market anxiety rises, hit a record low of 0.904%.
The S&P 500 slumped more than 3%. Nasdaq slid 2.75%. The French CAC 40 fell 2%, Germany’s DAX lost 1.6% and the FTSE 100 in London dropped 1.8%.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How to think about COVID-19
—Coronavirus spreads to a previously healthy sector: corporate earnings
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—Before coronavirus, there were SARS and MERS. Do epidemics ever really end?
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fortune--2020-03-05--Six states are still not testing for coronavirus

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, six U.S. states still do not have public health labs set up to test for COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Alabama, Maine, Ohio, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wyoming are still listed as being “in progress” to setting up verified labs with diagnostic tests.
U.S. territories Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are also listed as “in progress.”
The list was provided by the Association of Public Health Laboratories. All other states have verified labs that are using COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
The news comes as the CDC has upped the total number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. to 149. To date, 10 people have died from the outbreak and 13 states have reported cases.
The coronavirus test is a combination of a nasal swab and an oral swab. Currently, urgent care centers and organizations like CVS’s health clinics cannot conduct coronavirus tests on site, though that might change in the future.
The spread of the virus has had wide-ranging effects, from the delay of the new James Bond film to people rethinking travel plans.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How to think about COVID-19
—Coronavirus spreads to a previously healthy sector: corporate earnings
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—Before coronavirus, there were SARS and MERS. Do epidemics ever really end?
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-05--Hong Kong’s famed subway reeling from protests, virus Outbreak

The operator of Hong Kong’s famed subway system said profit dropped last year as it fell victim to the city’s pro-democracy protests — and warned the coronavirus is now putting additional pressure on earnings.
MTR Corp. said Thursday net income fell 25% to HK$11.9 billion ($1.5 billion) in the year ended Dec. 31, during which the subway frequently turned into a platform for violence and vandalism. The protests and virus probably erased HK$1.3 billion from profit in the first two months of 2020, MTR said.
“The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our businesses is likely to
continue for some time, but the precise timing and scale of the impact is difficult to predict and will depend on the development of the situation,” MTR said in a statement. “We have taken a number of cost control measures to mitigate the financial impact of this challenging situation.”
The network, known for its fast and reliable services, has lately suffered setbacks. Two of its subway trains collided last March during a test run of a new signaling system, resulting in two drivers being hospitalized. Months earlier, a signaling glitch on four subway lines caused chaos at stations during the morning peak-hour rush. In September, eight people were injured in a derailment, later blamed on a maintenance lapse.
While MTR manages a Stockholm commuter train service and has a joint venture in the U.K. with FirstGroup Plc, it depends on Hong Kong for the bulk of its revenue. Gains from property development may cushion the company from violence-related losses, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
MTR, established in 1975, carries 5.9 million passengers every weekday, according to its website. Shares of the company have fallen 5.7% this year.
“MTR’s wounded profit growth may struggle to recover from the one-two punch of drawn-out protests and the coronavirus outbreak, especially as Hong Kong cuts train service to mainland China, and as daily commutes give way to working from home,” Denise Wong, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a report last month.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How to think about COVID-19
—Coronavirus spreads to a previously healthy sector: corporate earnings
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—Before coronavirus, there were SARS and MERS. Do epidemics ever really end?
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.


fortune--2020-03-05--Coronavirus is upending air travel. Here’s how to navigate flight cancellations, changes during the

Coronavirus is upending air travel. Here’s how to navigate flight cancellations, changes during the outbreak

Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.
With coronavirus spreading around the world, travel plans are being roiled, leaving travelers wondering what they can do to minimize disruptions to their itineraries.
There is no panacea, travel experts tell Fortune. While many airlines are waiving change and cancellation fees and making it easier to reschedule flights, full refunds can be hard to come by.
The best thing travelers can do during these trying, flying times is to keep current with coronavirus news, airline policies, and travel updates, experts say. Here’s information you can use—including coronavirus travel policies from the six largest airlines by passenger volume—to better navigate the ever-changing landscape of flying during the outbreak.
Keep current with travel advisories When it comes to suspending or altering flight operations, U.S.-based carriers typically follow U.S. State Department travel advisories, says aviation expert Kathryn Creedy. The State Department says American citizens should not visit China due to the coronavirus outbreak. It also recommends against travel to Iran, in part due to COVID-19, as well as “risk of kidnapping and the arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens.” The department urges Americans to reconsider any travel to Italy and South Korea, and specifically recommends against visiting specific regions: Lombardy and Veneto in Italy, and Daegu, South Korea. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against non-essential travel—its highest advisory—to Italy, Iran, South Korea, and China. The CDC has issued lower warnings due to COVID-19 for travel to Japan and Hong Kong. The CDC website has a map tracking the virus’ progression around the world. Travel bans and quarantine policies vary from country to country. Travel experts say passengers should check with the airline, cruise line, or rail carrier, as well as with the countries they plan to visit and their return destination.
Check airlines’ coronavirus change and cancellation fees
Airlines around the world are waiving change and cancellation fees. The specific terms and conditions vary from carrier to carrier and are changing day to day as the coronavirus outbreak unfolds, says Brett Snyder, who runs the travel blog Cranky Flier, as well as Cranky Concierge, a travel assistance company. Here are the current policies of the largest worldwide carriers:
American Airlines
American Airlines announced Sunday that it is waiving change fees for any travel booked by March 16.
For Italian travel, American Airlines passengers can also reschedule travel to, from or through nine Italian cities served by the airline or one of its partner airlines. The cities are Bologna, Florence, Milan, Naples, Pisa, Rome, Turin, Venice, and Verona.
Travelers flying American from or through Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai or Beijing scheduled through April 24 can cancel and apply for a refund for their flights. Tickets must have been issued by the airline and must be cancelled before the first flight departs. American’s policy is the same for travel to, from, or through Wuhan, China, scheduled on or before March 31. To qualify for a refund, tickets must have been purchased by Feb. 24 for Seoul; Jan. 28 for Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing; and Jan. 23 for Wuhan.
American is also letting flyers traveling to Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Beijing to reschedule their trips to begin or end in Tokyo. Alternatively, they also can delay their trips into early 2021 without incurring a change fee, according to the airline’s website.
For all American flights, differences in fares might be charged under certain conditions. American did not reply to a request for further information.
Delta Air Lines
For all flights booked in March with travel dates before Feb. 25, 2021, Delta Air Lines is offering a one-time change fee waiver. Any change must be made and travel must begin by Feb. 28, 2021. Delta’s website says the fee could be waived for travel beyond that date. Differences in fares may apply, so customers should contact the airline to make sure.
For all international flights booked on or before March 1 for travel in March, Delta is offering a one-time change fee waiver. However, travel must begin by May 31. The airline’s website says that changes to the trip’s origin or destination could result in a difference in fares, which the customer must pay.
Delta passengers flying from, through or into Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul or any city in Italy through April 30, can delay their trip until May 31. Again, changing the trip’s origin or destination might mean paying to cover a difference in fares. These travelers can also cancel their flights and apply the value toward a new reservation. However, the new booking must be made within a year of the original ticket’s issue date. Also, they have to pay the change fee and any difference in fares.
Delta has also cut or significantly reduced flights to many of the cities worst hit by COVID-19 through April 30. The changes are based on federal travel advisories. Flights from the U.S. to Beijing and Shanghai have been suspended. Delta’s last flight between Milan and John F. Kennedy International Airport landed Tuesday in New York. The route is on hiatus until May 1. The airline has delayed starting its seasonal JFK-Venice service by one month to May 2. For now, Delta continues to fly between Rome and the U.S.
Additionally, the airline has cut back flights to Seoul and some routes between the U.S. and Japan.
Southwest Airlines
Not charging fees to change or cancel reservations is a hallmark of Southwest Airlines’ business model. In that sense, it is business as usual for the popular low-cost carrier. Customers can cancel up to 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time. The ticket price can be used toward another booked within a year of when the original ticket was purchased.
United Airlines
The world’s fourth-largest carrier by volume knows “people are taking a second look at their travel plans right now,” and so it is waiving change fees for any ticket booked through March 31 and rescheduled within 12 months of the when the ticket was first issued, the carrier’s says on its website.
United is also refunding tickets for flights not yet flown to certain destinations in China, if travel was booked before it became clear that COVID-19 was in the city. To qualify for a refund, tickets to Wuhan, where the virus was first reported, must have been purchased before Jan. 21 for a flight originally scheduled no later than March 29.
United is also offering refunds for unflown flights to Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai and Hong Kong—the second wave of Chinese cities infected with the virus. Since outbreaks occurred later in these cities, the applicable dates for refunds are later than Wuhan: Tickets must be for travel by April 30 and must have been purchased by Feb. 12.
The airline is also waiving change fees for those destinations, as well as for flights to Seoul, and nine airports in Italy. To qualify, the original travel dates must have been before April 30 for all cities, except Wuhan, which has an earlier cutoff date. Tickets for Seoul must have been purchased by Feb. 23. Travelers headed to Italy must have bought their tickets by Feb. 26.
If a passenger reschedules their travel to one of those cities to depart by June 30, does not change the destination, and is in the same cabin class, United will waive differences in the fares. For departures rescheduled for after June 30, the airline will waive the the change fee, but any fare differences apply. Any rescheduled flights must occur within one year of when the original ticket was purchased.
Ryanair
The Ireland-based carrier announced Monday that it plans to cut flights to and from Italy from March 17 through April 8. Ryanair has seen “a notable drop in forward bookings towards the end of March, into early April,” the airline’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said in a press release. The company says affected passengers are being notified at least two weeks ahead of any schedule changes.
Otherwise, Ryanair has almost no information about changing travel plans due to coronavirus on its website. As of this writing, the low-cost airline’s FAQ page for COVID-19 has a 404 notice saying, “We’re sorry! This page is off sightseeing. Why don’t you do the same?”
Ryanair did not reply to Fortune’s request for more information.
China Southern Airlines
Among the major carriers, China Southern Airlines is offering the most liberal coronavirus-related refund policies. The airline has also been among the hardest hit by the epidemic, which has forced it to significantly reduce flight operations.
China Southern is offering refunds for travel through, to or from Wuhan scheduled through March 29. Customers can also reschedule without a change fee.
Ticket refunds also are available for cancelled flights or for passengers who are scheduled to fly by June 10 and could be caught up by other countries’ restrictions on travelers coming from COVID-19 outbreak locales. These customers can also change travel plans free of charge to other China Southern flights serving the same country or region.
All other China Southern tickets for flights through March 29 can request a refund if the reservation is canceled before departure.
Other U.S. and European airlines have also announced coronavirus-related policies.
For example, Emirates is offering refunds for travel to China, Hong Kong, and Iran, as well as to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, all of which have put certain travel restrictions in place. Again, tickets must meet a variety of criteria to qualify.
Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue—neither of which fly to China or Italy—are waiving change fees for tickets booked through early March and scheduled in the next few months.
It’s important to note that whether tickets were booked through an airline or a travel agent can affect a traveler’s options. For example, British Airways has stopped flying to mainland China through April 17, and is refunding tickets booked directly with the airline for cancelled flights. For bookings made through a travel agent, the airline recommends flyers contact the agent.
And since no one can say where coronavirus might pop up next, making travel plans right now might feel like rolling dice.
For instance, Snyder says, imagine booking a summer trip to South Africa. Coronavirus is not there now, but what if it shows up by the planned trip? “Will South African Airways put a waiver out?” he asks. “Hopefully, they would, but your guess is as good as mine.”
With that in mind, Snyder recommends American travelers book international flights through a U.S.-based airline, even if it is through a codeshare on a partner airlines’ aircraft.
In general, airlines have restricted when they grant refunds, and they are more likely to offer vouchers or credit for future travel, Snyder says.
“If you have that credit on an American airline rather than (a foreign carrier), you’ll have lot more use for that credit,” he says.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How to think about COVID-19
—Coronavirus spreads to a previously healthy sector: corporate earnings
—Coronavirus is giving China cover to expand its surveillance. What happens next?
—Coronavirus shows why we need vaccines before, not after, an outbreak
—Before coronavirus, there were SARS and MERS. Do epidemics ever really end?
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak newsletter for a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on global business.