British finance workers prepare for return to office of the future

Erwin Oropesa 7 days ago

By Lawrence White, Carolyn Cohn and Pamela Barbaglia

LONDON (Reuters) – Limits on elevators, thermal imaging and temperature checks will greet a first wave of traders and bankers in Britain preparing to return to offices under new norms to tackle the coronavirus.

Britain’s financial sector is working to bring staff back to city-centre workplaces, which were hastily evacuated as the government imposed a lockdown, leaving the normally humming Canary Wharf and City of London financial districts deserted.

Now firms are having to make rapid decisions on how they want to deploy their staff in an era which is being defined by the coronavirus pandemic and the overnight revolution in work practices and technology which it has necessitated.

Most financial firms have kept small teams in offices through the pandemic, and are now preparing for up to 10% of their staff to return over the next few months, pending government approval,

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Coca-Cola CEO says business is improving amid COVID-19 pandemic

Erwin Oropesa 7 days ago

Coca-Cola’s (KO) business is ever so slowly getting its caffeine high back after being hit hard in the spring by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are seeing an improvement,” Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey told Yahoo Finance in an interview, when asked about the current state of the beverage giant’s business. It was just a few weeks back that Coca-Cola surprised many on Wall Street with its take on the business towards the end of the first quarter.

Coke said in late April that global volume was down 25% as it felt the brunt of restaurant closings and the lack of sporting events, both of which are two key sales drivers. Analysts estimate close to 50% of Coke’s business is leveraged to the “away from home” consumption occasions.

The company acknowledged at the time the impact to the business in the second quarter from coronavirus-related social distancing efforts

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Finance and the Real Economy Can’t Stay Out of Sync Forever

Erwin Oropesa 7 days ago

Jill Carlson, a CoinDesk columnist, is co-founder of the Open Money Initiative, a non-profit research organization working to guarantee the right to a free and open financial system. She is also an investor in early-stage startups with Slow Ventures.

Have you ever been to a place where time had a different quality? Maybe you grew up in a rural area of the Midwest and upon moving to New York were struck, like many before you, by its whirlwind cadence. Maybe you grew up in a bustling capital city but, upon visiting a coastal seaside town, you fell in love with the slower, sleepier pace of life.

I have spent most of my life residing in places where time moves pretty quickly, kept ticking along by semesters, quarters, deadlines, bills to pay, money to make and errands to run. When traveling, I have often wondered at the relaxed pace of the

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