Around the world, hundreds of millions of households and families depend on remittances sent home by migrants working abroad. For many nations, those flows form a sizable chunk of the national economy. But the World Bank has now warned that coronavirus-related lockdowns could slash remittances by as much as 20 percent this year, wreaking havoc on the economies that depend on that cash the most. Consider Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, where remittances account for almost a third of GDP. Or Central American countries like El Salvador and Honduras where the figure is roughly 20 percent. Tiny Lebanon's giant diaspora sends home cash worth 12 percent of GDP, while transfers from Philippine seamen and overseas domestic workers support 10 percent of their home economy. Here's a look at some of the countries that will be hit hardest if global remittance flows grind to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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A 3D-printed miniature model depicting US President Donald Trump, the Chinese flag, and the word "tariffs" in this illustration taken on April 17, 2025.
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Britain's King Charles holds an audience with the Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney at Buckingham Palace, on March 17, 2025.
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Getting access to energy, whether it's renewables, oil and gas, or other sources, is increasingly challenging because of long lead times to get things built in the US and elsewhere, says Greg Ebel, Enbridge's CEO, on the latest "Energized: The Future of Energy" podcast episode. And it's not just problems with access. “There is an energy emergency, if we're not careful, when it comes to price,” says Ebel. “There's definitely an energy emergency when it comes to having a resilient grid, whether it's a pipeline grid, an electric grid. That's something I think people have to take seriously.” Ebel believes that finding "the intersection of rhetoric, policy, and capital" can lead to affordability and profitability for the energy transition. His discussion with host JJ Ramberg and Arjun Murti, founder of the energy transition newsletter Super-Spiked, addresses where North America stands in the global energy transition, the implication of the revised energy policies by President Trump, and the potential consequences of tariffs and trade tension on the energy sector. “Energized: The Future of Energy” is a podcast series produced by GZERO Media's Blue Circle Studios in partnership with Enbridge. Listen to this episode at gzeromedia.com/energized, or on Apple, Spotify,Goodpods, or wherever you get your podcasts.
How Trump fails, nuclearization, geopolitics on AI, and more: Your questions, answered
Welcome to another edition of my mailbag, where I attempt to make sense of our increasingly chaotic world, one reader question at a time.
Bank of America is proud to support the preservation of 110 presidential portraits at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Through its Art Conservation Project, which launched in 2010, Bank of America has helped restore thousands of works around the world. Learn more about Bank of America’s commitment to the arts.