Mid century upholstered dining chairs

As the coronavirus forces many of us to work from home, now is the time to consider the strange hybrid space of the home office. We find ourselves jabbing away at our keyboards in strange places, a kind of interior limbo. I have been working from home for 25 years, and I know what I am doing. Here is my advice for what you will really need over the coming unsettling weeks and months. A DEDICATED SPACE You may not have room at home for a separate office but, if it can be done, make it a priority. If not, then under no circumstances try to make a “home office” out of a hopeless space that cannot be turned to any other use – a half-landing, a bit of leftover corridor. It will feel temporary and uncomfortable, a domestic exile. If you are short of space, try to reimagine a part of the living area as a temporary office – one end of the sofa or a dining table, for example. It is better to be in a decent room with natural light than an ad-hoc corner beside the vacuum cleaner. … [Read more...] about Tips on how to set up a comfortable – and stylish – home office space

A Michelin-starred restaurant in Berlin forced to close its doors by the COVID-19 lockdown has turned its culinary skills to helping to feed doctors, nurses, policemen and firefighters who cannot work from home. "We are doing 'Cooking for heroes', that means we are cooking for people in operational professions where it's not an option to work from home," said Max Strohe, head chef and co-owner of Tulus Lotrek. Restaurants, cinemas, gyms and most stores have been shut since mid-March in Germany, which has reported nearly 43,000 cases of COVID-19 and 253 deaths, in the hope of slowing the spread of the virus and easing the pressure on hospitals. The soups, goulash and curries lovingly prepared by Strohe and his staff are helping to sustain hundreds of doctors, nurses and other medical staff at the Jewish Hospital as they treat patients with the virus. "I saw a post from Tulus Lotrek with the hashtag 'cooking for heroes' and I thought, we have a lot of heroes stationed here in … [Read more...] about ‘Cooking for heroes’: Michelin-starred restaurant helps Berlin medics fight COVID-19

Investment in market leaders with a safety-first approach could yield reasonable returns across sectors. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters A sharp recovery, after the fall in March, helped benchmark indices post their second consecutive double-digit growth of 15 per cent in 2020. While defensives such as health care and information technology sectors dominated the returns charts, growth became more broad-based towards the second half with cyclicals, too, catching investor attention. It was not just growth across sectors but down the market capitalisation ladder as well. After their underperformance over the past couple of years, small and mid cap indices did better than the benchmarks with returns over 20 per cent for the year. Going ahead, the Street expects strong economic recovery, which is expected to rub off on earnings growth. In addition to a positive outlook on IT and pharma, analysts expect cyclicals and infrastructure sectors to do well as the … [Read more...] about 10 large caps for good returns in 2021

MILAN: Italian luxury shoemaker Sergio Rossi has died aged 85 after being hospitalised with the coronavirus, the mayor of the designer's home town said on Friday. Italy has recorded more deaths from coronavirus than any other country in the world, with 13,915 fatalities as of Thursday. The elderly have been particularly hard hit. Rossi died on Thursday in the small town of Cesena in central Italy. "He was among the founders of the high-end women's footwear district in the area of Forlì and Cesena in the mid-20th century," said Luciana Garbuglia, mayor of San Mauro Pascoli, where Rossi was born in 1935 and where he founded his brand. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SI ROSSI (@sergiorossi) French luxury fashion group Kering took over the brand in 1999. It then passed into the hands of the Italian private equity fund Investindustrial in 2015, when Rossi had already retired. (Reporting … [Read more...] about Italian luxury shoemaker Sergio Rossi dies from COVID-19

WASHINGTON: The economic crisis spawned by the coronavirus pandemic has produced a wave of grim U.S. data, with likely more to come as millions lose jobs, businesses shutter and spending stops. But at some point, the bottom will be reached. Given how fast the situation has developed, judging when that happens in real time will prove challenging for economists who usually depend on monthly, quarterly or yearly trends in data to judge the state of the business cycle. The coronavirus outbreak is not a business cycle event but perhaps a once-in-a-century health crisis where normal choices about where to go and what to spend are influenced by a combination of fear and government edict. In an effort to gauge what is happening using more frequently available information, economists are innovating. Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle said this week that unemployment claims were still a great guide. "Jobless claims will be the timeliest hard data point for assessing the depth … [Read more...] about When will US economy bottom? Economists hunt for the right view