MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020 B1

N

TECH ECONOMY MEDIA FINANCE

2 TECHNOLOGY

The election showed that our

voting system might be an

anachronism, but technology

is probably not the answer.

2 INTERNATIONAL

Amid a collapsing economy,

Turkey’s finance chief, known

for ties to the Trump White

House, said he would quit.

7 SPORTS

Bryson DeChambeau pits

his iconoclastic power golf

revolution against Augusta

at the Masters this week.

HONG KONG — In Hong Kong, a
city enveloped in uncertainty, Fe-
lix Lee is optimistic about the fu-
ture. The reason: China.
For many people in Hong Kong,
China has caused nothing but
alarm. Beijing’s imposition of a
national security law this summer
to crack down on Hong Kong’s
pro-democracy movement under-
cut the territory’s autonomy and
raised concerns that it could lose
its status as Asia’s premier finan-
cial center.
But Mr. Lee, executive director
of UMP Healthcare, a medical
services provider, sees opportuni-
ty in a closer relationship with the
mainland. He launched a project
with the local governments in
Guangdong Province, across the

border from Hong Kong, to up-

grade state-run community clin-

ics and train their doctors. In July,

he introduced a nurse-training

program and a cancer treatment

consulting service for mainland

Chinese people in Guangdong.

“The integration gives Hong

Kong not just the end market, but

the very resources that Hong

Kong business really needs to

meet the future,” he said.

Mr. Lee’s business may offer a

window onto where Hong Kong’s

economy is headed: toward even

greater immersion in, and reli-

ance upon, China. That conver-

gence with the mainland, com-

bined with shifting trade patterns

and the geopolitical tumult creat-

ed by deteriorating U.S.-China re-

As China Casts Its Shadow,

Seeing Upside in Hong Kong

By MICHAEL SCHUMAN

Hong Kong’s economy is headed toward greater integration with China.

LAM YIK FEI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

CONTINUED ON PAGE B6

Maggie Haberman lives rent-free

in Donald Trump’s head, all over

the front page of The New York

Times and also in a brick house

in an unglamorous Brooklyn

neighborhood out beyond the Citi

Bikes and stately brownstones.

On election night, as the votes

started coming in, she was

seated at her dining room table

with her husband and one of her

three children, drinking from a

liter bottle of Foodtown rasp-

berry seltzer, eating leftover Kit

Kats from Halloween, typing and

texting, and, still, still, working

her sources.

“We’ll see what the late exits

look like, but that’s not great?”

Ms. Haberman began on one call

around 6:20 p.m., typing on her

laptop as she talked on the big

black iPhone held up to her ear.

She told another caller, “I have a

funny feeling the president’s

going to do better than people

think.”

That was the beginning of the

end of one of the most astonish-

ing runs in the history of Ameri-

can journalism. Ms. Haberman

has been, for the last four years,

the source of a remarkably large

share of what we know about

Donald Trump and his White

House, from the Mueller investi-

gation to his personal battle with

the coronavirus to his refusal to

accept defeat. She’s done more

End of Trump Presidency

Caps Journalist’s Run

Ben Smith

THE MEDIA EQUATION

CONTINUED ON PAGE B4

The Biden Economy

May Be an Uphill Climb

The way things are shaping up,

the Biden economy appears likely

to show uncanny similarities to

the 2011-to-2016 Obama economy.

President-elect Joseph R. Bi-

den Jr. will be inaugurated in Jan-

uary amid an economy that is

likely to be slowly recovering

from collapse. The Senate will

probably be in the hands of Re-

publicans — an opposition party

perhaps willing to do enough to

try to prevent steep damage to

the economy and markets, but un-

willing to embrace the kind of

multitrillion-dollar spending

agenda that could generate a Bi-

den boom. This combination

would mean that the Federal Re-

serve would be left playing the

dominant role in trying to propel

an economic recovery, with the

downsides that would entail.

Much about that forecast is un-

certain. There is still a chance, if

both runoff elections in Georgia

go their way, that Democrats

could win 50 seats in the Senate,

with Kamala Harris as vice presi-

dent to tip the balance. Or, this

version of a Republican Senate

may prove more receptive than

the Obama-era one to working

with Mr. Biden on his economic

agenda. (The Senate majority

leader, Mitch McConnell, indi-

Large-scale stimulus could be off the

table. The Obama years might return.

By NEIL IRWIN

CONTINUED ON PAGE B5

GEORGE WYLESOL

WASHINGTON — President-elect

Joseph R. Biden Jr. will take office

in January with a weak economy

weighed down by the resurgence

of the coronavirus, millions of

Americans still unemployed and

businesses struggling and shut-

tering as winter bears down.

Addressing that economic chal-

lenge and following through on his

campaign’s tax and spending

promises could be complicated if

Republicans maintain control of

the Senate.

But as President Trump has

demonstrated time and again, Mr.

Biden has the power to pull some

levers unilaterally, without con-

gressional approval, and could in-

fluence the federal government’s

economic policymaking ma-

chinery through an array of exec-

utive actions, regulations and per-

sonnel changes.

“There’s a tremendous amount

that can be done without Con-

gress,” said Felicia Wong, who

serves as an adviser on the Biden

transition board but who was

speaking in her capacity as head

of the Roosevelt Institute, a pro-

gressive think tank.

From finding ways to stimulate

the economy to changing trade

Even if Washington remains divided,

Biden could still exert economic might.

CONTINUED ON PAGE B5

By Alan Rappeport, Jenna Smialek,

Ana Swanson and Jim Tankersley