Chinese Coronavirus 2019-nCoV - Prepare for the Worst Now

[Kane]

Yep. They're slowly moving in the direction of overall moratoriums on debts. But jesus they need to get f**k real.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronaviru ... l-hardship

This needs to be without conditions. Especially if they want to stem the sentiment that will prevent a rapid recovery from this.

[Kane]

Philly Manufacturing Index goes from 36.7 to -12.7 and that doesn't get near accounting for total ramifications of this trend. Unemployment claims also already up by 70,000. Unemployment claims in Ohio briefly brought down the system.

Fed or no fed action - you can't stimulate an economy when people aren't working and employers are shut down. But alright Fed and Congress - keep throwing money at it?

[Kane]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN21645F



"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California’s governor on Thursday issued a statewide “stay at home order” directing residents to leave their homes only when necessary during the coronavirus pandemic.

Governor Gavin Newsom said that modeling has shown that 56 percent of California residents were expected to contract COVID-19 over the next eight weeks, requiring nearly 20,000 more hospital beds than the state could currently provide.

Newsom earlier on Thursday asked President Donald Trump to send a U.S. Navy hospital ship to the port of Los Angeles “immediately” as the state braces for the expected surge in the number of coronavirus cases.

He said Los Angeles, as the nation’s second-largest city, would likely be “disproportionately impacted” by the pandemic in the coming weeks.

In a separate letter sent to U.S. congressional leaders, the governor asked for additional federal funding for unemployment insurance and social safety net programs and aid to small businesses, schools and universities."

[Kane]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/worl ... k-76a42417



The Trump administration is asking state labor officials to delay releasing the precise number of unemployment claims they are fielding, an indication of how uneasy policymakers are about further roiling a stock market already plunging in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

In an email sent Wednesday, the Labor Department instructed state officials to only “provide information using generalities to describe claims levels (very high, large increase)” until the department releases the total number of national claims next Thursday.

The email, which was shared with The New York Times, noted that the reports were monitored closely by financial markets and should therefore remain embargoed. “States should not provide numeric values to the public,” wrote Gay Gilbert, the administrator of the department’s Office of Employment Insurance.

Ms. Gilbert has worked at the Labor Department under presidents of both parties, and there has been no indication that she was urged by political appointees to make the request. But President Trump has privately expressed irritation at the dire predictions of some of his advisers, most notably when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told lawmakers that unemployment could reach 20 percent this year.

Some states that received the guidance from Ms. Gilbert found it disturbing. It prompted at least one governor’s office, which shared the message on the condition of anonymity, to seek an opinion from the state attorney general about whether they had to temporarily withhold the information.

In another state, lawmakers got a preview of the staggering numbers that are being withheld for the moment. In a private conference call Thursday with elected officials and union leaders, a top Pennsylvania labor official was blunt about the depth of the economic crisis, according to someone on the call.

Robert O’Brien, the state’s deputy secretary of labor and industry, said the government had been overwhelmed by a flood of unemployment insurance claims — 180,000 just in the last few days. He said that was far more than the state usually gets in a whole month.

The situation may be even more dire in Washington, the first center of the contagion in the United States. State officials there would only say they are seeing an “even more dramatic increase this week” after unemployment claims soared 150 percent last week from the week before.

The federal numbers released Thursday morning were already alarming: 281,000 people nationwide applied for unemployment insurance last week, up from 211,000 the previous week. They were apparently only a grim preview of what is to come.

[Kane]

Richard Burr, Senate Intelligence Chairman, told a private group of donors about the severity of the looming crisis at the end of February while also selling $1.6 million in stock.

He likely didn't break any laws but hot damn what a piece of information to run against him on.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congre ... f-n1164401

[Kane]

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4885 ... r-business

Corporate side of bailout seems expansive but I wonder just how cash rich all of these companies are? A lot of small businesses like restaurants and bars can't really wait a week for Congress to pass a bill. Looks like the MNCs will come out on top though. Again.

[Saz]

[exploited]

Props to Senator Bernie Sanders for shifting his fundraising efforts to coronavirus. While Joe Biden disappears from public and panics about his drop in wealthy donor money now that he is presumptive nominee, Sanders raised $2 million in 48 hours, directly to charities working to combat and mitigate the virus. He used his staff to do this. 50,000 individual donors.

Obviously I'm a huge fan of the man, but his response to this virus has made it perfectly clear that he has national leadership qualities in spades. There is no other political nominee/candidate, sadly not even the President, who has demonstrated the proper grasp or needs of this situation. I am absolutely amazed that he will not be the Democratic nominee. What a missed opportunity for you guys.

[Kane]

Couldn't agree more.

Trump embarrassed the nation again this morning. I didn't watch it buy my mother, usually republican leaning, loathes the man and wants him gone.

[Kane]