Today’s Top Stories: April 30, 2020
Today’s Top Stories is brought to you by My Daily Grind News.
Coronavirus update:
3,218,430 confirmed infections, up from 3,139,415 yesterday.
228,625 confirmed deaths, up from 218,456 yesterday.
U.S. Covid-19 Deaths Top Lives Lost in Vietnam War: Virus Update
Relevant COVID-19 stories:
- Will We Ever Return to Normal?
- U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported, C.D.C. Data Suggests
Politics:
Editorial: More evidence of Biden sexual assault. The Democrats will always find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Biden wasn’t my first or second or sixth choice. But he’s the pick the Democrats have chosen to run against Donald Trump.
I think–or is it thought–Joe Biden is a good man. But if he did what Tara Reade says he did…does he deserve anybody’s vote?
Can a good man do a bad thing and evolve, improve himself, and be a champion for a group of people he may have aggrieved?
And could that ever be enough to “un-disqualify” him from public office?
All questions we all have to answer.
Relevant Politics stories:
- Trump tweets raise speculation about potential Flynn pardon
- Trump says China wants him to lose in November
Economy Update:
Another 3.84 million jobless claims were filed last week, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 30 million. Assuming a few million people have not filed claims yet, and adding in the 5.6 million Americans who were unemployed before the COVID-19 outbreak, we are now right around 25 percent unemployment.
Which is right in line with the Great Depression, when unemployment reached 24.9 percent in 1933, fully 4 years into the worst economic period in this country’s history.
We are there, within a month of the economic downturn. This is the most abrupt halt and reduction in the US economy in history.
Below is a graph showing the official unemployment rate for each of the years of the Great Depression (and into WWII).
The Dow is down over 200 points, still in the mid-24k range.
No doubt, the market has baked in the new 3.84 million jobless claims. But something has got to break soon.
Upcoming economic reports this week:
- Last Friday – Consumer sentiment index – DOWN from 89 in March to 71.8 (down from 101 in February)
- Tuesday – Case-Shiller home price index up to 4.2 percent (reporting period is for FEBRUARY) from 3.9 percent, Consumer confidence index down to 86.9 from 118.8 (April reporting period)
- Wednesday – Gross domestic product – down 4.8 percent in Q1, Jerome Powell press conference @ 2:30pm
- Thursday – Initial jobless claims – lost another 3.84 million jobs, Consumer spending down another 7.5 percent, Core inflation minus 0.1 percent.
- Friday – Motor vehicle sales (annual rate)
Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/calendars/economic
Relevant Economy stories:
- Chris Hedges: America’s heading into the next Great Depression
- 30 million Americans have filed initial unemployment claims since mid-March
Check out Gig Economics–Learn how to thrive in the gig economy. Don’t ever be that cube monkey again!
Offbeat Story of the Day:
Editorial: I’m leaving this one here because it got a ton of play last week and over the weekend. I even lost a few friends over it because they believe him. I don’t know which stance they believe (that he was spit-balling solutions, he was being serious, he was being sarcastic), but they believe him.
This is, of course, proof that Trumplodytes are members of a cult.
“Give me Biden or give me bleach!”
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland’s health department fielded hundreds of calls from residents asking about ingesting disinfectants after President Donald Trump wondered aloud if that could fight COVID-19, Gov Larry Hogan said Sunday.
The Republican governor spoke about the emergency hotline calls and Trump’s offhand comment during appearances on CBS’ “Face The Nation” and ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday morning. On Friday, the Maryland Emergency Management Agency tweeted a “reminder” that under no circumstances should any disinfectant be injected or ingested.
Hogan said “communicating very clearly on the facts” has been important to him since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“I think when misinformation comes out or you just say something that pops in your head, it does send a wrong message. We had hundreds of calls come into our emergency hotline at our health department asking if it was right to ingest Clorox or alcohol cleaning products, whether that was going to help them fight the virus,” he said during his ABC appearance.
During a press briefing on Thursday, Trump said research was underway into the effect that disinfectants have on the virus and questioned if they could be injected into people.
“Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” Trump asked. “Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”
The White House accused the media of misrepresenting the president’s comments. Trump said he had been speaking sarcastically.
Hogan said Trump needs to “stick to a message and make sure that these press conferences are fact-based.”
“I think other people in the administration have been trying to make that clear to him, as well,” he added.
Source
Sponsored by the Drive Thru Jesus Show.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the MyDailyGrind.news YouTube channel.
The article was originally published here!
Comments
Post a Comment