AUTOMOBILE BLUES At least one million of Europe’s auto industry workers have been laid off or are working reduced hours, and the industry has lost production of about 1.2 million vehicles since the economic crisis began, according to ACEA, a European auto industry trade group. More than half of affected workers are in Germany, where...
Author: support
Post
FED OPENS DOORS TO FOREIGN BANKS
The U.S. Federal Reserve is opening a “temporary lending facility” that will allow foreign banks to convert their U.S. treasury securities into dollars. The new service complements other Fed programs that lend dollars to 14 other central banks to ensure that other economies don’t run out of greenbacks. The strong dollar has been a sanctuary...
Post
U.S. MARKET
Stock markets ended their worst quarter since the 2008 onset of the Great Recession, with sell-offs so massive that “circuit breakers” were tripped several times to prevent automated selling that could have set off a market crash. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 23 percent during 2020’s first three months, its worst quarter since the...
Post
MORE HARD FACTS
As COVID-19 “Breaking News” continues to dominate the attention of the world, leading to the virtual shut down of the entire global economy, it is becoming more and more apparent that the lockdown cures initiated will cause far more pain and suffering than the actual disease. Chief Economist of the World Food Program, Arif Husain,...
Post
A “SNITCH IN TIME”
Around the world, people filled with fear and anxiety from the barrage of doom and gloom media coverage and worst-case scenarios pumped out by the media, politicians, and their appointed medical spokespersons… are turning on their neighbors. In Germany, people are ratting out fellow citizens whom they see breaking social distance rules. One police official...
Post
MASKS OR NO MASKS? THAT IS THE QUESTION.
In addition to wildly differing estimates of deaths from coronavirus and inconsistent orders, bans, and restrictions from political leaders, the issue of whether or not wearing masks in public is effective for preventing the spread remains totally confused. The two most quoted health organizations, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization...
Post
ECONOMIC HITS AND MISSES
On the real estate front, buying a house typically involves a good deal of personal contact, from viewing the home to making appraisals and inspections to sitting around a table signing documents at a closing. Now, with most of the country in lockdown and stay-at-home orders blanketing the nation, much of that activity has halted....
Post
SOCIALISM FOR RICHEST, CAPITALISM FOR WORKING CLASS
Citigroup, ranked as the U.S.’s fifth largest bank by assets, has been selected by the U.S. treasury to channel billions of dollars in rescue funds from the government to small businesses and is “working around the clock,” according to CEO Michael Corbat, to make sure everything goes smoothly. Citigroup knows how to get money out...
Post
POLITICAL PANIC THROWS MILLIONS OUT OF WORK
About 9.9 million American workers lost their jobs during the last two weeks of March, the fastest, broadest collapse of the U.S. jobs market in history. The week ending 27 March recorded 6.6 million new claims for jobless benefits, far outstripping Morgan Stanley’s estimate of 4.45 million, Moody Analytics’ guess of 4.5 million, and Goldman...