Mass protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer have further slowed the reopening of the global economy. Apple stores that had reopened shut down again, and some were boarded up after several were broken into. Macy’s also boarded over it’s NYC store, delayed reopening some stores, and closed others until the unrest cools down....
UNEMPLOYED UP, UNEMPLOYMENT DOWN?
About 1.9 million U.S. workers filed claims for unemployment benefits during the week ending 29 May, a number that surprised many analysts who had expected a more positive number. The number of new claims was almost three times as high as the largest number of claims filed in a single week during the Great Recession. About 43 million Americans have...
CBO: ECONOMIC RECOVERY TO TAKE TEN YEARS
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has revised downward its January economic forecast for the U.S. from 2020 to 2030 by $7.9 trillion, or 3 percent of the GDP it had previously expected during the decade. U.S. GDP is unlikely to restore all of that $7.9 trillion until 2029’s fourth quarter, the CBO said. In the final quarter of this...
BILLIONAIRES REAP PANDEMIC PROFITS
While the wealth gap between the one percent and the rest of society has been long reported in the Trends Journal, since the COVID Lockdown, in the United States, the rich have gotten even richer. According to a late April report from the Institute for Policy Studies, “Billionaire Bonanza 2020: Wealth Windfalls, Tumbling Taxes and Pandemic Profiteers,” U.S. billionaires have...
BILLIONAIRE VS. BILLIONAIRE
Billionaire Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, Tesla, and Solar City, took a shot last week at the richest billionaire in the world, Jeff Bezos, accusing the Amazon CEO of refusing to publish a book titled, “Unreported Truths about Covid-19 and Lockdowns.” The book, written by Alex Berneson, challenges the level of danger coronavirus poses as presented by political leaders and...
AFRICAN AMERICANS HIT HARD BY COVID
According to a recent Financial Times/Peterson poll, far more African-Americans have suffered a reduction in their family’s income due to the coronavirus outbreak than whites. The survey, conducted from 20 to 26 May, found that more blacks had lost their jobs since the outbreak began, highlighting the growing economic inequalities at a time Americans are protesting against the killing of...
COVID LAWS = GLOBAL LUNACY
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. — Benjamin Franklin After months of enforcing stay-at-home orders and shutting down the global economy, political leaders, offering no substantial scientific proof based on competent data, are coming up with additional made-up rules for reopening. Name the country, name the state, name...
OBAMA OUT-MILITARIZED TRUMP BUT AMERICA STILL LOVES HIM
Tracking trends is the understanding of where we are, how we got here, and where we are going. While most of the American media and politicians attack Trump for his military state platform, Barack Obama laid the foundation. Americans – and the world – were oblivious to the freedom-robbing law that then-President Obama signed in 2011. The following is from...
GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS: TRUMP “FORCES” THE ISSUE
In a conference call on 1 June with military advisors and all 50 governors, President Trump told the governors, “If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” The president added, “Most...
AMERIKA: FOLLOW THE LEADERS
A Monmouth Poll released last week shows almost 70 percent of Americans fear a second wave of COVID-19 will hit before the end of the year. As for opening the economy and “setting people free,” 60 percent worry the lockdown is ending too quickly, and only about half that amount would want restrictions lifted more quickly. As for pledging allegiance...