The dollar amounts of aid in various categories of the U.S. economic rescue plan total about $1.65 trillion, not the $2.2 trillion as advertised. The balance is expected to come from a “multiplier effect,” by which the $1.65 trillion in federal money generates an additional $500 billion in economic activity. Their comic book theory: federal loan guarantees will generate hundreds...

The last three weeks’ demand for gold coins and bullion has left dealers’ shelves bare and overwhelmed the supply line. As stock markets tanked a month ago, investors dumped stocks and stored their money in gold. Prices for coins, bullion, stocks, and futures contracts floated above the markets’ turmoil, with gold’s spot price marking a seven-year high above $1,700 on...

All but a handful of nations are announcing extreme steps to save their economies. BRITIAN: The Boris Johnson administration has unveiled a £350-billion plan, equal to about 15 percent of the UK’s GDP, to guarantee cheap loans to every business needing cash. Small businesses can draw from a separate £5-million pool with no interest due for six months. Retail businesses...

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have called on developed nations to aid the world’s poorest countries as they struggle with the virus pandemic and its economic wake. More than 75 countries have asked the agencies for help since the coronavirus pandemic began. The IMF has pledged $40 billion in aid; the World Bank $35 billion. Many emerging...

According to the mainstream media, the nations of Africa and South America are now seeing COVID-19 cases “spike.” But, in fact, considering the living conditions in these nations and the list of widespread chronic diseases, plus serious illnesses and starvation, the numbers add up to next to nothing relative to total population. As for COVID-19, yes, the countries are especially...

Governors around the country have ordered businesses to close unless they’re “essential.” But what business doesn’t consider itself essential, if only to the owners and workers? Some choices are obvious: banks and laundromats, places where people buy groceries and gasoline, prescriptions. But are buying house paint and hardware products “essential” in a time of mass hysteria and draconian, made-up political...

Everyday brands that define the American consumer landscape lack the cash to survive for long in a shuttered economy, and they are grasping for ways to sustain themselves until customers are allowed to return. The Cheesecake Factory and Subway restaurant chains have notified landlords they can’t afford to pay April’s rents because their eateries have been shut down. General Motors...