With consumers spending less during the shutdown and more using plastic payment cards when they do shop, coins are in short supply. So now the penny’s enemies see another chance to end its life. The one-cent coin costs two cents to produce, costing the U.S. Mint $70 million more in 2018 than the coins were...
Tag: aug 04 2020
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GOING DOWN, GOING BUST, GOING OUT
OIL MAJORS’ PROFITS HIT A DRY HOLE. Major oil companies lost more than $15 billion in this year’s second quarter, tanking their stock prices. ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, posted a second consecutive negative quarter for the first time, reporting a $1.1-billion loss, compared to $3.1 billion in profit a year earlier. Chevron lost...
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GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRENDS
Economies of the 19 countries that share the euro currency collectively lost 12.1 percent in this year’s second quarter compared to the first, the worst quarterly performance since records began being kept in 1995. Annualized, the loss amounts to 40.3 percent, significantly worse than the U.S.’s 32.9-percent annualized contraction. The second quarter held the bulk...
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“NO MORE MUZZLES”
Last Saturday, depending on the available numbers, somewhere between 25,000 to 100,000 mask-less Germans – in violation of mask wearing mandates and social distancing rules – gathered in Berlin to protest government virus restrictions. Among the signs being carried: “Corona, false alarm,” “Natural defense instead of vaccination,” and “We are being forced to wear a...
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AS GOES GOOGLE TRENDS
Google, whose ad revenues had risen in every quarter of the company’s 22-year history, reported an 8-percent drop in ad sales during the second quarter, compared to a year previous. Revenue was down about $2.6 billion for the period as major advertisers, including travel companies and consumer products makers, cut ad spending to conserve cash...
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LUXURY BRANDS FEEL YOUR PAIN
Gucci, the Italian fashion house, saw revenue fall 34 percent to €3.1 billion in the first half of the year. The company’s operating profit was down 51 percent to €929 million. Gucci has been restructuring its operation to rely less on third-party production contractors and instead has been buying up suppliers and opening its own...
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WEAR MASKS, GOGGLE UP
In March, the U.S. media’s “leading infectious disease expert,” Dr. Anthony Fauci declared on CBS’s “60 Minutes”: “Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks. There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people...
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SECOND QUARTER WORST FOR GROWTH, JOBS
During this year’s second quarter, the U.S. economy contracted at a projected annual rate not seen even during the Great Depression. The record 9.5-percent drop in productivity equates to annual plunge of 32.9 percent. The cumulative loss during the first six months of this year is 14.75 percent, roughly the rate of economic slump seen...
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HOTEL EMPLOYMENT BLUES
Since American politicians began locking down the nation in March, only 37 percent of hotels have brought back half or more of the full-time workers laid off earlier this year according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA). The survey also found that: 87 percent of U.S. hotels laid off workers due to the...
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CONSTRUCTION SPENDING, EMPLOYMENT DWINDLE
U.S. construction spending in June totaled $1.36 trillion, down 0.7 percent from May and the lowest monthly amount this year, according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA). June marked the fourth consecutive month of reduced spending. Construction spending peaked at a record $1.44 trillion in February, but since then has skidded 6 percent,...