US Economy Contracted At Head-Spinning 33% Rate Last Quarter

Posted on by David Taintor

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 33% annual rate in the April-June quarter — by far the worst quarterly plunge ever — when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%, the government said Thursday.

The Commerce Department’s estimate of the second-quarter decline in the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, marked the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947. The previous worst quarterly contraction, a 10% drop, occurred in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration.

Last quarter’s drop followed a 5% fall in the January-March quarter, during which the economy officially entered a recession triggered by the virus, ending an 11-year economic expansion, the longest on record in the United States.

The contraction last quarter was driven by a deep pullback in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of economic activity. Spending by consumers collapsed at a 34% annual rate as travel all but froze and shutdown orders forced many restaurants, bars, entertainment venues and other retail establishments to close.

Business investment and residential housing also suffered sharp declines last quarter. Government spending, diminished by a loss of tax revenue that forced layoffs, also fell.

The job market, the most important pillar of the economy, has been severely damaged. Tens of millions of jobs vanished in the recession. More than 1 million laid-off people have applied for unemployment benefits for 18 straight weeks. So far, about one-third of the lost jobs have been recovered, but the resurgent virus will likely slow further gains in the job market.

President Donald Trump has pressured states to reopen businesses despite concerns that the virus remains a threat to workers and customers at many service industry jobs that require frequent face-to-face contact.

So dizzying was the contraction last quarter that most analysts expect the economy to produce a sharp bounce-back in the current July-September quarter, perhaps of as much as 17% or higher on an annual basis. Yet with the rate of confirmed coronavirus cases having surged in a majority of states, more businesses being forced to pull back on re-openings and the Republican Senate proposing to scale back government aid to the unemployed, the economy could worsen in the months ahead.

The Trump administration is betting against that outcome in asserting that the economy will undergo a V-shaped recovery in which last quarter’s plunge would be followed by an impressive rebound in the current quarter — a hoped-for dose of good news that would be reported in late October, not long before Election Day.

Yet many economists note that the economy can’t fully recover until the pandemic is defeated — a point stressed Wednesday at a news conference by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed chairman warned that the viral epidemic has been endangering a modest economic recovery and that as a result, the Fed plans to keep interest rates pinned near zero well into the future.

Trump Floats November Election ‘Delay’ As He Rails Against Mail-In Voting

Posted on by Zoe Richards

President Donald Trump suggested delaying the 2020 election in a tweet Thursday, bringing his attack on mail-in voting to a crescendo and confirming the fears of those who have expressed concern that he may refuse to leave office.

The Thursday tweet is unprecedented in its explicit suggestion to delay the election. The President does not have that power – any such move would require a change of federal law and could not be put in place without approval from Congress. 

The tweet came just about a half hour after the Commerce Department announced that the American economy took its worst quarterly plunge ever — shrinking at a 33% annual rate in its most recent quarter.

Federal law sets Election Day for presidential electors, senators, and House representatives as “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November.” If Trump or any of his Republican supporters in the Senate wanted to change this law, they would need to go through the Democratic House.

For months Trump has dialed up his attack on mail-in voting, claiming that its widespread use amid the coronavirus pandemic will give way to “fraud.” 

In May, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner floated the idea, refusing to rule out the possibility of postponing the November presidential election. The suggestion confirmed the fears of many Democrats who have said that Trump may leverage a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 150,000 people in the United States as a political prop to delay the election or contest its result and illegitimate.

“I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that’s the plan” to hold the election in November, Kushner told Time magazine in a May interview when asked about whether the election could be postponed due to coronavirus.

In June, Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, who has led the President in polls, told The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah that “this President is going to try to steal this election.” 

When asked if Biden had considered what would happen if he wins but Trump refuses to leave the White House, Biden said “I’m absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch.”

Gohmert Says He Will Take Hydroxychloroquine For COVID-19, Flouting FDA Warning

Posted on by Zoe Richards

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said after testing positive for coronavirus Wednesday that he will take an anti-malaria drug as treatment, flouting the wisdom of experts who have cautioned against its use for COVID-19.

“My doctor and I are all in,” Gohmert said when asked if he had considered taking the hydroxychloroquine during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. 

Gohmert said that he had received a text from a friend who was a doctor who just found out that he also had the virus “and he started the regimen too.” Gohmert said that he will begin taking the anti-malaria drug “in just a day or two.” 

The remarks follow news that Gohmert, who has often refused to wear a mask around the Capitol, announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus.

In spite of warnings from the Federal Drug Administration and his own task force of health experts, President Donal Trump has continued to promote hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus, even retweeting Monday a video that falsely declared the drug was a cure for COVID-19. The video featured Stella Immanuel, a woman who call herself a doctor who has history of making false statements — including a claim that endometriosis is caused by sex with demons in dreams.

In a briefing Tuesday, when asked about doctor whose video was removed by several social media companies for spreading misinformation, Trump said Immanuel’s was a “very important voice” and called her “very impressive.”

In an ABC interview Tuesday, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said hat he is in agreement with the FDA, who recently revoked the emergency use authorization for the drug as treatment.

“The overwhelming, prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease,” Fauci said.

Pelosi Orders Broad Mask Mandate In House After Gohmert Tests Positive For COVID

Posted on by Zoe Richards

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ordered Wednesday that all House members and staff must wear face coverings in House office buildings and will be asked to leave if they don’t.

The directive, distributed late Wednesday by the Sergeant-at-arms and attending physician “upon the direction of the Speaker of the House”  includes very limited exceptions and goes into effect Thursday morning. It follows an announcement earlier on Wednesday that the speaker would require all House members and aides to wear masks on the House floor after Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) tested positive for coronavirus. 

“Any person not wearing a face cover will be asked to put on a face cover or leave the building,” the directive obtained by the Washington Post said. “All Members and staff are expected to adhere to this requirement as a sign of respect for the health, safety, and well-being of others present in the Chamber and surrounding areas.”

The news comes after earlier on Wednesday Pelosi said that members and staff would be required to wear masks “at all times in the hall of the House.” Last month, the speaker had begun to implement stricter rules on masks by asking committee chairs to require masks at all hearings — and authorized the sergeant at arms to bar anyone who refused to cover their face. Some members do not always abide by the rule.

In her Wednesday announcement Pelosi said that lawmakers will be allowed to temporarily remove masks when they are speaking, but members and staff will not be allowed to enter the chamber if they don’t wear masks.

She added that as speaker she has the authority to direct the House sergeant-at-arms to refuse entry to members who refuse to wear a mask. 

A mask may be temporarily removed when a person is eating or drinking. A mask may also be removed during the delivery of a speech or during an interview assuming no one is within six feet.

Pelosi’s broadened mask mandate followed growing concern among some lawmakers who expressed concern about safety precautions on Capitol Hill after Gohmert was diagnosed. Some GOP members still opted not to wear masks on the House floor earlier on Wednesday before Pelosi’s announcement.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) told CNN Wednesday that he does not plan to self-isolate despite having a recent maskless interaction with Gohmert who had announced a positive test for the virus. Last week, CNN said that Roy and Gohmert interacted on the House floor for an extended period and neither of the congressmen wore masks.

“I’m not concerned,” Roy told CNN.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told CNN Wednesday that while the House isn’t mandating testing for lawmakers yet, “we’re discussing that.”

The Senate has not implemented formal mask requirements.

McCarthy Accidentally Calls Gohmert ‘Congressman COVID’ After GOPer Gets Infected

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made an unfortunate verbal slip-up on Wednesday in wake of Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) testing positive for COVID-19.

Continue reading “McCarthy Accidentally Calls Gohmert ‘Congressman COVID’ After GOPer Gets Infected” →

Trump, With Racial Foghorn, Blows Up Elaborate Right-Wing Rationale For Rescinding Fair Housing Policy

Posted on by Josh Kovensky

For years, the right’s best think tanks and commentators have criticized an Obama-era anti-segregation policy by changing the subject.

Continue reading “Trump, With Racial Foghorn, Blows Up Elaborate Right-Wing Rationale For Rescinding Fair Housing Policy” →

Tech Hearing Goes Off The Rails As Jim Jordan Flies Off Topic

Posted on by Matt Shuham

As if by reflex alone, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday managed to divert a long-awaited congressional antitrust hearing featuring the CEOs of four major tech companies with a sideshow about “unmasking.”

Continue reading “Tech Hearing Goes Off The Rails As Jim Jordan Flies Off Topic” →

A Shameless Gohmert Tries To Blame Masks For Getting COVID-19

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday after long dismissing the necessity of wearing masks, has cooked up a truly bold spin on his predicament.

Continue reading “A Shameless Gohmert Tries To Blame Masks For Getting COVID-19” →

Racist In Chief: Trump Says Suburbanites Will ‘No Longer Be Bothered’ By Low-Income Housing

Posted on by Zoe Richards

President Donald Trump turned his Twitter account into a racist bullhorn on Wednesday, nonchalantly posting that “people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream” would no longer have to bother or deal with low income housing in their neighborhood.

The tweet follows an announcement from the White House last Wednesday that it will repeal and replace an Obama-era rule intended to combat historic racial discrimination in housing.

The move has been widely seen as a campaign tactic for Trump, who is hoping to bolster diminishing support among white suburban voters amid failures to curb the coronavirus pandemic — which has killed roughly 150,000 people in the United States — by stoking racial division.

Trump has leaned heavily on a bid for suburban voters and falsely claimed in a July 16 speech that former Democratic nominee Joe Biden wants to “abolish the suburbs,” and that a vote for Biden would ensure a spike in crime rates in suburban neighborhoods.

The White House said last week that the rule would be rolled back as part of a broader deregulation push, creating a much lower bar that would allow local governments more freedom to self-certify that they are “furthering fair housing.”

The announcement last week came weeks after the President tweeted in June that he would be rolling back the regulation, known as the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule, at the request of “many great Americans who live in the Suburbs.” The President said in a tweet at that time that the rule has had a “devastating impact on these once thriving Suburban areas.”

The June 30 tweet followed a video that Trump posted to Twitter a day before showing the gun-touting Missouri couple that appear in a viral video pointing an assault rifle and pistol toward a group of anti-racism protesters walking past their St. Louis home. The couple has come to symbolize a conservative narrative of a kind of victimization of unwitting white homeowners who stand their ground amid a flood of threatening and angry supporters of Black lives. 

Without evidence, Trump has also leveraged his repeal of the housing rule as part of a wider effort to smear Biden. In tweets and speeches, Trump has repeatedly said that the former Vice President would make housing rules “MUCH WORSE” by enacting policies that are “not fair to homeowners.”

Biden has denied that charge. The former Vice President’s campaign has called Trump’s attempts at painting Biden as a danger and an enemy to the suburbs a campaign to smear the Democratic nominee.