BEIJING (AP) — China faces a drawn-out struggle to revive an economy that suffered its biggest contraction since possibly the mid-1960s after millions of people were told to stay home to fight the coronavirus.
The world’s second-largest economy shrank by 6.8% from a year earlier in the quarter ending in March after factories, offices and shopping malls were closed to contain the outbreak, official data showed Friday. Consumer spending, which supplied 80% of last year’s growth, and factory activity were weaker than expected.
Continue reading “China’s Economy Faces Worst Downturn Since The 1960s” →
BEIJING (AP) — China’s official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic jumped sharply Friday as the hardest-hit city of Wuhan announced a major revision that added nearly 1,300 fatalities.
Continue reading “Coronavirus Death Toll In Wuhan Jumps 50% After Review” →
The U.S. saw a grim milestone this week: A record 4,591 people were reported dead in the U.S. with COVID-19 died in a 24-hour stretch ending at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, according to John Hopkins University.
Continue reading “Reported US Coronavirus Deaths Surge To Record 4,591 In A Single Day” →
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s ex-attorney, is set to be released early from prison as a protection measure against COVID-19, according to reports.
Continue reading “Cohen To Be Released From Prison Early Due To COVID-19, Will Spend Rest Of Sentence At Home” →
We have some new data on which states are getting the biggest share of the forgivable loan funds (the biggest percentage of a state’s payrolls covered) from the Payroll Protection Program, which is part of the CARES Act, the federal rescue bill. It turns out generally red and/or rural states are doing quite well while big blue states, which are among the hardest hit in the country, are doing much less well. The analysis was done by Ernie Tedeschi, a former US Treasury economist who is now with Evercore. This article from Bloomberg uses Tedeschi’s analysis to build this chart. These are the numbers the Treasury Department released.
Here’s the data.
Continue reading “They Can’t Help It That They’re Lucky” →
TPM Reader AR flagged to me this informed, cautious and insightful overview of what we can glean about COVID19 testing data in the United States – numbers of tests, the percentage of positive tests and what if anything we can infer from these numbers about the true size of the epidemic and how pervasive it is in the United States. It’s written by two people running the COVID Tracking Project.
A few hours after releasing his 3-phase guidance for reopening the economy, President Trump further backed away from his “total authority” claim during Thursday’s White House coronavirus task force briefing.
After saying that the country can now “begin the next front in our war,” Trump touted that “we’re starting rejuvenation of our economy again” through a “gradual process.”
Trump went on to argue that his administration’s new guidelines permit governors to begin a “phased and deliberate approach” to reopening their states’ economies, which he said would be “based on hard, verifiable data.”
The President’s latest briefing came shortly after he reportedly told governors during a call earlier Thursday that they’re “capable people” who will be “calling your own shots” on loosening social distancing guidelines in their states.
Scroll down for our full coverage of the briefing below:
This piece is part of our weekly Prime series on corruption and the Trump Swamp, but it has been moved outside of the paywall while we cover COVID-19.
The Maria-fication of the coronavirus pandemic’s death toll has begun.
Continue reading “‘They’re Adding’: Trump Sows Doubt About Untested COVID-19 Deaths That Threaten His Narrative” →
I’ve mentioned before that news of US intelligence reports from November 2019 about a disease outbreak in China are extremely difficult to square with the most exacting news reporting and genomic analyses of the virus itself. And yet, according to the Times of Israel, Israel’s Channel 12 reported today that the US Intelligence Community became aware of an “emerging disease” in the second week of November. The Trump administration “did not deem it of interest” but intelligence officials shared a classified report with NATO and Israel.
Continue reading “Very, Very Strange” →
