Economy
The coronavirus is leading to dangerous shortages of key medications (Roger B.)
In December, before cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, were reported in China, the Democratic staff on Peters’s committee compiled a report on “cost, supply and security threats” to the nation’s inventory of prescription drugs. The report concluded “active drug shortages in the United States” were “at their highest levels in almost five years” due to multiple factors including diminished U.S. manufacturing capacity and “overdependence on foreign pharmaceutical supply chains.” Those existing issues have all been exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis.
The coronavirus’ impact on Social Security is now plainly visible (Sparky1)
Single-filing taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) plus one-half of benefits above $25,000 will owe some amount of federal tax on a portion of their Social Security payout. For couples filing jointly, this MAGI-plus-one-half-of-benefits formula begins taxation above $32,000.
More than half of Los Angeles workers are now unemployed just one month into coronavirus lockdowns (Adam)
The Labor Department announced on Thursday that another 5.2 million Americans filed jobless claims, bringing the total number of claims to over 22 million just over the past four weeks.
Labs testing for Covid-19 dispute Dr. Birx’s claim (Sparky1)
CNN’s Drew Griffin reports on a claim that Dr. Deborah Birx made during the White House task-force press briefing that all health care workers in the US could have been tested for coronavirus if machines were running at capacity.
Who Really Decides When America Reopens? (Epictetus)
Our society is based on a system of voluntary compliance. It’s robust glue for a properly functioning society. But, if you think the virus spreads fast – wait until you see the exponential growth in non-compliance when people start to suffer in mass… like when tens of millions lose their jobs.
Let’s talk about reopening the economy (John B.)
Video
The presence of so many U.S. officials undercuts President Trump’s assertion that the WHO’s failure to communicate the extent of the threat, born of a desire to protect China, is largely responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in the United States.
The administration has also sharply criticized the Chinese government for withholding information.
Contamination at CDC lab likely cause of testing delay (Sparky1)
Contamination in manufacturing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention test for the coronavirus caused weeks of delays that slowed the US response to the pandemic, multiple health officials have told CNN. CNN’s Sara Murray has more.
Oil suffers record plunge below $11 amid historic glut (Sparky1)
Crude stockpiles at Cushing — America’s key storage hub — have jumped 48% to almost 55 million barrels since the end of February. The hub had working storage capacity of 76 million as of Sept. 30, according to the Energy Information Administration.
South Korea’s New Coronavirus Twist: Recovered Patients Test Positive Again (Stella)
Many had volunteered for re-examination after exhibiting symptoms such as coughing. Others submitted to extra testing on little more than a hunch despite not showing symptoms. So far, these patients—all of whom needed to twice test negative before leaving medical supervision—haven’t spread the virus to others, local health officials say.
Emergency room doctor, near death with coronavirus, saved after experimental treatment (Doris A.)
Soon after being admitted to his own hospital with a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, he was placed on a ventilator. Five days after that, his lungs and kidneys were failing, his heart was in trouble, and doctors figured he had a day or so to live.
He owes his survival to an elite team of doctors who tried an experimental treatment pioneered in China and used on the sickest of all COVID-19 patients.
Now Comes The Real Crazy (thc0655)
Then came the pandemic that not only ratified QE but expanded it to cover pretty much any financial asset anywhere, while sending government deficits to levels last seen during World War II. The IMF now projects that by year-end global debt will be $8 trillion higher than it would have been otherwise. Advanced economy sovereign debt will surge from 105% of GDP to 122% — in one year.
The looming derivative crisis (thc0655)
But wait, there is another table that breaks derivative exposure down even further into categories, and it turns out the earlier figures are consolidated totals. The true total of OTC derivatives and exchange traded derivatives to which the bank is exposed is €37.121 trillion. That is nearly thirty-five thousand times the €1.062bn netted difference in the balance sheet. And when you bear in mind that valuing OTC derivatives is somewhat subjective, or as the cynics say, mark to myth, it invalidates the valuation exercise.
Chinese Coronavirus Is a Man Made Virus According to Luc Montagnier the Man Who Discovered HIV (Dutch Boomer)
“With my colleague, bio-mathematician Jean-Claude Perez, we carefully analyzed the description of the genome of this RNA virus,” explains Luc Montagnier, interviewed by Dr Jean-François Lemoine for the daily podcast at Pourquoi Docteur, adding that others have already explored this avenue: Indian researchers have already tried to publish the results of the analyses that showed that this coronavirus genome contained sequences of another virus, … the HIV virus (AIDS virus), but they were forced to withdraw their findings as the pressure from the mainstream was too great.
Coronavirus: 38 days when Britain sleepwalked into disaster (UnusualKnowledge)
The virus had spread from China to six countries and was almost certainly in many others. Sensing the coming danger, the British government briefly went into wartime mode that day, holding a meeting of Cobra, its national crisis committee.
How Many Avocado Toasts Does it Take to Buy a Millennial a House? (Brigid L.)
Millennials may enjoy purchasing mimosas and catios more than previous generations, but it’s clear that they aren’t entirely to blame for delaying life’s milestones. We wanted to see just exactly how many avocado toasts you’d really need to cut to buy a house to prove that millennials’ fun financial choices aren’t actually driving their financial woes.
Oil Prices Hit $15 For The First Time In 21 Years (Michael S.)
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to weigh on global oil demand, the price of crude has hit levels not seen in 21 years.
Oil falls on concern over storage and earnings (Sparky1)
The mood in other markets was also cautious as the first-quarter earnings season gets underway. Analysts expect STOXX 600 companies to post a 22% plunge in earnings, which would represent the steepest decline since the 2008 global financial meltdown, IBES data from Refinitiv showed.
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The post Daily Digest 4/20 – Coronavirus Leading To Dangerous Medication Shortages, Who Really Decides When America Reopens? appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
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