U.S. could be next 'virus epicentre', global recession looms

[webfact]

U.S. could be next 'virus epicentre', global recession looms

By Emma Farge and Sanjeev Miglani

 

A delivery person rides their bike across 7th Avenue in a mostly deserted Times Square following the outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 23, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

 

GENEVA/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The United States could become the global epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, as India announced a full 24-hour, nationwide lockdown in the world's second-most populous country.

 

India joined the ranks of Britain and other countries clamping down to hold back the virus as business activity collapsed from Japan to the United States at a record pace in March.

 

The highly contagious coronavirus has caused entire regions to be placed on lockdown. In some places soldiers are patrolling the streets to keep consumers and workers indoors, halting services and production and breaking supply chains.

 

"The global health crisis is rapidly morphing into a global recession, as there is a clear tension between preventing infections and ruining the economy," said Edoardo Campanella, an economist at UniCredit Bank in Milan.

 

But Wall Street bounced from three-year lows as investors pin their hopes on the U.S. Senate passing a $2 trillion stimulus bill.

 

Confirmed coronavirus cases around the world exceeded 377,000 across 194 countries and territories as of early Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, more than 16,500 of them fatal.

 

Kevin Bacon might be encouraging people to stay at home on social media with his trending hashtag #IStayHomeFor, but he and his family have found fun cooking together and making music as they find themselves holed in at home in California.

 

In Geneva, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said infections in the United States had greatly increased.

 

Over the previous 24 hours, 85 percent of new cases were in Europe and the United States, and of those, 40 percent were in the United States.

As of Monday, the virus had infected more than 42,000 people there, killing at least 559.

 

Asked whether the United States could become the new epicentre, Harris said: "We are now seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the U.S. So it does have that potential."

 

Some U.S. state and local officials have decried a lack of coordinated federal action, saying that having localities act on their own has put them in competition for supplies.

 

President Donald Trump acknowledged the difficulty.

 

"The World market for face masks and ventilators is Crazy. We are helping the states to get equipment, but it is not easy," he tweeted.

 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday the government would impose a nationwide lockdown from midnight for 21 days.

 

Health researchers have warned that more than a million people in India could be infected with the coronavirus by mid-May, prompting the government to shut down all air and train travel, businesses and schools.

 

On Tuesday, Modi, leader of the world's biggest democracy, went further, saying nobody would be allowed to leave their homes.

 

"The only way to save ourselves from coronavirus is if we don’t leave our homes, whatever happens, we stay at home," Modi said.

India has so far reported 482 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and nine deaths.

 

OLYMPIC ORGANISERS GIVE IN

Olympic Games organisers and the Japanese government had clung to the hope that the world's biggest sporting event could go ahead, but finally bowed to the inevitable to make Tokyo 2020 the latest and biggest victim of a ravaged sporting calendar.

 

After a call with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the July 24-Aug. 9 event would be rescheduled for the summer of 2021 at the latest - as proof of victory over the coronavirus.

 

"President Bach said he is in agreement, 100%."

 

It was the first time in the Olympics' 124-year history that they had been postponed, though they were cancelled outright three times during the two 20th-century world wars.

 

Of the top 10 countries by case numbers, Italy has reported the highest fatality rate, at around 10%, which at least partly reflects its older population. The fatality rate globally - the ratio of deaths to confirmed infections - is around 4.3%, though national figures can vary widely according to how much testing is done.

 

Britain, believed by experts to be about two weeks behind Italy in the outbreak cycle, on Tuesday began curbs on movement without precedent in peacetime after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the country to stay at home.

 

The streets of the capital were quiet as all but essential shops closed and people only went to work if it was unavoidable.

 

Johnson had resisted pressure to impose a full lockdown even as other European countries had done so, but was forced to change tack as projections showed the health system could become overwhelmed.

 

Meanwhile China's Hubei province, the original centre of the outbreak, will lift curbs on people leaving the area, but other regions will tighten controls as new cases double due to imported infections.

 

The provincial capital Wuhan, which has been in total lockdown since Jan. 23, will lift its travel restrictions on April 8.

 

However, the risk from overseas infections appears to be on the rise, prompting tougher screening and quarantine measures in cities such as the capital Beijing.

 

(Additional reporting by Emma Farge, Stephanie Nebehay, Karolos Grohmann, Leika Kihara, Sakura Murakami, Lusha Zhang, Huizhong Wu, Sanjeev Miglani and Nupur Anand; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Jon Boyle and Angus MacSwan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-25

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[leeneeds]

40 minutes ago, webfact said:

 

But Wall Street bounced from three-year lows as investors pin their hopes on the U.S. Senate passing a $2 trillion stimulus bill.

Last week 1 trillion, the fall out is still growing and will do so until the curve of rate of infection reverses being they are weeks behind China on infection rates, the cash amount needed could double again.

The gold held in Fort Knox currently is around 6-6.5 billion dollars 

how the false economy survives after the pandemic will be a game changer for the US.

 

[bristolboy]

4 minutes ago, leeneeds said:

Last week 1 trillion, the fall out is still growing and will do so until the curve of rate of infection reverses being they are weeks behind China on infection rates, the cash amount needed could double again.

The gold held in Fort Knox currently is around 6-6.5 billion dollars 

how the false economy survives after the pandemic will be a game changer for the US.

 

Do you understand that the United States has effectively been off the gold standard since the early 1930's and absolutely and definitively since sometime in the Nixon Presidency? So all the development and wealth created since then is unreal because it's not tied to a beautiful yellow metal?

[Farangwithaplan]

Look, if Trump decides to open up the US in the coming days, the saving grace for the world is that we will have a decent sample set to observe how things eventuate.

[lannarebirth]

15 hours ago, leeneeds said:

Last week 1 trillion, the fall out is still growing and will do so until the curve of rate of infection reverses being they are weeks behind China on infection rates, the cash amount needed could double again.

The gold held in Fort Knox currently is around 6-6.5 billion dollars 

how the false economy survives after the pandemic will be a game changer for the US.

 

 

Trust me, these corporate welfare <deleted> will be coming back for another feed at the trough within a month. This infusion just covers their margin calls and upkeep on the yacht and Palm Beach and Hamptons properties.

[Tug]

I’m not so sure the USA will be it that crown of thorns imo will most likely be India due to extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure we just lack leadership on the federal levelwe have the talent and materials to get it under control on the local and state level

[OneMoreFarang]

I know it was hard for a long time for many Americans to live with such an incompetent president. But now it really matters. We can be sure that Trump will make anything wrong that can possibly go wrong.

Slowly I understand why they always ask god for help. Because even if the chance that god exist is minimal. It's still higher than the chance that Trump will manage this crisis.

Good luck to you. You need it!

[OneMoreFarang]

13 minutes ago, Tug said:

I’m not so sure the USA will be it that crown of thorns imo will most likely be India due to extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure we just lack leadership on the federal levelwe have the talent and materials to get it under control on the local and state level

There is also a lot of poverty and extreme poverty in the USA...

[Tagged]

4 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

 

Good luck to you. You need it!

We all need it! When USA fall, we fall to our knees in deep <deleted> as well. Thats how depended we all are in most of the western world ????. 

 

 

[leeneeds]

1 hour ago, bristolboy said:

Do you understand that the United States has effectively been off the gold standard since the early 1930's and absolutely and definitively since sometime in the Nixon Presidency? So all the development and wealth created since then is unreal because it's not tied to a beautiful yellow metal?

Yes  I understand the distance from being tied to gold, my point is that debt is still debt printing monies to inject in to the system has to have a come back, the point of using gold as a bankable safe guard to eliminate against that supposed 2 trillion injection when not enough is held to offset that debt, then how do you pay off that debt when the buying power of the dollar has been eroded by fiscal policy of the injection. 

[GalaxyMan]

Bill Gates is simply brilliant on this...https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/24/21192638/coronavirus-bill-gates-trump-reopen-business?mod=article_inline

[Airalee]

37 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

There is also a lot of poverty and extreme poverty in the USA...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence

[bristolboy]

20 minutes ago, leeneeds said:

Yes  I understand the distance from being tied to gold, my point is that debt is still debt printing monies to inject in to the system has to have a come back, the point of using gold as a bankable safe guard to eliminate against that supposed 2 trillion injection when not enough is held to offset that debt, then how do you pay off that debt when the buying power of the dollar has been eroded by fiscal policy of the injection. 

Yes, oddly enough the US rate of inflation has continued to be very low despite the big rise in debt in the wake of the Great Recession.

[SometimezaGreatNotion]

"The World market for face masks and ventilators is Crazy. We are helping the states to get equipment, but it is not easy," [Trump] tweeted.

 

What? it is so difficult for the President of the United states to commandeer emergency supplies after declaring a state of emergency?

 

????

[Airalee]

17 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Yes, oddly enough the US rate of inflation has continued to be very low despite the big rise in debt in the wake of the Great Recession.

Not odd at all.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_deflation

[bristolboy]

2 minutes ago, Airalee said:

Not odd at all.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_deflation

Debt deflation is about private debt. It has nothing to do with government debt. In fact, the whole point of increased government spending is to counter the ill effects of debt deflation. WW2 was a case in point. It's popularly believed that the reason WW2 lifted the US out of depression was because it created full employment. But what's overlooked is that it also spurred inflation so that the massive private debt overhang in the USA was inflated away.

[Airalee]

1 minute ago, bristolboy said:

Debt deflation is about private debt. It has nothing to do with government debt. In fact, the whole point of increased government spending is to counter the ill effects of debt deflation. WW2 was a case in point. It's popularly believed that the reason WW2 lifted the US out of depression was because it created full employment. But what's overlooked is that it also spurred inflation so that the massive private debt overhang in the USA was inflated away.

Government debt tries to fill the void.  Was much harder during the GFC.  Perhaps we need another war?

[bristolboy]

Just now, Airalee said:

Government debt tries to fill the void.  Was much harder during the GFC.  Perhaps we need another war?

Well, right now the US is starting to act with the financial equivalent of War. Oddly enough, during the GFC (what I call the Great Recession) they opposed strong fiscal remedies. Hmmm...wonder why that was?

[Airalee]

5 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Debt deflation is about private debt. It has nothing to do with government debt. In fact, the whole point of increased government spending is to counter the ill effects of debt deflation. WW2 was a case in point. It's popularly believed that the reason WW2 lifted the US out of depression was because it created full employment. But what's overlooked is that it also spurred inflation so that the massive private debt overhang in the USA was inflated away.

Another thing to take into consideration in recent times is the derivatives market.

 

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052715/how-big-derivatives-market.asp

[Airalee]

2 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Well, right now the US is starting to act with the financial equivalent of War. Oddly enough, during the GFC (what I call the Great Recession) they opposed strong fiscal remedies. Hmmm...wonder why that was?

Just gotta ask yourself...”Cui bono?”

[bristolboy]

Just now, Airalee said:

Just gotta ask yourself...”Cui bono?”

Well, it was massively improved by the Democrats insistence that a $600 weekly supplement be given to all those who have lost their jobs. That is targeting exactly the right people. (Well at least many) Trump's plan to give x amount of dollars to every American is much less effective since those with jobs that offer adequate pay are much more likely to save the money than to spend it given the current economic situation.

[UbonThani]

52 minutes ago, GalaxyMan said:

Bill Gates is simply brilliant on this...https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/24/21192638/coronavirus-bill-gates-trump-reopen-business?mod=article_inline

What pain does gates suffer? Zero.

 

It's the working class with no jobs or business.

 

Open by 30/4 or it's economic suicide and loads more suicides

[avvocato]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

I’m not so sure the USA will be it that crown of thorns imo will most likely be India due to extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure we just lack leadership on the federal levelwe have the talent and materials to get it under control on the local and state level

The USA has these problems as well (matter of degreee) - poverty (it's all relative but there are many poor people in USA ignored by those economically above them), lack of infrastructure (well no so much a lack of as a crumbling one) and lack of leadership at the federal level (with our reality show pResident).

[Airalee]

1 minute ago, bristolboy said:

Well, it was massively improved by the Democrats insistence that a $600 weekly supplement be given to all those who have lost their jobs. That is targeting exactly the right people. (Well at least many) Trump's plan to give x amount of dollars to every American is much less effective since those with jobs that offer adequate pay are much more likely to save the money than to spend it given the current economic situation.

It is all window dressing designed to keep the serfs in debt, rather than defaulting on their loans, ultimately leading to an implosion in the derivatives market.

 

If you saw the tricks that were played on the “homedebtors” with the mortgage relief programs, you would be disgusted.

[Airalee]

5 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Well, it was massively improved by the Democrats insistence that a $600 weekly supplement be given to all those who have lost their jobs. That is targeting exactly the right people. (Well at least many) Trump's plan to give x amount of dollars to every American is much less effective since those with jobs that offer adequate pay are much more likely to save the money than to spend it given the current economic situation.

FWIW, I am completely apolitical 

[bristolboy]

4 minutes ago, UbonThani said:

What pain does gates suffer? Zero.

 

It's the working class with no jobs or business.

 

Open by 30/4 or it's economic suicide and loads more suicides

Yes, certainly more aid could be directed to those people. But considering how hard the Democrats fought just to get assistance to those on employment, how likely is it that the Republicans will endorse that approach?

[Airalee]

“Serfdom is cool, it’s so retro...let’s party like it’s 1399”

 

-Veritas Faust

 

http://housingpanic.blogspot.com/2007/02/serfdom-is-cool-its-so-retrolets-party.html
 

We had so much fun back in those days.

[unsubscribe]

2 hours ago, Farangwithaplan said:

Look, if Trump decides to open up the US in the coming days, the saving grace for the world is that we will have a decent sample set to observe how things eventuate.

 

this will also fix our social security problem ????

[lannarebirth]

43 minutes ago, Airalee said:

Just gotta ask yourself...”Cui bono?”

Always the right question to ask in America. What's clear is they had no interest in following the Danish model, which IMO is just what they should have done.

 

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/denmark-has-a-message-for-america-do-more-fast/608629/

 

[bristolboy]

6 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

Always the right question to ask in America. What's clear is they had no interest in following the Danish model, which IMO is just what they should have done.

 

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/denmark-has-a-message-for-america-do-more-fast/608629/

 

Whom do you mean by "they"?