The Countdown to the restart of the economy has begun.

[Scooter]

That's enough tests for 0.17% of the population.

IOW, a drop in the ocean.

[Darren]

The group advising and planning the restart.

Agriculture

American Farm Bureau Federation – Zippy Duvall
Sysco Corporation – Kevin Hourican
Tyson Foods, Inc. – Dean Banks
Perdue Farms, Inc. – Randy Day
Cargill, Inc. – David MacLennan
Archer-Daniels-Midland Company – Juan Luciano
Corteva Agriscience – Jim Collins
Tractor Supply Company – Hal Lawton
Seaboard Corporation – Steven Bresky
Grimmway Farms – Barbara Grimm
Mountaire Farms – Ronnie Cameron

Banking

Bank of America – Brian Moynihan
JPMorgan Chase – Jamie Dimon
Goldman Sachs – David Solomon
Citigroup – Michael Corbat
Wells Fargo – Charles Scharf
U.S. Bancorp – Andrew Cecere
Morgan Stanley – James Gorman
Grand Rapids State Bank – Noah Wilcox
Southern Bancorp – Darrin Williams

Construction/Labor/Workforce

International Union of Operating Engineers – Jim Callahan
North America’s Building Trades Union – Sean McGarvey
Laborers’ International Union of North America – Terry O’Sullivan
International Brotherhood of Teamsters – Jim Hoffa
National Electrical Contractors Association – David Long
Bechtel – Brendan Bechtel
Fluor – Carlos Hernandez
National Association of Home Builders – Jerry Howard
Associated Builders and Contractors – Michael Bellaman
Associated General Contractors – Stephen Sandherr
AFL-CIO – Richard Trumka
GH Palmer – Geoff Palmer

Defense

Lockheed Martin – Marilyn Hewson
Honeywell – Darius Adamczyk
Northrop Grumman – Kathy Warden
Raytheon – Gregory J. Hayes
General Dynamics – Phoebe Novakovic

Energy

ExxonMobil – Darren Woods
Continental Resources – Harold Hamm
Chevron – Mike Wirth
Southern Company – Tom Fanning
Alabama Power – Mark Crosswhite
ConocoPhillips – Ryan Lance
Occidental Petroleum – Vicki Hollub
Kinder Morgan – Steven Kean
Hess Corporation – John Hess
Perot Group and Hillwood – Ross Perot Jr.

Financial Services

Blackstone – Stephen Schwarzman
Paulson & Co. – John Paulson
Citadel LLC – Kenneth Griffin
Elliott Management – Paul Singer
Vista Equity Partners – Robert Smith
Fidelity Investments – Abigail Johnson
Mastercard – Ajay Banga
Visa – Al Kelly
Chubb – Evan Greenberg
Sequoia Capital – Doug Leone
Stephens, Inc. – Warren Stephens
Charles Schwab – Chuck Schwab

Food & Beverage

National Restaurant Association – Marvin Irby
McDonald’s – Chris Kempczinski
Darden Restaurants – Gene Lee Jr.
Coca-Cola – James Quincey
PepsiCo – Ramon Laguarta
Chick-fil-A – Dan Cathy
Subway – John Chidsey
Bloomin’ Brands – David Deno
YUM! Brands – David Gibbs
Papa Johns – Rob Lynch
Wendy’s – Todd Penegor
Waffle House – Walt Ehmer
Starbucks – Kevin Johnson
Wolfgang Puck
Thomas Keller
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Daniel Boulud
M Crowd Restaurant – Ray Washburne
Jimmy John’s Founder – Jimmy John Liautaud


Healthcare

NewYork-Presbyterian – Jerry Speyer
HCA Healthcare – Sam Hazen
Ascension Health – Joseph R. Impicciche
CommonSpirit Health – Lloyd H. Dean
Community Health Systems – Wayne Smith
Trinity Health – Benjamin Carter
Cardinal Health – Mike Kaufmann
McKesson – Brian Tyler
3M – Mike Roman
Procter & Gamble – David S. Taylor
Abbott Laboratories – Robert Ford
Johnson & Johnson – Alex Gorsky
Merck – Kenneth Frazier
Pfizer – Dr. Albert Bourla
Eli Lilly and Company – Dave Ricks
Thermo Fisher Scientific – Marc Casper
Gilead Sciences – Daniel O’Day
AbbVie – Richard Gonzalez
Regeneron – Leo Schleifer
Biogen – Michel Vounatsos
Roche Diagnostics – Matthew Sause
Anthem – Gail Boudreaux
UnitedHealth Group – David Wichmann
Aetna – Karen Lynch
Cigna – David Cordani
Humana – Bruce Broussard

Hospitality

Las Vegas Sands Corp. – Sheldon Adelson
Marriott – Arne Sorenson
Carnival – Micky Arison
Hilton – Christopher Nassetta
Hyatt – Mark Hoplamazian
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts – Geoff Ballotti
Intercontinental Hotels Group – Elie Maalouf
Royal Caribbean – Richard Fain
Norwegian Cruise Lines – Frank Del Rio
Treasure Island Hotels – Phil Ruffin

Manufacturing

Caterpillar – Jim Umpleby III
Deere & Company – John May
Cummins – Tom Linebarger
Dow Inc. – James Fitterling
Emerson Electric Company – David Farr
General Electric – Larry Culp
Tesla – Elon Musk
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles – Mike Manley
Ford Motor Company – Bill Ford
General Motors Company – Mary Barra
National Association of Manufactures – Jay Timmons
Pernod Ricard – Ann Mukherjee

Real Estate

Simon Property Group – David Simon
Caruso – Rick Caruso
Vornado Realty Trust – Steven Roth
Related Companies – Stephen Ross
Blackstone – Jon Gray
Irvine Company – Don Bren
Starwood Capital Group – Barry Sternlicht
Witkoff Group – Steve Witkoff

Retail

Walmart – Doug McMillon
Home Depot – Craig Menear
Home Depot – Ken Langone
Home Depot – Bernie Marcus
The Kroger Co. – Rodney McMullen
Lowe’s – Marvin Ellison
Target – Brian Cornell
CVS Health – Larry Merlo
Rite Aid – Heyward Donigan
Walgreens – Stefano Pessina
Amazon – Jeff Bezos
Menards – John Menard
Best Buy – Hubert Joly
Life Time – Bahram Akradi

Tech

Apple – Tim Cook
Google (Alphabet Inc) – Sundar Pichai
Oracle – Larry Ellison
Oracle – Safra Catz
Salesforce – Marc Benioff
SAP – Jen Morgan
Microsoft – Satya Nadella
Facebook – Mark Zuckerberg
IBM – Arvind Krishna
Intel – Bob Swan
Qualcomm – Steven Mollenkopf
Cisco – Chuck Robbins
Advanced Micro Devices – Lisa Su
Broadcom – Hock Tan
Micron – Sanjay Mehrotra

Telecommunications

Liberty Media – John Malone
Verizon – Hans Vestberg
T-Mobile – Mike Sievert
Charter Communications – Thomas Rutledge
Comcast – Brian Roberts
Altec – Lee Styslinger

Transportation

FedEx – Fred Smith
United Airlines – Oscar Munoz
UPS – David Abney
J.B. Hunt – John Roberts III
YRC Worldwide – Darren Hawkins
Crowley Maritime – Tom Crowley Jr.

Sports

NBA – Adam Silver
MLB – Rob Manfred
NFL – Roger Goodell
UFC – Dana White
PGA – Jay Monahan
LPGA – Mike Whan
USTA – Patrick Galbraith
MLS – Don Garber
WWE – Vince McMahon
NASCAR – Lesa Kennedy
NHL – Gary Bettman
New England Patriots – Bob Kraft
Dallas Cowboys – Jerry Jones
Dallas Mavericks – Mark Cuban
WNBA – Cathy Engelbert
NWSL – Lisa Baird


Thought Leaders/Groups

John Allison
Kay Coles James
Condoleezza Rice
Art Laffer
Steve Moore
Steve Forbes
Larry Lindsey
Catherine Reynolds
Jim DeMint
Bill Hagerty
Scott Gottlieb

[BoSoxGal]

[Scooter]

A new record 2,407 U.S. deaths today, definitely an indicator that it's time to get the economy moving again.

[Darren]

Are we ready to start the countdown to the election?

WASHINGTON – A team of government officials – led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – has created a public health strategy to combat the coronavirus and reopen parts of the country.

Their strategy, obtained by The Washington Post, is part of a larger White House effort to draft a national plan to get Americans out of their homes and back to work. It gives guidance to state and local governments on how they can ease mitigation efforts, moving from drastic restrictions such as stay-at-home orders in a phased way to support a safe reopening."

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-wor ... t-it-says/

[Bicycle Bill]

RE:  Trump's "advisory panel"

Wow — a 'Who's Who' list of rich white men.  I suppose, at least, we should be grateful that he kept his word about not putting Ivanka or Jared on it ... for now.  And conspicuous by their absence is anyone who knows anything from a medical standpoint about this virus or pandemic?  

Yet again, Trump shows us just what he is concerned about when it comes to this country ... and it's all about the Benjamins.

-"BB"-

[Darren]

RE:  Trump's "advisory panel"

Wow — a 'Who's Who' list of rich white men.  I suppose, at least, we should be grateful that he kept his word about not putting Ivanka or Jared on it ... for now.  And conspicuous by their absence is anyone who knows anything from a medical standpoint about this virus or pandemic?  

Yet again, Trump shows us just what he is concerned about when it comes to this country ... and it's all about the Benjamins.

-"BB"-

That's already been done by the CDC and FEMA. Look at the Washington Post info via the Seattle newspaper link above.

[Bicycle Bill]

Ivermectin, a drug found in head lice treatments, is being studied as a possible coronavirus treatment.

Run out of aquarium cleaner (chloroquine) to dose yourself with to prevent COVID-19?  Don't worry, you can always hit the delousing medicine.

Just wait — Darren will be sure to trumpet this as the latest and greatest sure-fire cure-all for COVID.

-"BB"-

[Darren]

Ivermectin, a drug found in head lice treatments, is being studied as a possible coronavirus treatment.

Run out of aquarium cleaner (chloroquine) to dose yourself with to prevent COVID-19?  Don't worry, you can always hit the delousing medicine.

Just wait — Darren will be sure to trumpet this as the latest and greatest sure-fire cure-all for COVID.

-"BB"-

That's been in articles along with other drugs including one identified by a AI program. If you like I can link the articles. The ones on ivermectin are old. The AI identified drug was mentioned yesterday or today.

[BoSoxGal]

Darren already posted about ivermectin in one of his many threads (one reason so many threads is a damned nightmare, please take note Darren); I replied which is why I recall. It’s a tick treatment in dogs but is already prescribed to humans for a few conditions so safety and efficacy for those conditions has already been studied in humans. Giving it for coronavirus infection would be off-label, for sure - but possibly sanctioned under compassionate use grounds.

[Darren]

More support for the restart:

Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel of Tel Aviv University, who also serves on the research and development advisory board for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, plotted the rates of new coronavirus infections of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain. The numbers told a shocking story: irrespective of whether the country quarantined like Israel, or went about business as usual like Sweden, coronavirus peaked and subsided in the exact same way. In the exact, same, way. His graphs show that all countries experienced seemingly identical coronavirus infection patterns, with the number of infected peaking in the sixth week and rapidly subsiding by the eighth week.

The Wuhan Virus follows its own pattern, he told Mako, an Israeli news agency. It is a fixed pattern that is not dependent on freedom or quarantine. “There is a decline in the number of infections even [in countries] without closures, and it is similar to the countries with closures,” he wrote in his paper.

“Is the coronavirus expansion exponential? The answer by the numbers is simple: no. Expansion begins exponentially but fades quickly after about eight weeks,” Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel concluded. The reason why coronavirus follows a fixed pattern is yet unknown. "I have no explanation,” he told Mako, “There are is kinds of speculation: maybe it's climate-related, maybe the virus has its own life cycle.”

But what about Italy and their staggering 12% mortality rate? “The health system in Italy has its own problems. It has nothing to do with coronavirus. In 2017 it also collapsed because of the flu,” Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel told the news agency. Indeed, Italy’s exceptionally high coronavirus mortality rate is eerily reminiscent of their unusually high flu mortality rates. Supportive of this theory, Germany, has low flu infection and mortality rates and similarly low coronavirus rates.

Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel concludes in his analysis summary paper that the data from the past 50 days indicates that the closure policies of the quarantine countries can be replaced by more moderate social distancing policies. The numbers simply do not support quarantine or economic closure."

[Darren]

That's enough tests for 0.17% of the population.

IOW, a drop in the ocean.

It not a drop in the ocean when you focus on the areas of pollution and pass on those that are still pristine. They're distributing the tests with the hot spots being covered first.

[Scooter]

So what percentage of the population will be tested in these so-called "hot spots" ? Can't be that high if the tests are being divided among all 50 states. Certainly nothing close to the kind of blanket coverage that will be necessary to provide confidence that enough positive cases are being isolated to allow the country to re-open safely for business.

[Gob]

US industrial production suffers biggest fall since 1946

Newsflash: US industrial production has suffered its largest slump since the aftermath of the second world war.

American industrial output, which covered factories, mines and utility companies, declined by 5.4% month-on-month in March - as the Covid-19 shutdown hit output extremely hard.

Manufacturers suffered a particularly sharp slump -- down over 6%.

It’s a double-blow of bad news - just minutes after US retail sales suffered their biggest ever decline.

The US Federal Reserve, who compile the data, say it’s the worst reading since 1946!

Total industrial production fell 5.4 percent in March, as the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic led many factories to suspend operations late in the month. Manufacturing output fell 6.3 percent; most major industries posted decreases, with the largest decline registered by motor vehicles and parts.

The decreases for total industrial production and for manufacturing were their largest since January 1946 and February 1946, respectively.

[RayThom]

The group advising and planning the restart.

Agriculture

American Farm Bureau Federation – Zippy Duvall
Sysco Corporation – Kevin Hourican
Tyson Foods, Inc. – Dean Banks
Perdue Farms, Inc. – Randy Day
Cargill, Inc. – David MacLennan
Archer-Daniels-Midland Company – Juan Luciano
Corteva Agriscience – Jim Collins
Tractor Supply Company – Hal Lawton
Seaboard Corporation – Steven Bresky
Grimmway Farms – Barbara Grimm
Mountaire Farms – Ronnie Cameron

Banking

Bank of America – Brian Moynihan
JPMorgan Chase – Jamie Dimon
Goldman Sachs – David Solomon
Citigroup – Michael Corbat
Wells Fargo – Charles Scharf
U.S. Bancorp – Andrew Cecere
Morgan Stanley – James Gorman
Grand Rapids State Bank – Noah Wilcox
Southern Bancorp – Darrin Williams

Construction/Labor/Workforce

International Union of Operating Engineers – Jim Callahan
North America’s Building Trades Union – Sean McGarvey
Laborers’ International Union of North America – Terry O’Sullivan
International Brotherhood of Teamsters – Jim Hoffa
National Electrical Contractors Association – David Long
Bechtel – Brendan Bechtel
Fluor – Carlos Hernandez
National Association of Home Builders – Jerry Howard
Associated Builders and Contractors – Michael Bellaman
Associated General Contractors – Stephen Sandherr
AFL-CIO – Richard Trumka
GH Palmer – Geoff Palmer

Defense

Lockheed Martin – Marilyn Hewson
Honeywell – Darius Adamczyk
Northrop Grumman – Kathy Warden
Raytheon – Gregory J. Hayes
General Dynamics – Phoebe Novakovic

Energy

ExxonMobil – Darren Woods
Continental Resources – Harold Hamm
Chevron – Mike Wirth
Southern Company – Tom Fanning
Alabama Power – Mark Crosswhite
ConocoPhillips – Ryan Lance
Occidental Petroleum – Vicki Hollub
Kinder Morgan – Steven Kean
Hess Corporation – John Hess
Perot Group and Hillwood – Ross Perot Jr.

Financial Services

Blackstone – Stephen Schwarzman
Paulson & Co. – John Paulson
Citadel LLC – Kenneth Griffin
Elliott Management – Paul Singer
Vista Equity Partners – Robert Smith
Fidelity Investments – Abigail Johnson
Mastercard – Ajay Banga
Visa – Al Kelly
Chubb – Evan Greenberg
Sequoia Capital – Doug Leone
Stephens, Inc. – Warren Stephens
Charles Schwab – Chuck Schwab

Food & Beverage

National Restaurant Association – Marvin Irby
McDonald’s – Chris Kempczinski
Darden Restaurants – Gene Lee Jr.
Coca-Cola – James Quincey
PepsiCo – Ramon Laguarta
Chick-fil-A – Dan Cathy
Subway – John Chidsey
Bloomin’ Brands – David Deno
YUM! Brands – David Gibbs
Papa Johns – Rob Lynch
Wendy’s – Todd Penegor
Waffle House – Walt Ehmer
Starbucks – Kevin Johnson
Wolfgang Puck
Thomas Keller
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Daniel Boulud
M Crowd Restaurant – Ray Washburne
Jimmy John’s Founder – Jimmy John Liautaud


Healthcare

NewYork-Presbyterian – Jerry Speyer
HCA Healthcare – Sam Hazen
Ascension Health – Joseph R. Impicciche
CommonSpirit Health – Lloyd H. Dean
Community Health Systems – Wayne Smith
Trinity Health – Benjamin Carter
Cardinal Health – Mike Kaufmann
McKesson – Brian Tyler
3M – Mike Roman
Procter & Gamble – David S. Taylor
Abbott Laboratories – Robert Ford
Johnson & Johnson – Alex Gorsky
Merck – Kenneth Frazier
Pfizer – Dr. Albert Bourla
Eli Lilly and Company – Dave Ricks
Thermo Fisher Scientific – Marc Casper
Gilead Sciences – Daniel O’Day
AbbVie – Richard Gonzalez
Regeneron – Leo Schleifer
Biogen – Michel Vounatsos
Roche Diagnostics – Matthew Sause
Anthem – Gail Boudreaux
UnitedHealth Group – David Wichmann
Aetna – Karen Lynch
Cigna – David Cordani
Humana – Bruce Broussard

Hospitality

Las Vegas Sands Corp. – Sheldon Adelson
Marriott – Arne Sorenson
Carnival – Micky Arison
Hilton – Christopher Nassetta
Hyatt – Mark Hoplamazian
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts – Geoff Ballotti
Intercontinental Hotels Group – Elie Maalouf
Royal Caribbean – Richard Fain
Norwegian Cruise Lines – Frank Del Rio
Treasure Island Hotels – Phil Ruffin

Manufacturing

Caterpillar – Jim Umpleby III
Deere & Company – John May
Cummins – Tom Linebarger
Dow Inc. – James Fitterling
Emerson Electric Company – David Farr
General Electric – Larry Culp
Tesla – Elon Musk
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles – Mike Manley
Ford Motor Company – Bill Ford
General Motors Company – Mary Barra
National Association of Manufactures – Jay Timmons
Pernod Ricard – Ann Mukherjee

Real Estate

Simon Property Group – David Simon
Caruso – Rick Caruso
Vornado Realty Trust – Steven Roth
Related Companies – Stephen Ross
Blackstone – Jon Gray
Irvine Company – Don Bren
Starwood Capital Group – Barry Sternlicht
Witkoff Group – Steve Witkoff

Retail

Walmart – Doug McMillon
Home Depot – Craig Menear
Home Depot – Ken Langone
Home Depot – Bernie Marcus
The Kroger Co. – Rodney McMullen
Lowe’s – Marvin Ellison
Target – Brian Cornell
CVS Health – Larry Merlo
Rite Aid – Heyward Donigan
Walgreens – Stefano Pessina
Amazon – Jeff Bezos
Menards – John Menard
Best Buy – Hubert Joly
Life Time – Bahram Akradi

Tech

Apple – Tim Cook
Google (Alphabet Inc) – Sundar Pichai
Oracle – Larry Ellison
Oracle – Safra Catz
Salesforce – Marc Benioff
SAP – Jen Morgan
Microsoft – Satya Nadella
Facebook – Mark Zuckerberg
IBM – Arvind Krishna
Intel – Bob Swan
Qualcomm – Steven Mollenkopf
Cisco – Chuck Robbins
Advanced Micro Devices – Lisa Su
Broadcom – Hock Tan
Micron – Sanjay Mehrotra

Telecommunications

Liberty Media – John Malone
Verizon – Hans Vestberg
T-Mobile – Mike Sievert
Charter Communications – Thomas Rutledge
Comcast – Brian Roberts
Altec – Lee Styslinger

Transportation

FedEx – Fred Smith
United Airlines – Oscar Munoz
UPS – David Abney
J.B. Hunt – John Roberts III
YRC Worldwide – Darren Hawkins
Crowley Maritime – Tom Crowley Jr.

Sports

NBA – Adam Silver
MLB – Rob Manfred
NFL – Roger Goodell
UFC – Dana White
PGA – Jay Monahan
LPGA – Mike Whan
USTA – Patrick Galbraith
MLS – Don Garber
WWE – Vince McMahon
NASCAR – Lesa Kennedy
NHL – Gary Bettman
New England Patriots – Bob Kraft
Dallas Cowboys – Jerry Jones
Dallas Mavericks – Mark Cuban
WNBA – Cathy Engelbert
NWSL – Lisa Baird


Thought Leaders/Groups

John Allison
Kay Coles James
Condoleezza Rice
Art Laffer
Steve Moore
Steve Forbes
Larry Lindsey
Catherine Reynolds
Jim DeMint
Bill Hagerty
Scott Gottlieb

Darren, that's really something.

[Econoline]

May 1, 2020

∙∙∙---∙∙∙MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!∙∙∙---∙∙∙

[Darren]

Have you been watching the suicide numbers? The numbers may exceed the number of pandemic victims if unemployment skyrockets.

Did you think about that?

[Darren]

"DALLAS — What happened at a Galveston County nursing home over the last week was one of the first big tests of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients in Texas.

“I thought the risk of seeing 15% of that nursing home die was just not an acceptable,” said Dr. Robin Armstrong, MD, medical director at The Resort at Texas City.

Fifty-six residents at this senior facility in Galveston County contracted the novel coronavirus. Dr. Robin Armstrong said 39 of them gave him permission to treat them with hydroxychloroquine pills.

“Most of the patients have done well. And, you know, and I think that that is suggestive that the medication is helpful,” Armstrong told WFAA.

But notice that Armstrong qualified his answer by saying “most of the patients.”

“Well, I would say I would say all the patients have done well,” Armstrong added.

On Sunday, those 39 patients finished five days of treatment with hydroxychloroquine. Dr. Armstrong said no one experienced any side effects."

https://www.khou.com/article/news/healt ... kP3d0OfFqI

[BoSoxGal]

Have you been watching the suicide numbers? The numbers may exceed the number of pandemic victims if unemployment skyrockets.

Did you think about that?

I’m interested in this potentiality myself, although I have a theory that they might stay level at what were already horrific annual numbers.

Why do I think this? Because I believe a lot of the suicide rate skyrocketing in the last decade or more has had to do with two major factors; obviously the horrible failure to serve our veterans who have an atrociously high rate of suicide, and the other major factor being an economy that provided very little hope of upward mobility to a great many citizens, instead leaving them hanging on by their fingernails - but always maintaining the veneer of wild success that leaves all the losers thinking there is something wrong with them, and not with the system.

Now we all know the system is a fucking sham, and tens of millions of us will be suffering in poverty openly and angrily. Heck, even a whole bunch of the folks who thought they’d bought or earned their way into success with a little bit of money in the bank and some equity in a house are also suddenly going to be hanging on by just a little more than their fingernails, too quickly to see their nest eggs and future security scattered to the winds like dandelion seed pods.

I think such experience might actually create resilience in people, knowing as fucked as they are, so are tens of millions of others.

We’ll see.

PS - I will say that I fully expect to see doctors, who already have an alarmingly high suicide rate, offing themselves in greater numbers. Whilst they are trained and experienced in death, loss of life on the scale and with little power to relieve the symptoms and decline of so many patients is going to create a lot of PTSD in a lot of healthcare providers - nurses and respiratory therapists and just all the frontline folks.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatl ... le/279961/

Good piece discussing the correlation between unemployment and suicide. Perhaps if this pandemic pushes us into a Great Depression bigger than the 30s, we’ll need an even more visionary plan to give people meaningful work that improves the country - rebuild our infrastructure and schools and healthcare system and invest across the board as FDR did by the New Deal. We just need a president who cares about the people and the country and believes in putting the best minds to work to get the best outcomes.

[BoSoxGal]

Opinion
Economists Aren’t the Ones Pushing to Reopen the Economy
On cronies, cranks and the coronavirus.

Paul Krugman
By Paul Krugman
Opinion Columnist
April 14, 2020, 1:59 p.m. ET

Trying to predict Trump administration actions really is like Kremlinology, updated for the age of social media. There’s clearly no formal policy process; Donald Trump acts on impulse and intuition, often shaped either by whomever he last met or what he last saw on Fox News, making no use of the vast expertise he could call on if he were willing to listen. Those of us on the outside, and from all accounts, even many people within the administration try to infer what’s coming next from tweets and statements by people presumed to be in favor at the moment.

So what does Trumplinology suggest right now? That Trump really, really wants to end the economy’s lockdown very soon. Early Monday Trump tweeted out an assertion that he has the power to overrule state governors who have imposed lockdown orders — which suggests that we may have a constitutional crisis brewing, because as far as anybody knows he has no such power. Meanwhile, in an interview with The New York Times, Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade czar, argued that a weak economy might kill more people than the virus.

The thing is, as far as I can tell epidemiologists are united in the belief that it’s far too soon to be considering any relaxation of social distancing. The lockdowns across America do seem to have flattened the curve, allowing us to — just — avoid completely overwhelming the health care system. New cases may have peaked. But you don’t want to let up until you’re in a position to do so without giving the pandemic a second wave. And we’re nowhere close to that point.

So where is this coming from? I’ve seen some people portray it as a conflict between epidemiologists and economists, but that’s all wrong. Serious economists know what they don’t know — they recognize and respect experts from other disciplines. A survey of economists found almost unanimous support for “tolerating a very large contraction in economic activity until the spread of infections has dropped significantly.”

No, this push to reopen is coming not from economists but from cranks and cronies. That is, it’s coming on one side from people who may describe themselves as economists but whom the professionals consider cranks — people like Navarro or Stephen Moore, who Trump tried unsuccessfully to appoint to the Federal Reserve Board. And on the other, it’s coming from business types with close ties to Trump who suffer from billionaire’s disease — the tendency to assume that just because you’re rich you’re also smarter than anyone else, even in areas like epidemiology (or, dare I say it, macroeconomics) that require a great deal of technical expertise.

And Trump, of course, who was planning to run on the strength of the economy, desperately wants to wish the coronavirus away.

The reality is that we shouldn’t consider opening the economy until we have both reduced infections dramatically and vastly increased testing, so we can crack down quickly on any potential re-emergence.

The good news is that many governors seem to understand that, and that Trump probably can’t override their better judgment. The bad news is that America’s governors — who are turning out, on the whole, to be better than we deserve — are having to fight a two-front war. Not only are they having to fight a deadly disease, they’re having to fend off a national leader who is doing all he can to sabotage their efforts.