It's all over the place and right in your face.
Related: Democrats Cancel Remaining Primaries and Convention
Picking up where we left off last night:
After tangling with Jazz in Boston, Celtics proceed cautiously following Rudy Gobert’s positive test for coronavirus, leading to NBA’s suspension of season
It's a presumed positive, like so many cases, which means it might not be, and Gobert is the jerk who joked about it earlier in the week, and I'm starting to get the feeling that this whole thing is a staged and scripted production. Cuban said as much on ESPN last night when he said this all feels like a movie.
Anyway, the NBA was left with no choice but to take a timeout and suspend the season until further notice over the coronavirus. They are reportedly leaning toward playing with no fans and you better get used to it. I know the players are confident of a turnaround and are optimistic about returning after the losses, but I'm not.
"Coronavirus outbreak is officially declared a pandemic, as events, schools are closed and Dow continues to plummet" by Felice J. Freyer Globe Staff, March 11, 2020
The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared that the novel coronavirus spreading across six continents can now be called a pandemic, and President Trump announced he was sharply restricting travel from Europe to the United States in an attempt to limit the spread of the disease.
Few aspects of life had been left untouched by the virus. It officially ended the 11-year bull market Wednesday, with the Dow now 20 percent from its peak and in bear market territory. In Boston, the MBTA began to see a drop in ridership, as employers ordered their employees to work from home. Boston area colleges announced they would be switching to remote learning, and many told students to leave campus.
A key health official issued dire warnings. “The bottom line: It is going to get worse,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He told a congressional hearing Wednesday that large gatherings across the country should be canceled, part of a virtually unprecedented effort to limit the spread of the disease.
Turns out Fauci has a ve$ted intere$t in promoting the panic.
“We are at the point where we could have our hospital system in crisis in three or four weeks, and what we do now will affect them,” Marc Lipsitch, professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, said in a telephone briefing Wednesday.
Although the WHO declaration of a pandemic merely confirmed what many epidemiologists had believed, it added fire to calls for strong measures to control the virus’s spread.
“I hope it adds urgency to efforts to mitigate [the epidemic] because those efforts need urgency,” Lipsitch said.
Related: The interventions we must take to control the coronavirus
He noted that the epidemic can explode in a flash: Italy went from a handful of cases to 10,000 in three weeks, and its health care system has been overwhelmed.
I thought it was now a pandemic.
He favors eliminating all gatherings of more than 25 people in a room, saying that 25 is not a “magic number” but “a good conservative one.” That means shutting down cinemas and theaters and stopping church services, and he thinks the Boston Marathon, scheduled for April 20, should be canceled, even though it’s not known how easily outdoor gatherings promote disease transmission. “We need to err on the side of caution,” he said.
See: Coronavirus fears may push Boston Marathon into autumn
Postponement would at lea$t preserve $ome of the ma$$ive economic benefits the race provides the region.
Some Massachusetts organizations are indeed choosing caution.
One of the year’s most significant — and unique —gatherings in Boston joined the list of canceled events.
The massive Ace Comic Con entertainment convention, which features such A-list movie stars as Chris Evans and Tom Hiddleston and was expected to attract more than 30,000 fans to the Boston Convention Center and Exhibition Center on March 20-22, has been postponed, organizers said Wednesday evening.
See: Comic Con the next big event disrupted by virus worries
It was scheduled for March 20-22, and on Tuesday the NECANN Boston cannabis convention announced a postponement, with the Massachusetts Restaurant Association’s annual New England Food Show following suit on Wednesday as the National Collegiate Athletic Association said the March Madness basketball tournament will be played in arenas without spectators (then I won't be watching this year).
Meanwhile, four more major universities in Massachusetts announced Wednesday they were ending in-person classes and shifting to online or remote learning. They joined a host of other area colleges moving their spring classes online.
See: "So far only one college student is known to have tested positive for the virus: a UMass Boston student who earlier this year had returned to Massachusetts from Wuhan, China. That student is recovering and has been isolated since the discovery of his illness, according to UMass system officials, but on Wednesday, Tufts announced that one of its students is being tested for coronavirus and Harvard said two members of its community were also undergoing tests for the illness. Neither university offered any details about the circumstances that prompted the tests. Despite the limited number of cases, university presidents said precautions were necessary......"
Related: Online teaching requires adjusting, and maybe a nice shirt
Funny, ha-ha!
Tufts Medical Center has started to cancel elective procedures and nonurgent appointments to reduce the number of people at the hospital and free up beds for coronavirus patients.
It's called rationing.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester closed until further notice because two library employees attended a conference last week where other attendees were confirmed to have come down with the coronavirus.
Bain Capital is closing its headquarters in Boston’s Hancock Tower and sending 700 employees to work at home because an employee developed symptoms of Covid-19 after an international trip, even though the illness hasn’t been confirmed by laboratory tests.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the Boston-based biotech best known for its drugs for cystic fibrosis, on Tuesday told employees to begin working remotely if their jobs allow, and Tango Therapeutics, a Cambridge biotech, did the same.
At the Encore Boston Harbor resort, members of the hotel management staff are taking the temperatures of guests who are coughing, sneezing, or showing other symptoms of illness, according to Rosie Salisbury, a spokeswoman for the hotel and casino.
State judges have been reducing or canceling jury pools to limit the number of people in the courthouses.
In Rhode Island, Governor Gina Raimondo asked residents to refrain from attending and organizing events of 250 people or more for the next two weeks. That includes parades, sporting events, and other large gatherings. The state is urging anyone 60 years old or older — or with health conditions — to stay away from events for the next two weeks, but some Rhode Islanders will get a chance to help researchers understand the coronavirus. The principal of Saint Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, the private high school tied to the state’s first coronavirus cases, is asking parents to allow their children to participate in a federal study of why the virus affects various populations differently.
Yeah, turns out it is a gene-specific bioweapon made right here in the U.S.A.!
Separately, the CDC has promised $11.6 million to Massachusetts and $4.9 million to Rhode Island to support the Covid-19 response.....
Yeah, behind the coughing is a money grab.
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Related:
"As fear about the coronavirus has prompted colleges across the Boston area to effectively shut down, public schools for the most part continue to hold classes — at least for now — putting parents on edge about whether long-term closures might be on the horizon. The first dose of what many fear could be a wider reality emerged Wednesday night as Boston school and health officials announced Wednesday night that the Eliot K-8 School would be closing for a week starting Thursday, because “a non-student member of the school’s community tested positive for coronavirus disease.” The abrupt closure came as some Boston families have become frustrated with the school system’s day-to-day approach in communication that has left them wondering if officials have any kind of long-term plan if a widescale closure is necessary......"
(flip to below fold)
"The local economy is on the brink — but of what?" by Tim Logan and Janelle Nanos Globe Staff, March 11, 2020
The quick spread of the coronavirus across Greater Boston in recent days — and the spread of closings and cancellations to try to contain it — is rippling fast through the region’s economy, and giving pause to a place long confident about its prosperity.
By and large, the rhythms of life in Greater Boston don’t feel all that different — yet. Commuters are still riding the T. Office towers still bustle. Bars remain busy, but the contingency planning, the convention-less Seaport, the quiet Kendall Square suggest an economy on the brink of something: and no one knows what.
“It’s a precarious situation,” said Gerald Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “We really don’t know where this is going.”
Tracking the spread of the disease is complicated enough. Predicting its impact on a regional economy that the Commerce Department estimates is worth $500 billion a year is even harder. Several economists have said they expect the coronavirus to dent growth of the US economy this spring and to increase the odds of a recession, but modeling the precise effect of a fast-moving pandemic on a specific place like Boston — that’s tricky. It’s clear the problems are growing.
Customers are not coming through the doors and they are going to have to lay off staff.
At companies where most people can work remotely, the disruption is likely to be more manageable. Kendall Square, where several big tech and life-sciences companies were encouraging people to work from home, was notably quieter than usual on Tuesday.
See: "Edmit is among a growing number of companies calling for their employees to work from home, a disease-fueled upswing likely to gain steam after Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency Tuesday and encouraged employers to have employees work from home. For most companies, it will likely be a short-term solution, but this mass experiment could raise acceptance of remote work, which has been increasing as technology improves and companies open offices around the world. At the same time, telework is still viewed with skepticism by many in the business world, and if hastily arranged remote work initiatives go awry, it could create a backlash and this rush to go remote could backfire if it’s not done correctly, experts warn......"
Hope you can manage that.
The lobby of the Kendall Marriott, normally a hive of networking meetings on a weekday morning, held just a few people pecking at laptops. The headquarters of Biogen, the drug maker whose conference last month became the epicenter of Boston’s outbreak, was dark, the blinds on its ground-floor windows closed, just one cleaning person visible in the lobby.
At most Kendall Square companies, the work goes on, just in a different way, said C.A. Webb, president of the Kendall Square Association, which held its board meeting on Google Hangout for the first time this week.
“This may serve as a social experiment in how we do our science, and how we do meetings,” Webb said. “Rather than there being a lot of hand-wringing, or a sense of isolation, we’re seeing folks get pretty creative in how they use platforms,” but, for people who have to be at work in person and whose incomes hinge on consumer spending — restaurant workers, for example, or tour guides — the risk of illness is compounded by worries about losing jobs.
Might have to get a new gig.
Boston-area hotels are suffering already, with industry experts and trade groups saying bookings have fallen roughly by half. That means fewer shifts for workers like Elizabeth Cardoso, a housekeeping supervisor at a Back Bay hotel. She was supposed to work five days this week, she said, but there was enough work only for two.
“People are scared to travel, and I don’t blame them,” Cardoso said. “But it’s sad that we have to worry about how we’re going to pay the rent.”
Uber drivers like Najib Ssemambo are worried, too. He’s still driving, and wiping down his car seats every chance he gets, to keep both himself and his passengers safe, but he’s also watching the number of passengers dwindle. Business is down about 15 percent, he estimated, and that’s before all the college kids leave town.
“The community is nervous and scared,” he said. “Most of our customers are students and people who use the T, and they’re avoiding crowds. It’s limiting demand.”
Compounding the anxiety: No one has any idea how long this will last, or how bad it might get.
With coronavirus test kits in short supply, little is known about how extensively the virus has spread in Boston and the United States, and whether more-extreme measures to contain it — such as the nationwide quarantine imposed Monday in Italy — will be necessary here.
That uncertainty makes it harder for policy makers, companies, and everyday workers to think through how best to cope, said Gillian Mason, co-executive director of Massachusetts Jobs With Justice.
“It’s really hard to make decisions when you don’t know if this is going to be a short-term or long-term thing,” she said. “Are we talking about acute triage? Or is this a new normal?”
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Here is a path forward:
"7 steps we can take right now to slow the spread of coronavirus, according to infectious disease experts" by Deanna Pan Globe Staff, March 11, 2020
By now, we’ve all heard about “social distancing," the public health measures we should to be taking to slow the exponential spread of the coronavirus by avoiding close contact with other people.
"We have reached a tipping point where the idea that we will be able to contain this in a few spots is just no longer viable,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, “and now we are going to have widespread infection across the US,” but if we take action now — as in right now, today — many of us can still protect ourselves and others, particularly our most vulnerable citizens, from infection, and avoid overwhelming our health care system with a wave of sick patients.
Here’s what epidemiologists and infectious disease experts recommend:
Cancel concerts, conferences, parades, and yes, even the Boston Marathon
Avoid public transportation at rush hour
Work from home — even if you don’t feel sick
Give your hourly workers paid sick leave
For hospitals, increase capacity: open “moth-balled” wings, cancel elective surgeries
Prepare for months of mitigation measures — not weeks
Don’t panic, but start worrying.
Yes, don't happy, be worry, and Lipsitch wishes “people were a little more worried."
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"WHO declares virus crisis a pandemic, urges world to fight" by Jamey Keaten, Maria Cheng and John Leicester Associated Press, March 11, 2020
GENEVA — Expressing alarm both about mounting infections and inadequate government responses, the World Health Organization declared Wednesday that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic but added that it’s not too late for countries to act.
By reversing course and using the charged word “pandemic” that it had previously shied away from, the UN health agency sought to shock lethargic countries into pulling out all the stops.
“We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief.
The WHO said Iran and Italy are the new front lines of the battle against the virus that started in China.
Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief, added that the agency thought long and hard about labeling the crisis a pandemic, but the benefit is “potentially of galvanizing the world to fight.”
Underscoring the mounting challenge: The case count outside China has multiplied 13-fold over the last two weeks to over 118,000, with the disease now responsible for nearly 4,291 deaths, WHO said, with officials saying that Europe has become the new epicenter.
“If you want to be blunt, Europe is the new China,’’ said Robert Redfield, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Italy weighed imposing even tighter restrictions on daily life and announced billions in financial relief Wednesday to cushion economic shocks from the coronavirus, its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving crisis that silenced the usually bustling heart of the Catholic faith, St. Peter’s Square.
In Iran, by far the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, the senior vice president and two other Cabinet ministers were reported to have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Iran reported another jump in deaths, by 62 to 354 — behind only China and Italy.
The effectiveness of such measures as travel restrictions and quarantines will likely drop substantially and be called into question as COVID-19 spreads globally, making it impossible for countries to keep the virus out. Health officials will also need to be more flexible in their coordinated response efforts, as the epicenters are likely to shift quickly and dramatically — as the recent eruptions in Iran and Italy have demonstrated.
Itaian Premier Giuseppe Conte emphasized fighting the outbreak must not come at the expense of civil liberties, suggesting that that Italy is unlikely to adopt the Draconian quarantine measures that helped China push down new infections from thousands per day to a trickle now and allowed its manufacturers to restart production lines.
Is talking out of both sides of your mouth a symptom, and if so, Conte should be immediately tested.
China’s new worry is that the coronavirus could re-enter from abroad.
For most, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, but for a few, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illnesses, including pneumonia. More than 121,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 4,300 have died, but most people recover. People with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover, the WHO says.....
They jack up the death toll by 100 every day with no proof or verification whatsoever!
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Related:
Merkel gives Germans a hard truth about the coronavirus
The New York Times tells me that "in her typically low-key, no-nonsense manner, the German leader on Wednesday laid out some cold, hard facts on the coronavirus in a way that few other leaders have. Two in three Germans may become infected, Merkel said at a news conference that reverberated far beyond her country. There is no immunity now against the virus and no vaccine yet. It spreads exponentially, and the world now faces a pandemic, as declared Wednesday by the World Health Organization."
Also see:
Trump allies got coronavirus tests despite shortage, lack of symptoms
I'm glad the Washington Post is keeping an eye on them.
"The coronavirus outbreak is colliding with the presidential election and the ramifications are being felt on the campaign trail and at polling places. “Campaigning and conventions could change,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California Irvine’s law school, raising the possibility of virtual nominating conventions this summer if the outbreak continues. The effects were clear Tuesday night, when former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders both canceled election night rallies in Cleveland after Ohio’s governor discouraged large gatherings. On Wednesday, Biden’s campaign said it had formed a six-person public health advisory committee to provide “expert advice regarding steps the campaign should take to minimize health risks for the candidate, staff, and supporters.” After consulting with those experts and at the request of local officials, the Biden campaign announced it was shifting “large crowd” events scheduled for Friday in Chicago and Monday in Miami to “virtual events.” At the same time, state election officials are taking steps to adjust voting procedures to keep the virus from spreading. Washington state told voters not to lick the envelopes of their absentee ballots......"
Yeah, don't lick the envelopes!
PFFFFFFFT!
On the positive side, the crisis will allow the Democrats to hide Creepy Uncle Joe and his deteriorating mental capacities in the closet for the next eight months.
Sanders seeks to push Biden left in a race he is unlikely to win
He just fed the debate topics to Biden after his last stand, so bye-bye!
The Democrats have bet on ‘Sleepy Joe’, and the election may be delayed if Galvin has anything to $ay about it.
Trump suspends travel from Europe to US for 30 days
To prove he's not racist.
Trump administration may continue ‘remain in Mexico’ policy for asylum seekers,
That left Democrats down and ready to abort.
Trump endorses Tommy Tuberville over Jeff Sessions in Alabama Senate primary
He endorsed a pro-immigration, tech-backed former football coach over the first senator to endorse his campaign.
That's Trump loyalty for you.
The guy is a goddamn fucking user!
Gatherings of 250 or more banned in Seattle area
The order, one of the strictest imposed in any US city so far, is an attempt to reduce social interactions to limit further spread of a virus that has already killed 24 people in the state.
Like others, Chicago cancels St. Patrick’s Day parade
Kentucky governor urges churches to cancel services due to virus
Hanks and Wilson say they have the virus
They should have avoided the flight.
Auto traffic and MBTA ridership are down as coronavirus fear spreads
One person has already been struck dead by the virus so the trains are being suspended over growing coronavirus concerns, and like it or not, coronavirus connects us all and "globalism isn’t some bugaboo to be beaten back with slogans, trade policy or tough talk at the United Nations; it’s our unalterable condition. Also hard to ignore: The vast inequities laid bare by the crisis."
Globali$m in unalterable, huh?
Let's hope the state doesn't have to care for your child if you get sick.
Sorry, readers, I just haven’t gotten much sleep lately, and if you are confused by coronavirus terms the Globe provides you with a glossary.
"Governor Baker has declared a state of emergency. What does that mean?" by Martin Finucane Globe Staff, March 10, 2020
The state of emergency declared Tuesday by Governor Charlie Baker gives him special powers, under a Cold War-era state law, to protect the public. Such declarations have mainly been used in recent years to keep people safe from major storms that have hammered the state.
A state of emergency can be declared by the governor if a natural or manmade disaster is happening or about to happen, according to the state website. A declaration can cover one community, multiple communities, or the entire state.
Under a state of emergency, the governor can issue executive orders, which must be treated as law and may override existing law for the course of the disaster, the website said.
Isn't that what a DICTATOR does?
At a State House news conference Tuesday, Baker said his statewide declaration would give his administration more flexibility in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.
“It basically means that we have the ability, if we need to, to do a variety of things that, under just standard operating procedure, we can’t,” he said. One possible example of the need for a declaration, he suggested, would be if the state needed to order the cancellation of large events.
“When you start talking about stuff like that, we need a different level of emergency declaration," he said.
The emergency declaration itself says it is intended to “facilitate and expedite the use of Commonwealth resources and deployment of federal and interstate resources to protect persons from the impacts of the spread" of coronavirus.
“I shall from time to time issue recommendations, directives, and orders as circumstances may require,” it also says.
The authorizing law, Chapter 639 of the Acts of 1950, reflects Cold War nightmares, providing that the governor can, among other things, “employ every agency and all members of every department and division of the government of the commonwealth to protect the lives and property of its citizens and to enforce the law.”
The governor, under the law, can also “take possession (1) of any land or building, machinery or equipment; (2) of any horses, vehicles, motor vehicles, aircraft, ships, boats or any other means of conveyance, rolling stock of steam, diesel, electric railroads or of street railways; (3) of any cattle, poultry and any provisions for man or beast, and any fuel, gasoline or other means of propulsion which may be necessary or convenient for the use of the military or naval forces of the commonwealth or of the United States, or for the better protection or welfare of the commonwealth or its inhabitants,” but the hellish scenario of a nuclear attack on the United States, which loomed over the country at the time, has never materialized. Instead states of emergency have been utilized typically in recent years to take less dramatic measures to respond to the winds, waves, and flooding of intense storms.
????????
The threat of a nuclear attack is still out there, and Baker can now order the government to seize anything and everything!
Only in Deep Blue Liberal Ma$$achu$etts!
In 1978, then-governor Michael S. Dukakis declared an emergency because of that year’s epic blizzard. The Globe observed in a news analysis at the time that Dukakis had been given “the power of a medieval monarch” because of Chapter 639.
“In other words, Michael Dukakis, who campaigned on improving MBTA vehicles, now, in effect owns them, and a few live chickens as well,” the Globe writers quipped.
Were the trains derailing back then, too?
Dukakis ordered a travel ban in that storm, and then-governor Deval Patrick followed suit in the Blizzard of 2013.
As did Baker during the record winter of 2015.
Strange how the Globe forgot that.
The state website lists nearly a dozen emergencies declared since January 2011, almost all of them related to keeping people safe from the region’s most memorable storms.
In September and October 2018, departing from the norm, Baker declared, and then renewed, a state of emergency because of the outbreak of gas-fueled fires and explosions in Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover.
A growing number of states, including Rhode Island, have declared emergencies. Governor Gina M. Raimondo said Monday the declaration “gives us more tools in our toolbox.” In New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency on Saturday, schools, houses of worship and large gathering places will be shuttered for two weeks in a “containment area” centered on suburban New Rochelle, Cuomo said Tuesday.
He then canceled the New York primary.
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Time to wash your hands of the matter:
"Dow’s bull market brought low by the coronavirus; Declaration of a pandemic sends stocks tumbling and puts benchmark index into bear-market territory" by Larry Edelman Globe Staff, March 11, 2020
The coronoavirus has brought the 11-year bull market for the Dow Jones industrial average to an end, as fears of an extended disruption to businesses and the economy sent stocks tumbling Wednesday and shoved the world’s mostly widely watched index into bear-market territory.
The bear-market designation is arbitrary, but the milestone will nevertheless weigh on investor confidence amid all the uncertainty created by the coronavirus illness, known as Covid-19, and while not every bear market is accompanied by a recession, a continuation of the market’s slide will add further pressure to the economy if businesses and consumers respond by hunkering down.
Ju$t makes you $ick, doe$n't it?
The onset of a bear market and recession fears will no doubt become an issue in the 2020 presidential campaign. Trump has been running on the strength of the economy and frequently points to the stock market as a sign of his success.
Yeah, maybe this will finally take him down!
“We need fiscal stimulus,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, said before the president spoke. “There’s no way around it.”
The news on Wednesday only reinforced that more disruption to daily life and work was on the way.
“We expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO.
You can't say we haven't been warned as the seek to cull the herd and get rid of all the useless eaters.
Among other unsettling developments: Italy ordered all but essential businesses to close, the NCAA said its March Madness basketball tournament games would be played without fans, and local businesses including Bain Capital and Wayfair told most employees to work from home.
Stock prices are falling because investors are lowering their expectations for corporate earnings. Valuations started the year at elevated levels, on the assumption the economy would remain healthy and interest rates low. Goldman Sachs now estimates that corporate earnings will decline 5 percent in 2020.
For investors, the collapse of oil prices over the weekend is another factor driving stocks lower. OPEC and Russia, unable to agree on production cuts to offset a drop in crude demand, started a price war that will wreak havoc on US oil producers. The damage to the energy sector and its suppliers from sharply lower prices may outweigh the benefits to consumers and industrial users.
It's the major factor, but the pre$$ has inverted it with the coronavirus.
“This oil thing is really troubling,” said Cathy Minehan, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. “Oil is a big part of the US economy.”
Despite all the ga$eou$ $pew regarding climate change (airlines were flying nearly empty planes just to avoid losing takeoff and landing rights at major airports)!
The speed of the meltdown has been breathtaking. The Dow went from peak to bear market in 19 trading days, a record.
Among the largest stocks in Massachusetts, Thermo Fisher dropped 6 percent, General Electric lost 7 percent, and Raytheon shed 9.5 percent.
Even with the recent bloodbath, the Dow has more than tripled since the beginning of the bull market, and the S&P 500 index has more than quadrupled.
Financial experts say individual investors should stick with their investment plans.
“The thing not to freak out about is the stock market," Minehan said. "It’s reflecting short-term sentiment. It will go up and down.”
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Especially when you will be getting a filing exten$ion:
"Administration weighs delaying tax deadline amid outbreak" by Martin Crutsinger Associated Press, March 11, 2020
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is working on plans to delay the April 15 federal tax deadline for some taxpayers in a bid to soften the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the US economy.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress on Wednesday that the administration is looking to provide relief for most individual taxpayers as well as small businesses.
Mnuchin said the administration believes a payment delay would have the effect of putting more than $200 billion back into the economy that would otherwise go to paying taxes next month. He did not indicate what the new deadline would be.
Mnuchin later told reporters that the delay would cover “virtually all Americans other than the super rich.”
Mnuchin told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the administration could grant the tax delay without having to go to Congress for approval.
He said Treasury will recommend to President Trump that he approve the delay and that a formal announcement should come soon.
Senators Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, “The American people should not have to worry about filing IRS forms in the middle of a public health emergency.”
Yeah, they are already $ick about it anyway.
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The coronavirus could cause Mass. lawmakers to rethink the state budget, and even though the state’s in good fiscal shape now, the margin for error already seemed slim and legislative leaders are definitely concerned about what a virus-induced slowdown will mean.
Now get pumping!
"Oil War Escalates Again After Saudi and U.A.E. Promise Flood of Crude" by Grant Smith, Verity Ratcliffe and Anthony DiPaola Bloomberg News, March 11, 2020
The battle for control of the global oil market intensified again on Wednesday as Saudi Arabia promised to increase production capacity and the United Arab Emirates said it plans to pump as much as possible next month.
Riyadh said it will boost capacity to an unprecedented 13 million barrels a day, doubling down on Tuesday’s pledge of extra output in April. The United Arab Emirates, a close Saudi ally, then promised to push more crude to customers than it normally produces. These are fresh shots in an all-out war that has seen prices crash and the outlook for the market darken as nations prepare to pump as much as they can.
“Saudi Arabia is pulling the trigger of its oil bazooka,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director at consultant Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Switzerland.
The moves come after an alliance between the OPEC cartel — effectively headed by the Gulf nations — and Russia collapsed acrimoniously last week. The country, for its part, has announced that it will retaliate by activating additional supplies of its own. Yet Moscow, which has nowhere near the quantities of untapped production held by the Gulf states, has also tempered its message, saying it remains open to resuming cooperation.
Until Friday, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Russia had been part of a global coalition known as OPEC+, which for the past three years had restricted crude output to shore up prices against a relentless tide of American shale oil. Only in July, Russia and Saudi Arabia touted their alliance as a marriage to eternity.
And now they are getting a divorce!
All of that has now spectacularly collapsed.
The deadly coronavirus has played its part. Saudi Arabia had been insisting for weeks that the group needed deeper production cuts to tackle the demand loss caused by the quickly spreading virus. Russia on the other hand resisted as it wanted more evidence of the impact on consumption.
The standoff has drawn in President Trump, who spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by phone this week. It followed the Department of Energy denouncing “attempts by state actors to manipulate and shock oil markets.” The department didn’t name Saudi Arabia or Russia.
The kingdom’s de-facto leader is, however, showing no signs of relenting. The country’s energy ministry, headed by Prince Mohammed’s half-brother, ordered Saudi Aramco to boost its output capacity by 1 million barrels a day, the first increase in at least a decade.
I thought he and Trump were friends, and why no mention of the recent coup attempt?
Saudi Arabia and its allies are also slashing prices for their oil in an attempt to push out Russian crude and secure market share. Iraq and Kuwait followed Aramco in cutting rates to customers all over the world.
A Russian response could come as early as Thursday, when energy ministry officials meet oil company executives. They will discuss output plans and the market situation, Alexander Novak, the Russian energy minister, told reporters in Moscow.
Oil prices resumed their decline on Wednesday, sliding back toward the four-year lows hit on Monday......
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Also see:
Nike to review hiring practices in China after report on Uighurs
Pepsi buys Rockstar for $3.85 billion
Neiman Marcus to close most of its outlet stores
Consumer prices up slightly in February
Driven higher by more expensive food.
Rush of refinancing sparked by record low rates
Disney shareholders narrowly approve compensation plan for new CEO
Bob Iger, who now serves as executive chairman following a 15-year stint as CEO, opened the meeting Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C., with words about the coronavirus. “We’re all sobered by the concern that we feel for everyone affected by this global crisis,” he said. Iger noted that Disney has endured wars, economic downturns, and other challenges in its nearly 100-year history.
Your flight has been grounded, readers.
Kymera announces $102m in new funding
They have raised more than a quarter billion dollars in four years.
Let the Games..... uh..... uh.....
Tamia Patrick’s clutch 3-point shot puts Taconic girls basketball over Medway, into the D-II State Finals
That's odd because the Globe told me that a girl named Taea Bramer hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 18 seconds left.
I suppose with no one in the stands to see it that each news organization must have had their own source.
I mean, if they can't even get that right..... sigh!!
Coronavirus prompts major changes for Boston-area college winter and spring teams
Bruins to play Sharks in empty arena on March 21 due to coronavirus
Even though the coach is sick.
Elsewhere, MLB has cancelled spring training as the Red Sox play a waiting game.
Hopefully, the crisis will have abated by football season (21-Sidoo)!
In the meantime, here is today's other "news":
Harvey Weinstein Is Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison
The New York Times piece was my page A2 lead, while this was my page A4 lead:
Russian lawmakers move to keep Putin in power past 2024
Below that was this:
Afghan President Orders Taliban Prisoner Release
Briefs:
Turkey’s Erdogan compares Greek actions at border to Nazis
Trial starts of captain charged in deadly Danube boat crash
Australia’s High Court hears what may be Pell’s last appeal
Thank you for hearing mine, dear readers.
UPDATES:
Federal Reserve injects $1.5 trillion into market to ease disruption from coronavirus
Dow plummets 2,300 points as sell-off over the coronavirus deepens; European market index sees one of worst days in history
NCAA Tournament canceled due to coronavirus
Locally, the cancellation of the tournament means that Boston University, which clinched an automatic bid with a win over Colgate in the Patriot League championship game on Wednesday, won’t have a chance to participate.
Coronavirus causes A-10 Tournament to cancel just before UMass-VCU tips off
MIAA cancels high school basketball, hockey state tournament championship weekend
Yet they are playing two games tonight?!!
UPDATES:
Federal Reserve injects $1.5 trillion into market to ease disruption from coronavirus
Dow plummets 2,300 points as sell-off over the coronavirus deepens; European market index sees one of worst days in history
NCAA Tournament canceled due to coronavirus
Locally, the cancellation of the tournament means that Boston University, which clinched an automatic bid with a win over Colgate in the Patriot League championship game on Wednesday, won’t have a chance to participate.
Coronavirus causes A-10 Tournament to cancel just before UMass-VCU tips off
MIAA cancels high school basketball, hockey state tournament championship weekend
Yet they are playing two games tonight?!!
