"Deep South supermarket Winn-Dixie takes a stand: No masks required" by Laura Reiley Washington Post, July 20, 2020
‘‘Stronger Together. Winning Together. Let’s help each other stay safe,’’ says the coronavirus webpage of Southeastern Grocers, parent company of Winn-Dixie, which operates hundreds of stores across the South, and yet, Winn-Dixie has announced that it will not be joining the stampede of large grocery retailers requiring customers to wear masks in their stores.
Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, and Publix announced last week that they will mandate mask-wearing at stores nationwide. The National Retail Federation has encouraged retailers to set nationwide mask policies to protect shoppers and employees, and nearly 30 states now require masks worn in public places.
Southeastern announced that Winn-Dixie stores would not be requiring masks from customers because it did not want to cause undue friction between customers and employees, and although the grocery chain installed floor decals and Plexiglas partitions at registers and checks workers’ temperatures daily, it has ‘‘allowed’’ workers to wear face masks and gloves rather than requiring them. While Winn-Dixie has had unions at points in its past, none of its stores are currently unionized.
What if the worker is running hot?
In an editorial last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed the latest science showing that adherence to universal masking policies reduces virus transmission.....
The intention is far more evil, and you will need one to rent a room at the Marriott.
--more--"
They did ban plastic bags.
Related:
"Big technology companies powered stocks higher on Wall Street Monday, adding to the market’s gains after a three-week winning streak. The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent after being down 0.3 percent in the early going. Gains by technology and communication stocks and companies that rely on consumer spending outweighed losses elsewhere in the market. Amazon led the way higher in the S&P 500 with a 7.9 percent gain. Still, worries remain that the rise of coronavirus counts across much of the country will derail efforts to reopen businesses shut down due to the pandemic....."
Will?
Already has!
"Wall Street stumbled on Thursday after a report showed layoffs continue to sweep the country at a stubbornly steady pace, one of several mixed reports to highlight the uncertain path ahead for the economy. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3 percent, following up on declines across Europe and Asia, as a worldwide rally faded. Stocks in China fell particularly sharply after a report showed shoppers there are slow to spend even though its economy returned to growth. Heavy losses for travel-related stocks helped pull the S&P 500 to its first loss in three days, down 10.99 to 3,215.57. Cruise-ship operators, airlines and hotels gave up chunks of their big gains from a day earlier. Drops for Microsoft and other tech titans also weighed particularly heavily because they’re the largest stocks in the index. They also sent the Nasdaq, which set a record last week, to a larger loss than other indexes. It fell 76.66, or 0.7 percent, to 10,473.83. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 135.39 points, or 0.5 percent, to 26,734.71. “It’s just a pause,” said Adam Taback, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. “I wouldn’t read too much into it.” On the winning side were several financial stocks.
More like the Giant Pause, and look at the corporate pre$$ blame the eviscerated American shopper with no money to spend and nowhere to go for the fading rally that never was.
It marks the latest ebb for markets, which have mostly been churning up and down for a little more than a month. Pushing stocks higher have been signs of strengthening in the economy as lockdowns have eased, along with massive aid from the Federal Reserve and Congress, as hopes for a potential COVID-19 vaccine also helped the S&P 500 erase most of an earlier 34 percent drop from its record, down to 5 percent, but pulling markets lower has been the relentless rise of coronavirus counts across much of the United States, which threatens to undo all the improvements. California has already brought back orders for bars and other businesses to close due to a surge in cases, and the worry is other states will have to follow suit. Reports on Thursday showed that layoffs across the country remain stubbornly high, with 1.3 million workers filing for unemployment benefits last week. That’s down slightly from the prior week, but only by 10,000. The improvement was also weaker than economists expected. Worries are already high about joblessness, as $600 in weekly unemployment benefits provided by the federal government is set to expire this month, but other reports painted a less discouraging picture. Sales at stores and online retailers grew more strongly last month than economists expected, particularly for clothing. It’s the second straight month of growth for retail sales following April’s plummet.
Jack and J. Jill went up the hill to fetch a suit from Ann Taylor, Jack ogled and fondled Ann and they appeared on Jerry Springer.
Tech stocks were among the market’s hardest hit, a turnaround from their remarkably resilient run through much of the pandemic. Microsoft fell 2 percent, and Apple lost 1.2 percent. It’s a rare step back for the giants, which are both still up roughly 30 percent for 2020 on expectations that they can keep growing almost regardless of the pandemic. Morgan Stanley rose 2.5 percent after it reported much stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The Hartford Financial Services Group jumped 4.7 percent for the largest gain in the S&P 500 after it said it expects to report second-quarter results above what Wall Street had been forecasting. Bank of America also turned in a better profit report than expected, but it fell 2.7 percent after it set aside $4 billion to cover loans potentially going bad amid the recession....."
Yeah, we are all in thi$ together and that's not the way the Globe was talking earlier:
"Bank of America Corp.’s profit slid 52 percent as it joined rivals in preparing for an onslaught of consumer defaults spurred by the pandemic’s economic fallout. Profit at the consumer-banking unit plunged 98 percent as the coronavirus shuttered much of the US economy and caused tens of millions of Americans to lose their jobs. The company allocated $5.1 billion for loan losses in the second quarter, the most since 2010, as Bank of America joined its biggest rivals in predicting pain to come that contrasts with stock market optimism for a quick economic rebound."
At least they "turned in a better profit report than expected."
You can $mell the $tench of the $tock buyback fraud being perpetrated.
"UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti is looking at more share buybacks as a way to reward investors while keeping flexibility during the economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The Swiss bank signaled the worst hit of the crisis on its balance sheet may already be over, raising the prospect that shareholder payouts will resume as early as next quarter after freezing returns under pressure from regulators. UBS is firing one of the first salvos in the controversial debate in Europe surrounding bank dividends and share repurchases after lenders were given various regulatory breaks to help them weather the crisis."
The world is all about inve$tors and those who $erve them.
"Morgan Stanley wrapped up a week of wins for Wall Street trading desks, capitalizing on the Federal Reserve’s extraordinary rescue measures with record profit. Fixed-income trading revenue almost tripled, driving a 73 percent jump in total trading that surged past expectations, according to a statement Thursday. That spurred firmwide revenue and earnings to all-time highs amid wild market swings caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The gains brought the overall trading haul total for the five biggest US investment banks to $33 billion, a windfall that helped all of them survive the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic with profits intact."
Record profit, huh?
What is wrong with thi$ picture, readers?
"Wells Fargo lost $2.4 billion in the second quarter, the first quarterly loss for the bank since the real estate crash of 2008. Wells said it set aside an additional $8.4 billion for loan loss provisions — the money set aside to cover potentially bad loans — more than double last quarter’s $3.83 billion as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic ravaged almost every aspect of its business. With the coronavirus pandemic now in its fifth month in the United States, Wells said the number of its loans that were 90 days or more past due jumped more than 34 percent from the same quarter last year."
"The coronavirus pandemic is weighing heavily on the financial health of JPMorgan Chase, as the nation’s largest financial company set aside billions in the second quarter to cover potential losses from all the businesses and consumers who are unable to pay their debts due to the slumping economy. Last quarter, when the coronavirus pandemic had only just begun, JPMorgan set aside nearly $8.3 billion to cover loan losses. The bank added additional $10.5 billion to those reserves this quarter."
Slumping economy?
Where the hell did that come from?
All that $$$ they set aside was Fed and Congre$$ional giveaways -- because they CARES!
"Goldman Sachs made the most of a historic market rebound in the second quarter as the Federal Reserve’s stimulus efforts handed a bonanza to Wall Street trading desks. Revenue from trading stocks and bonds surged 93 percent, surpassing what analysts had expected by about $2.5 billion and mirroring similar gains reported Tuesday by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. The bank also raked in record fees from helping companies raise cash needed to weather the coronavirus pandemic."
They reached a $ettlement with Malaysia, but it is ju$t on paper:
"The Paper Store, an 86-store specialty gift chain based in Acton, is the latest retailer seeking a sale in bankruptcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, which has stores in seven states across the Northeast, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday after the pandemic hurt sales, according to court papers. Now the retailer needs to find a buyer before the end of August so it can stock up on merchandise prior to the key holiday season....."
What holiday season?
The country is going to be locked down over Christmas... no shopping.
Let's hope we get through Thanksgiving.
"Wall Street rebounded on Tuesday, and the S&P 500 more than made up all its losses from the day before, after stocks pinballed through another day of erratic trading. The S&P 500 climbed 1.3 percent, led by energy producers and other companies whose profits would benefit greatly from a strengthening economy. It was a sharp turnaround from the morning, when the index was down 0.9 percent, and from Monday’s last-hour slide after California shut bars and reinstated other restrictions amid a jump in coronavirus counts. Big tech-oriented stocks lagged behind, though, in a turnaround from their remarkably resilient run through the pandemic. The market’s latest unsettled moves came as earnings reporting season kicked off. Three of the nation’s biggest banks painted a mixed picture of how badly the coronavirus pandemic is ripping through their businesses. J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade, pointed to cautious forecasts from companies that see the economy possibly taking a step back because of worsening COVID-19 trends, or at least taking longer to recover than expected. “The fact that they are prepared for bad scenarios is helping to give the market a little confidence,” he said. Financial stocks drifted between gains and losses for much of the day before turning higher in the afternoon. JPMorgan Chase rose 0.6 percent, but Wells Fargo dropped 4.6 percent. Citigroup fell 3.9 percent. Delta Air Lines lost 2.6 percent after its earnings and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of Wall Street’s already very low expectations. Pulling stocks higher has been a budding economic recovery, with the job market, retail sales and other measures of the economy halting their plunge and beginning to resume growth.
I gue$$ they think if they say the lie enough, it will become a reality -- or they are just b$hell gaming you as they loot you.
Underlying it all is massive aid for the economy from central banks and governments around the world, but pushing stocks down are accelerating coronavirus counts in hot spots around the world, which threatens to halt the recovery just as it got going. California demonstrated on Monday how dangerous that can be when the governor of the country’s largest state economy ordered indoor dining and other economic activity closed. The worry is that the continuing pandemic could push states across the Sun Belt to roll back reopenings of their economies. That’s why COVID-19 trends — along with the potential for more aid for the economy from Congress — will matter much more for markets in upcoming weeks than what companies say about their second-quarter results, said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. “The progression of the virus should still be front and center for what is dictating and going to continue to dictate our prospects for economic growth going forward,” he said....."
Yes, the viru$ drives the economics unle$$ you are a Wall Street financial firm being endle$$ly bailed out.
Of course, we are all in thi$ together:
"The board of Macy’s Inc. handed $9 million in equity awards to six top executives just two weeks after the department store chain said it would cut thousands of jobs in its corporate office. Chief executive Jeff Gennette received restricted stock worth $3.7 million on July 9, according to a regulatory filing. The other five, including legal chief Elisa Garcia and Danielle Kirgan, who oversees human resources, received awards ranging from $350,000 to $3 million. On July 1, the board also reversed top executives’ temporary salary reductions that had been been in place since April. That means Gennette, who took no salary for that period, is now back at his $1.3 million annual rate."
Are you f**king $hitting me?
"Wall Street ticked higher Friday to close out its third straight winning week, one punctuated by hopes that the economy can continue to steady itself despite the pandemic. Trading was muted across other markets, too, with stocks overseas, oil and gold making relatively modest moves. Friday’s meandering trading came after reports showed a strengthening in U.S. home building activity but also a weakening in consumer sentiment. They’re the latest in a stream of data that has shown how uncertain the path is for the economy, as the continuing rise in coronavirus counts threatens to undo improvements that seemed to have taken root in the economy. “The market just continues to try and get its finger on the pulse,” said James McCann, senior global economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments. “The renewed spread of the virus and degree of community infection means the pace of recovery we’ve had is just not going to be able to hold up anymore,” he said. “A fairly decent chunk of U.S. activity is at risk.”
The hope i$ that Congre$$ can agree $oon on more aid for the economy to help $upport the market (under the COVID cover of keeping the unemployment checks coming).
"The cluster is at risk of crumbling, and COVID-19 is the cause. Let’s not take on the bigger question of whether people will still want to live in cities. I want to focus just on the “cluster effect” that benefits places like Boston. Clusters get created when a group of people with experience in a particular field — software, biotech, financial services, sustainability — decide to stick around in a particular city and grow companies. That kind of critical mass is what keeps housing prices and office rents high. It’s what supports restaurants, cafés, and bars. It provides business for law firms, accountants, and marketing agencies. Boston, up until four months ago, had a gravitational pull working in its favor. On any given week, you could go to three networking events a night to help find your next job, a cofounder for your startup, or an investor....."
Fu*k Bo$ton, as economists have predicted a recession far worse than anything since World War II.
"Wall Street extended its recent run of gains Tuesday, despite a late stumble that nearly wiped out the stock market’s gains for the day. The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent after having been up 0.8 percent in the early going. Banks and energy companies led the gains, outweighing losses in technology stocks, which pulled the Nasdaq Composite lower. Small-company stocks did better than the broader market. The latest gains followed strength in markets overseas as investors welcomed news that European leaders have agreed on a budget and coronavirus relief fund worth more than $2 trillion. Hope for more economic aid from the government, following Europe’s example, helped put investors in a buying mood Tuesday, said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist for Invesco. “The US does not have the safety net that Europe has,” she said. “This is an environment in which there is going to be a need for more fiscal stimulus or you could see real hit to consumers.” Worries remain that the rise of coronavirus counts across much of the country will derail efforts to reopen businesses shut down due to the pandemic....."
Notice it isn't even cases now, it'c counts?
Beyond that, the package isn't for consumers and it will drag the economy of Europe down.
Related: A $tronger U.S. $afety Net
We are ALL GETTING RICH, so I don't know what cowslip Ms. Hopper is $hoveling there.
"Wall Street capped a choppy day of trading Wednesday with more gains for stocks as investors sized up a mix of company earnings reports. Strength in technology and health care stocks outweighed losses in energy companies, banks and elsewhere in the market. Pfizer rose 5.1 percent after the US government signed a contract with the company to deliver the first 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine it’s developing by December. HCA Healthcare jumped 12 percent, the biggest gain in the S&P 500, after reporting earnings and revenue that topped analysts’ forecasts....."
I'm so glad the va¢¢ine making them healthy and phat!
"..... Traders also had their eye Wednesday on a flare-up in tensions between Washington and Beijing. The United States ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, saying it was necessary to protect American intellectual property. China said it would retaliate. US-China trade relations will probably start to factor back into the market somewhat, but the virus and its impact remain the main driver of where the markets go, said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. “A lot of what we’re looking for rests on whether consumption can stay afloat,” she said. “Even absent additional shutdowns, what are the implications of the fear factor, of consumers just opting to not go out as much?” The Federal Reserve’s efforts to support markets and expectations that Washington eventually will deliver more financial aid to help Americans weather the economic downturn have been key in keeping markets mostly pushing higher since stocks plunged in March.
Who benefits from higher $tocks now, and what if the unemployment never stops coming as so many businesses fail to return until we are left with monopolistic distributors via region?
Wow, that's the SOVIET UNION there -- only with oligarchic corporations as the Party.
Still, worries remain that the rise of coronavirus counts across much of the country will derail efforts to reopen businesses shut down due to the pandemic. Adding to unease Wednesday was a report by the Centers for Disease Control that the number of coronavirus cases in some states is much higher than has been reported. Experts have said all along that the toll from the COVID-19 pandemic is much higher than tallies of confirmed cases would indicate, due to issues with testing and data collection. Uncertainty over prospects for more financial aid to Americans and US businesses also is casting a shadow, analysts said. Republicans and Democrats remain divided over how much support is needed, as states grapple with rebounds in cases that have prompted some local governments to order some businesses to close to help snuff out flare-ups of the virus....."
Look at those disassembling f**ks in the pre$$ mouthpiecing for a lying government!
If CASES are MUCH HIGHER than known, then there is MORE HERD IMMUNITY than known and the LOCKDOWNS should be EASING!
They then say its an undercount because of problems with testing and data collection -- the same thing the pre$$ jumps all over Trump when he says that.
The disingenuous is unbelievably evil!
"Slumping stocks across most of Wall Street sent the S&P 500 to its worst loss in nearly four weeks on Thursday, undercut by a report showing layoffs are picking up across the country with coronavirus counts. Technology stocks had the sharpest drops after a better-than-expected profit report from Microsoft failed to satisfy investors expecting even more from the stock that’s largely defied gravity and the pandemic this year. Microsoft fell 4.3 percent despite reporting a bigger quarterly profit for the spring than Wall Street expected. It’s a relatively rare stumble for the giant, which has cruised to records recently on expectations that it can continue to grow whether the economy is locked down or not, but with the rise come greater expectations, and analysts pointed to a 47 percent growth rate reported for Microsoft’s Azure cloud business during the quarter. That fell short of analysts’ forecast. Because Microsoft is one of the largest US stocks by market value, its movements have an outsized effect on indexes like the S&P 500. Apple, the other titan that trades off with Microsoft for the title of most valuable US stock, was also down 4.6 percent. Other high-flying tech-oriented giants also stumbled, including a 3.7 percent drop for Amazon. Those three stocks alone accounted for more than half of the S&P 500’s loss, yet Twitter rose 3.9 percent after its quarterly report showed the strongest growth in its history for users. The setback wiped out three-quarters of the S&P 500′s gains from earlier in the week. The market is in a holding pattern and will likely remain there as investors gauge the path of the pandemic, business reopenings and the government’s reaction to them, said Jason Pride, chief investment officer of private wealth at Glenmede. “We’re going to be dealing with that until we get a vaccine or cure, whether we like it or not,” he said. “I don’t envy the people who have to make decisions regarding risk of this spreading versus the risk to people’s livelihoods. It’s a hard choice,” while uncertainty across markets helped gold touch its highest price in nearly nine years at $1,890.00 per ounce......"
The virus has a cratering death rate due to the rising cases that are still and undercount, I'm not cutting our lying, criminal leaders a break at all, and Micro$oft is a big winner, huh?
They have connection to who?
Related:
Slack Accuses Microsoft of Illegally Crushing Competition
That's Gates' MO, and he views all of us as an OS to be continually updated with his va¢¢ines.
"..... Thursday’s headline economic report breaks a stretch of 15 straight weeks of improvements, a streak that had raised investor optimism that the recession could prove to be shorter than expected. It comes as coronavirus counts continue to rise across much of the Sun Belt, leading to more business closures. On the winning end were several big companies that reported more encouraging trends in their business during the spring than Wall Street expected. Whirlpool jumped 8 percent for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after the appliance maker reported a profit for the spring that was more than double what analysts expected. It also said that it saw demand recover in markets around the world in June, while saying it doesn’t expect sales over the course of 2020 to drop as much as it had earlier forecast. Investors are also hoping that Congress can agree on more aid for out-of-work Americans just as an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits is set to expire. Republicans in the Senate were set to unveil their proposals for a $1 trillion COVID-19 rescue package Thursday morning, but that got delayed. Thursday’s trading is a microcosm of the volatile moves that have dominated the market in recent weeks. Helping to lift stocks have been several reports on the economy and corporate profits that showed improvements from the spring and were better than expected. That’s layered on top of massive aid for the economy promised by the Federal Reserve, including nearly zero interest rates, but weighing markets down is a long list of challenges beyond the worsening coronavirus counts across much of the United States. They include worries about rising tensions between the United States and China, the world’s largest economies, and the effect of the upcoming US elections....."
Will a war get us all back to work without masks and distancing?
"Schlumberger Ltd. said it’s cutting one-fifth of its workforce as the oil services giant warned that new waves of COVID-19 could derail the nascent recovery in global energy demand. The Houston-based company on Friday posted its worst quarterly sales in 14 years, reflecting the devastating impact of this year’s plunge in drilling activity on the hired hands of the oil patch. Like its peers Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Co., which also reported earnings this week, Schlumberger has borne the brunt of massive cutbacks in energy industry spending. “This has probably been the most challenging quarter in past decades,” Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said in the statement. Schlumberger said it’s letting go more than 21,000 employees, shrinking staffing to an 11-year low. It incurred $1 billion severance costs in the quarter, in addition to another $2.7 billion of various restructuring and impairment charges. The number of wells drilled worldwide this year is expected to drop by almost a quarter, with no forecast of a full recovery in the coming years, according to industry consultant Rystad Energy. Schlumberger is the last of the big three oil service companies to report second-quarter results."
One of the other ones fears another round of lockdowns.
"Stocks closed broadly lower for the second day in a row Friday as Wall Street gave back some of its gains from a mostly solid July rally. The pullback, which eased somewhat by afternoon, came as traders turned cautious amid increased tensions between the world’s two largest economies and a mixed batch of company earnings reports, with gains by companies that rely on consumer spending. Cautious investors shifted money into gold, driving its price to an all-time high of nearly $1,900 an ounce....."
The price of silver is at its highest in nearly seven years, too.
Burl Ives would be happy.
Also see:
Union Pacific’s profit falls 28 percent on lower revenue
Less products being shipped.
Nearly half of AutoNation’s customers bought their cars online
They deliver it to your door and you can't drive it anywhere, but you know, looks good in the driveway.
LinkedIn to lay off nearly 1,000
LinkedIn to LayOff.
eBay sells classified ad business to Norwegian company
They were ob$e$$ed with it.
Spotify finds harmony with Universal Music
Hit a $our note with me.
Italian offices of Apple, Amazon focus of probe
They are driving away from that one as fast as they can:
Fiat Chrysler apparent next target in diesel-emissions scandal
Better just stay home:
Home sales up more than 20 percent in June
That's because rates hit another record low.
Amazon opens delivery center in former Necco candy factory
I hope they cleaned up the place first (the excrement pellets were “too numerous to count.”)
Can take a sip of this after eating the candy:
"Coca-Cola’s revenue plunged 28 percent in the second quarter, though sales had begun to improve last month as lockdowns eased globally. The pandemic has since gained momentum in parts of the US, India, and elsewhere in the developing world. Surging infections across the US Sunbelt have forced businesses to close again and potentially delayed a return to activities that fuel half of Coca-Cola’s sales. Those sales come from stadiums, movie theaters, and other places where people gather in large numbers, venues that have closed in the pandemic. Major League baseball will begin playing this week, but to empty stadiums with piped in crowd noise."
They truly think we are f**king idiots, and why waste the time watching $ports?
"Swatch Group cut a record 2,400 jobs and trimmed its store network as the Swiss watchmaker became unprofitable for the first time. The maker of Omega and Longines timepieces said Tuesday it accelerated plans to shut stores permanently in Hong Kong as well as shops that sell its colorful namesake brand and Calvin Klein timepieces. Sales in the six months through June plummeted 43 percent."
The $watch $topped?
Netflix added more than 10m subscribers in the 2nd quarter
Industrial production rebounds
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday, but.....
Another driller files for bankruptcy
"Father of the Z-score predicts a surge in ‘mega’ bankruptcies" by Denise Wee Bloomberg News, July 15, 2020
The New York University professor who developed one of the best-known formulas for predicting corporate bankruptcies has a warning for US credit investors: this year’s spate of “mega” insolvencies is just getting started, according to Edward Altman, creator of the Z-score and professor emeritus at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Global firms have sold a record $2.1 trillion of bonds this year, with nearly half coming from US issuers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While the stimulus-fueled rally in credit markets since March has helped borrowers stay afloat during the coronavirus crisis, Altman and others have warned that many companies are just delaying an inevitable reckoning.
All that Congre$$ional and Fed loot went to them!
“There was a huge buildup in corporate debt by the end of 2019 and I thought the market would gain some much needed de-leveraging with the COVID-19 crisis,” said Altman, who is also director of credit and debt market research at the NYU Salomon Center. “Now, seems like companies again are exploiting what seems to be a crazy rebound.”
As new waves of the coronavirus keep planes from flying and curb consumer spending, pressures on the global economy are increasing. The International Monetary Fund downgraded its outlook for the world economy in June, projecting a deeper recession and slower recovery than it previously anticipated.
Chesapeake Energy Corp., the pioneer of the shale gas revolution, and retailer Brooks Brothers have filed for bankruptcy in the United States in recent weeks. Defaults in the Asia-Pacific region include Virgin Australia and Shanghai-headquartered Hilong Holding Ltd., an oil equipment and services firm.
The Chesapeake crash was suspicious, and Brooks Brothers continues to deny severance to laid off Haverhill factory workers so the Globe took up their cau$e.
Man Group Plc, the world’s largest publicly listed hedge fund, has warned of the risk to bond buyers. The World Bank has also forecast that more than 90 percent of economies will experience contractions this year, higher than the rate seen at the height of the Great Depression.
“The speed and magnitude of the increase in corporate debt this year poses various risks to an already fragile global economic outlook,” said Ayhan Kose, director of the World Bank Group’s Prospects Group. Countries where a large proportion of the borrowings are in foreign currencies or for shorter periods are particularly vulnerable, as they face risks of fluctuating exchange rates and also having to roll over the debt more quickly, he said.
Xavier Jean, senior director for corporate ratings at S&P Global Ratings, said some firms are being proactive, as they are uncertain if they can raise funds during the second half, but for those that face tremendous stress in their operations, the increased borrowing heightens risks if things don’t turn around as quickly, he said.
In the United States, the Federal Reserve has provided unprecedented support, such as buying corporate bonds, including the debt of firms that were cut from investment-grade to junk.
For Altman, some of the debt sold “kicks the can down the road” for firms that don’t deserve support.
Companies are doing the opposite of what they should be doing, which is to de-leverage as the banks did after the global financial crisis of 2008, he said. “When there is an increase in insolvency risk, what you do not need is more debt. You need less debt.”
They are doing the exact oppo$ite of what they should be doing?
--more--"
Maybe there is a $ilver lining in all of thi$:
"Storm clouds over Mass. job market are still looking ominous; Borrowing millions, state feels pressure as unemployment claims remain high" by Larry Edelman Globe Staff, July 16, 2020
It’s hard to find a silver lining when assessing the storm clouds looming over an already-battered Massachusetts job market.
More than 527,000 people collected state jobless checks last week, the Baker administration said Thursday, nearly 10 times the number a year earlier. Add in 400,000-plus residents covered by the feds under a new program for gig workers and others, and there are probably more than 900,000 people receiving jobless benefits, or 14 percent of the state’s labor force before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the economy.
Now comes news that the Baker administration has borrowed $455 million from the federal government to pay state unemployment claims, after the account used for the payouts was all but drained. The loans will almost certainly be the first of a massive pile of IOUs.
That's criminally in$ane.
No wonder he is yukking it up with Pence.
Employers, who fund most of the benefits paid by the state, are rightly concerned that they will have to plug the hole. In its trust fund report for June, the state said employer contributions were slated to increase from $1.6 billion in the fiscal year just ended to $2.2 billion in fiscal 2021 due to automatic increases tied to the account’s financial condition. Additional tax hikes may also be needed to close the $6.2 billion deficit estimated for the year that just finished and future shortfalls.
That is the last thing this prostrate economy needs.
“Putting an extra $6.2 billion burden on Massachusetts employers as they struggle to survive the recession is like throwing an anchor to a drowning person,” said Greg Sullivan, director of research at the Pioneer Institute in Boston, referring to the estimated deficit for unemployment fund deficit for the current year, but there are other options the state can pursue.
The odd thing is, that person will still reach for it!
The administration could forgo the automatic hikes, as it has done before, and sell bonds to pay the feds back, said John Regan, chief executive of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, one of the state’s largest business groups. Or it could lobby Congress for some sort of bailout, such as debt forgiveness, and Massachusetts would have allies in any push for federal help. California ($5.4 billion), New York ($4.2 billion), and Texas ($1.8 billion) are among the 12 states and the Virgin Islands that have taken loans or have signaled they will. The loans are interest-free until the end of the year, then borrowers will pay 2.41 percent.
“Everyone knows that this tide of red ink is coming at us,” Regan said.
No one, he said, is sure how it will all play out.
One thing you can be sure of is that citizen-taxpayers will once again get $crewed.
That’s especially true because the state must also confront a sharp drop in tax revenue as the pandemic takes a bite out of employer payrolls, retail sales, and corporate profits.
Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said the state should take this opportunity to overhaul what he called its “simply bad” unemployment insurance system.
“We have the easiest qualification standards” for applicants and “the most generous benefits,” he said. “We can’t be both... It’s going to come back to haunt us.”
Get rid of it then.
Will be gone soon anyway.
UBI will rule the day, no more ca$h.
For its part, the state isn’t saying much.
“The Administration is committed to making sure workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to receive the benefits they deserve and will continue to take any steps necessary to ensure the solvency of the [unemployment insurance] trust fund,” the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said in a statement.
Are you not sick of the hollow words and excuses from tyrannical bureaucracy?
In other words, the unemployment checks will not stop. The state will continue to borrow from Uncle Sam, and everyone will worry about the bill later.
Does that add up to a silver lining?
For $ome.
The rest of us receive nothing other than a punch in the mouth.
--more--"
Edelman says letting the extra unemployment pay expire may be the GOP’s next self-inflicted wound as a rushed reopening hurts the economy, as would allowing the $600 weekly benefit end next week before he talks to some Ma$$holes, and he also says the economy is awful and it’ll get worse if states have to slash and burn and as Congress debates new aid, the job market teeters:
"Mass. unemployment rate led the nation in June; The state is paying a steep price for moving aggressively to contain the coronavirus pandemic" by Larry Edelman Globe Staff, July 17, 2020
Massachusetts recorded the highest unemployment rate in the country in June, a stark reminder of the steep price the state has paid for moving aggressively to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
It's the citizens themselves who have paid the steep price, not the state government.
The local jobless rate hit 17.4 percent in June, according to state-by-state data released Friday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 6 percentage points above the national average. New Jersey had the second highest at 16.6 percent, while Kentucky had the lowest, at 4.3 percent.
Earlier in the year, unemployment in Massachusetts was at a near-record low 2.8 percent before surging as the deadly epidemic led Governor Charlie Baker to shut down a large swath of the economy.
Now you know top suspect in the murder of our economy.
The new data also show that Massachusetts has lost more jobs on a percentage basis than all but a handful of states, including tourist-dependent Hawaii and New York, the epicenter of the crisis until recently. The response Massachusetts formulated after an initial delay — requiring masks and social distancing, sharply limiting activities both inside and outdoors, and reopening at a cautious pace — is a primary reason why the job market has been hit so hard. The strategy slowed the spread of coronavirus but required putting the economy into a deep freeze that now seems to be easing as the economy begins to kick back into gear.
Kicking back into gear?
Where?
The other factor working against the state in the past few months was the makeup of its economy: Massachusetts is more reliant on industries that were directly affected by the shutdown and saw big job losses ― health care, education, and travel-related business such as restaurants and hotels — than the country as a whole, according to Bo Zhao, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s New England Public Policy Center.
How did that work against us?
No teachers were laid off, and have not been yet (maybe in September), and how in the world did health care see big job losses during a pandemic when it was all hands on deck and our heroes were working triple shifts?
WTF?
Related:
"A high dosage of health care professionals flooded social media Friday with a special hashtag and pictures of themselves wearing bikinis and bathing suits, lounging in pools, and sipping on margaritas after a study published in a medical journal that criticized such content as “potentially unprofessional” began circulating online. “Warning: doctor having fun on a beach with her family. We’re not unprofessional, we’re human,” tweeted Dr. Jessica Flynn, a Boston-based sports medicine doctor, using the emerging hashtag #MedBikini."
What, no dance videos this time?
“In a traditional recession, education and health are more immune,” Zhao said. That’s what happened during the Great Recession, when Massachusetts didn’t fare worse than the rest of the country.
The question now is whether the sacrifices in Massachusetts will pay off as other states come to grips with the fallout from their decisions to quickly reopen. Experts point to the earlier reopening decisions by other states as the catalyst for their current surge in cases. Massachusetts, meanwhile, has seen the rate of infections fall off, after a devastating April and May.
It’s too soon to tell whether states struggling with hot spots will see their economies hurt, especially since the stats released on Friday were based on information collected in mid-June, before the latest spike in cases around the country.
Unemployment ticked up in Arizona, but the rate fell in other hot spots including California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas.
More recent data from those latter states suggest that may change: New claims for jobless benefits rose in each of them last week, and after a strong rebound that began in mid-April, consumer spending in those states is starting to flag, according to data tracked by Opportunity Insights, a research project at Harvard University. By contrast, spending in Massachusetts remains on an upswing; moreover, employers here added 83,700 jobs in June, as hiring by restaurants and retailers offset layoffs among government workers, the state said Friday. It was the second consecutive month of gains, following a revised increase of 55,000 jobs in May. May’s jobless rate was also revised upward 0.3 percentage point from the preliminary estimate, to 16.6 percent.
Those numbers mean nothing after the free-fall collapse and controlled demolition, and at least the big banks have been propped up.
The unemployment rate can rise even when employers are adding jobs as more people, encouraged by the recovery, start looking for work. “What I think was going on in June ... was the return to work of furloughed employees more so than people getting new jobs or new jobs being created,” said Michael Goodman, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. “Whether that growth is likely to persist going forward will be as much a function of public health conditions and federal policy choices as anything else at this stage.”
Those policy choices include pending decisions by Congress on whether to extend the $600 a week in extra jobless pay lawmakers added to state benefits and whether to provide $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments, whose budgets have been ravaged as the pandemic reduces tax collections from payrolls, retail sales, and corporate profits.
In Massachusetts, tax revenue in the fiscal year that ended June 30 may have fallen $6 billion short of the administration’s January forecast, according to an estimate by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation; moreover, the fund Massachusetts uses to pay unemployment claims ran out of money, forcing the Baker administration to borrow $455 million from the federal government. Additional loans may be needed; the most recent state report on the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund estimated the gap between employer contributions and benefit payments at $3.2 billion in the fiscal year that just ended and more than $6 billion in the current year.
We are $o f**ked.
Time to tar and feather our leaders like our ancestors did and toss them into the harbor.
Despite those fiscal obstacles, the tough public health choices made by the state may pay economic dividends in coming months if infection rates remain low.
And IF not?
“We should come back faster if we don’t have a setback as we open up,” said Tom Kochan, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.....
I'm $peechle$$.
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At least $mall bu$ine$$e$ in Ma$$achu$etts will survive:
"Hundreds of small businesses polled in Mass. have seen revenues drop by more than half; Survey indicates "the shape of trouble" ahead for Main Streets and urban neighborhoods" by Jon Chesto Globe Staff, July 23, 2020
Are you afraid for the future of your local Main Street?
No, because mine is already dead.
If not, maybe you should be.
Survey results being released on Thursday by the MassINC Polling Group show how certain sectors of the economy have been far more hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic than others. These sectors make up a preponderance of storefronts in village centers and urban neighborhoods across the state.
Our villages will now be Potemkins.
The beauty industry — hair and nail salons, and the like — was the most affected, according to the statewide poll of nearly 1,900 small businesses, conducted within the past several weeks. Close behind were restaurants and bars. Other hard-hit sectors: health care, retail, and education.
The women are looking uglier around here.
In contrast, fewer than a third of construction companies, manufacturers, and nonprofits said their revenue had fallen by at least 50 percent.
The organizers of the survey certainly expected that businesses that rely on foot traffic through their doors would be disproportionately affected by the pandemic shutdowns, but they said they were surprised by the size of the discrepancy.
Not me.
When they did finally reopen, a number of businesses found it tough to rehire furloughed workers. About 66 percent of those that reported trouble rehiring workers blamed the challenge on former workers making more money from expanded unemployment benefits. Generally speaking, larger companies were more likely to cite generous unemployment benefits as a barrier to rehiring.
I don't believe that, and if true it is the end of America.
When Americans accept government handouts over the security and dignity of work, it has become AmeriKa.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they were keeping up with their bills. Only a few respondents said they were planning to close for good, just 4 percent; however, it’s hard not to look at the sectors that were hammered in the first half of 2020 and wonder if a wave of vacant storefronts could soon spread through downtown areas across the state.
Like a.... gulp.... viru$?
Derek Mitchell, executive director of the Lawrence Partnership, said the restaurant and beauty sectors have “just been demolished,” compared to others. He said he hopes state and federal policy makers can rise to the challenge of helping prevent mass closures.
The Globe doesn't spend much time, if any, on them. It's a quick meal and then forgeddaboutit!
“You look at vacant retail real estate and you wonder who will fill those spaces,” said Mitchell, whose nonprofit handles economic development in Lawrence. “Our goal is keeping many of these businesses from going out of business.”
??????
Even if there is none?
You need to throws the doors open wide, fool!
F**k the tyrannical authorities!
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The beauty industry has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff)
The masks are being worn because her feet $tink.
Or was it something else?
"Low-priced cannabis products will be key to converting consumers from the illicit market to the legal market, but once that’s done they’ll be willing to spend more on pricier items like vape pens and edibles, according to Aurora Cannabis Inc.’s new chief commercial officer. Cannabis is “unlike tobacco or alcohol because of the presence of this massive black market,” said Miguel Martin. Some Canadian companies were caught off guard last winter by strong demand for low-priced flower and had to rush to develop new offerings. In February, Aurora said its market share in flower declined in the prior quarter “as the market shifted significantly toward value brands,” and announced the launch of Daily Special, a cheaper product designed to “compete strongly with the gray market and help grow the overall size of the legal segment.” However, the cannabis market changes rapidly and “what’s popular today may not be popular tomorrow,” said Martin."
That and a beer and you are all $et!
That and a beer and you are all $et!
