Headlines

Democratic governors hit with flurry of legal challenges to coronavirus lockdowns

Powell says a full economic recovery may not happen without a vaccine

VH1 reality star allegedly spends $1.5 million on jewelry, Rolls Royce

Newsom begs for bailout: Fed’s moral duty!

‘Grossly incompetent’ Trump dismisses Obama over coronavirus criticism

The CDC ‘let the country down’ early in the crisis, Navarro says

Virtual Obama swings at Trump!

Democrats decline to put ‘whistleblower’ Rick Bright under oath

Vaccine is possible by end of year, Johns Hopkins expert says

Coronavirus live updates: NY investigating about 120 cases of coronavirus inflammatory syndrome

Multiple buildings set on fire after explosion in LA ...

Exclusive — Pompeo: Trump ‘committed’ to hold China accountable

Headlines

USS Theodore Roosevelt sailors still showing virus symptoms despite a month of isolation

Big Tech’s earnings prove it’s immune to coronavirus to 43 nations for COVID-19 tests

Trump admin models warn of doubling daily death tolls by June ...

Intel report: China hid coronavirus severity to hoard supplies

Mnuchin resists change to small business loans as restaurants protest

Japan sending Fujifilm’s flu drug favipiravir to 43 nations for COvID-19 tests

Bezos on track to be world’s first trillionaire as virus helps Amazon!

Nigel Farage: EU will use coronavirus to prevent Brexit

Fears rise that Trump will incite a global vaccine brawl

Coronavirus will shrink US home prices by 2-3% nationally, Zillow forecasts, but deeper dive could be in store

[Cuomo] Favorability rating soars to 77% ...

Poll: Trump, Biden tied in Texas

Headlines

WHO head warns worst of the virus is still ahead

Coronavirus updates: New York begins antibody testing, public anger grows in Spain over death counts

Fauci warns USA needs to TRIPLE testing ...

Thousands defy coronavirus isolation order to attend Muslim cleric’s funeral

Facebook shuts down anti-quarantine protests at states’ request

Cannabis companies pay federal taxes but are shut out of small business loans

Oil price lowest in history ... Plunges 70% in day ...

Dick Morris: Biden Dem nomination ‘like a suicide march’

Gunman kills at least 16, including officer, in Nova Scotia

After a crazy 12 months, the S&P 500 is about back to where it started

Billionaire Branson begs for bailout ...

Report: 450,000 illegal immigrants are getting college degrees

Headlines

The shutdown backlash is coming soon — with a vengeance

Small business rescue loan program hits $349 billion limit and is now out of money

Professional gamblers in Nevada now able to collect unemployment ...

Jimmy Carter ‘distressed’ over Trump halting W.H.O. Funding

‘Inexcusable’: Debbie Dingle slams Michigan protestors

Coronavirus live update: Trump to unveil reopening guidelines, China races toward a vaccine

Bailout checks go to the dead!

Dems demand halt construction on border wall during coronavirus crisis

Top Muslim political group backs Biden

The US economy has erased nearly all the job gains since the Great Recession

22 million jobs vanish in month ...

NJ governor: ‘I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights’ when issuing stay-at-home order

Headlines

Trump is an authoritarian weakman

Coronavirus live update: Gig workers get unemployment in Senate bill, outbreak pushes jobless claims to record

Mayor: Half of New Yorkers will get infected ...

Imam: Virus is ‘soldier of Allah’ to harm West but not Muslims

No end in sight for Europe

Coronavirus stimulus checks will come within three weeks, Mnuchin says

China bars entry to foreigners ...

Majority of NC voters think Burr should resign for coronavirus selloff

Jobless claims soar to a record 3.3 million

Senate coronavirus bill cuts pay for execs making more than $3 million at bailed out firms

Feds to take stakes in airlines in exchange for bailouts ...

NY has 15x coronavirus cases than CA  because ‘we welcome people’ [Cuomo]

Headlines

Senate races to finish negotiations on massive stimulus package

Kudlow says coronavirus relief package worth more than $2 trillion

U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about likely pandemic ...

Chinese leader lauds [Hillary] Clinton attack on Trump

New York and New Jersey Port Authority seeks $1.9B federal bailout

FDA grants ‘emergency use’ virus test that can deliver results in 45 minutes

Cuomo: Half state’s cases are people under 50 years old ..

The rescue package includes $2,400 check for families, $500 for kids

Poll: 55% approve how Trump is handling coronavirus crisis

Trump: Federal student loan borrowers can suspend payments for 60 days

Trump: ‘I don’t know’ if my businesses will receive coronavirus assistance

Goldman predicts -24% GDP ...

Headlines

Republicans suddenly find a bailout they can back

Coronavirus live update: Japanese flu drug could be effective treatment, Scotland to close schools

Mnuchin warns jobless rate could hit 20% ...

Utah: 5.7 mag earthquake

Surgeon General: 15 days of social distancing ‘likely not going to be enough’ to shalt coronavirus

Coronavirus lives for hours in air particles and days on surfaces, new study shows

People with type A blood more likely to catch [coronavirus]?

Italy death toll rises 16% in 24 hours

Iraqi officials say rockets strike Baghdad’s Green Zone

Rates rapidly reverse higher on growing costs to combat crisis, 10-year Treasury yield hits 1.2%

Dreadful choice for global leaders: Wreck economy or kill millions

Hungary declares successful isolation of coronavirus

Headlines

France’s Macron: EU external borders to close starting Tuesday

Facebook’s Sandburg, No one knows impact coronavirus will have on marketing biz

Saudi prince’s superyacht capsizes ...

Donald Trump: No nationwide quarantine for coronavirus

’A matter of weeks and months’: Larry Kudlow predicts short-lived coronavirus slowdown

Coronavirus live update: Trump issues ‘coronavirus guidelines,’ SF orders ‘stay home’

Police ask public to stop calling 911 over lack of toilet paper ...

Italy: 349 people die in 24 hours, coronavirus death toll tips 2,100

De Blasio called for ‘massive federal relief’ as city economy grinds to a halt — then he hit the gym

White House braces for political fight as it readies coronavirus airline bailout package

Supreme Court delays arguments ...

Coronavirus: Justin Trudeau to shut down Canadian border to foreigners

Gordian Knot

Obamacare is a very complex administrative process to both understand and, as we have seen, to utilize. Therefore when one sees things there deteriorating, one cannot decide if these are fatal events ... or, if the administration can throw money at these maladies in order to keep the patient alive.

One thing that we do know is that the Affordable Care Act is turning out to be anything but affordable. Premiums next year are slated to increase 10.1%. And this is still before the employer mandate fully kicks in. This portion of this Gordian Knot of a law is expected to add fuel to the pyre upon which the American health-care consumer is being sacrificed. That is why this mandate has been repeatedly postponed by administrative fiat ... apparently trying to save the Democrat party from election defeat.

Most recently there have been two events that cast a pall on this MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber's convoluted monstrosity:

1) Over one half of the government health-care insurance co-ops have disappeared or are expected to disappear by year end due to massive cost overruns ... see: Fox News Story. These co-ops were set up under this law to the tune of two billion dollars of taxpayer loans ... much of which is now in jeopardy. These dissolutions have left tens of thousands of consumers now without coverage ... not a good situation for these poor souls this law was supposed to help.

2) Just this past week UnitedHealth Group, the largest health-care insurance provider in the United States ... and the one endorsed by AARP ... has indicated that it is questionable whether it can continue to insure consumers under Obamacare ... having seen a $425 million revenue shortfall over the last year ... see: USA Today. If UnitedHealth drops coverage, an additional hundreds of thousands of consumers will lose their health-care insurance ... and, if this is an indication of possible financial problems at the other large insurers, then Obamacare is indeed in deep sneakers. However this threat by UnitedHealth may just be a plea for a government bailout.

Clearly, if the federal government chooses to bailout these co-ops, UnitedHealth and others, then Obamacare looks very much like a single-payer health-care system ... the objective of this administration all along. See also Marco Rubio's comments on this looming possibility: Breitbart Article.

Wouldn’t it be Funny …

... if Obamacare caused the United States to return to a free-market economy in health care?  Already many more people have lost their health-care insurance than have gained it as a result of this Harry Reid-Nancy Pelosi bit of screwed-up social engineering … see: Powerline Analysis.  And later this year, when the employer mandate kicks in and many millions more Americans find themselves with the unhappy option of either paying more for less health insurance … they might then chose to go uninsured and suffering the consequence.  And the way “Obamacare is being hollowed-out by government fiat” (a Charles Krauthammer near quote), it is increasingly unlikely that there will actually be any consequences suffered by the uninsured.

The health-care insurance companies allowed the current administration to have its way with them because they thought that they would be able to feast on an additional 45 million customers … and that they could also gouge the many millions more currently-insured who would have to pay more for less as a result of the insurance rewrites caused by Obamacare.  Perceptive people, such as Krauthammer, realize that these two windfalls for the insurance companies are now unlikely to occur … and that a government bailout of their partners-in-sin is quite likely.  So now the Republicans are pushing a bill that would make such a bailout of health-care insurers illegal … see: Fox News Story.  Wouldn’t this be poetic justice?

And wouldn’t it be even sweeter if Obamacare caused the whole health-care industry to once again return to a free market?  Then individuals would be making economic trade-off decisions about their health care without the interference of health-care insurers and the government.  Then the spiraling cost-inflation havoc that this industry-government complex has foisted on our economy might finally be reined-in.  Wouldn't it be funny?

GuM

I have written skeptically about the future of General Motors in the past … see: Government Motors.  Now we see that the U.S. taxpayers are about to take a $10 billion haircut on their General Motors bailout … whereas the United Auto Workers (UAW) will make out like the bandits that they truly are … see: Detroit News Story.

Actually, if it were not for the popularity of GM products in China (a baffling development, see: Bloomberg Story), there would be a considerably larger gum-up of taxpayer accounts.  To put things in perspective, the 1979 government bailout loan to Chrysler under Lee Iaccoca totaled $1.5 billion … which was repaid in full … see:  Washington Times Story.

I still strongly believe that, at some point, the fact that the UAW is part of the management structure at GM will eventually spell its downfall.  It was the short-sighted concessions that GM management gave to its unions in days past that spelled its previous financial collapse.  And, I predict, future labor contracts will be even more tainted by this current union self-dealing.  It’s inevitable.

The Fog of Mendacity

Chrysler Peapod

Here is a must-read blog entry on Powerline ... see Chrysler's Resurrection.  Prepare yourself to get sick to your stomach and again wonder if those bozos in Washington are ever being straight with the American public.  And, also see a clear example of how an august newspaper such as the New York Times can flack for the current administration.

The story is about Chrysler and its $12.5 billion bailout from the American taxpayers in 2009.  Most of the details are in this well-documented story and its contained links, but the bottom line is that, for all this generosity on the U.S. taxpayers' part, we have ended up taking a $1.3 billion haircut and also being on the hook for a $3.5 billion loan to Fiat (which recently finished purchasing 51% of Chrysler.)  This loan is ostensibly meant to allow Chrysler to develop cars such as the Peapod shown above ... but it will most likely never be paid back.

Now the other 49% of Chrysler is owned by the United Auto Workers which is a clear recipe for disaster ... anytime union workers negotiate with themselves over pay raises and work rules, they always end up winning in the short term but losing big in the long run.  Yes, you say, they do have jobs currently ... but with salaries that are effectively being paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.

Another part of this saga that isn't told directly therein is that the bondholders in the original Chrysler were virtually wiped out (30 cents on the dollar) and that the original stockholders now have lost something like 90% of their investment -- a very convoluted calculation. (In a traditional bankruptcy, they would have probably faired much better.)  If you are tempted to dismiss these losses to the better good of Chrysler's staying in business, please reflect on how many pension plans, 401Ks, and IRAs have lost oodles and boodles in this transaction ... just maybe one of yours.

So, next year, when you hear The Barry bragging about how he saved Chrysler and 115,000 "auto-industry" jobs ... with very little cost to the U.S. taxpayer, you will know "the rest of the story."