Zorro
Zorro's JournalEverything Is Awful. So Why Is the Stock Market Booming?
What on earth is the stock market doing?
Death and despair are all around. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits each of the last two weeks was about 10 times the previous record — and is probably being artificially held back by overloaded government systems. Vast swaths of American business are shuttered indefinitely. The economic quarter now underway will most likely feature Great Depression-caliber shrinkage in economic activity.
Yet at Thursday’s close, the S&P 500 was up 25 percent from its recent low on March 23. It is down only about 14 percent this year — and is up from its levels of just 11 months ago. There are answers as to why (more on that below). But that doesn’t take away the extremity of the juxtaposition between an economy in free fall and a stock market that is, in the scheme of things, doing just fine.
Two powerful forces are pushing in opposite directions. Commerce is being disrupted to a degree that seemed impossible just weeks ago. But simultaneously, stock investors are betting that powerful interventions out of Washington — including an additional $2.3 trillion in lending programs from the Federal Reserve announced on Thursday — will be enough to enable major companies to emerge with little damage to their long-term profitability.
It’s a battle between collapsing economic activity and, to use a silly meme from finance Twitter, the federal government’s money printer going “brrr.” In the stock market, at least, the revving of the money printer is winning.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/upshot/virus-stock-market-booming.html
Bhasha Mukherjee is a doctor who specializes in respiratory medicine. She's also Miss England.
Bhasha Mukherjee is a doctor who specializes in respiratory medicine. She’s also Miss England.
While doing humanitarian work in India last month, Mukherjee was staying attuned to news about the coronavirus pandemic.
As dire emails and text messages began to pour in from colleagues at Pilgrim Hospital in the eastern England town of Boston, Mukherjee, a recent medical school graduate, knew she had to get back.
“The situation was worsening back home and my colleagues needed help,” she said in an interview with The Post, adding that thousands of retired doctors had returned to work around the world because of the pandemic.
So on April 1, Mukherjee, 24, packed up her crown and gowns and flew home to Britain, where she is now in quarantine until early next week, when she reports for work at Pilgrim Hospital as a junior doctor.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/04/10/miss-england-2019-is-reporting-hospital-duty-shes-respiratory-specialist/
'It Was For Medical Reasons,' Say Doctors Explaining Why They Had To Give Boris Johnson a Haircut
LONDON—Calling the procedure “a fast, er, effective way” to treat symptoms of the Covid-19 virus, doctors at St. Thomas’ Hospital reportedly told British prime minister Boris Johnson that the haircut he’d received on Friday “was for, uh, medical reasons.”
“Well, you see Prime Minister, because of your severe respiratory issues, we, um, actually needed to access that part of your head for a...surgery thing, yes,” said senior clinician Dr. Randal Jensen, taking long, awkward pauses as he looked between his medical charts and Johnson’s new head of short, well-coiffed hair.
“Simply put, if we had kept your hairstyle the way it was, you could have risked death or something else, probably. We believe this is because the uh...keratin in your hair is related to your lungs, but don’t worry too much about that right now. We actually do it to all our patients. Right, yes, we definitely do that.”
At press time, the prime minister had reportedly informed his medical team that after his emergency lifesaving haircut, he’d never felt better.
https://politics.theonion.com/it-was-for-uh-medical-reasons-says-doctor-to-bori-1842783204
Fauci Begs Pharma Companies to Speed Development of Anti-Narcissism Drug
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Stating that “time is of the essence,” Dr. Anthony Fauci is imploring the nation’s pharmaceutical companies to fast-track the development of a drug to treat narcissism.
Acknowledging that narcissistic-personality disorder has historically been resistant to medication, the esteemed virologist said that a breakthrough drug was “urgently needed.”
“I have seen the toll that narcissism takes, day in, day out,” Fauci said. “The human cost is incalculable.”
Without offering scientific evidence or data, Fauci argued, “Successfully treating one narcissist could substantially reduce the misery and suffering of millions.”
The epidemiologist said that, as soon as a promising anti-narcissism drug is developed, he would “personally mastermind” its clinical trials.
For the purpose of those trials, Fauci said, it would be optimal to manufacture the drug as a pill or anything else “that could be easily crushed and dissolved in a Diet Coke.”
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/fauci-begs-pharma-companies-to-speed-development-of-anti-narcissism-drug
Green Party makes pitch for Sanders supporters
The Green Party, a political party that prioritizes environmental issues, posted a statement Wednesday attempting to court supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who dropped out of the Democratic presidential race earlier in the day.
“The Green Party will continue to build and expand on issues that Sanders raised. Join us,” the statement read.
https://twitter.com/GreenPartyUS/status/1247932469741080576
Sanders's exit paved the road to the Democratic nomination for former Vice President Joe Biden after a series of disappointing primaries for the Sanders campaign leading up to the Wisconsin election Tuesday.
Biden rose to the nomination by consolidating support among the moderate wing of the party while struggling to court the party’s left wing.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/491852-green-party-makes-pitch-for-sanders-supporters
California declares (rhetorical) independence from the undemocratic Trumpian States of America
If California was a country, it would be the fifth largest economy in the world. It is the global hub for both entertainment and technology, while also providing a majority of the nation’s people food (as opposed to corn for cattle)—a third of all vegetables, and two-thirds of all fruits and nuts. Oh, and the wine is pretty good too.
It’s also at the forefront of our nation’s demographic transformation, and is aggressively enacting progressive legislation. Naturally, that pits it directly against impeached president Donald Trump and everything his party stands for. Indeed, California has effectively cancelled the state’s GOP, and registered Republicans are almost half that of registered Democrats—around 23%. The state’s U.S. House delegation is 45-6 (with no gerrymandering goosing the numbers). The California Assembly is 61-18 Democratic. The state Senate is 29-10 Democratic. Now, fed up with Trump’s national incompetence, California Gov. Gavin Newsom basically declared independence, announcing it would go its own way on responding to COVID-19.
Yet that Democratic dominance in-state projects poorly on the national scale. Both chambers of Congress are heavily weighed to favor rural, white, and conservative interests. California has two senators. So does Wyoming. You know what has more people than Wyoming? Well, 116 counties. Sixteen of them in California.
States representing just 17% of the population can elect 50 senators and the majority—all because of random borders on a map. (This is also why the filibuster makes it impossible to enact any progressive agenda and must be eliminated.) Those are all rural, white, unrepresentative states, yet the system props up this (justifiably) dying slice of America.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/10/1934848/-California-declares-rhetorical-independence-from-the-undemocratic-Trumpian-States-of-America
Illegible signatures
I just received an (unsubscribed) email from Ammar Campa-Najjar (who is running to replace Duncan Hunter as representative for California's 50th Congressional district), and noticed he's someone whose signature is just a scribble.
As a poll worker in the past, I noticed that there's a fair number of people who share that same cacographic tendency (including our current CinC).
I know cursive writing has been in decline for some time now, but I remember learning good penmanship in the third grade was somewhat of a rite of passage into a more mature stage of life.
Anyway, I guess illegible signatures is a pet peeve of mine. Anyone care to clue me in on why some folks use inscrutable signatures? Are they just not that important any more?
Drop the Curtain on the Trump Follies
Even as the Trump administration slowly finds its footing in the war against Covid-19, one high-profile element of its response remains stubbornly awful: President Trump’s performance in the daily news briefings on the pandemic.
Early on, Mr. Trump discovered that he could use the briefings to satisfy his need for everything to be all about him. As the death toll rises, that imperative has not changed. Most nights, he comes before an uneasy public, typically for an hour or more, to spew a thick fog of self-congratulation, political attacks, misinformation and nonsense.
Since Mr. Trump took office, a debate has raged among the news media about how to cover a man-child apparently untethered from reality. But with a lethal pandemic on the prowl, the president’s insistence on grabbing center stage and deceiving the public isn’t merely endangering the metaphorical health of the Republic. It is risking the health — and lives — of millions of Americans. A better leader would curb his baser instincts in the face of this crisis. Since Mr. Trump is not wired that way, it falls to the media to serve the public interest by no longer airing his briefings live.
For those who have managed to avoid these nightly spectacles, it is hard to convey their tragic absurdity. Mr. Trump typically starts by reading a somber statement that he seems to have never seen before. Next come remarks from other administration officials or corporate executives involved in the relief effort, generally laden with praise for the president’s peerless leadership. Vice President Mike Pence is particularly gifted at this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/opinion/trump-coronavirus-press-conference.html
Capt. Crozier's firing shows the growing Trumpification of the military
“WTF?”
Those words — spelled out, not abbreviated — can be heard two minutes into the remarks delivered by acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly on Monday aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt as he sought to explain why he relieved the aircraft carrier’s captain for warning about a coronavirus outbreak. Specifically, that exclamation from an anonymous sailor came after Modly said Capt. Brett Crozier was “too naive or too stupid to be commanding officer of a ship like this,” because he should have known that a letter he emailed to 20 to 30 officials would leak to the media.
By the same token, Modly is too naive or stupid to be acting Navy secretary because he did not realize that his embarrassing diatribe — delivered to sailors who cheered and applauded Crozier when he left the ship — would leak to the media. Some unnamed Navy factotum had the gall to dispute the quotes attributed to Modly and to argue that his remarks were “private” — as if it’s possible to deliver private remarks over a public address system.
The whole speech was astonishing in its tone-deafness. It was full of profanity, media-bashing and self-pity. “If I could offer you a glimpse of the level of hatred and pure evil that has been thrown my way, my family’s way, over this decision, I would,” Modly said. “But it doesn’t matter. It’s not about me.” His complaints make clear that, in his view, it is all about him. Totally missing were any expressions of sympathy for Crozier — an outstanding aviator with decades of unblemished service who has now contracted covid-19 — or for all of the other crew members (174 and counting) battling this terrible virus. Instead, he accused Crozier of a “betrayal” of the Navy and his crew — a highly serious and completely unwarranted accusation.
We now know, thanks to the reporting of various journalists, first and foremost my plugged-in Post colleague David Ignatius, that in firing Crozier, Modly overruled the recommendation of Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In an interview with Ignatius, Modly made clear that his overriding desire was to please President Trump. He noted that his predecessor, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, had been fired for opposing Trump’s desire to reinstate with full rank a disgraced Navy SEAL who had been accused of war crimes in Iraq. “I didn’t want that to happen again,” Modly told Ignatius. “I put myself in the president’s shoes.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/07/acting-navy-secretary-fired-then-insulted-navy-hero-he-must-go/
Glad this asshole Modly is gone, but the damage has been done.
The most sycophantic administration. Ever.
Three types of people lose their jobs in the Trump administration: the adults, the embarrassingly bad actors and the independent-minded. You will notice that leaves only the bad (but not bad enough) dregs with no spine to stand up to President Trump. Therein lies many of our problems.
Many good performers — knowledgeable, honest and experienced — never entered the administration. Those who are even minimally competent invariably get canned or quit. A partial list: former national security adviser H.R. McMaster; former defense secretary Jim Mattis; former director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn; former acting attorney general Sally Yates; former FBI director James B. Comey; former director of national intelligence Daniel Coats; former National Security Council staffer Fiona Hill; and a slew of career U.S. attorneys and Foreign Service officers at the State Department (including former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch).
Then there are those who mess up so badly they become political liabilities for Trump. This is a long list, but certainly includes acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly (who traveled to Guam to berate and insult Navy Capt. Brett Crozier for pleading for the safety of his sailors stricken by covid-19); former Environmental Protection Agency director Scott Pruitt; former interior secretary Ryan Zinke; former health and human services secretary Tom Price; former labor secretary Alexander Acosta (partially responsible for the slap on the wrist for the late child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein); and a whole bunch of press secretaries and chiefs of staff. When their failures or ethics violations become too distracting, Trump eventually dumps them — but only after he and his sycophants in the media and Congress embarrass themselves by defending the malefactor.
Next come those who speak up and who defy (or threaten to defy) Trump’s reign of terror: former intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson (whose firing was “a decision that Trump acknowledged was in response to Atkinson’s having alerted lawmakers to the existence of a whistleblower complaint about the president’s dealings with Ukraine”); former national security staffer Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman; and, most recently, inspector general Glenn Fine, who had been charged with oversight of the $2 trillion stimulus package. (This comes as a New York Times report finds that Trump “has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine,” the unproven treatment for covid-19 that Trump incessantly hawked.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/08/sooner-or-later-they-all-go/
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