COVID19

[shinatoo]

One thing I can tell you about dividends with certainty; they have very little to do with Covid 19 and probably should have their own thread.

[phuqueue]

"Dividends are an agreement between an investor and an investment, so they are not a problem." Come again?

If dividend payments have left companies with too little cash on hand to weather an economic crisis, then dividends are a problem. You don't have to agree with that, but it's a coherent thought. Do you see the difference?

The US Constitution guarantees citizens the right to and protection of private property. Shareholder investments are private property, and the agreement between an investor and the company that pays dividends to that shareholder is essentially a private contract. The various government entities may not contravene that agreement. They can tax it, but they cannot disallow it. That's the coherent thought from the status quo.

"The US Constitution guarantees citizens the right to and protection of private property, so dividends aren't a problem." No, you see how that still doesn't actually make sense? Are you sure you remember what position you are actually trying to argue? Here's what it was, just to be clear:

I am sorry, but dividends are not a problem, certainly not "worse than socialism."

In any case, the Constitution guarantees a lot of things, but an absolute and limitless right to private property without government interference isn't one of them. But that's actually neither here nor there (and not just because this is irrelevant to the question of whether dividends are a problem). Here are just a few things the government can, and in some cases does, do that would fall short of imposing an outright de jure prohibition on dividends:

1. Condition bailout payments on not engaging in buybacks or dividends
2. Refuse bailout payments to companies that have no cash on hand because they already spent it all on buybacks and dividends and let these companies fail
3. Impose reserve requirements on companies

And you suggest another interesting idea:

4. Tax corporate profits at 100% so that there is no money left to pay out as a dividend. Maybe this money could go into a rainy day fund to pay for the next bailout, or maybe it could be used to help fund an actual safety net for workers so that we can let companies fail and their employees can't be held hostage to secure a bailout ransom.

[FangKC]

According to ABC News:

President Trump has encouraged governors to reopen their schools.

Governor Cuomo will extend the stay-at-home order in some parts of New York, and begin to open other parts. New York is still having 1000 new cases a day.

The food supply is beginning to break down due to COVID says a meat supplier.

A Top E.R. Doctor at New York Presbyterian Allen Medical Center, who treated patients with COVID, and recovered from COVID herself, has committed suicide.

2,899 have died in Massachusetts, 52 percent in nursing homes.

Today was the first day in New Orleans where no one died from COVID.

Some children in the UK have had a toxic shock syndrome-like response to COVID.

[FangKC]

There’s Been a Spike in People Dying at Home in Several Cities. That Suggests Coronavirus Deaths Are Higher Than Reported.

https://www.propublica.org/article/ther ... xSMZnmVEgw

[FangKC]

Here are Missouri's reopening guidelines

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... NitBIn0%3D

[FangKC]

[earthling]

^What matters is what the key battleground states think (on Trump vs. Biden), not the national polls.

[earthling]

This says jobless claims will be about 3.5M more reported this week for a total of about 30M jobless since COVID. (It's been about right every week). With 30M lost + 5M unemployed just before COVID layoffs and 165M in labor force, that's over 20% raw unemployment. Some furloughed are starting to return though.

https://www.fxstreet.com/analysis/us-in ... 2004290131

[earthling]

"Millions can’t access unemployment benefits so actual job losses are likely greater than data shows"
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/million ... urvey.html

The EPI survey estimated between 8.9 million and 13.9 million more Americans would have filed for claims over the past five weeks had the process been easier.

If the case, total lost could be well over 35M, unemployment could be well over 25%.

If 30M lost, employment levels are down to 1996 level.
If 35M lost, down to 1993 level
If 40M lost, down to 1988 level

We won't know how many jobs have returned as lockdown loosens in some states until the May 15 BLS report for April (which may come sooner being high priority).

[brewcrew1000]

That Vietnam graphic is kind of bullshit, I know this is American Soliders that died but why not put total numbers, the number of civilan deaths would put this number in the Millions, 2-3 million if you include everyone that died in that war.

How come you never hear the media talk about how a lot of people going to Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc are not really social distancing, not wearing masks, a lot of them are just browsing and taking there entire families (My wife sees it everyday since she works at walmart). There haven't really been a lot of safety measure put up in a lot of these big box stores at all. I guarantee you if the media started criticizing these huge companies everyday the big companies would cut ad dollars immediately.

[earthling]

Slovakia has among lowest cases/deaths attributed to starting early with masks, their testing rate is below Euro and US avg.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/corona ... ailblazer/

[ToDactivist]

Good global update and charts. Interesting order of magnitude difference in some countries.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020 ... nd=premium

[FangKC]

According to ABC News:

60,316 known dead in the USA attributed to COVID.

Remdesivir, a drug for Ebola, in an early NIH study, appears to show potential in treating the virus says Dr. Anthony Fauci. Needs to be peer-reviewed. Clinical trials in China show no beneficial effect though.

330 deaths in the last 24 hours in New York.

Massachusetts and Illinois are at peak in cases.

4.8 percent contraction in GDP in the first quarter.

11 states have eased restrictions; 7 more plan to.

[FangKC]

^What matters is what the key battleground states think (on Trump vs. Biden), not the national polls.

[earthling]

Jobless claims added 3.84M over last week for total of 30.3M jobs lost/furloughed over 6 weeks. Some are starting to return with states opening back up however many millions more may have not filed yet.

[kboish]

It feels like people i know are starting to make plans to do things again. Not necessarily go on trips, to bars, or attend sports events, but just get together with others. This is either because they are anticipating the reopening and feel relaxed about it or are just tired of not doing anything and haven't seen much impact on their immediate acquaintances.

[flyingember]

Does anyone think the 12-18 months to a vaccine was a schedule more limited by process and approvals and testing and all that and we're going to see a mad dash to one, more limited by science where multi phase drug trials with reports will be replaced with "let's try it on 10,000 volunteers and see what happens"

[grovester]

They are already hop-scotching. Might work, might not.

Not something to admire or emulate, born out of necessity, that's how bad this virus is.

[mgsports]

https://m.facebook.com/1549079682021927 ... 039479248/ might because of Virus but building has been sold,

[flyingember]

https://m.facebook.com/1549079682021927 ... 039479248/ might because of Virus but building has been sold,

It literally says that's why it was sold. So they either lied or there's no "might" involved.