Coronavirus
– Singaporean who breached coronavirus stay-home notice to eat bak kut teh sentenced to 6 weeks’ jail
– Sunday’s Boston Globe runs 21 pages of death notices as coronavirus continues to claim lives
– Losing It: 72% Of Locked-Down Americans Say They’ll Reach ‘Breaking Point’ By Mid-June
– McCaughey: Homemade Masks Only 2 Percent Effective
– Coronavirus antibody tests have “really terrible” accuracy, researcher says
– CDC Extends Social Distancing Guidelines To Apply To Pets
– Dozens Of Bodies Found In Unrefrigerated Trucks Near Brooklyn Funeral Home
Business/Economy
– Coronavirus cash crunch leading to more Americans withdrawing from 401k accounts
– The coronavirus has caused a wave of early retirement
– Unprecedented Pace Of Corporate Debt Issuance Has Crippled Corporate Fundamentals
– Mnuchin: ‘You’re going to see the economy really bounce back in July, August, September’
– COVID-19 jobless rates will be comparable to Great Depression: Trump economic adviser
– White House Economic Adviser: Q2 GDP Will Be Biggest Negative Number Since Great Depression; -20% To -30%
– GM Suspends Dividend, Stock Buyback Program To Preserve Cash
– For Houston, a One-Two Punch: ‘It’s Going to Be Devastating’
– Mnuchin Says It’s “Highly Unlikely” Fed Will Buy Stocks; “Poorly Managed States” Won’t Get Bailout
– Tesla Drops Its D&O Insurance, Says Elon Musk Will Now “Personally Provide Coverage”
– Why Illinois Is In Trouble – 109,881 Public Employees With $100,000+ Paychecks Cost Taxpayers $14B
– Uber reportedly may cut around 20% of workforce; CTO resigns
– Coronavirus Relief Often Pays Workers More Than Work
– Greenspan Sees Rebound After ‘Pretty Awful’ Second Quarter
– The U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate in the first quarter, its biggest contraction since the recession in 2008.
– Dividend Massacre in This Crisis is Already Breaking Records, But it Just Started
– U.S. jobless claims climb 3.8 million in late April to push coronavirus total to 30 million
– US Consumer Spending Collapses By Record, Worse Annual Drop Than Peak Of Lehman Crisis
– Fed’s Powell Says More Spending Will Be Needed From Congress
– US pending home sales sank 20.8% in March
– U.S. Stocks Have Their Best Month Since 1987
– Consumer Spending Plunges Record 7.5% on Virus Fears, Job Losses
– April Will Be The Worst Month On Record For Auto Sales
– $6.66 Trillion
– Investors Baffled By Soaring Stocks In ‘Monster’ Depression
– New orders reading in key ISM factory index is at its worst since the 1950s
– Stymied in Seeking Benefits, Millions of Unemployed Go Uncounted
– Congressman warns national debt could reach $30 trillion by end of September
– US Manufacturing Surveys Show Record Collapse In Output, Orders, & Jobs
– Amazon Extends Work-From-Home Policy Through Oct. 2
– Mnuchin Requests Private Schools Return PPP Loans
– Elon Musk tweets that Tesla shares are ‘too high’
– U.S. Homeowners are Increasingly Delaying Mortgage Payments
Government/Politics
– Trump says briefings not worth his time after disinfectant gaffe
– Gavin Newsom Declares California a ‘Nation-State’
– Trump Says ‘COVID Reparations’ Coming: US Will Bill China At Least $160 Billion
– “I Don’t Need A Lecture”: Pelosi Praises Biden For His Response To Sexual Assault Allegations Despite Biden Not Responding
– Biden Denies Tara Reade’s Assault Allegation: ‘This Never Happened’
– The Finance 202: Trump officials spook economists with talk of skipping debt payments to China
– Trump Will Thwart Investment of US Pension Funds In China
– Why Won’t TV News Book Tara Reade?
– Prominent Democratic women are standing by Joe Biden amid Tara Reade’s sexual assault claim
World
– Japan mayor under fire for ‘women dawdle at shops’ remark
– ‘There Are No Viruses Here’: Leader of Belarus Scoffs at Lockdowns
– Singapore to propose law to enable virtual marriage solemnisations amid Covid-19 outbreak
– New Zealand’s Prime Minister May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet
– Central America: Unrest, repression grow amid coronavirus crisis
– From private testing for the rich to unrest in banlieues, coronavirus is highlighting France’s stark divide
– Macron issues ultimatum to Europe’s German bloc: cough up Covid trillions or lose the single market
– Mexico’s Pemex bleeds more red ink in nearly $24 billion quarterly loss
– European Central Bank to allow banks to borrow at minus 1 percent
– Swedish city to dump tonne of chicken manure in park to deter visitors
– Deutsche Bank Capitulates: Starts Charging Negative Rate On All New Deposit Accounts Over €100,000
– UK Headed For “Deep Recession” As Manufacturing Activity Sees Record Slump In April
– In Lockdown, Delhi Is Frozen in Fear and the Present Tense
– Spanish Beach Sprayed With Bleach, Causing “Brutal Damage†to Local Animals
Local
– Georgia unemployment claims reach 1.3M since mid-March
Lockdown/Reopening
– Reopening Has Begun. No One Is Sure What Happens Next.
– A Few Thousand Protest Stay-at-Home Order at Wisconsin State Capitol
– This Japanese Island Lifted Its Coronavirus Lockdown Too Soon and Became a Warning to the World
– Protests Mount To Reopen the Country: Pictures
– California heat wave draws large crowds to beaches despite stay-at-home order
– ‘I want my life back’: Germans protest against lockdown
– Governor Set to Close All Beaches and State Parks in California
– Hundreds of protesters, some carrying guns in the state Capitol, demonstrate against Michigan’s emergency measures
Suicide
– Head of Russian hospital falls 50 feet during coronavirus call
– Exasperation Grows Over Delays Trying To Sign Up For Unemployment, ‘People Have No Food, People Are Talking About Suicide’
– Top Manhattan ER doc commits suicide, shaken by coronavirus onslaught
– EMT John Mondello kills himself after less than three months on the job
– Second Russian doctor plunges to their death amid coronavirus outbreak
– Doctor who recovered from coronavirus dies by suicide, police say
Military
– USS Kidd, another Navy warship at sea, reports a coronavirus outbreak
Food
– Violent Food & Fuel Shortage Riots Grip Venezuela Amid COVID-19 Lockdown
– U.S. Reels Toward Meat Shortages and the World May Be Next
– A New Problem Is Brewing in the Beer Industry: One Million Kegs Are Going Stale
– Zimbabwe food crisis worsens with COVID-19 lockdown extension
– American Farms Cull Millions Of Chickens Amid Virus-Related Staff Shortages At Processing Plants
– National Guard Deployed At Nation’s Food Banks To Ensure Stability During Unprecedented Times
– USDA let millions of pounds of food rot while food-bank demand soared
– Warnings of unrest mount as coronavirus hits food availability
– Tyson Foods chairman offers dark warning about the food supply chain as processing plants close
– Trump to Invoke Defense Production Act: Who Will Be Forced to Work at Meat Plants?
– Food Lines a Mile Long in America’s Second-Wealthiest State
– Powerful Meat Industry Holds More Sway After Trump’s Order
– McDonalds Starts To Ration Meat Amid Supply Chain “Concerns”
– Kroger is limiting ground beef and pork purchases in some stores
– An Idaho farm is giving away 2 million potatoes so they don’t go to waste
Oil
– Why More Than Two Dozen Oil Tankers Are Anchored Off the Southern California Coast
– In 2020 Oil-Exporters’ Income Will Plunge By Over $1 Trillion, Forcing Widespread Stock Liquidations
– Diamond Offshore files for bankruptcy, stock plunges
– Exxon Reports First Quarterly Loss In 32 Years
Precious metals
– Australia Flies Gold Bars 11,000 Miles to New York to Ease Supply Squeeze
– The World’s Oldest Gold Trader Is Closing
– Silver hasn’t been this cheap in 5,000 years of human history
– After Gold & Oil Contract Chaos, CME Group Secures $7 Billion Credit Line “In Case Of COMEX Member Default”
Currency
– Italian Town Creates New Currency to Cope With COVID-19
Weather
– 50 million Americans at risk for next severe weather outbreak
UFO
– Trump Says ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ Clip Is ‘Hell of a Video’: ‘I Just Wonder If It’s Real’
– Harry Reid Says Footage of UFOs ‘Only Scratches The Surface’
Twitter
– Tanker vessels anchored off the coast of Southern California