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Pompeo says 'significant' evidence new coronavirus emerged from Chinese lab

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-pompeo/pompeo-says-significant-evidence-new-coronavirus-emerged-from-chinese-lab-idUSKBN22F0SC?il=0

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/495859-pompeo-china-did-all-that-it-could-to-make-sure-the

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/5dmnex/payday-lenders-are-charging-up-to-780-interest-amid-coronavirus-panic

keep in mind:

In most states 780% is not legal. Most states have usury limits on interest. Although some states have no limits. Pawn shops and payday lenders have been considered essential because they are financial institutions. They make loans just like a bank. And just like a bank they have to follow financial rules.

Also keep in mind when they report 780% interest that includes the maximum penalties for late payments. 780% is the number for when you do everything wrong. Credit card interest rates can also be high if you miss payments.

Here is a list of usury laws by state:

https://www.cuna.org/uploadedFiles/Advocacy/Priorities/State_Government_Affairs/a-z_usury_lawguide.pdf

and he's back... 

so what's the point?

30 million people have filed for unemployment in the last 6 weeks, equal to *every single worker* losing their job in these 27 states 

• Just over 3.4 million borrowers, representing 6.4% of all mortgages outstanding, are now in forbearance plans.
• That’s an increase of 477,000 loans in just one week, or a nearly 9% jump, according to Black Knight, a mortgage data and analytics firm, which is running weekly tallies.
• These forbearances represent $754 billion in unpaid principal and include 5.6% of all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans and 8.9% of all FHA/VA loans.

Source:  https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/mortgage-bailout-balloons-by-half-a-million-more-loans-in-one-week.html

How do you think this will play out?

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/only-half-of-americans-confident-they-can-pay-full-rent-in-may-survey.html

FTA:

52% of American renters say they are confident they will be able to pay full rent in May, compared to 69% who said they could in April, according to a new survey, but those numbers could change as more federal stimulus checks hit bank accounts.

63% of renters said they have suffered income losses related to Covid-19.

A significant percentage of renters plan to move within six months.

There is a lot of disinformation on the net claiming Covid-19 will only be a minor setback and the job losses are temporary. These so economic "analysts" are basing their opinion not based on facts. Social distancing and half lock down cities will become the norm until a vaccine is out. Which means nothing is returning to normal until mid next year the earliest.

In that time frame we will continue to see a huge job loss not just in retail workers, but small business owners. Small businesses make up 44% of the US economy.

The Fed has come out and stated the Economy will not be back to pre-paramedic levels until 2022. The fed is rarely the bearer of bad news, which means there is a possibility it may take longer for a full economic recovery.

How does this affect the real estate prices? It's hard to say because The Fed has infinite capital and their decisions will dictate the real estate market. What I do know is the federal reserve wants inflation to keep the GDP growth which would include the real estate market.

https://advocacy.sba.gov/2019/01/30/small-businesses-generate-44-percent-of-u-s-economic-activity/

https://www.oanow.com/news/national/fed-survey-u-s-economy-will-not-bounce-back-until-2022/video_b2579824-e4ce-50cc-b555-e8b0c010ef43.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/cnbc-fed-survey-the-us-will-need-to-spend-trillions-more-as-economy-takes-until-2022-to-fully-recover.html

They smell something rotting.

Link:  https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/30/wells-fargo-says-it-will-no-longer-accept-applications-for-home-equity-lines-of-credit.html

Wells Fargo, one of the largest home lenders in the U.S., said it it stepping away from the market for home equity lines of credit because of uncertainty tied to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Wells Fargo Home Lending will temporarily stop accepting applications for all new home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) after April 30,” the bank said in a statement.

During tough economic times, HELOCs are riskier products for banks because in a foreclosure, the lender who made the primary mortgage is first in line to get paid in a recovery.

Moreover, one can argue that the expected duration of unemployment matters more than the unemployment rate itself, especially if the recovery is quick (and so duration is short). These are very large numbers by historical standards, but this is a rather unique shock that is unlike any other experienced by the U.S. economy in the last 100 years.

"Just want to point out, our population has doubled since the great depression."

-

Yes, exactly. Our population has doubled, yet the lowest weekly unemployment claims in the past 6 weeks was 5x the previous weekly record.

This is blowing the great depression numbers away regardless of population. The highest unemployment rate in US history was 24.1% during the great depression.

The Fed is projecting 32.1% unemployment rate this quarter.

The "official" stats in the link above were updated at the beginning of April for March 2020 to only 8.9%. 

It will be interesting to see what they set it at during the beginning of May 2020.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-jobless-claims-climb-38-million-in-late-april-to-push-coronavirus-total-to-30-million-2020-04-30?mod=article_inline

It seems as if everyone believes that all these jobs are still there waiting for everyone to return.

The big question is what % of these jobs have vanished forever or been replaced by efficiencies or permanent changes in behavior?

Another point is that these numbers do not represent ALL of the unemployed. Evidently many cannot get in to actually apply or even worse are not eligible for some technicality.

Thank you. I'm watching a documentary on Amazon about the history of the Catholic Church and they were discussing it.

I figured one of you might know more about it. 

Thanks..

So it is possible that he was actually "in person" walking out of Rome when Jesus told him basically to return to Rome according to the show. I think he supposedly sent his secretary back to Rome instead.

Just curious if we have proof?

https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/

I'm watching commercial property valuations plummeting from 11% down to 49% for various types in L.A. area.

My second question is how or if these plummeting values will ever transfer to the residential housing market.

My gut says that the unemployment rate will have a larger effect but I just can't help but wonder.

The rout in Oil is probably a boost for residential pricing since there will be more disposable income left for buyers / owners.

Your thoughts? Your area?

https://nationalpost.com/health/covid-19-likely-spread-by-building-ventilation-say-canadian-researchers-working-on-an-hvac-fix

“This has been on people’s radar for quite a while,” he said. “Somebody on a different floor sneezes …The particle can stay airborne long enough to go all the way through the system and then pop out in somebody else’s office.”

https://youtu.be/60KJz1BVTyU

OUTLINE: 0:00

- Introduction 2:48

- Engineering at scale 8:36

- Increasing access to the economy 13:09

- Machine learning at Square 15:18

- Future of the digital economy 17:17

- Cryptocurrency 25:31

- Artificial intelligence 27:49

- Her 29:12

- Exchange with Elon Musk about bots 32:05

- Concerns about artificial intelligence 35:40

- Andrew Yang 40:57

- Eating one meal a day 45:49

- Mortality 47:50

- Meaning of life 48:59

- Simulation

Many websites, including this one, as well as newspaper rooms that might have existed "pre-google" stealing their content reported on Coronavirus "rumors" in China and were warning the world.

Since mainly Google (and Facebook) have become the source of what's important for people to know in the 2010-2020 era they have a certain "editorial" responsibility that I think many are missing.

The Press of yesteryear were also our "watchmen" calling out warnings and alerting the masses.

Through years of stealing content from the press and fewer and fewer actually reading news articles or subscribing to journalists a whole new generation has no "Press".... just corporate owned PR departments. They killed any possible profit from investigative journalism long ago.

Now the skeleton corporate "Press" crew can only be seen if they "Pay to Play" with Google. (and Facebook)

Imagine for a moment if a "Boston Globe" sounded the alarm to a listening audience that China was covering up a plague to a world of 1988. Politicians would have been pressured to react and secure borders etc. The WHO would have been held accountable. People would have known that a President defunded the Pandemic protection from the CDC etc...

Evidently somebody in 2020 didn't pay Google enough.

And since I won't pay them to "promote this post"... this very important message probably will not be seen by most people.

Welcome to the new Internet completely owned by Google and Facebook.

Would you say their "AI" editorialism of selecting what they think is relevant for your searches and news distribution worked?

Or was your search "flawed"?

p.s.- Don't even get me started how people get their news on Facebook.

Bitcoin explained in two minutes pic.twitter.com/toqXzlAcwD

— Bitcoin (@Bitcoin) April 24, 2020

Will people still prize subway access?

Will people still want to cram into planes? (to me they are sort of the same although planes seem to have better ventilation)

I wonder if we will see an exodus from the cities for more suburban lifestyle choices?

People are speculating that we may see a repurposing of all the office space toward residential use now. I wonder if the suburban home will now claim a premium over 10th floor city views?

Just some early Saturday morning thoughts.

What do you think some of the post coronavirus changes will be?

Interesting.... so we got it from the Germans....