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Thursday, April 02, 2020

News Factoids for First Quarter 2020

TRUMPVIRUS NEWS

It took three months to reach 100,000 coronavirus cases worldwide; the second 100,000 took only 12 days; it took only two weeks to reach 500,000 on March 26.

The U.S. trumpvirus outbreak hit another grim milestone on Wednesday April 1, with the national death toll jumping by more than 1,000 in a single day for the first time and rising to 5,137 overall.

ECONOMIC NEWS

The U.S. federal budget deficit rose to $389.2 billion in the first four months of the 2020 fiscal year, a 25 percent increase over the same period the previous year.

The Federal Reserve on Sunday March 15 announced that it was cutting interest rates by 100 basis points to near zero; the Fed also said that it was buying at least $700 billion in government and mortgage-related bonds in a broad effort to stimulate the economy.

The Federal Reserve on Saturday March 21 announced that it will buy up to $30 trillion dollars in corporate and investment junk bonds as a way of propping up the collapsing U.S. economy; the plan is to purchase $1 trillion each day for the next 30 days.

Economists at the Federal Reserve's St. Louis District are now projecting the unemployment rate in the United States could hit 32.1 percent, placing 47 million people out of work. [CNBC March 30, 2020]

ET CETERA

As the year changed over on January 1, thousands of once-copyrighted works from 1924 entered the public domain. Ninety-five years after their creation, these classics are finally free to use, remix, and build upon without permission or payment.

"Always remember that half the population is below average, and it is even worse on Facebook." ~~~ G.E. Nordell

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

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