Tag: Trump abdicated leadership

While Virus Spikes Across America, White House Praises Its Own Response

As the COVID-19 pandemic shows no sign of slowing, Donald Trump is declaring victory.

On Monday, the seven-day average for new coronavirus cases surged 30 percent higher than a week before. On Wednesday, the nation broke its previous record for most new cases in a day, with 36,880. Hospitals in hot spots are running out of beds, and more than half of states are seeing increasing numbers of cases.

The Trump administration has spent the week praising itself for a job well done.

The Washington Post reported that Mike Pence had told Republican senators on Wednesday to pay attention to “encouraging signs,” such as the fact that cases were only increasing in 12 states. The Post debunked this false claim, noting the number of states with increasing infection rates was actually much higher. Continue reading.

1.48 million people filed for first-time unemployment last week, worse than predictions

“If you are still firing 1.5 million people in the middle of a reopening, that suggests companies are trying to adjust their workforces to a new future,” said one economist.

Around 1.48 million people filed for initial unemployment benefits last week, the 14th consecutive week that states have processed over a million first-time applications — and a larger weekly figure than economist predictions of 1.35 million.

While the figures for the week ending June 20 are a far cry from the peak of 6.6 million in March, it is still an astonishing number, and a continuation of the grim ritual that has happened at 8:30 a.m. every Thursday since the pandemic hit, when the Department of Labor announces how many claims have been made for unemployment insurance.

The U.S. economy is showing some signs of improvement — in housing and online retail sales, for instance, but the labor market is still in rough shape. Continue reading.