Day: April 17, 2020

When you have a huge hole where your nation’s leadership should be, it is wise to borrow the best of other people’s leaders. They can’t make America’s big decisions, but they can fill in some of the gaps.

In the Covid-19 pandemic, we can take comfort in their competence and use their wisdom to guide us about what we each should do.

Right now, the US and many other nations are considering easing social distancing and other restrictions if and when their new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations become flat or start to fall. And German Prime Minister Angela Merkel …

The number of new coronavirus tests reported each day has plateaued — a big blow to the prospects of America reopening its economy safely anytime soon, even as President Donald Trump insists the country is weeks away from doing so.

Trump announced guidelines on April 16 for states to reopen, calling for governors to ease social distancing measures, such as stay-at-home orders, as the number of new coronavirus cases begin to come down. He acknowledged a requirement for reopening the economy is that the federal government and states must know that the numbers of new coronavirus cases are actually coming …

Support for a once-radical idea — the government funding of company payrolls — is growing in Congress, as the legislative body scrambles to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and the massive economic fallout that’s resulted.

The newest proposal on the subject, the Paycheck Security Act, comes from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mark Warner (D-VA), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): Their bill, which was shared exclusively with Vox, would fund a portion of a company’s payroll costs, up to $90,000 per worker who has been laid off or furloughed, if a business can demonstrate that it has suffered …

Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, having won primaries in several key states and racked up endorsements from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Barack Obama, among others.

Biden started the 2020 campaign as an early frontrunner; he placed first in a crowded field of Democrats in most early polls, then struggled in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire. But a win in the more diverse state of South Carolina revived his campaign and gave him momentum going into Super Tuesday, where he won several states and racked up delegates. After competing for …

The economy is in free fall.

About 22 million people — or more than 13 percent of the US labor force — have filed for unemployment in the past four weeks. Economists are projecting unemployment as high as 20 percent within a matter of months. Entire industries, like hotels and airlines, have all but shut down, and the rest of the economy is slowing as people stay indoors and the panic from the coronavirus shock turns into an ongoing recession.

When the economy is collapsing like this, there’s an actor who is supposed to step in: the Federal Reserve.

While …

President Donald Trump more or less declared victory over the coronavirus during the daily White House briefing on Thursday — ignoring signs that the battle with a disease he likes to call “the invisible enemy” is actually far from over.

Trump began by saying that “thanks to our all-out military operation and the extraordinary devotion of our people, we believe we will experience far fewer deaths than even the optimistic projection.” (In fact, as recently as late February Trump was saying the virus would go away on its own without any Americans dying.) He went on to outline the “…