Here’s the report: As the new coronavirus took root across America, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent states tainted test kits in early February that were themselves seeded with the virus, federal officials have confirmed. The contamination made the tests uninterpretable, and—because testing is crucial for containment efforts—it lost the country invaluable time to get ahead of the advancing pandemic. The CDC had been vague about what went wrong with the tests, initially only saying that “a problem in the manufacturing of one of the reagents” had led to the failure. Subsequent reporting suggested that the problem was with a negative control—that is, a part of the test meant to be free of any trace of the Read More ›

Yesterday ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Mark Zuckerberg about his company’s policy of censoring posts that are intended to organize protests of the government’s shelter-in-place orders.  Zuckerberg said that Facebook takes down posts that it classifies as “harmful misinformation.”  Then he said this:  “At the same time, you know, it’s important that people can debate policies, can basically give their opinion on different things.” Translation:  You can debate policies and give your opinions on Facebook as much as you want just so long as you don’t step out of line and disagree with us about the government’s coronavirus response.  Before I go on, let me say this:  Facebook is a private company.  No one is forced to use it.  No one Read More ›

See here. The estimated infection numbers are 28 to 55 times higher than the 7,994 confirmed COVID-19 cases L.A. County had reported at the time of the study in early April. This study seems to confirm the study reported in BREAKING: Stanford Study: COVID-19 Case Fatality Rate May Be Overstated By A Factor Of 85 It is becoming increasingly clear that we have closed the country down out of fear of a virus when the overwhelming majority of infections are so mild that the infected person never notices.

Buzz: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is reportedly in “grave danger” following surgery, CNN reported on Monday evening, citing an anonymous U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation. There have been rumors of the dictator’s declining health in recent days, after he reportedly missed the country’s most important political holiday last week — the birthday celebration of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and founder of the communist tyranny. NBC’s Kathy Tur sparked further speculation after deleting a tweet citing two U.S. officials who purportedly claimed that the authoritarian is “brain dead.” “North Korean leader Kim ing Un is brain dead, according to two US officials. He recently had cardiac surgery and slipped into a coma, according to one US Read More ›

We are entering unprecedented and perilous economic times.  Today for the first time in history the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil went negative, with the May delivery plunging to -$36.73 per barrel.  Our fiscal policy makers are in panic mode as they try to stave off a deflationary spiral that could plunge the country into a deep depression. In this article I will discuss the government’s response to the current crisis, whether the law of unintended consequences will result in the destruction of the dollar, and possible replacements for the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The Government’s Plan Even before the crash of the oil market, Fed policy makers knew deflationary pressures caused by the COVID-19 crisis Read More ›

As my personal blog tracker reports: Let me add, a 1-year look: This of course reflects the impact of economic slowdown due to lockdown, but it also implies room for considerable stimulus. END PS: A look at going into depression: A strongly shocked economy can tumble well within the PPF, sticking there for years, as in the 1930’s. A long enough pandemic lockdown could send it there. However, I doubt it, though a recession is likely.

Yesterday in response to one of my more outrageous “dad jokes,” my son said that I was “cra-cra” (pronounced Cray Cray).  I hastened to the internet to look the term up.  It means “Crazy.” The term put me in mind of a recent exchange I had with frequent commenter MatSpirit.  We were discussing President Trump’s reaction to New York Governor Cuomo’s call for more ventilators.  For those who did not follow the story, on March 27 Cuomo said New York needed 40,000 ventilators.  The state had 12,000 already, so Cuomo was calling for an additional 28,000.  On that same day Trump said that he believed the request was inflated, that New York did not need that many ventilators. Fast forward Read More ›