President Trump talked to the nation, and in that speech, he threw shade at China and Europe. The president likes to cast blame on others when he’s backed into a corner. His tardy response to the COVID-19 outbreak made the U.S. the least tested advanced nation on the planet according to health officials. Even South Korea continues to test more people per million than the United States.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top allergy and infectious disease experts, thinks Trump’s response to the coronavirus outbreak helped spread the disease. Fauci told ABC News he doesn’t want to throw stones at the president, but Americans who need a test kit still can’t get one because the government botched the test kit rollout. California’s Governor Newsom claims the test kits Californians got from the government don’t work. The governor said it was like getting a copying machine without the ink.
Mr. Trump decided he would ban travel to the United States from Europe. Health officials said that move was more about politics than stopping the spread of the virus. EU president Ursula von der Leyen didn’t waste time calling Trump’s move a below-the-belt economic inspired move. Mr. Trump said he didn’t warn von der Leyen about the ban because she raises tariffs and doesn’t tell him before she does.
Several news reports claim Trump didn’t include the UK or Ireland in his travel ban because he owns golf resorts in Scotland, Ireland, and the UK. Those same news reports say the president wants to protect his great economy more than American citizens. But Mike Pence denies that claim. Pence told ABC News the president’s first mission is to protect Americans, even though his irresponsible rhetoric threw a monkey-wrench in that mission, according to the New York Times.
Mr. Trump wants the Feds to cut interest rates again at the March meeting. Wall Street economists think that might happen. But the Feds also decided to pump $1.5 trillion into the economy by buying more Treasury notes and continuing to keep the repo market interest rate low by dumping $150 billion a month in that market.
But those financial moves may not help the consumer sector of the economy. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of Gross Domestic Product growth, and consumers plan to stay home until COVID-19 runs out of gas. If consumer spending hits the toilet, economists say a recession may be a reality by the end of June.
Dil Bole Oberoi
