Coronavirus Travel Restrictions: Trump Says Europe Arrivals Soon Welcome - by Tamara Thiessen

U.S. travel will soon be possible for some travelers from Europe says Donald Trump. President Trump says the U.S. plans to “open up” to travelers arriving from low-risk countries in Europe and elsewhere. This means many Europeans may soon be able to plan American vacations or business trips.

Trump’s travel ban has put a block on all travelers coming from 26 European countries as well as the U.K. and Ireland since March 13. Not just European citizens and residents, but anyone who has set foot in those places in the previous fortnight.

Speaking of the new Brazil flight ban on Wednesday, President Trump indicated the Europe travel restrictions will soon ease. At least for some arrivals. Travelers coming from countries with low Covid-19 risk profiles will be given the green light first he hinted.

Read more: 
US Travel, Great News: Trump Says Europe Arrivals Soon Welcome

USA Economy:- Civil unrest puts U.S. economy in a vicious circle - by Anna Szymanski

Protests and riots have complex causes, but inequality is clearly acatalyst. From Detroit in 1967 to Los Angeles in 1992, political outrageis often mixed with concerns about economic injustice. Anger inMinneapolis was sparked by long-time concerns about the police’srelationship with the African American community, but the stark economicdivide laid bare by the pandemic may also be playing a role. 

Read more at: 
Breakingviews - Civil unrest puts U.S. economy in a vicious circle - Reuters

Spain: Minimum income: Socialist government backs benefit for 850,000 vulnerable families

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, from the ruling Socialist Party, described it as "historic measure", adding: "a country does not prosper if it leaves out part of its population".

He said that it will "protect those who are having the worst time, fight poverty and contribute to the economic recovery of the country".

Read more at:
Spain minimum income: Socialist government backs benefit for 850,000 vulnerable families | Euronews

EUROZONE: Keeping the promise of eurozone convergence – by Philip Heimberger, Maximilian Krahé, Dominic Ponattu and Jens van 't Klooster

Covid-19 is first of all a health crisis. Its economic consequences, however, are no less severe. Given the pandemic’s uneven progression across Europe, unequal fiscal starting points geographically and this month’s ruling by the German constitutional court, the coming months and years will put the eurozone to the test once more.

In its current architecture, the eurozone is a web of glass—superficially stable, but brittle when subject to shocks. To avoid a break-up and render it resilient for the long term, the sources of this fragility must be identified and remedied.

Read more at:
Keeping the promise of eurozone convergence – Philip Heimberger, Maximilian Krahé, Dominic Ponattu and Jens van 't Klooster

US economy: New wave of U.S. layoffs feared as coronavirus pain deepens

Job cuts by U.S. state and local governments whose budgets have been crushed fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and more second-wave layoffs in the private sector likely contributed last week to a 10th straight week of more than 2 million Americans seeking unemployment benefits.

Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy/new-wave-of-u-s-layoffs-feared-as-coronavirus-pain-deepens-idUKKBN2340E6

Trump will lose in a landslide because of the economy, new election model predicts

The economy has gone from President Donald Trump's greatest political asset to perhaps his biggest weakness.

Unemployment is spiking at an unprecedented rate. Consumer spending is vanishing. And GDP is collapsing. History shows that dreadful economic trends like these spell doom for sitting presidents seeking reelection.

The coronavirus recession will cause Trump to suffer a "historic defeat" in
November, a national election model released Wednesday by Oxford
Economics predicted.

Read more at:
Trump will lose in a landslide because of the economy, new election model predicts - CNN

EU Summit: EU eyes first face-to-face summit in months to haggle over budget

EU leaders may meet for a face-to-face summit in the coming weeks to bargain over the next joint budget and a linked coronavirus recovery fund, suspending lockdown rules imposed to contain the pandemic, diplomats and officials said.

The European Union has struggled to run on video conferences since going into a gradual lockdown in March to curb the spread of coronavirus, which has ravaged the EU’s economy and thwarted regular ga

EU eyes first face-to-face summit in months to haggle over budget - Reuters

Coronavirus latest: Donald Trump bans entry into the US from Brazil

The US president made the move as Brazil's COVID-19 crisis deepens and
its death toll rises sharply. The proclamation prohibits entry for
anyone who has been in Brazil in the last 14 days.

Read more:
Coronavirus latest: Donald Trump bans entry into the US from Brazil | News | DW | 25.05.2020

Wall Street: in "Dream On Mode": Are stock investors too complacent about a full-scale blowup between China and the U.S.? Here’s what Wall Street experts say

MarketWatch’s sister publication Barron’s writes, the Sino-American issues are many and include actions taken by the U.S. to censure China’s new security rules that threaten Hong Kong’s

semiautonomous status, restrictions against Huawei Technologies, a push to increase scrutiny of Chinese companies listed in the U.S., funding for the World Health Organization, and accountability for the handling of the viral outbreak that has likely ushered in one of the most severe global recessions in the past 100 years.

“The list is long as my arm,” said Ian Bremmer, Eurasia Group’s founder and president, of the Sino-American tensions, during a Friday interview on CNBC.

“It’s never a good thing that the two largest economies in the world are battling,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer of Bleakley Advisory Group, told MarketWatch in an emailed exchange on Friday.

Tensions between the countries, however, don’t seem to have supplanted the intense investor focus on reopening the economy in the U.S., and elsewhere in the world, or attention on a cure for the COVID-19 pandemic, which have helped to buoy risk assets.

“I think the market likely sees the upside risk related to finding a vaccine or treatment as near-term, and the downside risk related to China as long-term, so they are focusing more on the near-term right now,” Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist with Ally Invest, told MarketWatch on Friday.

“After a 30% plus rally from the March lows, the bar is definitely much higher. As the worries with China heat up, we do think investors could be a little too complacent here and now,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial.

“The economic recovery is still very fragile and any larger repercussions between the U.S. and China could put a halt to the equity rally quite quickly,” he told MarketWatch.

Read more at:
Are stock investors too complacent about a full-scale blowup between China and the U.S.? Here’s what Wall Street experts say - MarketWatch

China US Relations: Tensions increasing

“The United States is now the most powerful empire by not much, it is in relative decline, Chinese power is rapidly rising, and no other powers come close,” billionaire investor Ray Dalio wrote Thursday in the latest installment of his series on the changing world order.

Titled “The Big Cycles Over The Last 500 Years,” the LinkedIn post came as tensions between the U.S. and China intensify.  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has promised that the House of Representatives will review legislation that would impose restrictions on U.S.-listed Chinese companies. China is moving to impose a new national security law on Hong Kong, which President Donald Trump has said would force the U.S. to respond. And Trump also lambasted China on Twitter after criticisms by a Chinese government spokesman; Trump said China could have easily stopped the pandemic but did not.

In the 10,000-word essay that explores the trajectories of the Dutch, British and American empires and their reserve currencies, the founder of Bridgewater Associates says that empires -- just like humans -- have a typical life cycle that ultimately comes to an end.

“No two are exactly the same but most are similar,” Dalio wrote, noting that the U.S. and China are approaching a point of comparability when “the risks of wars of one type or another are greater than when the leading powers  are earlier in the cycle.

Read more at:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/dalio-plots-china-rise-as-us-power-begins-relative-decline/articleshow/75910916.cms

China-US relations : U.S. accuses China of blocking U.S. flights, demands action

The U.S. Transportation Department late on Friday accused the Chinese government of making it impossible for U.S. air carriers to resume service to China and ordered Chinese air carriers to file flight schedules with the U.S. government.

Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-usa-china-exclusiv/exclusive-u-s-accuses-china-of-blocking-u-s-flights-demands-action-idUKKBN22Z04Y

Germany: Social market economy in Germany: growth and prosperity

The goal of the market economy is the greatest possible prosperity with the best possible social protection. It is about benefiting from the advantages of a free market economy, which include free choice of workplace, pricing freedom, competition and a wide range of affordable goods, while at the same time absorbing its disadvantages, such as monopolization, price fixing, and existence-threatening unemployment. This is why the state to a certain extent regulates the market and protects its citizens against illness and unemployment through a network of social insurance

Read more at:
https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/business/social-market-economy-in-germany-growth-and-prosperity

EU-US Relations: Europe is abandoning Trump on the world stage as it turns away from the US toward China

President Donald Trump is presiding over the deterioration of the US’s position on the world stage as European countries increasingly look toward China as a future global leader.

This shift is apparent in a series of recent opinion polls that found European sentiment toward the US to be in decline since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Recent polling suggests Europeans are turning away from the US under President Donald Trump’s leadership.

Public opinion toward America has declined in major European countries since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Seventy-six percent of Germans in a new poll said their view of America had deteriorated since the start of the crisis.

Roughly equal numbers of Germans in the poll favored maintaining close relationships with China and the US over the other.

One poll last week found that just 2% of French people trusted Trump to provide world leadership.

China is exerting growing political, diplomatic, and financial power across Europe.

Read more at:
Europe is abandoning Trump on the world stage as it turns away from the US toward China:

USA: The Coronavirus is exposing major flaws in America's political and economic structures

Staggering Food Bank lines across America

As we watched the long lines of people waiting for a food handout, and heard their sad stories about not knowing how they could feed their children for another day, and some even having to rely on school provided meals to feed their kids.

It showed, that the Coronavirus pandemic had not only brought turmoil to America, but also that it had exposed major flaws, as to how Right Wing US politicians have manipulated Capitalism and turned it into a corrupt system of Government.

You can't escape the reality that America today is the land of great disparity, and inequality, without a social net to help those which need help, without proper healthcare for those who can't afford it, or free education for everyone, and the list goes on and on.

America needs to change for the better, and the status quo is absolutely not the answer anymore.

If not, the disparity will get worse and worse, and eventually "the party will suddenly be completely over" for the US and its lopsided Wall Street driven economy.

EU-Digest

Power Shift: US awol from world stage as China tries on global leadership for size

When the UN security council and the G7 group sought to agree a global response to the coronavirus pandemic, the efforts stumbled on the US insistence on describing the threat as distinctively Chinese.

There are other reasons for the lack of collaboration in the face of a global crisis, but the focus on labelling the virus Chinese and blaming China pursued by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, helped ensure there would be no meaningful collective response from the world’s most powerful nations.

For some US allies, the fixation on words at a time when the international order was arguably facing its greatest challenge since the second world war encapsulated the glaring absence of US leadership.

Read more at; US awol from world stage as China tries on global leadership for size | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian

Wall Street Fata Morgana: Dow soars almost 4% main stock-market indexes turn positive for May on coronavirus vaccine hope

U.S. stocks soared on Monday, erasing May losses, on optimism that the American economy might be percolating again, while the medical community works toward a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

Risk assets also received a boost after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Sunday night struck a more upbeat tone on the U.S.’s growth prospects, while highlighting that the central bank still retained tools to limit the economic downturn.

Note EU-Digest: Wall Street "Fata Morgana" goes in overdrive, as it clamps on to imaginary "positive" news. Stop dreaming. It's time for a reality check folks. The US economy is on life support.

Dow soars almost 4% main stock-market indexes turn positive for May on coronavirus vaccine hope - MarketWatch

Donald Trump better take note: COVID 19 Today and China’s Great Famine

Between 1959 and 1961, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) underwent the Great Chinese Famine, one of the country’s darkest times.

 

Yang Jisheng, senior journalist from the Xinhua News Agency, estimated that China registered 36 million deaths back then due to starvation. It was one of the greatest tragedies in human history.

Although current global circumstances are vastly different now, the following question offers itself up quite naturally: Can any lesson be derived from that experience in China 60 years ago for today’s world that is facing the worst pandemic of the last century?

Read more at : COVID 19 Today and China’s Great Famine - The Globalist

Brexit: EU-UK talks: 'disappointing' progress, says Barnier

COVID-19, with both chief negotiator Michel Barnier and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson being personally affected.

In the meantime, a June deadline for significant progress is looming, and key arguments remain unresolved. Questions remain over fishing rights, how closely the UK will stick to EU regulations and allowing a role for the EU's top court, the European Court of Justice.

More bumps in the road came this week, as the EU Commission opened infringement proceedings against the UK for failing to comply with free movement rules. While the UK said the EU was at risk of breaching the terms of the Brexit agreement over British expats registering to stay in the EU.

Read more at:
EU-UK talks: 'disappointing' progress, says Barnier | Euronews

China-US ties on the brink of a complete breakdown: by Stephen S Roach

In his article "The end of the US-China relationship," Stephen S. Roach, a faculty member at Yale University and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, describes new shifts in the China-US relationship amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He wrote, "After 48 years of painstaking progress, a major rupture of the US-China relationship is at hand. This is a tragic outcome for both sides - and for the world." How should both countries manage the economic and geopolitical risks of a full rupture? Is it still possible for the two great powers to regain the trust and cooperate in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic? Roach shared his views with Global Times (GT) reporters Hu Yuwei and Zhao Juecheng.

GT：How will the current pandemic reshape China-US relations? Will it drag the two countries into a new cold war?

Roach: My basic conclusion is that the relationship between the US and China right now is the worst that I have seen in my career, and I've been following this relationship for 25 years closely. I think it started with the trade war in 2018. It's now moved into disputes over the novel coronavirus. And public opinion in the US, as measured by a Pew Research survey conducted very recently, shows bipartisan sentiment against China is as bad as it has ever been since the survey was conducted.

Also, there has been a leak of the Republican Party's political strategy that was written up by some consultants for the presidential campaign. I've read this 57-page strategy document very carefully. Its basic premise on the politics of the novel coronavirus - Do not defend Trump, but attack China. Republican strategy in the upcoming presidential election campaign is very much focused on attacking China.

Many new policies are being floated consistent with this approach: Bringing back supply chains from China, renewed or increased tariffs, or the most ridiculous of all, a threat of withholding debt payments on Chinese holdings of US treasury securities.

This strategy - after a trade war and after blaming China for the coronavirus itself - leads me to believe that the relationship is on the brink of what I would call a rupture, a complete breakdown. And I don't expect things to improve between now and the election. This is a tragedy. It did not have to happen this way. In US politics, sometimes things go in unfortunate directions. This is one of those times.

Read more at: China-US ties on the brink of a complete breakdown: Roach - Global Times

The Netherlands: - Coronavirus: Rutte government under pressure to provide some financial relief for Dutch citizens

Dutch PM Mark Rutte

Corona Virus Pandemic in the Netherlands
raises many questions about the Dutch
Government's urgently needed actions
to support some of the financially strapped
population as a result of the pandemic.

The question which arises is; "what has the
Rutte Government done so far for its citizens
to assist them in the areas of Rent reduction,
Mortgage interest relief,Reduced health care
insurance premiums etc.?"

Unfortunately, basically nothing. 

 Opposition parties in the Netherlands have already
announced they want a rent increase for July 1, scrapped. 

Copyright: only if source of report refers to EU-Digest

EU-Digest

World nuclear arms spending hit $73bn last year – half of it by US

The world’s nuclear-armed nations spent a record $73bn on their weapons last year, with the US spending almost as much as the eight other states combined, according to a new report.

The new spending figures, reflecting the highest expenditure on nuclear arms since the height of the cold war, have been estimated by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), which argues that the coronavirus pandemic underlines the wastefulness of the nuclear arms race.

Read more at : World nuclear arms spending hit $73bn last year – half of it by US | Nuclear weapons | The Guardian

Spain, France ease coronavirus restrictions

Spain and France both took steps Monday to loosen the tight restrictions that the countries imposed to try to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Seville, Spain, waiters in face masks served coffees and "bocadillo" sandwiches at café terraces as parts of the country eased restrictions while the number of new fatalities dropped to a near two-month low.

Read more at: Spain, France ease coronavirus restrictions | CBC News

USA: Wall Street rebounds as Cuomo sets eyes on reopening

Wall Street rebounded from early losses on Monday after New York’s governor said parts of the state — which has been the epicentre of the US’s coronavirus outbreak — were ready to open and that other regions were “very close” behind.

The comments from Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed the S&P 500 into positive territory, though it only eked out a small gain at the closing bell. The remarks also helped lift the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite 0.8 per cent for the day.

Read more at: Wall Street rebounds as Cuomo sets eyes on reopening | Financial Times

USA - Wall Street: Greed overtakes fear in the stock market, but don’t be lured into this short-lived rally

In short order, greed in the stock market has mostly taken over from fear after reports of slowing new coronavirus cases in New York and Europe.

Is it prudent to chase the rally? The answer is “no,” without knowing where you belong in the protection band. (More on that later.) The best way to analyze the stock market is through multiple time frames. Let’s examine with the help of two charts.

Please click here for an annotated chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA, +1.97%, which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.90%.
 
Please click here for an annotated chart of S&P 500 ETF SPY, +1.65%, which does the same for the S&P 500 Index SPX, +1.68%.

For the complete report click here:
Greed overtakes fear in the stock market, but don’t be lured into this short-lived rally - MarketWatch

What works to flatten the curve and what science says on easing restrictions | CBC News

As provinces move to loosen their coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, a new Canadian study analyzing what's worked elsewhere could guide the easing of restrictions.

Read more at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/restrictions-covid19-1.5562644

USA: April jobs report: 20.5M become unemployed as COVID-19 spreads

Some 30% of America’s economy has evaporated, leading to 20.5 million job losses and soaring unemployment.

Read more at:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/05/08/april-jobs-reports-20-5-m-become-unemployed-covid-19-spreads/3090664001/

Wall Street: Everything you know about growth and value stocks is about to flip

Skilled active investment managers now have a huge opportunity to add value, writes Mark Hulbert.

Read more at
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/everything-you-know-about-growth-and-value-stocks-is-about-to-flip-2020-05-07

Capitalism: 'There is a glimmer of hope': economists on coronavirus and capitalism

Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and Irish economist David McWilliams on the hope for a global new deal

Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/there-is-a-glimmer-of-hope-economists-on-coronavirus-and-capitalism?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Add_to_Firefox

US Airline Industry: Exclusive: U.S. airlines burn through $10 billion a month as traffic plummets

U.S. airlines are collectively burning more than $10 billion in cash a month and averaging fewer than two dozen passengers per domestic flight because of the coronavirus pandemic, industry trade group Airlines for America said in prepared testimony seen by Reuters ahead of a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-airlines-congress/exclusive-u-s-airlines-burn-through-10-billion-a-month-as-traffic-plummets-idUKKBN22H2ZM

British Economy: Small UK manufacturers gloomiest in over 30 years - CBI Reuters

Small British manufacturers expect the biggest fall in output in more than 30 years over the next three months as the hit from the coronavirus intensifies, according to a survey which echoes other gloomy forecasts for the sector.

Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-manufactur/small-uk-manufacturers-gloomiest-in-over-30-years-cbi-idUKKBN22G2YV

US's number one problem - testing: Donald Trump is lying about the size of coronavirus testing — but lying about size is typical for him says John Oliver

If there’s one thing Donald Trump does best it’s lie about the size of things.

“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver pointed out that one of the most dangerous things the president is lying about right now is the size of the group of people that will be tested for the coronavirus.

When asked this week if the U.S. could reach the benchmark of 5
 million coronavirus tests per day recommended by public-health
experts, Trump said USA would. “Well, it will increase it, and it’ll increase it by much more than that in the very near future,”

Trump said, before going off on another incoherent fever-dream that he has singlehandedly saved the world in some kind of war.

The reporter followed up, “Sorry, are you saying you’re confident you can surpass 5 million tests per day?”

“Well, we’re going to be there very soon,” he said, more concisely. “If you look at the numbers, it could be that we’re getting very close. I mean, I don’t have the exact numbers. We would have had them if you asked me the same question a little while ago because people with the statistics were there. We’re going to be there very soon.”

Currently, the U.S. is only able to test about 200,000 people per day.

“There is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even 5 million tests a day,” said Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health. He’s the person in charge of the U.S. testing response.

 Read more: John Oliver: Donald Trump is lying about the size of coronavirus testing — but lying about size is typical for him – Raw Story

European Airline Industry: Ryanair to cut up to 3,000 jobs blaming 'state aid doping' for other European airlines

Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive Officer of Ryanair, said he regretted the cuts and singled out "manifestly unfair" rules put in place by the French government on airport taxes.

Read more at:
https://www.euronews.com/2020/05/01/ryanair-to-cut-up-to-3-000-jobs-as-o-leary-criticises-manifestly-unfair-french-government

Coronavirus vaccine: EU′s Von der Leyen wants billions for COVID-19 vaccine, meds

A global fundraiser should secure €7.5 billion and this is "just the start," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told DW. She said the eventual treatment should be sold at a "fair and affordable

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/eus-von-der-leyen-wants-billions-for-covid-19-vaccine-meds/a-53306732