Gold rush amid coronavirus & economic uncertainty leads to shortage in small bars & coins
The price of gold hit a seven-year high of more than $1,700 per troy ounce on March 9, as a result of the deepening economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.“People want to buy, not to sell, gold,” Mark O’Byrne, the founder of GoldCore, a dealer based in Dublin, told Bloomberg. “We have a buyers’ waiting list and we emailed our clients seeing who wished to sell their gold. At this time there are roughly only one or two sellers for every 99 buyers.”According to Markus Krall, chief executive of German precious-metal retailer Degussa, premiums in the retail market “have exploded.” The average price of products in shops is somewhere between 10 percent and 15 percent over spot prices, Krall explained, adding that he’s never seen that before. Demand has also hit the highest level he has ever … [READ MORE...]
Alarm, Denial, Blame: The Pro-Trump Media’s Coronavirus Distortion
In the weeks that followed, thousands would die from the virus around the world, thousands more would be sickened across Europe and the first cases would emerge in the United States. But the tone of the coverage from Fox, talk radio and the commentators who make up the president’s zealous online army remained dismissive.Talk show hosts and prominent right-wing writers criticized other conservatives who took the threat seriously. “Drudge has a screaming headline,” Rush Limbaugh announced on Feb. 26, referring to Matt Drudge and his website. “Flight attendant working L.A.X. tests positive. Oh, my God, 58 cases! Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” For years, Mr. Limbaugh has encouraged his audience to be suspicious of science as one of his so-called Four Corners of Deceit, which also include government, … [READ MORE...]
Restaurants Find Hope in Delivering Donated Meals to Hospitals
The association worked out the details with Stacey Chait, a senior director at NYU Langone, who said she has been getting about 100 emails a day with offers of food. “It’s really, really wonderful to be going through this crisis but have such an outpouring of support and understanding,” she said.Because it is cheap, familiar, portable and everywhere, pizza is probably the food most commonly sent during a crisis. It is not, however, ideally suited to this crisis, in which people have been urged to stay at least six feet away from one another.“Putting a bunch of pizza in a common break room and asking a bunch of people to come in there is not supportive of what we’re asking of them as far as social distancing,” said Dr. Gartland, the Emory Healthcare executive.The logistics of pizza … [READ MORE...]
Latest News
A Widening Toll on Jobs: ‘This Thing Is Going to Come for Us All’
Finally, on Tuesday, he managed to file his claim.“So I now join the group who can shout out to the rest: ‘There’s hope!’” Mr. Sullivan wrote in an email.Mr. Sullivan was one of more than 366,000 New Yorkers to file claims last week, up from 80,000 the week before, according to Thursday’s federal data. California, another state that has struggled with the deluge of filings, reported close to 900,000 claims last week, up from 186,000. Those figures, unlike the nationwide total, are not adjusted … [Read More...]
Auto Sales Plummet in First Quarter as Coronavirus Keeps Buyers Away
“My wife said we could get a Mustang, but I wasn’t going to go out shopping for a car,” Mr. Maletic said.The drop in sales is the second big blow to automakers. Most companies have shut down factories across North America to prevent the spread of the virus among workers.Automakers and dealers expect a bigger decline in April because stay-at-home orders will be in effect for most or all of the month in many parts of the country. Even as some states lift or relax those orders, consumers will … [Read More...]
Why State and Local Debt Is Fraught Territory for the Fed
William C. Dudley, who was formerly president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is sympathetic to the idea of a municipal bond program of some sort, especially given that “they basically have the blessing of Congress.” But he said officials should stick to investment-grade debt.“Once you start to get below investment grade, it gets a lot trickier — you’re taking on a lot more risk, and where does it end?” Mr. Dudley said. The central bank might end up with riskier bonds that investors are … [Read More...]
Trump Rebuffs Demands to Lift Tariffs as Economy Falters
In a statement Wednesday, Myron Brilliant, the head of international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said tariff relief “would provide some welcome breathing room for American businesses and consumers.”“Liquidity has emerged as one of the top challenges for businesses of all sizes, and tariff relief” would alleviate some of that strain, he said.Glenn Hubbard, an economist at Columbia University, said removing the tariffs could be critical to helping the U.S. economy recover more quickly … [Read More...]
Previous news
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- Scary Times for U.S. Companies Spell Boom for Restructuring Advisers
- Trump Said He Was the President of Manufacturing. Then Disaster Struck.
Small Business
Restaurants Find Hope in Delivering Donated Meals to Hospitals
The association worked out the details with Stacey Chait, a senior director at NYU Langone, who said she has been getting about 100 emails a day with offers of food. “It’s really, really wonderful to be going through this crisis but have such an outpouring of support and understanding,” she said.Because it is cheap, familiar, portable and everywhere, pizza is probably the food most commonly sent … [Read More...]
New Orleans Restaurants, Used to Disasters, Reckon With Something Worse
Larger fund-raising efforts are underway to cushion the blow to unemployed hospitality workers. New Orleans has one of the country’s highest poverty rates, and most people working in restaurants don’t earn enough to build up savings. According to the Data Center, an independent local research firm, 93 percent of the full-service restaurant employees in New Orleans are in low-wage jobs where most … [Read More...]
Your Money
Check Is in the Mail? For Many Bill Payers, It Won’t Be
Progressives, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have called for moratoriums on rent and other financial obligations. And even conservatives, despite concern about government initiatives already costlier than those in the 2008-9 financial crisis, have said this is a case where it makes sense to provide grants — not merely loans — to individuals and businesses.Michael R. … [Read More...]
How Philanthropists Are Helping During the Crisis
“Go ahead and start paying those out,” said Carla Wigen, managing director of fiduciary strategy at Laird Norton Wealth Management, which is based in Seattle. “Don’t let the money sit there now.”Emptying those funds is an immediate, easy way to create a lot of change. And donors seem to being doing just that: Schwab Charitable said its clients had increased giving from their funds 31 percent from … [Read More...]