RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-marks-memorial-day-weekend-as-coronavirus-death-toll-nears-100-000-11590312043?mod=hp_lead_pos1

More than 5.3 million people have been infected world-wide; U.S. adds travel restrictions on hard-hit Brazil

The U.S. government said it is imposing new travel restrictions on Brazil as Covid-19 cases there have risen sharply, while the coronavirus-related death toll at home was approaching 100,000 over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

The number of confirmed deaths in the U.S. caused by the new coronavirus was 97,599 as of Sunday evening, the highest national tally globally, data from Johns Hopkins University showed. More than 5.3 million people have been infected world-wide, with over 1.6 million of those cases in the U.S., the data showed.

Under the new Brazil travel ban, foreign nationals who have been in Brazil within 14 days before trying to enter the U.S. would be suspended, with some exceptions. The rules for Brazil go into effect on May 28, according to the White House. The move follows other U.S. bans on some travel from parts of Asia and Europe.

The U.S. is enduring a subdued Memorial Day holiday weekend. Many public events have been canceled as states deployed measures to discourage crowds amid the continuing attempts to balance an easing of emergency measures with the risk of fresh outbreaks.

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-5-23-europe-is-firmly-committed-to-economic-suicide

In various posts over the years, I have argued that the long-term economic prospects for the likes of China and Russia are not very good. Among other reasons, the dictator-for-life governance model leads to inherent instability that undermines incentives for investment and growth. And then there’s the inevitability of state-directed capital allocation leading to massive investment in boondoggle projects that fail spectacularly. See as a couple of examples, from March 2018, “Is It Possible For A Dictatorship To Be A Top World Power?”, or, from July 2015, “In Case You Thought The Chinese Knew What They Were Doing.”

Therefore, Europe should have a huge leg up on these successors to Stalin and Mao. After all, the European countries basically have market economies, although overlain with bloated and unaccountable regulatory bureaucracies. They have a solid base of creative entrepreneurship. Really, how badly could they go wrong?

But the big problem for Europe is that most of their governments are firmly committed to economic suicide. This is particularly true for the countries with the largest economies, Germany and France. Among data points from just this week, here are a few:

From Deutsche Welle, we learn (May 20) that the European Commission is circulating a draft plan for massive support of the auto industry — 100 billion euros or more — that has been very hard hit by the virus crisis (sales down as much as 97% in April). However, the Commission intends to use the money to subsidize, in its words, “clean” modes of transport:  “[T]he paper proposes that €40 to €60 billion of the package come in the form of investments dedicated to “clean cars” such as electric vehicles, and other new technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels. The Commission is also seeking to have 2 million public charging ports across the EU by 2025. However, the plan does not touch on the fact that there is still massive debate on how clean small occupancy private vehicles can really be, electric or not.” The rest of the industry will be out of luck.