Former FDA Chief Warns “Half The Population” Could Catch Coronavirus By Year End: Live Updates

Former FDA Chief Warns “Half The Population” Could Catch Coronavirus By Year End: Live Updates

Tyler Durden

Mon, 06/29/2020 – 10:38

Summary:

  • Cuomo to speak at 11:30ET
  • NYC mulls plan to delay indoor dining reopening
  • Florida reports latest COVID-19 cases
  • Unconfirmed Texas hospitalization data hits
  • Global deaths passed 500k last night
  • Victoria reports another ~75 cases
  • China reports another handful of new cases

* * *

Update (1050ET): As Blaz warns about the possibility of delaying the return of indoor dining for when NYC is expected to enter Phase 3 of its reopening plan on July 6, Gov Cuomo is preparing to hold a briefing on Monday, as criticism of his handling of nursing homes and long-term care facilities faces growing scrutiny.

Cuomo ended his daily COVID-19 briefings more than a week ago.

* * *

Update (1035ET): Florida has reported its latest daily and weekly COVID-19 data

  • FLORIDA COVID-19 CASES RISE 3.7% VS. PREVIOUS 7-DAY AVG. 5.5%

Looks like the positive numbers helped push stocks even higher.

* * *

As we reported last night the number of confirmed coronavirus deaths topped 500k according to data released Sunday, while the US recorded nearly 45k cases on Sunday, below the last daily record set a few days ago, but still above the 40k level. Following VP Pence’s appearance alongside Texas Gov Greg Abbott on Sunday to ask Americans to please wear masks in public, a notable about-face from a press briefing on Friday, has set tongues wagging.

With the global outbreak having just surpassed 10 million cases and half a million deaths, two major milestones, over the weekend, perhaps the biggest news this morning was Gilead’s release of its pricing menu for remdesivir, its widely hyped drug for treating COVID-19 that is less effective than a much-cheaper steroid called dexamethasone, which has proven more effective at lower mortality. Remdesivir was originally developed to treat Ebola, but one virus is as good as the next, right?

As fears about the worsening outbreaks in Latin America and Africa mount, with South Africa seeing a troubling surge in cases. Despite already having more than one-third of the reported cases for all 54 countries on the continent of more than 1.3 billion. More than 4,300 people have been hospitalized out of South Africa’s 138,000 confirmed cases, the country’s Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize said in a statement.

“We are seeing a rapid rise in the cumulative number of positive COVID-19 cases indicating that, as we had expected, we are approaching a surge during the…months of July and August,” Mkhize said…”It is anticipated that while every province will unfortunately witness an increase in their numbers, areas where there is high economic activity will experience an exponential rise.” He added that cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town are at the greatest risk for major outbreaks.

China on Monday reported 12 new confirmed cases, including five imported cases. The seven domestic infections were all in Beijing, where 1/3rd of residents have been tested since the latest “outbreak” at a local food wholesale market began earlier this month.

With a brief pause in US news, our attention turned to CNBC Monday morning where former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned that up to half of Americans could have been infected with the virus by the end of the year.

“By the time we get to the end of this year, probably close to half the population will have had coronavirus, and that’s if we just stay at our current rate,” he said during an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“We don’t need to vaccinate the entire population because a lot of people would have already had this by the time we get to a vaccination,” he added.

Although younger people appear to be the most impacted during this latest wave, all that could change as transmission rates increase.

“Eventually, it will start to seep into older people, more vulnerable people, and you’ll start to see the total number of deaths go up even if the death rate has come down,” he said. “We’ll probably get above 1,000 deaths a day on average as the infection starts to widen out.”

And again, this is assuming the rate of spread remains steady: if it gets worse, so will the outcome.

Instagram Founder Kevin Systrom also appeared on CNBC this morning to share data from a public COVID-19 tracking platform he’s launched, which features this nifty display showing where each state’s rate of spread is relative to the spectrum seen since the beginning of the pandemic.

 

As lengthy food bank lines appear to keep getting longer in the US, the World Food Program warned Monday that the socioeconomic fallout from the pandemic will be “devastating” for middle and low-income nations, possibly leading to food shortages and famines not seen in decades. The organization believes the rate of hunger in the poorest nations will have nearly doubled by year’s end.

In further bad news, the Australian state of Victoria found 75 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours before Monday morning (local time), the highest daily total in 2 months, a total that is “absolutely concerning” according to county health officials who have launched a “testing blitz” and are also warning that lockdowns and other social distancing measures might be reintroduced.

Finally, there have been unconfirmed reports about Texas coronavirus hospitalizations rising another 7.5% over the last day, which would be bad news for a hospital system that is becoming worryingly stretched. Some Houston-area hospitals belonging to the Texas Medical Center hospital systems have stopped publishing ICU numbers as they claimed they caused needless panic since ICUs are often run at or near full capacity. They have insisted there is plenty of ‘overflow’ capacity that can be brought online.

Another important headline out of the US: NYC Mayor de Blasio now weighing whether to further delay the reopening of indoor dining, which has already started in the city in some places.

And with that, the few remaining independent restauranteurs in NYC will likely seriously rethink their plans to try and persevere.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2VpNeyk Tyler Durden

Former French Prime Minister Defeated By Macron Handed 5-Year Jail Term In “Fake Jobs” Verdict

Former French Prime Minister Defeated By Macron Handed 5-Year Jail Term In “Fake Jobs” Verdict

Tyler Durden

Mon, 06/29/2020 – 10:35

More than two years after conceding defeat to Emmanuel Macron during the preliminary rounds of France’s last presidential vote, which saw Macron emerge victorious at the head of his reformist “En Marche” movement, which quickly fizzled as the French people turned on the country’s youngest leader since Napoleon, former French PM Francois Fillon has been sentenced to five years (with three suspended) for doling out ‘fake’ government jobs to his wife and children.

Francois Fillon

News of the investigation first emerged during the early months of the campaign, and quickly cost Fillon his status as frontrunner in the national polls. In March, Fillon defiantly vowed to stay in the race despite facing criminal charges. Now that the sensitive case has meandered through the French justice system, Fillon – a conservative, and once one of the most powerful men in the country – will spend a full two years behind bars (though he’ll likely be released early on good behavior). His wife Penelope was also convicted, and handed a 3-year suspended sentence. Both will pay heavy fines that together equal roughly 3/4ths of the money the family received from the “fake job” wages.

According to Sputnik, the charges stem from an investigation by French satirical weekly Le Canard enchaine, which claimed in early 2017 that Penelope Fillon had been employed as her husband’s parliamentary assistant between 1988-1990, 1998-2002, 2012-13, then was later employed by Marc Joulaud from 2002 to 2007. Joulaud also faced charges and a fine in connection with the case.

Two of Fillon’s children, Charles and Marie Fillon, were allegedly employed from 2005 to 2007 as assistants to their father, then a French senator in Paris.

Though Fillon and his wife have insisted that all the work was legal, prosecutors and reporters claimed that the jobs were “fake” – ie that Penelope and the kids were paid essentially for doing no actual work. Apparently, a jury was convinced enough to agree.

Fillon and his wife said they will be appealing the charges.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/388Wpsc Tyler Durden

With Chief in Charge, SCOTUS Strikes Down Louisiana Abortion Law and Eliminates CFPB Independence

The Supreme Court handed down three big opinions today, each of which was closely divided. Here is a quick run down, with more to follow on these cases in later posts by various VC contributors.

First, the Court decided Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, upholding a limitation on USAID grant funding to organizations with “a
policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking” because foreign corporations operating abroad “possess no rights under the First Amendment,” even if those corporations are affiliates of domestic entities. Justice Kavanaugh wrote for the majority, joined by the conservative justices. Justice Thomas concurred. Justice Breyer dissented, joined by Justies Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Justice Kagan was recused.

 

Developing . . . 

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As New Lockdowns Loom, How Did We Get Here Again So Quickly?

ddpphotos345940

As COVID-19 case counts rise and some states start reviving their shutdown orders, regulators are coalescing around the idea that we reopened too fast.

Many people have been taking precautions while going to restaurants, churches, hair salons, and so on, and many businesses have been great about taking steps to keep customers safe. But a few “super spreader” events, plus social-media images of people packed maskless into crowded spaces, have sparked a lot of ire at the lifting of the lockdowns. Packed-in, mask-free groups make an easy target among calls to take more action.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week that restaurants must not exceed 50 percent capacity, “outdoor gatherings of 100 or more people must be approved by local governments,” and bars with less than 50 percent revenue from food must close entirely.

“As I said from the start, if the positivity rate rose above 10%, the State of Texas would take further action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Abbott said in a statement. “At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars.”

Florida, too, has once again ordered bars to close for on-premise drinking. (“On Saturday, Florida reported more than 9,500 new cases, up from almost 9,000 on Friday, the previous record,” notes Yahoo News.) And in California, the Los Angeles Times reports, the governor just told seven counties “to immediately close any bars and nightspots that are open and recommended eight other counties take action on their own to close those businesses. The order shuts down any bar, brewery or pub that sells alcoholic drinks without serving food at the same time.”

How did we get here again so quickly?

Following a March and April marked by strict shutdowns—and by high-profile protests in favor of reopening—states started phasing out strict COVID-19 containment measures throughout May and June. Cases in early hotspots such as New York had started dwindling, after all, and major outbreaks had yet to hit many American states. We had indeed slowed the spread, and we now knew more about how the contagion happened, too. It had more to do with person-to-person proximity than with germs on surfaces, more to do with indoor activities than with outdoor ones—and masks, even a basic cloth covering, seemed to help stop the spread. Meanwhile, unemployment numbers continued to skyrocket, people needed to see doctors for non-virus reasons (and really wanted haircuts), and the weather was suddenly perfect for spending time outdoors. The risk-benefit analysis seemed squarely on the side of at least some reopening.

Health experts advised that to make things go smoothly, people should still maintain a physical distance from others, be extra-vigilant about what they touch, and wear a mask or some sort of facial covering as much as possible outside the home. It’s no one’s ideal of what social interaction, shopping, dining out, or doing one’s job would look like. But it did present a way for us to get back to some semblance of normal life—and more economic activity—without just accepting that tons more people would die or waiting months or years for a vaccine.

Plus, voluntary measures taken by individuals and businesses can be an effective hex against government mandates. People taking precautions and proving we can socialize responsibly during a pandemic seems the best way to keep authorities from banning bars and barbershops, ordering everyone home, and making it a federal crime to leave the house without a mask.

Alas, there’s been a sustained crusade against voluntary mask-wearing and social distancing. It has been encouraged by President Donald Trump, whose refusal to wear a mask gives succor to those who treat this basic precaution as a partisan symbol that Team Read should reject. “Unfortunately, wearing a mask has become a political issue for many people,” as Robert Jeffress—senior pastor at the 13,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas—wrote recently in an op-ed about churches reopening safely (and urging people not to buy this mask politicization). Meanwhile, mixed messages from on high have made it easier for all sorts of people, not just Trump loyalists, to shrug their shoulders and crowd into bars, casinos, restaurants, religious services, etc., without wearing masks or otherwise observing any sort of breath- and spit-distancing policy.

Now positive coronavirus tests in many areas have started to trend back up. “Confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 2.5 million on Sunday as a crushing new wave of infections continued to bear down throughout the country’s South and West,” The Washington Post reports. “Across the nation, 40,587 new daily cases were reported.” (Death rates, fortunately, have not yet started to climb.)

Several factors are likely behind this increase, and it’s hard to definitively separate them. Some can certainly be attributed to increased testing, but myriad health experts and public officials say there’s more to it than just that. In general, there’s evidence that the majority of infections are spread by a minority of “super spreaders.”

Meanwhile, empirical evidence backs up the idea that transmission risk is lower when people wear masks. See, for instance, this study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Or, on an anecdotal level, the Missouri hair stylist who started seeing customers again, then tested positive for COVID-19—she and her customers had all worn masks, and none of the customers contracted it from her.

There’s also interesting, if far from conclusive, information to be gleaned from the thousands of mostly masked people crowded together at outdoor protests in the beginning of June—with little evidence as of yet that these were major sources of spread. In fact, health officials in some areas with large protests, including New Orleans, say few new people who test positive report having been out protesting.

At the same time, we’re seeing more and more stories about particular indoor bars, house parties, or church services with unmasked patrons becoming major sites for COVID-19 transmission.

“An outbreak at a Pentecostal church in Oregon, where hundreds of worshipers resumed gathering over Memorial Day weekend, forced an entire county to return to phase one of its reopening after local officials traced 258 cases of Covid-19 back to the facility,” notes Politico. “In West Virginia, six health departments across the state have reported coronavirus outbreaks linked to churches. One of them, a Baptist church in Greenbrier County, had 34 congregants test positive for the virus. And in Texas, which hit an all-time high of new cases last week, health officials have received numerous reports of church-related exposures.”

Masks and a certain amount of social distancing during public outings aren’t a perfect precaution, but they are a reasonable precaution—one that seemed poised to allow American cities and states to start being open for business again. But a lot of people seem to think that lifting the lockdowns means the risk is over, and are behaving accordingly. (This itself raises questions about the unintended consequences of the lockdown approach.) Whether this actually accounts for rising COVID-19 numbers is unclear, but it’s already fueling stricter regulations.

QUICK HITS

• The European Union is now thinking about excluding Americans from people who will be allowed to start traveling to countries there.

• On Saturday, the state of New York saw its lowest daily deaths from COVID-19 since March 15, with five new deaths. “This compared to 13 fatalities the day before as the number of fatalities caused by the virus continues to plummet in the state. During the peak of the pandemic in April, nearly 800 people were dying a day from coronavirus.”

• How coronavirus is demolishing college towns.

• Matt Taibbi reviews White Fragility.

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via IFTTT

As New Lockdowns Loom, How Did We Get Here Again So Quickly?

ddpphotos345940

As COVID-19 case counts rise and some states start reviving their shutdown orders, regulators are coalescing around the idea that we reopened too fast.

Many people have been taking precautions while going to restaurants, churches, hair salons, and so on, and many businesses have been great about taking steps to keep customers safe. But a few “super spreader” events, plus social-media images of people packed maskless into crowded spaces, have sparked a lot of ire at the lifting of the lockdowns. Packed-in, mask-free groups make an easy target among calls to take more action.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week that restaurants must not exceed 50 percent capacity, “outdoor gatherings of 100 or more people must be approved by local governments,” and bars with less than 50 percent revenue from food must close entirely.

“As I said from the start, if the positivity rate rose above 10%, the State of Texas would take further action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Abbott said in a statement. “At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars.”

Florida, too, has once again ordered bars to close for on-premise drinking. (“On Saturday, Florida reported more than 9,500 new cases, up from almost 9,000 on Friday, the previous record,” notes Yahoo News.) And in California, the Los Angeles Times reports, the governor just told seven counties “to immediately close any bars and nightspots that are open and recommended eight other counties take action on their own to close those businesses. The order shuts down any bar, brewery or pub that sells alcoholic drinks without serving food at the same time.”

How did we get here again so quickly?

Following a March and April marked by strict shutdowns—and by high-profile protests in favor of reopening—states started phasing out strict COVID-19 containment measures throughout May and June. Cases in early hotspots such as New York had started dwindling, after all, and major outbreaks had yet to hit many American states. We had indeed slowed the spread, and we now knew more about how the contagion happened, too. It had more to do with person-to-person proximity than with germs on surfaces, more to do with indoor activities than with outdoor ones—and masks, even a basic cloth covering, seemed to help stop the spread. Meanwhile, unemployment numbers continued to skyrocket, people needed to see doctors for non-virus reasons (and really wanted haircuts), and the weather was suddenly perfect for spending time outdoors. The risk-benefit analysis seemed squarely on the side of at least some reopening.

Health experts advised that to make things go smoothly, people should still maintain a physical distance from others, be extra-vigilant about what they touch, and wear a mask or some sort of facial covering as much as possible outside the home. It’s no one’s ideal of what social interaction, shopping, dining out, or doing one’s job would look like. But it did present a way for us to get back to some semblance of normal life—and more economic activity—without just accepting that tons more people would die or waiting months or years for a vaccine.

Plus, voluntary measures taken by individuals and businesses can be an effective hex against government mandates. People taking precautions and proving we can socialize responsibly during a pandemic seems the best way to keep authorities from banning bars and barbershops, ordering everyone home, and making it a federal crime to leave the house without a mask.

Alas, there’s been a sustained crusade against voluntary mask-wearing and social distancing. It has been encouraged by President Donald Trump, whose refusal to wear a mask gives succor to those who treat this basic precaution as a partisan symbol that Team Read should reject. “Unfortunately, wearing a mask has become a political issue for many people,” as Robert Jeffress—senior pastor at the 13,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas—wrote recently in an op-ed about churches reopening safely (and urging people not to buy this mask politicization). Meanwhile, mixed messages from on high have made it easier for all sorts of people, not just Trump loyalists, to shrug their shoulders and crowd into bars, casinos, restaurants, religious services, etc., without wearing masks or otherwise observing any sort of breath- and spit-distancing policy.

Now positive coronavirus tests in many areas have started to trend back up. “Confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 2.5 million on Sunday as a crushing new wave of infections continued to bear down throughout the country’s South and West,” The Washington Post reports. “Across the nation, 40,587 new daily cases were reported.” (Death rates, fortunately, have not yet started to climb.)

Several factors are likely behind this increase, and it’s hard to definitively separate them. Some can certainly be attributed to increased testing, but myriad health experts and public officials say there’s more to it than just that. In general, there’s evidence that the majority of infections are spread by a minority of “super spreaders.”

Meanwhile, empirical evidence backs up the idea that transmission risk is lower when people wear masks. See, for instance, this study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Or, on an anecdotal level, the Missouri hair stylist who started seeing customers again, then tested positive for COVID-19—she and her customers had all worn masks, and none of the customers contracted it from her.

There’s also interesting, if far from conclusive, information to be gleaned from the thousands of mostly masked people crowded together at outdoor protests in the beginning of June—with little evidence as of yet that these were major sources of spread. In fact, health officials in some areas with large protests, including New Orleans, say few new people who test positive report having been out protesting.

At the same time, we’re seeing more and more stories about particular indoor bars, house parties, or church services with unmasked patrons becoming major sites for COVID-19 transmission.

“An outbreak at a Pentecostal church in Oregon, where hundreds of worshipers resumed gathering over Memorial Day weekend, forced an entire county to return to phase one of its reopening after local officials traced 258 cases of Covid-19 back to the facility,” notes Politico. “In West Virginia, six health departments across the state have reported coronavirus outbreaks linked to churches. One of them, a Baptist church in Greenbrier County, had 34 congregants test positive for the virus. And in Texas, which hit an all-time high of new cases last week, health officials have received numerous reports of church-related exposures.”

Masks and a certain amount of social distancing during public outings aren’t a perfect precaution, but they are a reasonable precaution—one that seemed poised to allow American cities and states to start being open for business again. But a lot of people seem to think that lifting the lockdowns means the risk is over, and are behaving accordingly. (This itself raises questions about the unintended consequences of the lockdown approach.) Whether this actually accounts for rising COVID-19 numbers is unclear, but it’s already fueling stricter regulations.

QUICK HITS

• The European Union is now thinking about excluding Americans from people who will be allowed to start traveling to countries there.

• On Saturday, the state of New York saw its lowest daily deaths from COVID-19 since March 15, with five new deaths. “This compared to 13 fatalities the day before as the number of fatalities caused by the virus continues to plummet in the state. During the peak of the pandemic in April, nearly 800 people were dying a day from coronavirus.”

• How coronavirus is demolishing college towns.

• Matt Taibbi reviews White Fragility.

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via IFTTT

Zimbabwe Shutters Stock Exchange, Blocks All Mobile Money Payments As Currency Collapses (Again)

Zimbabwe Shutters Stock Exchange, Blocks All Mobile Money Payments As Currency Collapses (Again)

Tyler Durden

Mon, 06/29/2020 – 10:15

For the fifth time in Zimbabwe’s history, its currency has just collapsed…

As Decrypt.co’s Adriana Hamacher reports, Zimbabwe’s government suspended all mobile money payments, including operations by dominant provider Ecocash on Friday. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange was also ordered to stop trading, in a dramatic escalation of the nation’s currency crisis.

The government claims the move is to avert a conspiracy to sabotage the collapsing Zimbabwe dollar. But millions of Zimbabweans rely on digital payment operators because obtaining physical cash is so difficult. Ecocash is also commonly used to buy Bitcoin.

In response, Ecocash has promised to defy the ban. It maintains that only Zimbabwe’s central bank can order it to stop trading. Meanwhile, African crypto news outlet Bitcoinke claims “the demand for Bitcoin has skyrocketed” in the wake of the suspension—its sources claim the cryptocurrency is selling at 18% above the market rate.

A national currency, the Zimbabwe dollar or Zimdollar, was reintroduced in 2019, replacing a basket of national currencies including the Japanese Yen, the US dollar and pound sterling. To force citizens to leave the previous system, the government banned the domestic use of foreign currencies. But – with the government mired in corruption scandals – it swiftly lost ground to the US dollar. This is the fifth time in Zimbabwe’s history that its national currency has collapsed. 

Meanwhile, inflation has risen above 750%.

The local stock market has surged, as investors sought safe havens.

[ZH: Look how well the Zimbabwe ‘economy’ must be doing?]

But trading has now been suspended:

Following the statement issued by the Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services on June 26 2020, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Limited engaged both the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZ) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

Whilst we await the guidance from our regulators on the operational modalities going forward, we notify our stakeholders that trading has been suspended until further notice.

For any enquiries, you can email info@zse.co.zw.

For and behalf of Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Limited.

ZSE CEO – Justin Bgoni

Many Zimbabweans have turned to digital payments and, in 2019, mobile wallets accounted for almost 85% of all transaction volumes, and 22.6% of value, according to the country’s central bank.

The government claims mobile payment operators and the stock exchange are either deliberately or inadvertently acting to sabotage the economy, and are the cause of the Zimdollar’s volatile black market exchange rate. 

Ecocash denies any wrongdoing.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2VrTuWi Tyler Durden

US Pending Home Sales Explode By Record In May… Back To 2001 Levels

US Pending Home Sales Explode By Record In May… Back To 2001 Levels

Tyler Durden

Mon, 06/29/2020 – 10:08

New home sales soared and existing home sales plunged, leaving pending home sales as the tie-breaker for May’s picture of the US housing market. After crashing by over 20% MoM in both March and April, analysts expected a 19.3% rebound MoM in May but instead it exploded by a record 44.3% MoM…but pending home sales remain down 10.4% YoY…

Source: Bloomberg

Pending sales represents signed contracts in the month of May, when mortgage rates had collapsed.

“This has been a spectacular recovery for contract signings, and goes to show the resiliency of American consumers and their evergreen desire for homeownership,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

“This bounce back also speaks to how the housing sector could lead the way for a broader economic recovery.”

Source: Bloomberg

Regional Breakdown:

The month of May saw each of the four regional indices rise on a month-over-month basis after all were down in April 2020.

  • The Northeast PHSI grew 44.4% to 61.5 in May, although it was still down 33.2% from a year ago.

  • In the Midwest, the index rose 37.2% to 98.8 last month, down 1.4% from May 2019.

  • Pending home sales in the South increased 43.3% to an index of 125.5 in May, up 1.9% from May 2019.

  • The index in the West jumped 56.2% in May to 89.2, down 2.5% from a year ago.

NAR now expects existing-home sales to reach 4.93 million units in 2020 and new home sales to hit 690,000.

“All figures light up in 2021 with positive GDP, employment, housing starts and home sales.

More listings are continuously appearing as the economy reopens, helping with inventory choices,” Yun said.

However we note that despite the record rebound, the pending home sales index remains below 2001 levels…

Yun noted rather optimistically, that in 2021, sales are forecast to rise to 5.35 million units for existing homes and 800,000 for new homes.

“The outlook has significantly improved, as new home sales are expected to be higher this year than last, and annual existing-home sales are now projected to be down by less than 10% – even after missing the spring buying season due to the pandemic lockdown,” Yun said.

There’s still 20-plus million more unemployed Americans! What’s that old saying about it being difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/38dbdGf Tyler Durden

Twitter Restricts Account Of Flynn Attorney Sidney Powell

Twitter Restricts Account Of Flynn Attorney Sidney Powell

Tyler Durden

Mon, 06/29/2020 – 09:54

Twitter has restricted the account of Michael Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell.

Trying to access Powell’s account (@SidneyPowell1) results in a warning which reads “Caution: This account is temporarily restricted” due to “unusual activity.” Users can then bypass the message and access Powell’s account.

It is unclear if this restriction began before or after she retweeted an article from The Federalist calling for conservatives to fight back against Black Lives Matter and its “radical agenda” which have resulted in “angry mobs pulling down statues, taunting police, attacking passersby, and taking over entire city blocks.”

Powell’s involvement Flynn’s case changed the fate of the retired general, who – under advisement from his prior legal counsel from Eric Holder’s law firm – pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.

Powell fought to force the government to release exculpatory evidence which revealed that rogue agent Peter Strzok overrode the agency’s recommendation to close the Flynn case – instead launching a ‘perjury trap’ against the former Trump adviser.

As a result, the Justice Department dropped its case against Flynn. The judge in the case, Emmet Sullivan, would not accept the DOJ’s request and instead called on a 3rd party judge to outline why Flynn should still be prosecuted. Last week, the Second Court of Appeals for DC ordered Sullivan to drop the matter.

All thanks to Sidney Powell.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ZjPKHt Tyler Durden

Nasdaq Tumbles Into Red At Open, S&P Breaks Below Key Technical Level

Nasdaq Tumbles Into Red At Open, S&P Breaks Below Key Technical Level

Tyler Durden

Mon, 06/29/2020 – 09:45

After opening down hard last night, futures went on the standard buying rampage overnight, only to plunge back lower at the cash market open…

S&P and Nasdaq are red from Friday’s close now, and the squeeze in small caps is unwinding fast…

Slapping the S&P 500 back below its 200DMA…

Don’t forget, buy the overnight, sell the day…

Bonds are flat for now.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ZqubFw Tyler Durden