Tag: finance

Authored by John Vibes via TheMindUnleashed.com,

In addition to quarantines and lockdowns, some governments like those in China, Taiwan, and South Korea have been using a surveillance strategy called “contact tracing” to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus.

While each country’s contract tracing program has slight variations, all of them are essentially cell phone apps that keep a running record of the user’s heath and the health records of all the people they come into contact with.

If a cell phone comes in close contact with someone who might have the virus, the user receives a text message informing them and then instructing them to self-quarantine for 14 days.

However, the quarantine is not necessarily voluntary, depending on where you live. In some countries, phones have been used as a sort of house arrest ankle-bracelet that will notify authorities if the person being monitored leave the house for any reason.

These apps are being touted as the way to end the shut down in both Italy and the UK and it appears that officials are going to be taking things in that direction.

At face value, it may appear that this could be a useful strategy in preventing the spread of disease, but privacy advocates and tech experts are concerned that this information could be misused and that the unprecedented surveillance capabilities could be kept and held by corrupt governments long after the pandemic is over.

In a recent interview with Vice, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden expressed his concerns about the coming surveillance program, calling it the “architecture of oppression.”

“Do you truly believe that when the first wave, this second wave, the 16th wave of the coronavirus is a long-forgotten memory, that these capabilities will not be kept? That these datasets will not be kept? No matter how it is being used, what’ is being built is the architecture of oppression,” Snowden said.

Snowden recognized that the virus was a serious threat and said that the intelligence community was well aware that it was only a matter of time before a massive pandemic crippled the country, even back when he was working in the NSA.

“There is nothing more foreseeable as a public health crisis in a world where we are just living on top of each other in crowded and polluted cities, than a pandemic. And every academic, every researcher who’s looked at this knew this was coming. And in fact, even intelligence agencies, I can tell you firsthand, because they used to read the reports had been planning for pandemics,” he said.

Snowden questioned the positive numbers that have come out of China in recent weeks and pointed out that the Chinese government has been credited with reducing the spread of the illness because they took such draconian measures during the lockdown.

Perhaps their extreme strategy is not working as well as they say it is, but since the government maintained tight control of any information coming out of the country, it is impossible to say for sure.

“If you’re looking at countries like China, where cases seem to have leveled off, how much can we trust that those numbers are actually true? I don’t think we can. Particularly, we see the Chinese government recently working to expel Western journalists at precisely this moment where we need credible independent warnings in this region,” Snowden said.

In a statement published on Friday, Apple and Google announced that they were teaming up in a rare partnership to develop compatible contact tracing apps, which they claim will work on an “opt-in” basis.

However, according to Bloomberg, the companies are planning to eventually build the contact tracing into the device’s updates.

Apple and Google insist that you will still be able to opt-out of the program if you don’t want to participate, but it is possible that rankings on these apps could be used to gain entry into grocery stores or larger businesses and events once the economy opens up again.

“As authoritarianism spreads, as emergency laws proliferate, as we sacrifice our rights, we also sacrifice our capability to arrest the slide into a less liberal and less free world,” Snowden warned.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week for allowing raw materials to continue to flow into Brazil so they could maintain production of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an anti-malaria drug, to treat patients of COVID-19, reported The Economic Times.

“We have more good news. As an outcome of my direct conversation with Prime Minister of India, we will receive, by Saturday, raw materials to continue our production of HCQ so that we can treat patients of COVID-19 as well as of Lupus, Malaria, and Arthritis. I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of India for such timely help to the people of Brazil,” Bolsonaro stated. 

“An honorable gesture that can help save the lives of many Brazilians, and which we will never forget,” Bolsonaro added.

HCQ is an anti-malarial drug that has been commonly used to treat lupus, arthritis, and other disorders which has been touted by President Trump. While clinical studies of the drug are still pending, there is compelling anecdotal evidence of the drug’s efficacy when combined with azithromycin (Z-Pac) and zinc sulfate has caused several countries to place them on their recommended treatment regimen for the virus.

President Trump is asked why he ‘promotes’ Hydroxychloroquine.

Trump: “I want to save lives. I don’t want it to be in a lab for the next year and a half as people are dying all over the place… and only CNN would ask that question. Fake News.”

pic.twitter.com/9V6fpGyAIg

— Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 5, 2020

The Brazilian president said the drug’s effectiveness against the virus “could go down in history as having saved thousands of lives in Brazil.” This comes at a time when the South American country has recorded 18,176 confirmed cases and 957 deaths (as of Friday morning, April 10). 

Bolsonaro said, “doctors, researchers, and heads of state from other countries” have told him that the drug had been used to treat “dozens of patients” and “all of them were saved.”

Bolsonaro wrote a letter to Modi last weekend, indicating that Hindu and Christian religious officials are comparing HCQ to “holy medicine” that must be shared with South America:

 “Just as Lord Hanuman brought the holy medicine from the Himalayas to save the life of Lord Rama’s brother Lakshmana, and Jesus healed those who were sick and restored the sight to Bartimeu, India and Brazil will overcome this global crisis by joining forces and sharing blessings for the sake of all peoples.” 

The Indian government released a statement that said Modi would “support” Brazil “in this difficult hour.” Both countries “agreed that their officials would remain in regular touch with respect to the COVID-19 situation and its emerging challenges.”

President Trump on Friday said that when and how to reopen the economy is the most difficult decision he’s ever had to make.

“I don’t know that I’ve had a bigger decision. But I’m going to surround myself with the greatest minds. Not only the greatest minds, but the greatest minds in numerous different businesses, including the business of politics and reason,” Trump told reporters.

“And we’re going to make a decision, and hopefully it’s going to be the right decision,” he added. “I will say this. I want to get it open as soon as we can.”

Pres. Trump says he will “surround myself with the greatest minds” to make decision on when to reopen country.

Asked what metrics he will use to make the call, he points at his head: “The metrics right here. That’s my metrics. That’s all I can do.” https://t.co/fRq5Ou4n42 pic.twitter.com/6gfC3FWJAX

— ABC News (@ABC) April 10, 2020

Meanwhile, as much of the nation continues to ‘shelter in place’ and socially distance, Trump has come under pressure from those who argue that the virus isn’t as terrible as originally advertised, and that the death toll and societal costs of a second great depression would far outweigh the impact of reopening the economy and letting the virus – which mostly kills older people (yet leaves many survivors in bad condition) – run its course.

On the other hand, Trump is being advised by a cadre of establishment experts (“the greatest minds”) that reopening the economy would have devastating effects; overwhelming hospitals and placing the nation in an unprecedented health crisis.

Suspiciously, the same advisers (and the MSM) are telling us not to trust the ‘anecdotal’ efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and zinc – a treatment which has overwhelming evidence of success in coronavirus patients.

Thus, the virus has become a an ideological tug-of-war between those who want to keep the economy shuttered until a vaccine is found, and those who believe that the inevitable economic ruin will be a far worse fate. Going one step further are some who believe that the virus is a hoax – or a US creation from Fort Detrick/USAMRIID, that the lockdown is the beginning of a tyrannical NWO scheme, and that forced vaccinations will coincide with a transdermal vax-tracking digital certificates that will mean the difference between freedom and subjugation (and may be the ‘mark of the beast’). Maybe they’re right?

And just like that…the globalist governments got everyone to leave their jobs, stay at home, rationing of goods, took certain liberties & freedoms, silenced protests & gatherings…even places of worship. Next will be the forced vaccines.

— Malik Obama (@ObamaMalik) April 11, 2020

If we see more scenes like the following play out across America, people are going to be grabbing more than just their pitchforks:

Video from Pastor Hamilton of King James Bible Baptist Church in Greenville, MS. Church tried the “drive-in” method of holding services & were targeted due to the Mayor issuing an order prohibiting such services. Watch as an officer tells the Pastor that his rights are suspended. pic.twitter.com/zLdT6Qd8ew

— Nick Short 🇺🇸 (@PoliticalShort) April 11, 2020

do riders know that they might be pulled off a SEPTA bus by 10 cops for not having a mask? pic.twitter.com/NnHXJC02E8

— Philly Transit Riders Union (@phillyTRU) April 10, 2020

As the threat of COVID-19 keeps millions of Americans locked down at home, businesses and financial markets are suffering.

For example, a survey of small-business owners found that 51% did not believe they could survive the pandemic for longer than three months. At the same time, the S&P 500 posted its worst first-quarter on record.

In response to this havoc, the U.S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) is taking unprecedented steps to try and stabilize the economy. This includes, as Visual Capitalist’s Marcu Lu details below, a return to quantitative easing (QE), a controversial policy which involves adding more money into the banking system. To help us understand the implications of these actions, today’s chart illustrates the swelling balance sheet of the Fed.

How Does Quantitative Easing Work?

Expansionary monetary policies are used by central banks to foster economic growth by increasing the money supply and lowering interest rates. These mechanisms will, in theory, stimulate business investment as well as consumer spending.

However, in the current low interest-rate environment, the effectiveness of such policies is diminished. When short-term rates are already so close to zero, reducing them further will have little impact. To overcome this dilemma in 2008, central banks began experimenting with the unconventional monetary policy of QE to inject new money into the system by purchasing massive quantities of longer-term assets such as Treasury bonds.

These purchases are intended to increase the money supply while decreasing the supply of the longer-term assets. In theory, this should put upward pressure on these assets’ prices (due to less supply) and decrease their yield (interest rates have an inverse relationship with bond prices).

Navigating Uncharted Waters

QE falls under intense scrutiny due to a lack of empirical evidence so far.

Japan, known for its willingness to try unconventional monetary policies, was the first to try QE. Used to combat deflation in the early 2000s, Japan’s QE program was relatively small in scale, and saw mediocre results.

Fast forward to today, and QE is quickly becoming a cornerstone of the Fed’s policy toolkit. Over a span of just 12 years, QE programs have led to a Fed balance sheet of over $6 trillion, leaving some people with more questions than answers.

This is a big experiment. It’s something that’s never been done before.

– Kevin Logan, Chief Economist at HSBC

Critics of QE cite several dangers associated with “printing” trillions of dollars. Increasing the money supply can drive high inflation (though this has yet to be seen), while exceedingly low interest rates can encourage abnormal levels of consumer and business debt.

On the other hand, proponents will maintain that QE1 was successful in mitigating the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. Some studies have also concluded that QE programs have reduced the 10-year yield in the U.S. by roughly 1.2 percentage points, thus serving their intended purpose.

Central banks … have little doubt that QE does operate in many ways like conventional monetary policy.

– Joseph E. Gagnon, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics

Regardless of which side one takes, it’s clear there’s much more to learn about QE, especially in times of economic stress.

The Other Exponential Curve

When conducting QE, the securities the Fed buys make their way onto its balance sheet. Below we’ll look at how the Fed’s balance sheet has grown cumulatively with each iteration of QE:

• QE1: $2.3 Trillion in Assets
  The Fed’s first QE program ran from January 2009 to August 2010. The cornerstone of this program was the purchase of $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS).

• QE2: $2.9 Trillion in Assets
  The second QE program ran from November 2010 to June 2011, and included purchases of $600B in longer-term Treasury securities.

• Operation Twist (Maturity Extension Program)
  To further decrease long-term rates, the Fed used the proceeds from its maturing short-term Treasury bills to purchase longer-term assets. These purchases, known as Operation Twist, did not expand the Fed’s balance sheet, and were concluded in December 2012.

• QE3: $4.5 Trillion in Assets
  Beginning in September 2012, the Fed began purchasing MBS at a rate of $40B/month. In January 2013, this was supplemented with the purchase of long-term Treasury securities at a rate of $45B/month. Both programs were concluded in October 2014.

• Balance Sheet Normalization Program: $3.7 Trillion in Assets
  The Fed began to wind-down its balance sheet in October 2017. Starting at an initial rate of $10B/month, the program called for a $10B/month increase every quarter, until a final reduction rate of $50B/month was reached.

• QE4: $6 Trillion and Counting
  In October 2019, the Fed began purchasing Treasury bills at a rate of $60B/month to ease liquidity issues in overnight lending markets. While not officially a QE program, these purchases still affect the Fed’s balance sheet.

After the COVID-19 pandemic hit U.S. shores, however, the Fed pulled out all the stops. It cut its target interest rate to zero for the first time ever, injected $1.5 trillion into the economy (with more stimulus to come), and reduced the overnight reserve requirement to zero.

Despite receiving little attention in the media, this third measure may be the most significant. For protection against bank runs, U.S. banks have historically been required to hold 10% of their liabilities in cash reserves. Under QE4, this requirement no longer stands.

No End in Sight

Now that the Fed is undertaking its most aggressive QE program yet, it’s a tough guess as to when equilibrium will return, if ever.

After nearly two years of draw-downs, Fed assets fell by just $0.7 trillion—in a matter of weeks, however, this progress was completely retraced.

QE4 is showing that what goes up, may not necessarily come down.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who is African American, is under serious fire from all sides today after he appeared to single-out communities of color for not following President Trump’s coronavirus guidelines (after widespread liberal media coverage of the inequities of the virus’ impact on low income black and brown families).

Specifically, Adams told Americans of color that they need to “step up” to stop the spread of COVID-19, warning that “social ills” were likely a major factor in why the outbreak has killed twice as many black and Latino people than white Americans.  

The nation’s top doctor said on Friday, during the daily coronavirus taskforce briefing, that:

“We need you to do this if not for yourself than for your abuela. Do it for your granddaddy, do it for your big momma, do it for your poppop,” while suggesting that black and Latino families “avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs.“

As The Daily Mail details, Adams added the “chronic burden of medical ills” among Americans of color is making those communities less resilient to the “ravages” of COVID-19.

However, it seems while Adams message may have been both factual and heart-felt, members of the black community are calling out the Surgeon General for “pandering” to them with his use of slang and also for his “offensive” instruction that those specific communities to stop drinking and smoking during this pandemic.

“The surgeon general telling black folks not to drink and smoke and do it for ya “paa paa and big momma”. Where they get this guy from? How dumb do they think we are with this? How bout suggesting that EVERYONE cut back? Let’s not do that ok?” TV host and actress Claudia Jordan said.

One man on Twitter, David DeLoatch, said:

“Let me tell a lot of you something, we don’t talk the way movies, songs, and the media portrays us. The Surgeon General is trying to relate to a life he never lived, listen to his voice and they way he speaks. He has never called anyone “big momma,” and neither have I.”

Other questioned Adams’ word choice, writing:

‘As if people wouldn’t understand him if he said, “Do it for your grandparents”?’

Some bashed him for using ‘stereotypical ethnic names for our relative’. And activist Blaine Hardaway used the opportunity to take a shot at the president:

“I really would like to say I’m surprised but of course I’m not. Trump sent the only black guy on his team out to chastise black and Latino people for smoking and drinking, as if that’s the reason our communities are predisposed to this virus. Just disgusting.”

Adams later tried to explain his comments after PBS NewsHour’s Yamiche Alcindor pressed him later in the briefing:

“That was not meant to be offensive,” Adams said.

“That’s the language that we use and I use and we need to continue to target our outreach to those communities.”

Adams concluded with the uncomfortable fact-bomb that “people of color experience both more likely exposure to COVID-19 and increased complications from it.”  

With a vaccine still a year to 18 months away, and various treatments for COVID-19 in early-stage testing (in New York City, some patients are being given Trump-approved hydroxycloroquine, a medication typically used to treat lupus and malaria), it’s still unclear when exactly the world can expect a broadly effective treatment to liberate humanity from its fear of potentially lethal infection.

Much, including the virus’s exact mortality rate on a global scale, remains undetermined when it comes to the coronavirus. Most research comes with an asterisk next to it noting that it is ‘preliminary’ or has not been ‘peer-reviewed’. We are all learning about this new virus as we go, and yet, as deaths continue to accelerate in the US and the UK, some readers are desperate for good news about the treatment options, even if there isn’t really any good news to share.

But doesn’t mean the press can’t utilize certain tricks of the trade to try and amplify the apparent importance of what are, in reality, relatively minor developments.

That’s what Bloomberg did on Saturday in a story about the race for a vaccine, and another quoting findings from a ‘preliminary’ study that has little to no actual merit.

The lead scientist on a team working to develop a vaccine in the UK told the British press that her team might have a vaccine ready by September, roughly a 6 months to a year faster than initially believed.

Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University Sarah Gilbert said Saturday that she is “80% confident” the vaccine would work, and could be ready by September, even as many other experts have warned the process could take 18 months.

In the case of the Oxford team, however, “it’s not just a hunch, and as every week goes by we have more data to look at,” Gilbert told the London newspaper.

Oh, it’s not just a hunch? Well then, that’s great. We’ll just take your word for it.

In a different report, Bloomberg heralded that a Gilead preliminary study carried out in North America had shown promise for its remdesivir antiviral, a broad-spectrum anti-viral shown to be effective against other coronaviruses, and has been heralded by the press as one of the most highly anticipated treatments for coronavirus.

A study involving 56 patients (minus 7 whose data were excluded from the results for one reason or another) found that 68% saw their condition improve on the drug.

The report published in the New England Journal of Medicine tracked 53 people in the U.S., Europe and Canada who needed respiratory support, with about half receiving mechanical ventilation and four on a heart-lung by-pass machine. Eight additional patients were left out of the analysis: one due to a dosing error and seven because no information was available on how they fared.

All received remdesivir for up to 10 days on a compassionate use basis, a program that allows people to use unapproved medicines when no other treatment options are available. Over 18 days, 68% of the patients improved, with 17 of the 30 patients on mechanical ventilation being able to get off the breathing device. Almost half of the patients studied were ultimately discharged, while 13% died. Mortality was highest among those who were on a ventilator, with 18% of them dying.

But how promising is this study, really? Is it that far removed from the small studies of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine carried out in France and China, which showed that drug to be modestly effective with little harm to the patient (unless they drink the fish-tank cleaner). One researcher even admits that the study isn’t enough to draw any kind of definitive conclusion, and BBG even let it slip that Gilead even helped interpret the study’s results.

“We cannot draw definitive conclusions from these data, but the observations from this group of hospitalized patients who received remdesivir are hopeful,” said lead author Jonathan Grein, director of hospital epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, in a statement from Gilead. The Foster City, California-based company provided the medication and also helped analyze the results.

And in the very next paragraph, BBG criticizes hydroxychloroquine and the “tiny French study” whose methodology “has been heavily criticized” by many experts.

As one “skeptic” who read the study reportedly said, the data from the paper are “almost uninterpretable.”

“The data from this paper are almost uninterpretable,” Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in an emailed statement. “There is some evidence suggesting efficacy, but we simply do not know what would have happened to these patients had they not been given the drug.”

Aside from simply determining whether the medication “works” or not, these comprehensive studies are supposed to shed some light on how to use the medication in the most safe and effective way, like when is the best time to start the course – in terms of the disease’s progression.

“In studying remdesivir, the question is not just whether it is safe and effective against Covid-19, but in which patients it shows activity, how long should they receive treatment and at what stage of their disease would treatment be most beneficial,” said Daniel O’Day, Gilead’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Many answers are needed, which is why we need multiple types of studies involving many types of patients.”

Some of these answers will emerge in the coming weeks with the release of initial data from the various clinical trials, O’Day said Friday in an open letter sent via email.

This might be a typo or a mistake, but after reporting that researchers were able to ramp up research on remdesivir so quickly because it had recently been studied for efficacy against ebola (it was determined to be safe but ineffective). However, BBG claims that 1 in 4 patients suffered serious side effects like organ malfunction or acute kidney damage.

About one in four patients on the medicine experienced severe side effects, including multiple-organ dysfunction syndrome, septic shock, acute kidney injury and low blood pressure. Another 23% showed signs of liver damage on laboratory tests. Four patients had to stop receiving infusions of the drug entirely.

Remdesivir was considered to be the most promising therapeutic candidate based on its broad antiviral spectrum, and existing data based on human and animal studies, a World Health Organization panel said in January. The medication was developed initially for Ebola and studied in patients in Eastern Congo.

If it works well, one issue will be whether there is enough of a supply of the drug, especially if the epidemic is still raging. Gilead has been working all-out to bolster supply of the hard-to-make medicine. It said earlier this month that it hopes to to have 500,000 treatment courses by October, and more than 1 million by year-end. Production time has also been accelerated to six months from one year.

In what world is that a “safe” standard?

Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

If Americans are not doing some serious soul-searching in the midst of this crisis, they need to start. Where America goes from here is not some sort of esoteric debate. What we do at this point has life or death consequences. Get it wrong, and suffer more death, suffering, and impoverishment. Get it right, and America moves toward life, health, liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony.

What everyone needs to recognize is that they are facing a choice of systems, not a choice of people. Either stick with the same systems or switch over to new systems. That’s the choice now facing the American people.

Let’s examine four systems under which we currently live and have lived for decades.

America’s economic system

This is a centrally planned and centrally managed system run by the federal government. Its central aim is to “wage war on poverty” by forcibly taking money from everyone and redistributing it to people in need, such as the elderly and the poor. It is based on massive confiscation of income and wealth by the Internal Revenue Service, in the form of income taxes and payroll taxes.

America’s healthcare system

This too is a centrally planned and centrally managed system run by the federal government. It is based on big, powerful central planning agencies like as the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA, as well as massive socialist programs like Medicare and Medicaid, both of which are responsible for foisting a never-ending healthcare crisis onto the American people consisting of ever-increasing healthcare costs that have bankrupted people or sent them into deep debt.

America’s monetary system

This too is a centrally planned and centrally managed system run by the federal government, specifically the Federal Reserve. From its beginning in 1913, its job has been to print up ever-increasing quantities of paper money to enable the federal government to fund the ever-increasing expenditures of the welfare-warfare state way of life.

America’s system of empire and foreign intervention

This too is a centrally planned and centrally managed system by the national-security branch of the federal government. Its job is to wreak death and destruction among foreigners and, in the process, bring ever-increasing amounts of taxpayer-funded largess to its army of well-heeled “defense” contractors, which are composed of former members of the national-security establishment.

Consequences of central planning

How are all these systems working out? Most, if not all, people would agree that they are not working out well at all. Together, they have either bankrupted people through taxes or debts or left millions of people without even enough savings to get them through a couple of months of unemployment.

And guess who is now paying the biggest price for the coronavirus crisis — seniors and the poor. That’s because the FDA, in all its central planning wisdom, prohibited the private sector from producing test kits that would have, without any doubt, significantly reduced the coronavirus infection rate.

How can they lower the infection rate if they don’t know who has the virus, especially since people who have the virus are infecting people for about a week before they show any symptoms? A massive number of cheap testing kits would have enabled people to ferret out quickly and early who was infected, enabling everyone else to continue working.

Given that their dysfunctional healthcare system has totally failed to stem the crisis, they have resorted to tyranny and oppression through a mandatory shutdown of the economy, sending millions of people into unemployment and even bankruptcy.

To relieve the financial distress from their destruction of people’s livelihoods, they are resorting to their dysfunctional monetary system. The Federal Reserve is now printing money like it was going out of style. Does anyone really believe that printing trillions of dollars is a way to relieve economic distress? It’s just another form of taxation, one that plunders and loots people, specially the elderly and the poor, through the massive devaluation of their money.

Meanwhile, their fourth dysfunctional system is ensuring that the national-security establishment will suffer no budget cuts whatsoever in order to enable to maintain its oversees machinery of empire and intervention.

Isn’t that ironic? Their four systems of central planning and management are responsible for massive death, suffering, and impoverishment not only here at home but also abroad.

A different direction

If you like how all these dysfunctional systems have worked out, are working out, and will continue to work out into the future, just continue supporting their existence.

But make no mistake: There is a choice to be made here because there are four systems that are opposite to the four systems under which we are are suffering. These four systems are as follows:

A free-market economic system

Under this system, everyone keeps everything he earns — 100 percent, which enables everyone to save lots of money. No income taxation and no IRS. It’s a system based on 100 percent voluntary charity. This was America’s founding economic system for more than 100 years. It produced the wealthiest and most charitable society in history.

A free-market healthcare system

Under this system, the private sector and the free market are entirely responsive for healthcare. No more having to get permission from federal bureaucrats to produce test kits or anything else because the federal government will play no role whatsoever in healthcare. A total separation of healthcare and the state, just as our ancestors had the wisdom to separate church and state. This was America’s founding healthcare system and last for more than 100 years. It produced the finest healthcare system in history, one in which healthcare costs were cheap and affordable and in which doctors and hospitals treated the poor for free on a purely voluntary basis.

A free-market monetary system

Under this system, the free market determines the currency that is going to be used. No more Federal Reserve and no more legal-tender laws. For more than 100 years, America had the finest monetary system in history, one based on gold coins and silver coins. A free-market monetary system would improve upon that concept.

A limited-government republic with a small, basic military force.

No more national-security state and no more foreign military bases and foreign interventionism. No more sanctions, embargoes, invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, torture, state-sponsored assassinations, secret mass surveillance, and other destruction of civil liberties. America was founded as a limited-government republic, which lasted for more than 100 years.

The same old direction versus a new direction

So there you have it: Four completely different systems from which to choose. Americans should choose wisely. Your lives, health, and financial well-being and those of your loved ones, friends, and neighbors depend on it.

Talks of COVID immunity cards have certainly been a hot subject in the last several weeks from high-ranking Western officials. It could be the means to reopen crashed economies seen across Europe and the US.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, told CNN “New Day” host Alisyn Camerota that people could soon carry ‘cards’ proving their immunity to COVID-19. 

“Can you imagine a time where Americans carry certificates of immunity?” Camerota asked Fauci during an interview Friday.

“You know, that’s possible,” Fauci responded. 

“It’s one of those things that we talk about when we want to make sure that we know who the vulnerable people are and not.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci: “Within a period of a week or so, we’re going to have a rather large number of [antibody] tests that are available.”https://t.co/Klsiktp7fq pic.twitter.com/9LdH5CHOFc

— New Day (@NewDay) April 10, 2020

He continued, “This is something that’s being discussed. I think it might actually have some merit, under certain circumstances.”

The rollout of immunity cards would be dependent on the success of antibody testing, which could be unveiled in April: 

“If their antibody test is positive, one can formulate strategies about whether or not they would be at risk or vulnerable to getting re-infected,” Fauci said.

We noted the proposal of immunity cards first appeared in Europe, with Germany, Italy, and the UK all calling for some form of documentation that would allow people who were immune to the disease to travel freely. Imagine stepping into an airport, and an official says, “papers please!” – while referring to a passport, you might also need your COVID immunity card. 

Talk of these specialized health passports surfaced in American politics several weeks ago when House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart called on Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to implement an “Immunity Certificate” for first responders and healthcare professionals. Last week, Senator Bill Cassidy pitched the creation of an online registry that would help to identify who tested positive and negative. 

And for more confirmation that immunity passports are going to be the next big thing in the Western world, or maybe across the globe. Here is Bill Gates on March 24, giving a 50-minute interview to Chris Anderson, the Curator of TED, the non-profit that runs the TED Talks.

Right at 34:14, Gates discussed how the future in a post-corona world would be. He said:

Eventually what we’ll have to have is certificates of who’s a recovered person, who’s a vaccinated person…

…Because you don’t want people moving around the world where you’ll have some countries that won’t have it under control, sadly.

We’ve noted, immunity passes and “intermittent lockdowns” could become a reality in the months or quarters ahead and last for some time -– as the virologists at JPMorgan believe the virus could unfold in several waves, similar to 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. 

“Here, JPM believes that next waves could be at a smaller amplitude with lower mortality rate potential compared to the current first wave. This is due to (1) strong risk awareness among stakeholders; (2) faster government response potential at the infection tipping point; and (3) enhanced risk manual at the containment stage. However, even a substantially reduced amplitude of wave 2 (and 3 and 4), suggest that ongoing economic shutdowns will be a recurring feature of life for quarters if not years!” we said last week. 

And as Gates said: “So eventually there will be this digital immunity proof that will help facilitate the global reopening up.” It appears Fauci and Gates are on the same page.

In a post-corona world, the surveillance state will thrive as your freedoms erode. Big Brother is watching you, and the new means of control is through immunity cards. 

At the end of January, just as China was admitting the full extent of the Wu Flu pandemic it had kept under wraps for weeks in hopes it could get away with not shutting its economy even if it meant tens of thousands dead (in the end, it failed) we reported that since 1990 the top 1% has bought $1.2 trillion of equities and mutual funds while the rest, or 99% of the population, had sold $1 trillion. And, confirming what we discussed in “The Rich Have Assets, The Poor Have Debt“, based on the Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts (DFAs), the concentration of household equity ownership among the wealthiest households is at an all-time high.

But then an unexpected thing happened: stocks crashed, with the S&P briefly losing as much as 35% as traders freaked out that the global coronavirus pandemic would result in a world that is shut down for months, if not quarters, resulting in profit devastation. That’s when the Fed stepped in, and after first unleashing a bazooka, then a “nuclear bomb” meant to crush bond shorts, and finally a super nuke where the Fed would go so far as bailout all those companies that had purchased trillions in stocks while issuing BBB-rated grade which are now being downgraded in record amounts, i.e., the Fed would buy “fallen angel” junk bonds, Jerome Powell ensured that the 1% is well on its way to being made whole – in other words the superrrich are now benefiting from the biggest bailout in history, a topic which sparked an unprecedented debate on CNBC when sparks flew between VC investor Chamath Palihapitiya (himself a billionaire) and anchor Scott Wapner, with the former saying billionaires and companies should be allowed to fail (he is absolutely right – after all that’s what the Chapter 11 process is for as we have been saying for months), while the latter sparking outrage for inexplicably claiming that billionaires are just as desperately in need of rescuing by the money printer (watch the full clash here).

In short, it was a momentuous week, one in which we learned that the Fed will do anything – even if it means destroy the dollar completely (just watch the price of gold for Powell’s progress in this regard) – to rescue the super rich, while everyone else was getting destroyed. And nothing capture the zeitgeist better than the following screen grab courtesy of Justin Horwitz who aptly titled the following tweet “Everything that is wrong with America, in one image.“

To this all we can add is: American Middle Class 0 – Federal Reserve 6,083,131,000,000.

The impacts of Tesla’s previously announced furloughs are finally starting rear their heads – in a big way. The company announced on Friday that about half of the company’s entire U.S. sales and delivery staff would be affected, according to CNBC. 

Workers in sales and deliveries were furloughed by their rank and their tenure, not on the basis of their performance. Anyone with entry-level roles or lower sales quotas each quarter have all been furloughed, according to sources at Tesla. Employees in senior sales and delivery roles who have been with the company for less than two years have also been furloughed.

One furloughed employee worried that permanent layoffs could be next as a way for Tesla to continue cost cutting that began in 2019. As a reminder, Tesla said in early 2019 it was going to shift to “online only sales” before walking back those comments just weeks later. 

Recall, we first reported about 3 days ago that Tesla announced it was going to be furloughing all non-essential workers and implementing salary cuts due to the very same coronavirus outbreak that CEO Elon Musk once publicly labeled as “dumb”.

In true “carrot on a string” fashion, the company also disclosed at the same time that it expected to resume normal operations on May 4, “barring any significant changes”. 

Recall, Tesla had suspended production at Fremont and in New York on March 24. The Fremont suspension came after a spat with the Alameda County Sheriff’s department about whether or not Tesla was an “essential” business. It also came 8 days after Musk told his workers they were “more likely to die in a car crash” than from coronavirus. 

Two days after Tesla’s delayed close, on March 26, it was reported that two Tesla employees had tested positive for coronavirus.

According to an email sent to U.S. employees by in-house counsel Valerie Capers Workman, workers pay is going to be cut 10%, directors will have their salaries cut by 20% and VP salaries will be cut by 30%, the company said.

Tesla said that pay for salaried employees would be reduced on April 13 and that cuts would remain in place until the end of the second quarter, despite the company’s plans to re-open in early May.