Category Archives: News

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Connecting The Dots, News

Hundreds of CEOs Resigned in the Last Few Months, Why?

In the weeks and months leading up to the stock market crash hundreds of CEOs resigned. Fortune magazine described it as the “great CEO exodus of 2020”. CEOs sold of billions of dollars of stock in their own companies just before the share prices sky dived.

At the end of last year a record number of  1,480 CEOs left their posts. This would not be unusual during a recession, but almost unheard of during a time of financial prosperity. And although their were signs that the global economy was slowing, few would have forecast a global recession.

Furthermore in January this year an additional 219 CEOs stepped down. The Wall Street Journal commented:

Top executives at U.S.-traded companies sold a total of roughly $9.2 billion in shares of their own companies between the start of February and the end of last week, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.

The selling saved the executives—including many in the financial industry—potential losses totaling $1.9 billion, according to the analysis, as the S&P 500 stock index plunged about 30% from its peak on Feb. 19 through the close of trading March 20.

However it was not only CEOs selling off stocks. Some members of Congress were also selling stocks just before the market went nuts…

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and three of her Senate colleagues reported selling off stocks worth millions of dollars in the days before the coronavirus outbreak crashed the market, according to reports.

The data is listed on a U.S. Senate website containing financial disclosures from Senate members.

Read More: End of the American Dream

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DOW Jumps 2,112 Points- Biggest Ever

The US equity markets made their biggest ever signal day gains. The optimism was caused mind reports the $2 trillion Covid-19 stimulus package was close to being agreed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average a 2,112 point gain, the biggest ever, or 11 percent, while the S&P 500 gained over 9.3 percent and the Nasdaq over 8.1 percent.

President Trump’s comments that he favours opening up the economy sooner rather than later also boosted investor confidence.

Read More: Fox Business 

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Russia Uses Facial Recognition Cameras to Enforce Quarantine

Russia is using a network of 100,00 cameras in the capital Moscow to track anyone breaking quarantine during the Coronavirus outbreak.

The cameras are controlled from a purpose-built coronavirus control centre.

Russia has created a database of images, and personal data from those with Covid-19 and this is used to monitor for anyone on the streets who should be in quarantine.

South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan have also used personal data from cell phones to track people in quarantine.

Read More: France 24

News

Trump Hopes to See Economy Restarted by Easter

President Trump has said that he’d like to see the economy restarted by Easter. Saying, “would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.”

The President has also said that the “cure cannot be worse” than the disease. Indicating that steps to halt the Coronavirus have to be weighed against the harm it will do to the American economy.

However, top officials have tempered the President’s positive outlook warning that this crisis could continue for many weeks to come. The task force has said that decisions around lifting restrictions will be taken at a later date by looking at all the fresh data available.

Read More: Fox News

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Democrats Want to Introduce Digital Dollar in Stimulus Bill

Democrats in Congress proposed introducing the digital dollar in their draft Covid-19 stimulus bill.

The draft Democrat Bill introduces the concept of a Digital Dollar, which represents either a liability of any Federal Reserve bank, or money redeemable at a bank. In the latter case, the bill introduces the concept of a pass-through digital dollar wallet, which is operated by a bank.

However, Central Banks have warned that the introduction of a digital currency would need to be done with great caution due not only to economic risks, but also cyber security risks.

Read More: Ledger Insights

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Senate Democrats Block $2 Trillion Stimulus Bill

The Democrats have blocked the stimulus bill worth almost $2 trillion. The bill is meant to keep the U.S. economy moving, and help businesses weather the coronavirus storm.

Republications thought they were close to a deal, and have blamed the democrats for playing partisan politics at a time of national crisis.

The President has pointed the finger at Nancy Pelosi saying, “Republicans had a deal until Nancy Pelosi rode into town from her extended vacation. The Democrats want the Virus to win?” he wrote on Twitter. “They are asking for things that have nothing to do with our great workers or companies. They want Open Borders & Green New Deal. Republicans shouldn’t agree!”

Read More: FT

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Coronavirus has Brought the Global Economy to the Brink of Depression

In 30 days the global economy has been brought to the brink of depression. In February the DOW was soaring at record highs and the U.S. economy was in the midst of its greatest economic expansion in history.

A global recession for 2020 was all but unthinkable.

Now the U.S. government is set to inject $1trillion into the U.S. economy to stop mass lay offs, and the U.K. government has agreed to pay 80% of the nation’s wages. As economies are grinding to a halt across the globe the affects of Covid-19 could be hear for a long time.

As the pandemic continues experts are now thinking how it will shape the world once the health emergency has ended. Many think the world will see major shifts in global supply chains and how global trade is conducted.

Many have been warning the West about the threat of a global pandemic. In 2013 the World Bank said, “A severe pandemic would resemble a global war in its sudden, profound, and widespread impact”

Read More: CNN

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U.S. to Lock Down 70 Million People to Try and Stop Coronavirus Spread

70 million people across America’s mostly densely populated states are preparing for lock down. New York and Illinois  are expected to follow California, in restricting residents to their homes.

Hospitals are already facing the strain of Covid-19, and health officials are desperately trying to avoid a repeat of what has happened in Italy and Spain.

Northern Italy is still in the grips of an out of control spread of Coronavirus. With the health care system unable to cope with the shear numbers of sick and dying.

President Trump addressed the nation saying:

“Every American has a role to play in defending our nation from this invisible, horrible enemy.

“It really is an invisible enemy – and we will be successful, hopefully very much sooner than people would think.

“So we say stay at home and save lives. It is a time of shared national sacrifice but it’s also a time to treasure our loved ones and to take stock of what is most important; our faith, our families, our neighbours and our great country.

“I want to thank all of the incredible people, the citizens of our country.”

Read More: ITV

Connecting The Dots, News

U.S. Government Seeks to Use Smartphone Data to Monitor Social Distancing Compliance

The U.S. government  are reportedly considering ordering tech companies to hand over data to monitor if people are complying with social distancing guidelines during the Coronavirus pandemic.

According the NBC

Federal health officials say they could use anonymous, aggregated user data collected by the tech companies to map the spread of the virus — a practice known as “syndromic surveillance” — and prevent further infections. They could also use the data to see whether people were practicing “social distancing.”

Some sources stressed that the effort would be anonymized and that government would not have access to specific individuals’ locations. They noted that users would be required to opt-in to the effort.

The federal effort, first reported by The Washington Post, will force the tech giants to weigh their commitments to user privacy against their desire to help combat a disease that has cost thousands of human lives and upended the global economy.

Google confirmed that it is looking at how anonymous aggregated user data could be used in the fight against Covid-19. Saying they are,  “exploring ways that aggregated anonymized location information could help in the fight against COVID-19. One example could be helping health authorities determine the impact of social distancing, similar to the way we show popular restaurant times and traffic patterns in Google Maps.”

Read More: Breitbart

News

Cannes Film Festival to be Postponed

The most prodigious of the film festivals- Cannes- is to be postponed this year. Organisers have said that until the Coronavirus is under control in France will the make a decision.

“Several hypotheses are being studied to preserve the festival, the main one of which would be a simple postponement,” the festival said in a statement. “As soon as the development of the French and international health situation will allow us to assess the real possibility, we will make our decision known.”

Already South by Southwest and the Tribeca Film Festivals have been cancelled. But the industry hopes that Cannes will survive as it is closer to summer.

Read More: Breitbart

Connecting The Dots, News, Opinion

China Looking to Avoid Blame for Covid-19 Pandemic

There is clearly documented evidence that China sought to cover up the Coronavirus outbreak in it’s early days. Failing to contain the outbreak and even arresting the whistleblowers who sought to alert the world.

Some democrats where appalled when the President referred to the virus as the “China Virus” or “Wuhan virus”. Naming the Coronavirus Covid-19 the WHO has taken the spotlight off China, something Beijing is keen to see.

Despite Beijing’s failure to act, many in the West say blaming China is racism. However, not only did China fail to act, they actively censored information, and then spread misinformation by trying to blame the U.S. military for the outbreak.

After this pandemic has been brought under control and economies rebuild. Other nations need to address how they will conduct business with Beijing.

Read More: The Atlantic

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Fox Business Host Trish Regan on “Hiatus” After Controversial Comments About Coronavirus and Trump

Trump supporter and Fox Business host Trish Regan is on “hiatus” after she made controversial comments on her show.  On her show she said: “We’ve reached a tipping point. The chorus of hate being leveled at the president is nearing a crescendo as Democrats blame him, and only him, for a virus that originated halfway around the world. This is yet another attempt to impeach the president,” she said Monday, adding that Democrats and the “liberal media” were using the coronavirus to “destroy the president.”

The left quickly jumped on her remarks demanding she be fired. Her show Trish Regan Primetime and another, Kennedy, were the put on hold for the time being.

However Fox were quick to say this is due to them restructuring programming to manage staffing demands at this time. In a tweet Regan responded

I want to let everyone know that Trish Regan Primetime is now on hiatus. FBN has taken prudent steps to limit staffing levels and is prioritizing its coverage during market hours. I fully support this decision — we all must to do our part to keep our colleagues safe. #TrishRegan

— Trish Regan (@trish_regan) March 14, 2020

Read More: The Hill