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Of the $19 billion in aid to farmers for the coronavirus, $16 billion of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, goes in direct payments to farmers and rancher with checks going out end of May. Another $3 billion goes to mass purchases of dairy, meat and produce that will be distributed through food banks. Faced with loss of sales with restaurants and schools closed, and disruptions in deliveries to grocery stores, farmers in the U.S. have stopped or slowed production. As a result huge quantities of food that can't be sold are being destroyed. Plowing under thousands of acres of vegetables, dumping millions of gallons of milk, and destroying eggs. In addition to this aid Agriculture Secretary Perdue says the department is using funds set aside under the larger coronavirus relief aid package of $2 trillion for the U.S., and funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation. Mr. Perdue is himself a farmer from Georgia, who was governor for eight years. These funds are separate from the $28 billion to farmers being distributed by USDA to offset losses from loss of sales to China. USDA plans to make monthly purchases of $100 million each of fresh produce, dairy products and meat, and work with the nation's food distributors to assemble a pre-approved box of food to be given out at food banks and other outlets. ...

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Massachusetts is moving into no. 3 or no. 4 position after New York and New Jersey and possibly Michigan in coronavirus cases with 34,000 reported. More than 3700 were hospitalized  in the state.

Massachusetts is close to hotspot New York. It also has a more aggressive testing strategy and is hiring hundreds of volunteers to do contract tracing, and uses Partners in Health, a nonprofit. Michigan and Massachusetts have followed a more aggressive strategy of testing compared to California which has taken a different approach of not doing aggressive testing and contact tracing leading to lower numbers in California now adjusted for population that could be different later on.

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Investors put in $136 billion into startup companies in 2018, and $141 billion in 2019, as reported in this WSJ article on startups. Before this it peaked at $75 billion in 2000 and did not recover after the 2009 financial crisis till 2014 when it reached about 75 billion dollars.  Much of the increase in money that did not go into infrastructure at low interest rates below zero appears to have been wasted as the ideas for startups declined in quality in the years 2014-2019. Softbank put up a Vision Fund which has run up billions of dollars in losses including a disastrous investment in WeWork. The resistance to shifting all the money at low interest rates to infrastructure has faded with the election of president Trump supported by a Republican party that puts the American worker first for job retention and expansion, and America first in world trade. The pandemic has changed the environment for startup companies as most startup companies are not likely to survive the environment they are in. The big ones such as Uber have built up losses, and ones such as Airbnb are borrowing $2 billion at 10 percent interest in emergency funding. Experience and sound thinking for investments were left behind as capital was wasted in many projects. The time has come to return to investments that have built the basis of the twentieth and twenty first century's advances in quality of life, in infrastructure and strong public services. ...

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What is the difference between South Korea and the U.S., Europe in the handling of coronavirus? It is tracking and testing.  President Trump and health adviser Dr. Fauci, see South Korea as the successful model to be followed in controlling the coronavirus. What has happened till now it is accepted with shortage of basic medical supplies and equipment, stress on hospital systems, are merely mitigation actions. South Korea was prepared for the coronavirus crisis because of the MERS and other epidemics, and failures resulting in corrective actions. Labs were centralized and better equipped for testing and tracking the infected. One of the key tools is testing. President Trump says the goal is for the U.S. to exceed and far surpass tests per capita in South Korea. Five million tests are planned by the end of April in the U.S. Where the U.S. falls short is in use of multipronged digital tracking using data from people's use of mobile phones, credit card usage, and use of apps designed to separate infected people from others. South Korea is a democracy with a population of 52 million people, about the size of France. People who were student activists in the democratization era in South Korea say the use of digital technology is a need today. We have to adapt in emergency situation they say. Ki Mo-ran, epidemiologist, and adviser to South Korean government says this is a key part lacking in the European and U.S. efforts to control coronavirus. She says in South Korea we know the patient's contacts, where he goes and stays, so we don't have to lock down everybody. Without digital tracking one cannot know which place is contaminated, which place is clean, so that there can be a lockdown of just that area and not the whole country, says Ki Mo-ran. She asks the question- is one person's privacy more important than the lives of a family or other people who are affected. Is it OK to lockdown every child in the country in a home as in Spain for over a month so that particular people's privacy is respected? These are serious questions for western society, are they exceptions or is democracy not just a western idea but equally cherished in Asian societies, people talk about Confucianism in China and the Asian culture forgetting that the biggest democracies are quite large and functioning well in India in addition to South Korea, Taiwan Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Japan, far larger in area and population than China. The French government has chosen the app TraceTogether as the least intrusive one adaptable to France for use there. The U.S. is having Google and Apple develop one of its own. India will be developing one of its own. The NYT raises the question will it be watered down so much in France or in the U.S. and UK to be less effective than the  dire need for an alternative to lockdowns? ...

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The NYT  looks at how the world is coping- with pictures of a classroom in Denmark , blocks of apartments in Barcelona. One of the first countries to open schools with children 2 yards apart, washing hands every hour and not allowed to play with close touching, teachers staying apart in staff areas. Spain is one of the countries hit hardest and with strict lockdown not allowing children to step outside till now, as is allowed in Britain and France. Children in Barcelona are shown in block apartments with parents calling for letting children outside fdor short periods. Madrid is now letting children go outside home for one hour at a time.

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Skepticism in France, expressed by president Macron, about how the virus originated.

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The difference between the banks and the oil companies. The banks are doing better because of support from the central bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve. The oil companies are affected by low oil prices of less than $20. Shale oil companies in America are the worst hit unable to operate at prices this low. The oil deal negotiated by president Trump to get initially 9.7 million barrels a day off the market and with other cuts in supply from Venezuela and Iran about 20 million barrels a day, has not taken the pressure off oil prices, as demand has fallen off even more by over 30 million barrels a day.

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Wha is life like for a grocer, a food store owner in a rural county in America. Frank Timberlake in this story is a former law enforcement officer running a store in Northhampton County, North Carolina. He looks after his employees, and his customers in this rural county.  Rich Square Market is the only grocery store in this town. He is all on his own as he deals with supplies of expensive Charmin toilet paper, or shortage of paper towels, and the rising price of eggs.

His worries- if one worker get sick the rest are quarantined. He has kept the store open through hurricanes, floods, yet this is tough. He jumps when he sneezes, sleeps in a separate room at home, and can't hold his wife's hand.

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China's GDP declines by 6.8% in the first quarter 2020 year over year, and 9.8% from the previous quarter, the first such decline since 1992, even going as far back as 1976 with the passing of the Mao era. It is not power production or coal consumption which have returned to prior levels. It is the demand from the U.S. and Europe, other countries which are in lockdowns. Estimates are that 80 million people in a population of 900 million working age people lost their jobs, with another 10 million expected to be lost, about 10% of the total. Global trade companies are hardest hit.  Consumers inside China are reducing spending. Some are using only the small government issued vouchers designed to get people to go out and spend.  The Trump administration plans to bring back some of the production lost to China in essential areas such as public health and security back to the U.S. The supply chains are already shifting to other countries from U.S. tariffs. As a result some estimates show zero growth in 2020 for China. Financial instability and prior leveraging concerns remain to prevent any serious stimulus. By contrast the U.S. is cushioning the impact with $2 trillion aid package benefitting from a strong dollar and healthy economy before the virus. ...

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State run programs that help businesses to retain employees and avoid layoffs are a great way to operate during the lockdowns and gradual reopening. In these workshare programs workers work reduced hours and collect prorated unemployment benefits to offset lost wages. This avoids full layoffs. As the coronavirus is a temporary setback companies need their employees in a healthy economy. How to retain employees. Shift some of the cost of retaining employees to the U.S. or state governments funded by the federal government which comes in the form of unemployment benefits. Workers can then do shorter hours and get through this period.

Such programs are now set up by states in more than half of American states covering about 70% of payrolls. The problem is getting companies and employees to use this program. As of March 28 only 1% of 8.2 million employees have used the program, but it is growing.

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As 22 million Americans go on unemployment benefits some Americans protest in states such as Michigan and North Carolina, Virginia. Even though Michigan was hard hit the western part of the state is quite different from the south east and Detroit which were hit hard. As the situation is different in each state and also by county president Trump has made it clear that it is the governors of the states who will decide and also the reopening could be varied by county. President Trump is also looking at other countries which are reopening in phases such as Germany where April 20, May 4, are dates for phases of reopening starting April 20 with small shops less than 800 square meters in space. European Union is similar to the U.S. in size. Germany went in front, but France like New York is coming in the back of this. France hit hard, has extended the lockdown till May 11.

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The WHO, World Health Organization, comes under criticism for failing to warn about the pandemic. President Trump says the U.S. finances the WHO with $450 million but the WHO has opposed some of the basic common sense approaches to the virus such as early quarantines and suspension of flights from virus hotspots. Including opposing the U.S. action taken by president Trump on January 27, 2020 to close all passenger flights between U.S. and China. A 14 day quarantine was put into effect for Hubei province. About 8.5 million passengers visited the U.S. from China in 2018 according to the U.S.Transportation Department. Reports show Chinese cities deserted on NYT January 30, but infections only 1300 a week earlier going up to 12,000 and only 259 deaths. President Trump says the world was misled by the WHO on the extent of the crisis developing in China, as he sets up a review of the WHO's role in the crisis and on funding by the U.S. President Trump says the crisis in the U.S. would be much larger if some of the 8.5 million passengers from China arrived in U.S. cities. He also says the decision was his own intuition about what was happening with health experts not realizing the extent of the crisis as there was very little data on the crisis. Most of the experts Mr. Fauci and Dr Birx were also not aware at the time of the gravity of the crisis, and some leading epidemiologists at American universities even called it an emotional reaction. ...

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Other European nations and the U.S. will be watching Germany's opening of small shops and small retail business under 800 square metres of space on April 20, followed by other business on May 4, in a gradual partial reopening of the economic activity

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French president Macron in a televised address with frankness and humility, the fourth for coronavirus, says the national lockdown will extend till May 11. As infected cases and deaths gradually level they are still very high. His main point- "There is new hope but nothing is won at the moment... the epidemic is not under control." "Were we prepared? No. Clearly not enough. There were failings, there was a lack of material." "These are difficult days and we are now feeling afraid and anxious for our parents and ourselves." In many ways he reflected the feeling in France, Britain and Spain, a sense of humility after the virus.  "We have to reinvent ourselves, and me first of all... We are vulnerable. When can we hope for an end to this? I understand you have many questions and I would like to answer all of them. But I say in all humility, I don't have definitive answers today."   ...

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With about one fourth the population of California Michigan has done approximately 100,000 tests, compared to about 213,000 in California. This is about twice the rate of testing in Michigan- with the help of the U.S. government- compared to testing taking place so far in California. The lack of aggressive testing in California could also mean there is a lot that remains unknown about the extent of the spread of coronavirus in California. 

That Governor Newson ordered New York to shelter in place on March 19, 3 days after the stricter stay at home order in France on March 16 requiring a document to show police to go outside, shows California like the rest of the country was not that much different. Beaches were packed in California on the weekend of March 15. A lot remains unknown at this point about the spread of the virus. The urban sprawl areas in Michigan are as hard hit as Detroit.

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As the virus toll mounts Japan's prime minister Abe announces a nationwide emergency on April 15. He delayed action to avoid effects on the economy of a lockdown. Japan is shifting to taking stronger action after seeing infections double every 8 days to reach 9000. Abe says person to person contact has to go down by 80%. The measures are not a lockdown as in the UK and are voluntary. Total deaths are 136 in Japan. A Kyodo News poll shows about 80% of the public thinks the moves comes too late. 

Schools are shut and companies have closed operations. Flights were restricted and visitors to Japan dropped 93% in March. These voluntary actions as well as a cultural advantage in people used to wearing face masks, is likely to help Japan through this health crisis. The emergency will cover a holiday period, and is through May 6. The government will give every household $1000 as a way to offset income lost.

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What the lockdown looks like on Day 23 in India from the Indian Express. India is one of the largest countries hit by the virus and one that took early and aggressive action.