Once you realize the phoniness of China's coronavirus numbers, other things it reports, like GDP, only remind you of the same thing

 

Big news of the day: Russia admits its COVID deaths aren't 54k but are a much higher 186k

The new calculation is based on an evaluation of excess death data compared with current projections for deaths based on prior years of death data. The US' CDC does the same routinely and that data confirms that US COVID death data is close though underestimated. 

Places like China, Iran and North Korea however will never tell the truth.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/28/russia-admits-to-world-third-worst-covid-19-death-toll-underreported

Follow the (gullible) science lol:

Sweden remains among the very worst states for deaths per million of population from COVID-19

COVID-19 in Australia: How did they succeed?

COVID-19 in Australia

cases 6801

deaths 95

case-fatality rate 1.4%

tests 633,107

test-case rate 1.07%

WHO indicates that it is essential to get the test-case rate below 10% in order to control any epidemic. Australia's rate of 1.07% shows that they've done that admirably well. By contrast, the USA's rate is still in the double digits at 16.5%. America didn't test for weeks and weeks at the critical beginning of the pandemic because of a faulty test, and still isn't testing nearly enough. Losing that early jump on the outbreak has put America way behind.

Australia has already tested 2.5% of its population. The US is still at 2.1%.

But other things need to be done, too, to control the virus and Australia has done them, whereas America looks ready to give up on most of them:

Australia’s response to the pandemic has largely centred on shutting its borders, limiting public gatherings and conducting large-scale testing and contact tracing.

Travelling overseas is banned, foreigners aren’t allowed to enter the country, and Australians who return from other countries are kept in mandatory quarantine at specially designated hotels for two weeks.

Social gatherings of more than two people are also forbidden and leaving the house is permitted only for essential reasons like buying food and exercising. ...

When someone tests positive, their close contacts are tracked down and ordered to self-isolate for two weeks.

The main reason for Australia’s success is probably its strict travel restrictions, says Adam Kamradt-Scott at the University of Sydney. About 70 per cent of Australians who have tested positive for covid-19 picked it up while they were overseas, making it important to stem this flow, he says, and being an island nation has made it easier for Australia to rapidly shut its borders.

Social distancing, testing and contact tracing have added to the success of travel bans, says Kamradt-Scott. Plus, there may be cultural factors that have limited the spread of the virus, like the fact that most Australians choose to live in separate dwellings rather than apartment buildings and older people who require care tend to live in care homes rather than with their families, he says.

Unlike many other countries, Australia has kept schools open, but they don’t appear to have been drivers of virus spread so far, says Kathryn Snow at the University of Melbourne.

Despite these successes, Australia has also committed some major blunders. For example, it allowed 2700 passengers to disembark from the Ruby Princess cruise ship on 19 March, even though many were showing covid-19-like symptoms. More than 600 cases have now been linked back to the ship. Some Australians have also ignored social distancing recommendations and crammed into beaches and parks. 

Australia has taken a big hit to GDP just like the US because it basically shut down business to help cope with the spread.

But Australia is in much better shape than we are in America because it is controlling the virus whereas in America the virus is still controlling us.

South Korea today has 0.0002 confirmed coronavirus cases per million population, America has 0.0033, 16.5x as many

South Korea's first coronavirus infection was reported on the same day as America's first infection, but South Korea practiced strict quarantine of infected people, contact tracing, widespread testing, mask-wearing and social distancing, without locking down its economy.

America did only the social distancing part after it was already too late, and then a hodge-podge of lockdowns with that.

As a result, South Korea has almost 11,000 confirmed cases today, but America has almost 1.1 million, 100x as many.

As for deaths, South Korea has 0.0000047 per million, the US 0.0001935 per million, 41x as many.

Year over year in 1Q2020, South Korean GDP actually grew by 1.3% vs. just 0.3% for GDP in the United States (BEA Table 6), 4.3x better.

South Korea has had far fewer cases of the disease, far fewer deaths and a much better economic outcome than in the United States because it wisely understood that what it had to do wasn't an existential threat to liberty.

Real GDP growth since 2007 lags the Great Depression era by 42% and the post-war by 52%

And Trump thinks this is the greatest economy ever.

Huge GDP slowdown predates coronavirus: Look for Trump eventually to flip and blame a slowing economy on the disease instead of on his ineffectual GOP

Here.

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is muting expectations for 2020 GDP growth as Wall Street predicts a pathetic 1.8%

“I think our projections have been reduced because of Boeing and other impacts,” he told the Fox Business Network from the White House. “I think we would have hit 3%, but again, Boeing has had a big impact on our exports, being the largest exporter.”

“I think that could be 50 basis points or not more,” he added. ...

Wall Street consensus forecast for 2020 GDP is around 1.8% and the Federal Reserve’s forecast is 2%.

Story.

Here's just two of the class acts wishing Rush Limbaugh well after announcing his cancer diagnosis

Joe Scarborough's not wrong about the economy just because he's Joe Scarborough

Joe Scarborough: Trump’s So-Called Great Economy is WORSE than Jimmy Carter’s ‘Year of Malaise’

Trump real GDP is averaging 2.5% after three years, Obama averaged 1.6% over eight, and Bush 43 1.9% over eight.

Things are better under Trump, but compared to the post-war up to the year 2000, we're still in big doo doo.

The compound annual growth rate in the post-war up until Bush 43 clocked in at 3.46% per annum on average.

Since 2007 we're struggling to put up 1.7%.

Sumting wong.

It's official: Economic growth 2007-2019 (full year) is 42.6% worse than during the Great Depression 1929-1941

Nincompoops from left (Newsweek) to right (Sean Hannity) keep calling this a great economy, but believe me, I once knew a great economy, a great economy was a friend of mine, and this is no great economy

You'd better be a millionaire by the time you're 50 because they're going to fire your sorry ass in the United States of Libertarianism.

Coronavirus spreads in Germany among co-workers of individual exposed to traveler from Shanghai