If you look back to the Great Depression of the 1930’s, reported unemployment levels were 20.6% on the low end and 24.9% on the high end, according to different economists at the time.
Now that Ebola is officially in the US on an uncontrolled basis, the two questions on everyone’s lips are i) who will get sick next and ii) how bad could it get? We don’t know the answer to question #1 just yet, but when it comes to the second one, a press release three weeks ago from Lakeland Industries, a manufacturer and seller of a “comprehensive line of safety garments and accessories for the industrial protective clothing market” may provide some insight into just how bad the US State Department thinks it may get. Because when the US government buys 160,000 hazmat suits specifically designed against Ebola, just ahead of the worst Ebola epidemic in history making US landfall, one wonders:
The day that many of us hoped would never arrive is here. Ebola has come to America. Air travel between the United States and the countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone should have been totally shut down except for absolutely essential personnel but it wasn’t.
You have heard of the “No Fly List”, right? Well, now the Tories are pledging that if they win the next election in the UK they will establish a list of “extremists” that will have to have their social media posts “approved in advance by the police” before they post them. There are also plans to ban “extremists” from broadcasting and speaking at public events.
The virus that has infected nearly 10,000 people in West Africa and killed over 3,000 so far this year may now be in America. Multiple news sources are reporting that an individual showing symptoms of the Ebola virus has been admitted to a hospital in Dallas, Texas. The patient, whose travel history suggests he or she may have been exposed to the virus, has been isolated and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas says it is following testing and quarantine procedures outlined by the Centers for Disease Control.
Federal health-care officials, hospital administrators and emergency-care doctors are preparing for the first cases of Ebola here in the United States. Experts say it’s not a question of if, but rather when it will happen. The good news is that the public health infrastructure in the United States — from the epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control to the weekend physician at the local doc-in-a-box — has been mobilized for this very eventuality.
The astronomer of Pope Francis has said he believes there is life beyond Earth. Brother Guy Consolmagno, president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, made the comment in the booklet Would You Baptise an Extraterrestrial?, which he wrote with astronomer Father Paul Muller.
The Earth seems to have been smoking a lot recently. Volcanoes are erupting in Iceland, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ecuador and Mexico right now. Others, in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, erupted recently but seem to have calmed down.
Dr. Stanley Monteith, whose well-known book “Brotherhood of Darkness” exposed a “grand conspiracy” of secret societies, the Council of Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers, has died at the age of 85. A researcher, author and talk-show host, Monteith spent more than 40 years studying the movement to create a world government.
The sudden eruption of Mount Ontake over the weekend, which is believed to have killed dozens of people, was a reminder of Japan’s vulnerability to its many active volcanoes. Gas continued to pour from the ruptured crater Monday as emergency workers tried to reach the bodies of hikers trapped on the peak when it roared into life. Ontake is one of 110 live volcanoes dotted throughout the seismically-active country, including Mount Fuji, the country’s tallest mountain and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that welcomes some 300,000 climbers each year.
Russia will construct a second naval base on the Black Sea and reinforce its fleet with 80 warships to ward off what it sees as an increasing NATO presence in the waters around the recently annexed Crimean Peninsula, the head of the Russia’s Black Sea fleet said Tuesday. A new base in the city of Novorossiisk will be built be 2016, and by the end of the decade Russia’s Black Sea force will tally 206 ships, Admiral Alexander Vitko was quoted as saying by state news agency TASS. “With Crimea’s return to Russia, the relevance of this base has increased due to the fact that NATO ships are consistently present in the Black Sea,” Vitko told President Vladimir Putin, who visited the construction site of the new base in Novorossiisk on Tuesday.
A new Government Accountability Institute (GAI)report reveals that President Barack Obama has attended only 42.1% of his daily intelligence briefings (known officially as the Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB) in the 2,079 days of his presidency through September 29, 2014. The GAI report also included a breakdown of Obama’s PDB attendance record between terms; he attended 42.
The Centers for Disease Control is advising funeral homes in the United States on how to handle the remains of Ebola victims, although officials are keen to stress that the development is not a cause for alarm. A three page list of recommendations instructs funeral workers to wear protective gear while handling Ebola victims, as well as warning them not to carry out autopsies or to embalm corpses. “If the outbreak of the potentially deadly virus is in West Africa, why are funeral homes in America being given guidelines?
For the 3rd month in a row, S&P Case-Shiller home prices fell MoM with July’s 0.5% drop the biggest since November 2011. This dragged the YoY growth to 6.
Consumer confidence fell sharply in September after hitting a seven-year high the previous month. A closely watched index of consumer confidence tumbled to 86 from 93.4 in August after rising four straight months, the Conference Board said Tuesday.
The global loss of species is even worse than previously thought, the London Zoological Society (ZSL) says in its new Living Planet Index. The report suggests populations have halved in 40 years, as new methodology gives more alarming results than in a report two years ago. The report says populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by an average of 52%.