"Slavery is regarded as arising for reasons which have nothing to do with economics; it is seen as a social or historical phenomenon. Our standard take therefore is that the practice is 'utterly unthinkable now; what more is there to say? No need for a guilt trip.'
"But people-traders and people-owners were in it for profit. And profit-seeking is very much our core business.
"When she was first furloughed in March, Randee Heitzmann knew how to make ends meet.
She deferred payments on her new Honda Civic, spent $3,000 in stimulus money and tax refunds on other payments, and drained her savings.
"Then she was called back to her job as a bartender at a cigar bar near Dallas for five weeks, taking home about $100 per shift, just 20 percent of what she was used to.
But on Friday, Heitzmann was cut loose again, hours before her shift was to begin.
THREAD—"Modern economics has a deep and painful set of roots that too few economists acknowledge. The founding leadership of the American Economic Association deeply and fervently provided 'scientific' succor to the American eugenics movement." forbes.com/sites/pedrodac…
"Their concept of race and human interaction was based on the 'racial' superiority of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants. minneapolisfed.org/~/media/assets…
"And they launched modern economics with a definition of race that fully incorporated the assumed superiority of that group and bought into a notion of race as an exogenous variable.
"This virus is still out there. We respond to 911 calls for covid every day. I’ve been on the scene at more than 200 of these deaths—trying to revive people, consoling their families—but you can’t even be bothered to stay six feet apart and wear a mask?" washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06…
"Some of us can’t stop thinking about it. I woke up this morning to about 60 new text messages from paramedics who are barely holding it together. Some are still sick with the virus. At one point we had 25 percent of EMTs in the city out sick.
"Others are living in their cars so they don’t risk bringing it home to their families. They’re depressed. They’re emotionally exhausted. They’re drinking too much. They’re lashing out at their kids. They’re having night terrors and panic attacks and all kinds of outbursts.
Boris Johnson’s physician calls Covid-19 'this generation’s polio’ as new evidence emerges of long-term effects bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
"What these chronic issues ultimately look like – and how many patients ultimately experience them – will have huge implications for patients, the doctors who treat them, and the health systems around them." - Kimberly Powers, epidemiologist at UNC Chapel Hill
"Hong Kong’s hospital authority has been monitoring a group of Covid-19 patients for up to two months since they were released. They found about half of the 20 survivors had lung function below the normal range."
THREAD—A Glaring New Conflict Of Interest Undermines Public Trust In Federal Reserve forbes.com/sites/pedrodac…
The Federal Reserve just made the problem of financial firms considered 'too big to fail' a whole lot bigger.
That's because the U.S. central bank has hired private equity giant BlackRock BLK, which manages some $7 trillion in assets, to run purchases of corporate bonds and commercial mortgages that are part of its response to the pandemic-led recession. nytimes.com/2020/03/27/bus…