Economy

Cognitive Test

Written by SK Ashby

(Cartoonist - Rob Rogers)

In other news, Trump recently "canceled" his agreement to throw out the first pitch at an upcoming Yankees game, but he was never invited to in the first place. He literally made the whole thing up!

Meanwhile, Florida reported a record number of new coronavirus hospitalizations (585) and deaths (186) in the past day. Dr. Fauci says there are signs that Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky could have the next largest outbreaks.

That doesn't surprise me based on the behavior I've seen when I go out. I went to Kohl's to look for a purse on Saturday and saw people in the store with their masks around their neck instead of actually on their face. There's a mask mandate in place in my county, but just before that only about half of the people I saw in public had one.

Finally, a study from the London School of Economics found that the upcoming Brexit at the end of the year will unfortunately -- and ironically -- damage sectors of the British economy that weren't already torn apart by the coronavirus pandemic.

The LSE report says Brexit will deliver a double shock to the economy – with business conditions worsening for those sectors that have survived the impact of coronavirus and lockdown measures – whether Boris Johnson secures a deal with the EU or not.

“Our analysis shows that the sectors that will be affected by Brexit and those that are suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown are generally different from each other,” said Swati Dhingra, an economics professor who co-authored the report.

A “simultaneous impact” from Brexit and coronavirus will be felt across the business spectrum from the autumn when the chancellor Rishi Sunak’s pandemic policies aimed at supporting the unemployed end and the new trading environment for the UK outside the EU begins to bite, the research finds.

They're screwed even with a deal, in other words, but we've always known that. Being a member of the EU -- the world's largest trading bloc -- is actually hugely beneficial unless you're a racist.