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The Emotional And Financial Strain Might Cause Them To Pull The Pin

A report from Better Dwelling in Canada. “Earlier this year, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) warned first-time buyers that leaving just a 5% downpayment could be problematic. Now it appears that’s exactly what’s happening, with a typical condo buyer at 5% losing as much as a third of their downpayment in a month. Greater Toronto condo apartment buyers lost a significant chunk of change last month. The benchmark price of a condo apartment fell $9,600 in June.”

“In the City of Toronto, the declines are a little more steep than the whole region. The benchmark price was $633,600 in May, and a 5% downpayment would be $31,680. The benchmark price fell $11,400 in June. In the City of Vancouver, the market of Vancouver West is where the biggest hits are being taken. The benchmark price of a condo apartment was $801,300 in May, and a 5% down payment would be $40,065. The benchmark fell $12,000 in June.”

From BBC News on the UK. “MPs are calling on the government to step in and help more than 170,000 ‘mortgage prisoners’ who are trapped on high interest rates. Melissa and Kevin have been paying £780 a month on their Northern Rock loan, compared to £420 or less if they could re-mortgage. But because they borrowed more than the value of the property, the regulators’ affordability rules now say they can’t re-mortgage.”

“‘Watching the widespread financial support during the current crisis has been a bitter pill to swallow. For many years we’ve been blamed for being ill-prepared and told that buying a mortgage is the risk you take,’ Kevin says. ‘Yet whilst we’re asked to risk our lives and take risks with our families’ health, making huge sacrifices, we continue to be financially exploited without any choice.'”

The Jakarta Post. “Business players in the hospitality sector in Bali, the country’s main tourism hub, have been prompted to sell property below market price, amid the massive hit to the island’s visits due to the pandemic, realtors and experts have stated. While the asking price for property in the hospitality sector, such as resorts, villas and hotels, has not budged since the outbreak began at the beginning of March, the owners have been more open to selling their property with up to 25 percent off market price, according to Paradise Property Group, a Bali-based resort and villa realtors firm.”

“‘Bali’s tourism slump has greatly affected both property leases and sales. Annual and monthly lease prices could drop up to 50 percent, while sales of property are also seeing more price concessions during negotiations,’ the realtor firm’s sales manager, Fransiska Annie, told The Jakarta Post.”

The New Zealand Herald. “‘Survival rates’ on rental homes in Queenstown, emptied of tourists by the pandemic, have seen new rental contracts in the South Island settling almost 10 per cent lower than a year earlier. One Queenstown property manager who asked not to be named said current rental prices were ‘not market rates, but survival rates,’ as owners tried to set affordable prices while still being able to meet mortgage repayments. Property prices had felt invincible before Covid-19, but the pandemic revealed they were not, she told BusinessDesk.”

“The lack of international tourism emptied out the city, said Kelvin Davidson, a property economist at CoreLogic, while homeowners who had once leased properties as short-term holiday homes – such as Airbnb – were now listing on the regular market. ‘Most probably, the supply of property available to rent has gone up, so you’ve got a supply and demand factor going on,’ he said.”

The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. “One of ANZ Bank’s most senior bankers says some borrowers who are unable to meet their mortgage payments will need to consider selling their properties in the coming months, warning it would not make sense to continue accruing interest. ANZ group executive of retail and commercial banking, Mark Hand said that while some business customers would manage, for others the emotional and financial strain might cause them to pull the pin.”

“‘Some of those customers, I think, will say ‘I just can’t see how I can trade my way out of this,’ and will be wise enough to cut their losses,’ Mr Hand said.”

The Australian Financial Review. “More than two in three rental apartments in the Melbourne CBD were sold for a loss during the March quarter, even before the virus hit, with experts forecasting further losses in the coming months as the city goes back into another lockdown. Overall, more than one in three sales (33.6 per cent) were sold at a loss in the Melbourne city area, with vendors losing a median value of $44,500 for each transaction.”

“In Sydney, Burwood racked up the biggest portion of loss-making sales, with more than one in five (22.4 per cent) selling lower than purchase price. Despite potential losses, Melbourne vendor Tim Grimshaw auctioned his home earlier than planned amid worries the lockdown could further spook buyers.”

“‘Our auction was planned for this Saturday but our real estate agent suggested we should move it forward as he had seen the writing on the wall and anticipated what’s going to happen,’ Mr Grimshaw said. ‘We’re very happy with result, given the current climate. It feels like a big stress has been removed. I think it was the right call.'”

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This Post Has 96 Comments

  1. ‘owners tried to set affordable prices while still being able to meet mortgage repayments. Property prices had felt invincible’

    Golly, I hope no one overpaid in such an environment…

    1. They were fooken prisoners!!!!

      You can’t make this sh!t up.

      “170,000 ‘mortgage prisoners’ who are trapped on high interest rates”

      1. “…170,000 ‘mortgage prisoners’..”

        Looks like these folks have given themselves life sentences.

        Poor judgement, bad decision making, and a complete lack of math skills.

        Is there ever an end?

      2. “170,000 ‘mortgage prisoners’ who are trapped on high interest rates”

        That’s just not right. We better bail ’em out. Or at least their bankers anyway.

  2. ‘for others the emotional and financial strain might cause them to pull the pin…’Some of those customers, I think, will say ‘I just can’t see how I can trade my way out of this,’ and will be wise enough to cut their losses’

    So this shack gambling thing can have a downside?

  3. ‘the owners have been more open to selling their property with up to 25 percent off market price’

    One hotel is said to have a 2% occupancy. But there’s a UHS that insists prices are not down! He did mention a bubble in 2012, but no problem now.

    2. Hawaii Gov just pulled the rug out from the economy, was promising an August 1st opening to out of state tourists who get tested prior to flying and has gone back on that – anyone flying in still has to quarantine for 2 weeks. Getting over 1K people a day coming in, unless you post on social media or get ratted out people dont seem to be getting caught. No mention that most of the tiny case count is from locals spreading it during protests, street festivals, gyms and even company training. Must be a ton of people gearing up to move out of hawaii given tjat the economy has been nuked.

      When international travel does open again I’m heading to Bali – surf has looked so good there lately. Uncrowded barrels and wahines in tiny bikinis! Yeah, we have that in hawaii but right now the surf is better there thanks to the southern hemi working its winter magic.

      1. i am really surprised about Hawaii extending quarantine – the Gov might be betting on a Fed Govt bail-out. Same with CA

        2. Things could get “interesting” there. It’s not like you can pack the family into the car and drive across the state line to someplace that is less impacted. The governor really must be counting on Federal help.

  4. ‘For many years we’ve been blamed for being ill-prepared and told that buying a mortgage is the risk you take’

    You fudged up Kevin, you trusted them! BTW, I don’t think you bought a mortgage, but it could be a UK thing.

    1. Even with all these seemingly insurmountable problems the central planners will still somehow come up with a set of solutions that makes things worse.

      The goal of central planners, economic central planners, social central planners, political central planners, medical, yes medical. central planners, is to make themselves stronger by making you weaker, to seize power to make you powerless, to make themselves more secure and more safe by oppressing you and endangering you, to convince you there is no option but submit to their dictates, whims, and remorseless abuse.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYfmRwryQo

    1. If they are truly “ready”, what’s stopping them?

      If they have lost part or all of their income, then maybe they aren’t ready.

      1. It may reflect test rationing. We aren’t exactly in the middle of cold and flu season at the moment. If tests are only available in an outbreak area for symptomatic cases, it stands to reason that those tested might be positive.

        You also cannot learn much about the overall population rate of infection from only testing symptomatic cases, when asymptomatic cases are also present.

        1. Better wording:

          “…it stands to reason that nearly all those tested might be positive.”

          2. Even if every one of the people tested had CV, the false negative rate of the test would make over 300 positive tests with zero negatives from one lab a near statistical impossibility. And that’s just one of the labs There are over 3000 100% positive test cases from a specific set of labs. Your explanation Is scientifically impossible.

          4. Or 100% of those tested had COVID-19, due to being infected with the virus.

            Without more information, it’s hard to say where the truth lies.

          1. From what I gather, economics with a undergraduate, possibly graduate, background in math.

          2. Not econ, imo; hes misapplied several fundamental principles. Of course, never rule out that I dont know WTF I’m talking about. I’m just an.internet poster.

        4. IIRC, even at peak in late March, NYC had a little over 50% positive test rate, and that’s when you needed to be at death’s door to get a test. At peak, MD was around 24%. 100% is unrealistic for any state.

          1. 100% is unrealistic

            Test labs are popping up like payday loan stores. When the results of a subjective, 80% accurate at best, approach some percentage you may as well stop wasting time and money on testing. You won’t learn anything.

        5. It may reflect test rationing.

          Probably not when the number of tests being done daily has doubled in June and then doubled again in July.

          The delay in processing test samples is a week and a half. No idea if there is an impact on results after letting a sample sit for so long.

          The prevalence of recording results by date reported rather than date sampled makes chart trend spotting nearly impossible. Enables sensational headlines though.

          1. Enables sensational headlines though.

            ##,### New Cases Today! Surpasses Blursday’s
            Worst Numbers!!

          2. There are exciting and boring ways to report on exponential growth:

            Exciting:

            “##,### New Cases Today! Surpasses Blursday’s
            Worst Numbers!!”

            Boring:

            “Growth rate in new cases has remained nearly constant over the past ### months, subject to random deviations from trend.”

            Snore…

          3. exponential growth:

            When you double the number of tests being done, you’ll get more positives.

            Governor Ron DeSantis

          4. Boring:

            “Growth rate in new cases has remained nearly constant over the past ### months, subject to random deviations from trend.”

            I like boring facts. But I’m weird, apparently.

      2. http://ww11.doh.state.fl.us/comm/_partners/covid19_report_archive/state_reports_latest.pdf

        Testing by laboratory begins at page 25 with this in the heading: The numbers in the table below represent the number for whom test results were received by the Department of Health. A person can be tested by more than one laboratory and can have both positive and negative results. Therefore, the sum of the numbers in each column will be larger than the total number of
        people tested.         (emphasis in original)

        At page 29, you start to see 100% positivity rates.

  7. “MPs are calling on the government to step in and help more than 170,000 “mortgage prisoners” who are trapped on high interest rates.

    “Thousands of frontline workers, including nurses and hospital workers, are forced to pay double the interest they would on a competitive mortgage.

    “Strict affordability rules prevent them from re-mortgaging to a cheaper deal.

    “MPs now want the government to order regulators to investigate capping the profits firms make from the borrowers.”

    The issue isn’t whether or not they can afford the interest rates they signed up for, the issue is whether or not they can refinance into cheaper rates. They call themselves “mortgage prisoners” but the prison they are locked up in is a prison they willingly signed up for. If they could make the mortgage payments the day they signed up then they should be able to make the payments today. It is not as if the amount of the payments has changed.

    1. There is no parole either.

      But there are no fences for this prison. They can walk away.

      However, the debt collector hound dogs will be let lose.

      1. They can walk away.

        The house was supposed to make them rich. Hard to walk away from a delusion.

    2. It is not as if the amount of the payments has changed.

      IIRC, there are no fixed rate mortgages in the UK, though I doubt interest rates are rising.

      1. If they have 3 to 5 year renewals like in Canada, they could be good and effed on interest rate at renewal time when they are underwater.

        1. Canada is going to be effect 0% (actual – inflation) mortgage rates for the next 5-10 years. The Bank of Canada (equivalent of the fed) has said that. I have not seen it – but apparently you can get a 1.8% mortgage for a townhouse or house.

          You are just betting that you still have a job

    1. I don’t *know*. But in Folsom it appears to be Intel or medical people and bay area people who no longer have to drive to work very often.

      1. I keep wondering what happens to the techies who move far away from the tech centers if they lose their job? I suppose the easy answer is, “they just move back.” But then they’d be trying to move from a lower-cost area to a higher-cost area. They’d potentially be the reverse of “equity locusts.”

        1. Or maybe they just get another WFH job? Of course it’s one thing if you have to drive 50-100 miles to the interview (assuming that in house interviews will still be done) vs. say a 300 mile+ drive.

  9. Ige delays plan to reopen tourism until Sept. 1 amid COVID-19 surge on the mainland
    By HNN Staff | July 13, 2020 at 11:15 AM HST – Updated July 13 at 5:06 PM

    HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) – In a major blow to the tourism industry, the governor has announced plans to delay until Sept. 1 a program that would allow trans-Pacific travelers to skip quarantine in Hawaii if they test negative for COVID-19.

    Gov. David Ige said he delayed the launch of traveler pre-testing program, which was set to begin Aug. 1, because COVID-19 outbreaks in several states are “not in control” and pushing infections to record highs.

    He acknowledged that the delay will hit businesses that rely on visitors hard.

    “This was not an easy decision to make. It really was a choice between two difficult options,” he said.
    …

    1. It seems like the Pacific Islanders bloat-up like the Michelin Man once they’re old enough to order beer and pizza. The COVID-19 probably takes them quickly.

  10. Any thoughts on at what point the denial stage of Wall Street’s pandemic stages of grief will yield to the anger state of rage?

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      Markets Briefing Equities
      Stocks drop as US states roll back economic reopening plans
      Investors lodged in ‘zone of uncertainty’ as America’s coronavirus outbreak worsens
      The declines in Asia followed a volatile day for Wall Street, where the S&P 500 gave up gains to close lower
      © Bloomberg
      Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong and Harry Dempsey in London 23 minutes ago

      Global stocks fell following a sharp reversal on Wall Street, as concerns mounted over the rollback of reopening measures in the US and investors braced themselves for a brutal quarterly results season.

      European shares continued their volatile trading pattern on Tuesday, as the continent-wide Stoxx 600 fell by 1.2 per cent. London’s FTSE 100 dropped by 0.8 per cent, while Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax shed 1.3 per cent.

      “Equities are navigating through a ‘zone of uncertainty,’ because earnings visibility remains elusive and fresh spikes of Covid-19 are occurring in the majority of US states, delaying and even rolling back economic reopening,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at US Bank Wealth Management.

      The declines came after a turbulent session in New York, where the S&P 500 gave up initial gains to end almost 1 per cent lower after briefly crossing into positive territory for the year. The Nasdaq fell 2.1 per cent.

      The reversal was spurred in part by California’s decision to join Texas and Arizona in rolling back its economic reopening. Gavin Newsom, governor of the most populous US state, ordered the shutdown of bars, cinemas and dine-in restaurants in an effort to contain a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations.

      Futures tipped US stocks to open slightly higher when trading begins on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 expected to rise 0.5 per cent.

      Investors were also bracing for a grim US earnings season, with S&P 500 companies expected to report a 45 per cent plunge in quarterly profits. That would be the biggest drop since the depths of the 2008-09 financial crisis.

      However, the economic fallout from the pandemic remains the focus, with new outbreaks in the southern and western parts of the US threatening a recovery in some of the country’s most important economic hubs.
      …

    1. Who cares about a carbon footprint when you have a raging contagion spreading through indoor air circulation systems?

      The Observer
      Wasteful, damaging and outmoded: is it time to stop building skyscrapers?
      Tall buildings are still deemed desirable, even glamorous, but experts are drawing attention to the high environmental cost of building them
      Rowan Moore
      Sat 11 Jul 2020 12.00 EDT
      Last modified on Sat 11 Jul 2020 20.15 EDT
      London’s Greenwich Park with Canary Wharf in the distance, June 2020.

      If no one ever built a skyscraper ever again, anywhere, who would truly miss them? I ask, because the engineer Tim Snelson, of the design consultancy Arup, has just blown a hole in any claim they might have had to be environmentally sustainable. Writing in this month’s issue of the architecture magazine Domus, he points out that a typical skyscraper will have at least double the carbon footprint of a 10-storey building of the same floor area.
      …

      1. If no one ever built a skyscraper ever again, anywhere, who would truly miss them?

        Only if everybody at a company starts working together in the same building downtown again.

    2. We don’t know how or whether the virus infects through the air-conditioning systems. Yes, they’ve found the virus RNA in the air ducts, but were those viable virus particles with the spike protein, or just a non-infectious piece of dead virus corpse? This is a very important question, as it will also decide the fate of almost every cubicle farm.

        1. Is air conditioning helping spread COVID in the South?

          I would say that is a 100% likelihood. And is the answer to all the people saying “but I thought it would go away in hot weather”. I bet it does…outside. But when you hang out indoors all summer getting no Vitamin D, well…it only takes one infected person to ruin the party for the whole building.

      2. The Financial Times
        Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
        Opinion Coronavirus pandemic
        An airborne virus is a threat worth taking seriously
        Scientists are questioning whether droplets can explain all cases of coronavirus transmission
        Anjana Ahuja
        Airborne transmission may explain some perplexing superspreading events when distancing and hygiene rules were followed © Edgar Su/Reuters
        Anjana Ahuja yesterday
        The writer is a science commentator

        How does coronavirus spread? Scientists are increasingly convinced that airborne transmission plays a role. Last week, more than 200 specialists penned an open letter to the World Health Organization urging it to officially accept that the Covid-19 virus can spread through the air further than social distancing recommendations.
        …
        The virus is worryingly contagious, with nearly 13m confirmed cases worldwide. Droplets (defined as particles at least 5-10 microns across) are widely regarded as the master key to respiratory infection. They can be expelled in coughs and sneezes, as well as by singing, shouting and talking. Due to gravity, droplets generally fall to the floor within several metres — hence the need for distancing. Infection can occur directly, when virus-laden droplets enter the eyes, mouth or nose of another person, or indirectly, when a person touches a surface on which droplets have fallen and then transfers the virus to their own eyes, mouth or nose, which explains handwashing guidance.

        But the appearance of large infection clusters at indoor gatherings has led many experts, such as Kimberly Prather, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California, San Diego, to question whether droplets explain everything. For some cases, she told Nature, the only way to explain certain transmission clusters is “you put it in the air and everyone breathes that air”.

        Airborne spread involves particles that are smaller than droplets, called aerosols (also called droplet nuclei or microdroplets). These fine particles, smaller than 5 microns, can be emitted in the same way that droplets are, but also by breathing. They linger in the air, where they can be inhaled by others. Last month, Prof Prather argued for the aerosol transmission of viruses to be “acknowledged as a key factor in the spread of infectious respiratory diseases”, with implications for indoor mask-wearing, ventilation and crowding, as well as wider testing.

        A patchwork of studies can indeed be pieced together into plausible scenarios of airborne infection. People produce clouds of aerosols when they breathe and talk; some individuals are “superemitters”, exhaling particularly large clouds; aerosols can remain buoyant for hours; research from the 2002-2003 Sars outbreak show aerosols can contain an infectious virus. Interestingly, airborne transmission may explain some perplexing superspreading events when distancing and hygiene rules were followed. One restaurant outbreak was traced back to an air conditioning unit.

        Other observations provide circumstantial support: asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spreaders do not, by definition, sneeze or cough appreciably and yet are known to transmit the virus to others. Aerosols might be even more dangerous than droplets: smaller particles can potentially penetrate deeper into the airways, possibly bypassing the immune system and causing more severe disease.
        …

        1. ‘One restaurant outbreak was traced back to an air conditioning unit’

          Uh huh. We’ve got lots of science commentators on this blog too.

        3. Yeah, I’d like to see the data where they determined that the outbreak was “traced to an air-conditioning unit.” Not to the wait staff or the cooks or the doorknobs or the chair backs or the rest rooms or the credit card folders or the cash register or the customers sitting in each other’s lap. No, they probably found some virus corpse DNA in the AC, just like they did on the cruise ship. Doesn’t mean that was how it went.

          I think the truth is somewhere between. My guess is that it’s airborne for some limited distance.

      3. The fear porn is just going to keep getting more graphic. Pretty soon they are going to ban space travel because moon rocks tested positive for CV.

  12. Meanwhile, back in Portlandia…

    Over the weekend, masked antifa in Portland opened a black man’s car door during a violent protest. Watch how he responded to them:

    https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1282824092765151235

    The takedown in the first few seconds of this is epic, watch how the soybois all scatter. After they regroup, an unbearable cringe minute of their soy voices “we got your license plate” … “did somebody lose their phone? Is there a lost and found?”

    These are the front line soldiers of your alleged revolution.

  13. Another life that doesn’t “matter” because it doesn’t sell a #Narrative:

    “They need to stop this gun violence,” Gardner said. “I feel like this: You all are ranting and raving about black lives. But you take a life that was only a year and half old. And it’s not fair. It’s not fair to the grandparents. It’s not fair to the mother. It’s not fair to the father, the whole family in general.

    Brooklyn residents were shaken over the latest loss of an innocent life. Community anger was divided between the gunmen responsible for a rash of shootings throughout the city and Black Lives Matter movement leaders for not saying more about it.”

    https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-baby-fatally-shot-stroller-brooklyn-park-cookout-20200713-hso2fb63r5bsjebq7ltp2ki5gu-story.html

    1. Did the BLM geniuses figure out yet how getting rid of police might result in lots more black lives lost due to criminal violence by perpetrators of whatever race?

      These racis’ narratives hold no sway with me.

      1. Did the BLM geniuses figure out yet how getting rid of police might result in lots more black lives lost due to criminal violence by perpetrators of whatever race?

        I’m sure there are BLM foot soldiers who care about such things. But are lives actually that important to the people trying to lead or fund a revolution?

        1. But are lives actually that important to the people trying to lead or fund a revolution?

          You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette, right?

      2. The Seattle City Council has their heels dug-in demanding a 50% cut to department police that was already running short due to other civilian oversight obligations.

      3. Sounds like even black people (at least some of them) are getting pissed off about BLM and their narrative.

  14. Some good news, article published two hours ago:

    “The coronavirus pandemic has many Americans heading for the hills — or the suburbs, as it were. And home prices in cities could decline as a result, says renowned economist Robert Shiller.

    Shiller laid out a worst-case scenario for urban markets around the U.S. “What’s nice about the city? It’s good restaurants, theaters, museums, art shows,” he said. “But if you’re afraid of people because you think you might catch something in the next epidemic then it may color your whole feeling about the city.”

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-prices-could-fall-in-cities-across-the-u-s-as-americans-sour-on-urban-living-says-famed-economist-robert-shiller-11594685128

    The article does not mention CRIME. Now that millennials are having kidz, they certainly won’t be sending them to any urban schools, and those with money will all leave. The avocado toast days are over, nobody wants to live in an urban warzone.

    1. It will be white flight all over again. I’ve already seen the older Millenials flee the downtowns for the outer urburbs, complete with nightmare commute. They leapfrog over the cold-war era shady suburbs because the houses are “too small” for them, and because those areas are full of white vans and beater cars.

      1. Ox: I disagree there was no white flight, parents saw the next generation of kids on a jail track not a college one and moved and so did black families who cared about their kids.

        1. Yes, then (and probably now), it would be more accurately described as “flight of anyone who could afford to move out of the city.”

    2. Shiller shilling more fallacies? He’s got nothing on Fraudci. Besides… I don’t think anyone has to worry about hoards of ghetto dwellers descending on rural and urban areas… Not with the way housing demand is collapsing.

      Palm Springs, FL Housing Prices Crater 12% YOY As Median Price Slips Under $150k

      https://www.zillow.com/palm-springs-fl/home-values/

      *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

      As a distinguished economist stated, “A house is a rapidly depreciating asset that empties your wallet every day it owns you.”

      1. “Shiller shilling more fallacies? He’s got nothing on Fraudci.”

        They’re both experts at getting a paycheck deposited twice a month to their accounts despite the shutdowns.

  16. How is life in the ‘forest of make believe’ treating the Wall Street bovine herd these daze?

      1. My own friends like “the forest of make believe.” Why? Because it works for them. One of them is quite proud that his Tesla investment paid off his brand new house. It’s hard to argue with that.

        1. My daughter’s 30ish boyfriend is making bank day trading, while drawing massive unemployment checks during layoff from his oil industry job.

          I don’t question this. At times like these, you do whatever works.

          1. I don’t question this. At times like these, you do whatever works.

            Sure. Condolences in advance. But hope springs eternal, maybe he’ll get out at the right time.

          3. I dunno, is it fraud? It’s not as if Robin Hood is his employer. When I was unemployed, my retirement accounts made money. That wasn’t fraud. What if I had played the Powerball and hit the jackpot?

          4. my retirement accounts

            Having retirement accounts isn’t “working”. Day trading I would think is self employment. Every day there is any related activity, no matter how small, regardless of profit, is a day of “work”. If you lie about “not working” to UI it is fraud, no?

  17. California and Florida are rolling back the opening of their economies as they struggle with COVID-19. But public-health experts say the 2 states are not the same.
    Charles Davis
    11 hours ago
    Main Street in Huntington Beach, California, on July 1. Bars across Orange County, many of which have only recently reopened, will be forced to shut down again beginning at midnight Thursday, officials announced.
    Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
    – California is rolling back the reopening of its economy, closing bars statewide following an increase in COVID-19 cases.
    – The state’s rate of positive coronavirus tests has hit a two-week average of 7.4%.
    – The move comes weeks after Florida introduced restrictions for its bars. But the states are not doing equally as bad.
    – Florida’s positive test rate has been in the double digits for weeks, while California hasn’t cleared 10% since April.
    – “Miami is now the epicenter of the pandemic,” Dr. Lilian Abbo, the chief of infection prevention at Jackson Health System, told the Associated Press. “What we were seeing in Wuhan six months ago. Now, we are there.”
    – “I think what has happened is that some states have been content to flatten the curve as opposed to really bend the curve, as opposed to really bend the curve and drive it down to zero,” Dr. Thomas Tsai, of Harvard University, told Business Insider.
    …

  18. “What we were seeing in Wuhan six months ago. Now, we are there.”

    Given the summertime COVID-19 experience in the Sunbelt, I’m a little skeptical about the theory that UV offers protection.

    1. More bad news on the ground from the Sunbelt…

      ‘Within 11 days, I lost my mother, my father, and my brother’: How Texas’ coronavirus outbreak spiraled out of control in a matter of weeks
      Rhea Mahbubani
      4 hours ago
      texas houston coronavirus pandemic surge frontline medical workers.JPG
      Healthcare workers walking through the Texas Medical Center on July 8 as coronavirus cases spiked in Houston. Callaghan O’Hare/Reuters
      – Texas’ coronavirus outbreak has ballooned dramatically since June 1. On average, 9,100 new daily cases were reported over the last week.
      – Experts say Gov. Greg Abbott started reopening the state prematurely, which backfired, triggering a public-health crisis.
      – Face masks and social distancing have also become politicized, they said, making the response more challenging.
      – Families describe the pain of losing loved ones amid the coronavirus’ calamitous impact.
      …

      1. …and still more.

        ICU beds, ventilators in use hit new records as Arizona reports 1,357 new COVID-19 cases
        Alison Steinbach
        Arizona Republic
        July 13, 2020

        Arizona reported a relatively low 1,357 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, but stress on hospitals remained high.

        Identified cases rose to 123,824 and known deaths total 2,245, according to the daily report by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

        ICU beds and ventilators in use by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients both hit new records on Sunday, according to hospital data reported to the state. Emergency room visits and inpatient beds in use dropped from the previous day but remained at high levels.
        …

    2. IIRC, UV will kill the virus but you need a specific wavelength and it takes time, on the order of minutes. In other words, you can construct a UV set-up to, say, disinfect N-95 masks. But if you sit next to someone at the beach, the sun won’t save you.

      1. UV set-up to, say, disinfect N-95 masks

        The filter media would have to be transparent to UV light or it won’t penetrate. Just sayin.

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