Stripper Cash

My favorite works of the moment are Walter Robinson’s pulp fiction book cover style paintings…. They seem to hit the right note about this wrong economic time – superficial, desperate-for-cash, hanging on to the golden years at any price… [Walter Robinson with Phong Bui – interesting and entertaining interview]

500 Billion!!! – “Answering the first question, Trump suggested that an extended economic shutdown would result in more “death” than the spread of a virus that in best-case estimates would kill tens of thousands of Americans. Answering the question of who would provide accountability for the unrestricted distribution of half-a-trillion dollars, Trump’s response was even less promising: “I’ll be the oversight. I’ll be the oversight.”” [Matt Stieb on the 500 Billion Slush Fund]

U.S. Lawmakers Reach $2 Trillion Aid Deal – The White House and Congress struck a deal in the predawn hours to deliver $2 trillion in government relief to a nation increasingly under lockdown, watching nervously as the twin threats of disease and economic ruin grow more dire.
[NY Times This Morning]

“The deal was announced several hours—and into the wee hours of the next day—after a stock market rally for the ages. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its largest single-day gain since 1933 on news Tuesday that a deal was coming together. Signs of a major injection of cash into the economy appeared to give investors some solace as the U.S. reported an uptick in confirmed Covid-19 cases and braced for unemployment claims, which are reported this week, that are expected to have soared.” [WSJ ByJoshua Jamerson and Andrew Duehren]