The Evening: Rising Toll, Unemployment, Bonnie Raitt and More

April 9, 2020

Rising Death Toll

The death toll continues to rise rapidly in the United States, with New York alone having recorded 7,067 fatalities as of Thursday. But even as Governor Andrew Cuomo cited the state’s grim needs, he said hospitalizations and intensive care admissions had fallen, suggesting that the curve was beginning to flatten, as the Washington Post reports.

Meanwhile, as Reuters reports, a partisan skirmish in the U.S. Senate cut short a Republican effort to speed $250 billion in new small business assistance on Friday, forcing Republicans and Democrats to negotiate over how best to help businesses reeling from the coronavirus outbreak.

New U.S. Unemployment Claims Totaled 6.6 Million Last Week

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits continued to surge at record levels, bringing the total number of applications to nearly 17 million since the coronavirus pandemic shut down swaths of the U.S. economy, as the WSJ reports.

Meanwhile, as the NYT reports, the Federal Reserve said it could pump $2.3 trillion into the economy through new and expanded programs it announced on Thursday, ramping up its efforts to help companies and state and local governments suffering financial damage from the coronavirus.

OPEC and Russia reach deal

OPEC and Russia agreed on Thursday to make deep cuts to oil production, ending a weeks-long market-share war that put further pressure on prices already reeling from the biggest demand collapse in history, as the FT reports.

Dive Deeper: “Energy and Emissions after Covid-19: A First Cut,” by CSIS’s Sarah Ladislaw and Nikos Tsafos.

Climate Check

“From 2016 to 2019, [U.S.] emissions have fallen by 0.6 percent, which is hardly a record to boast about (in the United Kingdom, the equivalent number was closer to 9 percent),” writes CSIS's Nikos Tsafos in a blog post on carbon emissions.

On the Horizon

Covid-19 has placed a spotlight on the vulnerabilities of production networks. In "Covid-19 and Value Chains: Diminishing Returns from Trade Policy," CSIS’s Scott Miller outlines how governments and companies will approach global supply chains once the pandemic has passed.

CSIS’s “On the Horizon” series offers insights into the more fundamental changes we might anticipate for our future social and economic world as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

CSIS Executive Education

We invite you to apply to Unpacking the Defense Enterprise, a a three-day live, online course exploring defense strategy, budgetary and technical issues, and future challenges and opportunities in the U.S. defense enterprise.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Testify,” "What's Happening," "Preview," and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel!

In That Number

17 Million

More than 17 million new jobless claims have been filed in the past four weeks.

Source: Washington Post

Critical Quote

“We anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression.”

— Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director

iDeas Lab

Russia has stationed air defenses on Wrangel Island, a mere 300 miles from the Alaskan coast, a clear example of Russia’s growing Arctic military footprint.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and video.

Optics

(Photo credit: Peter Summers/Getty Images). Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab at 10 Downing Street today.

Recommended Reading

“China’s Coming Upheaval,” by Minxin Pei of Claremont McKenna College for Foreign Affairs.

Online Events

Tomorrow, at 9:00 a.m., the Atlantic Council will host a virtual fireside chat with Francesco La Camera, director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, to discuss the post-pandemic global energy outlook.

Later, at 11:00 a.m., Politico will interview Spain's ambassador to the United States Santiago Cabanas via webcast to discuss the latest global trends and developments on the coronavirus pandemic.

Also, at 12:00 p.m., the Peterson Institute for International Economics will host its semiannual Global Economic Prospects event, which will focus on the global and regional economic impacts and policy implications of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Video

Watch CSIS Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair Mike Green explain how the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent economics shocks could impact the geopolitical landscape in Asia.

Podcasts

In the latest episode of the Coronavirus Crisis Update, Congresswoman Susan Brooks (R-IN) joins Steve Morrison and me to talk about her work on the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security as well as her recent call for the creation of a Covid-19 Crisis Response Corps.

Listen on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.

Smiles

When Bonnie Raitt covered John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery” it introduced the song to a mainstream audience, and now it’s a piece of unforgettable American music.