Car sales continue crash in April
The beatings will continue until morale improves: According to one car industry analysis, the April sales of cars will continue to plummet.
“April auto sales took the biggest hit we’ve seen in decades,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights. “These bleak figures aren’t just because consumers are holding back on their purchases — fleet sales are seeing an even more dramatic drop as daily rental business has dried up. Like many other industries, the entire automotive sector is struggling as the coronavirus crisis continues to cripple the economy.”
They hope that the end in May of some of the government shut downs imposed because of the Wuhan flu panic will ease the crash, but recognized that with millions out of work, people may no longer have the crash to buy new cars.
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The beatings will continue until morale improves: According to one car industry analysis, the April sales of cars will continue to plummet.
“April auto sales took the biggest hit we’ve seen in decades,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights. “These bleak figures aren’t just because consumers are holding back on their purchases — fleet sales are seeing an even more dramatic drop as daily rental business has dried up. Like many other industries, the entire automotive sector is struggling as the coronavirus crisis continues to cripple the economy.”
They hope that the end in May of some of the government shut downs imposed because of the Wuhan flu panic will ease the crash, but recognized that with millions out of work, people may no longer have the crash to buy new cars.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Just a note to record that yesterday, 29 Apr 2020, the American Covid-19 death toll passed 61,000. That means that Covid-19 has killed more Americans in eight weeks than the worst seasonal flu season on record did during that entire year. And the toll keeps climbing 2,000 souls a day.
Covid-19 is far worse than the flu. But you already knew that.
mkent wrote: “Covid-19 is far worse than the flu.”
Except that the numbers have been corrupted in order to make the COVID-19 flu seem like the worst flu ever so that the gullible will toe the party line.
But you already knew that.
“It’s all a conspiracy, man! Every government in the world is in on it, too — all just to take down Trump!!!! Even Trump is in on it!”
Yeah, right. We have bodies piling up in hospitals, nursing homes, and U-Haul trailers. Italy required military convoys to carry the bodies away. Chinese crematoriums were running 24/7 for weeks. Just like every flu season. (rolls eyes)
The best data we have show that the official Covid-19 death toll is likely under-counted, not over-counted.
At some point in time the data just become too overwhelming to warrant even considering the conspiracy theories. That point is here now.
Edward: “the gullible will toe the party line.”
You you mean.
NY and PA have both been caught inflating the number of deaths. Doing so has been incentivized by the Federal reaction to the outbreak, so it should be no surprise.
As to the “worst”….CNN reported the 2016-17 flu season at topping 80K deaths in the US….surely they wouldn’t lie.
In addition the number of flu deaths only started being tracked in 1976, which makes comparisons problematic.
mknet:
Is the Communist Chinese government stopping all domestic travel within China and continuing to allow international travel as they understood that the virus was being spread in Wuhan also not a conspiracy? Not a conscious choice made by the Chinese leadership kept internal and from the public? Not a surrendering of their international responsibility to protect others in the world from the effects of the spreading virus?
I think that is the definition of a conspiracy, a conspiracy of the Communist Chinese leadership to at the minimum limit their liability, and at the max to implant the virus around the world so that they would not be the only ones to suffer from it.
What the Communist Chinese leadership has accomplished is to once again reveal why they can never become what they insist they become, the masters of the planet. The multi trillion dollar law suits will serve to dial that aspiration down quite a bit. Maybe even will spur a hot war? Stay tuned.
NATURAL? PROBABLY………BUT
https://www.newsweek.com/military-general-says-intelligence-remains-inconclusive-about-whether-coronavirus-came-lab-1497889
The Corona 19, “Bat soup”, kung fu flu was IMO a function of nature and being studied in the lab and was probably contracted by one of the researchers and passed on into the population, the virus did not have indications that it was spread from the market from other information that I have seen. The lab was known for not enforcing proper safety protocols.
2018 U.S. officials had “concerns” about the labs security, the Chinese have destroyed much of the evidence in the lab related to the virus study, and the researchers, one in particular has “disappeared”. (You know what that means)
And the first doctors that dared report freely to the press the emergence of the virus also can not be found or they have been killed by the virus. Also the bats in question were collected 600 miles away from the lab and apparently were not sold in that market. And on and on. Is what it is.
The Chinese lie about everything in their quest to dominate the planet, all strategy, no morality. The Chinese love, love, love the Globalist world model, right up their alley. Not really big fans of Trump. Go figure.
“Wet market” and a natural event? Yes and no IMO at this moment in time.
These actions by the Chinese leadership post virus is totally S.O.M. type action, but their problem is that it was not executed at arms length and is not shielded from sight. The Communist Chinese leadership is busted and the lawsuits in the international courts and our courts will go into the trillions. If you are going to make believe that you are a member of the civilized world then you have certain fiduciary responsibilities that come along with it.
There will be consequences, that is of course only if D.J. Trump remains the president for another term, because a Joe Biden presidency will result IMO in a forgive and let conquer attitude towards the Chinese leadership.
You remember Joe’s comments on the Chinese leadership: “The Chinese are not competition for us man”. Has not got a clue. Or he really does have a clue and he understands the Chinese are just one more source of family cash flow to Joe.
Not to say MKent is incorrect on the assertion that 61000 is more than seasonal flu total in a year but the Spanish flu total was 675,000
https://web.archive.org/web/20160927210422/http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/the_pandemic/index.html
Hong Kong flu US mortality was 100,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_flu
So I’m not sure what is being stated here – perhaps the flu death tracking start in 1976 as Commodude states above or the time period, or seasonality…?
The issue for us free Americans is the wide loss of freedoms (when ANY freedom curtailment for an emergency should be extremely focused) AND the shutdown of the economy AND the wild spending of Trillions VS the prevention of overwhelming the medical establishment… “flattening the curve” – The stated goal.
This does not discount those 61000 lives or the ones that will follow. But many die every year and from many reasons. Let’s stop the deaths of 35,000 by halting the use of cars and trucks, (we kinda moved that way with this shut down).
We see that, for the most part, the “curve has been flattened” – even in NYC. Admittedly NY had a tough time but is beyond the peak of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page (nice graphs)
NYC/NJ was the hotspot in the US with the most impact.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
So far the government has used a very blunt tool to attack this outbreak – shut down movement/interaction, shut down the economy. But as time progresses and more data arrives we see there are clearly characteristics to the out break that are not being considered. But the same blunt instrument is being used.
The number of deaths without comorbidity is very low and the affected are clearly skewed toward the old (60+) and very old
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/numbers-150-americans-date-no-pre-existing-conditions-died-coronavirus-0-9/ (April 10 numbers)
And
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm
However, everyone is being held from their jobs or school etc. We are not strongly protecting the vulnerable and using cautious but less restrictive steps to try to keep the “curve down” with the less vulnerable. No, the use of the blunt tool continues – esp in states like Michigan. The economy stays shut, freedoms curtailed, emergency powers in place and spending (on what?!!!) continues.
I still don’t see a strong effort by the CDC to get anti-body tests moving. This may be happening but I do not see it. Any one else see this?
I see others doing testing but not a wide spread effort to try to get reasonable numbers. Without this we do not know the mortality. Don’t know the denominator – can’t do the calc. The results of some of these tests, including the Santa Clara tests, bring into question this missing information. Not if the results are accurate – but where is the data – any data. What is the total infection in the population? – the missing strong effort vs all the restrictions make me suspicious.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/remember_the_hong_kong_flu.html
In 1968–69, the Hong Kong flu ravaged the world; it wound up killing more than one million people worldwide, over 100,000 of them in the United States [150k today adjusted for population increase]. No lockdowns were imposed and people still went to work, albeit lessening bus travel and implementing social distancing and more washing of their hands.
The Wall Street Journal explained. “The novel virus triggered a state of emergency in New York City; caused so many deaths in Berlin that corpses were stored in subway tunnels; overwhelmed London’s hospitals; and in some areas of France left half of the workforce bedridden.”
As John Fund notes in National Review, the Hong Kong Flu “was an especially infectious virus that had the ability to mutate and render existing vaccines ineffective[.] … Hundreds of thousands were hospitalized in the U.S. as the disease hit all 50 states by Christmas 1968. Like COVID-19, it was fatal primarily to people older than 65 with preexisting conditions.”
The Encyclopedia Britannica pointed out the highly contagious nature of the disease: “Indeed, within two weeks of its emergence in July in Hong Kong, some 500,000 cases of illness had been reported[.] … The 1968 flu pandemic caused illness of varying degrees of severity in different populations. For example, whereas illness was diffuse and affected only small numbers of people in Japan, it was widespread and deadly in the United States.”
The Hong Kong flu still exists today. The Centers for Disease Control note, “It was first noted in the United States in September 1968[.] … The H3N2 virus continues to circulate worldwide as a seasonal influenza A virus.”
Fund notes that a retired professor of medicine, Philip Snashall, noted in the British Medical Journal that his two-year-old daughter was the first known case of the Hong Kong flu in Europe. He wrote, “How things change. The stock market did not plummet, we were not besieged by the press, men in breathing apparatus did not invade my daughter’s play group.”
@Edward: “… the numbers have been corrupted in order to make the COVID-19 flu seem like the worst flu ever …”
How are the seasonal flu death rates computed?
* https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-covid-19-deaths-to-flu-deaths-is-like-comparing-apples-to-oranges/
The 25,000 to 69,000 flu deaths per year are estimates that the CDC produces by multiplying the number of flu death counts reported by various coefficients produced through complicated algorithms. These coefficients are based on assumptions of how many cases, hospitalizations, and deaths they believe went unreported. In the last six flu seasons, the CDC’s reported number of actual confirmed flu deaths—that is, counting flu deaths the way we are currently counting deaths from the coronavirus—has ranged from 3,448 to 15,620, which far lower than the numbers commonly repeated by public officials and even public health experts.
That suggests a multiplier varying between 4.4 and 7.3.
mknet:
I am unaware of any solutions offered by any democrat leader, other than telling people that Trump was a racist for stopping air travel and that NY and CA should continue to party on. Oh, and we can’t forget Obama and Cuome not replacing the stocks of PPE. I guess that’s all a conspiracy theory. What brilliant solution did Trump overlook and when was it offered?
Chris: What you did not mention is the actual consequences of the government’s use of such a blunt tool, the bankrupting of the economy, the loss of work for approximately 20% to 25% of the population, and the destruction of as many businesses. The toll on lives because of that will far exceed anything done by the Wuhan flu.
I realize your focus was elsewhere. I note however that those who demand harsh action because of this flu-like epidemic never seem to care about these facts, at all.
One must use common sense. One must make a rational cost benefit analysis. Our government did not do this with COVID-19. We went along with them. We shall suffer very badly because of this.
Hi Bob,
I agree with your point on how the economy and the American public has taken multiple body blows due to this shut-down. My comments were a response on the death numbers vs prior flu number, and how the same blunt tools are still being used and contemplated in many (Blue) places even though the information is greater and clearly different than the prior non-data situation. And yes, we will pay for this – although most will not think to tie the future inflation, cancer/medical deaths, debt …etc to the steps being taken today. Politicians have known this for decades – my sins of today generate the penance to others in the future and I’ll never be connected to it.
One item that I *may* differ with you is that rights come first on my list then the economy second. Rights and our free market economy are clearly intertwined. But the defense of rights come first economic impact or not.
Thanks
I really don’t care about the whole thing any more.
I have worked overtime through the whole thing. Covering for co-workers who are out and for the increased orders because of the pandemic panic.
I just don’t care.
I need the department of motor vehicles to open.
It would be nice to have a few sit down restaurants open again. But they have all pretty much stayed open with carry out going strong. And the libraries.
I do not have time or inclination for anything else. Don’t go to the movies and have not gone to a concert in 20 years.
Yes I feel for those out of work. But…..
Kids not going to public school. Perfect they were failing anyways. Lay off all those teachers and we would be better off.
And I am soooo tired of hearing about the new heroes we have. Health care workers. They are doing the very same job with the vary same risks they took before this panic. If they are working way to much call back the half they laid off when they shut down the non emergency hospital stays.
$1200 ain’t enough for a new car….
As I mentioned in the comment, I was only comparing Covid-19 to seasonal flu, not the global pandemics (I mentioned those in another thread). The point of our host’s insistence that Covid-19 is “just the flu” is that it is just like ordinary flu — seasonal flu — and all of the restrictions imposed on us are unnecessary. My point is, and always has been, that Covid-19 is far worse than the ordinary flu, and special restrictions are warranted.
But since you mentioned it, Covid-19 has already passed the 18,449 American deaths attributed to the 2009 swine flu pandemic. That makes Covid-19 already the 4th worst pandemic in American history, and Americans are still dying at almost 2,000 a day. Next up is the 1957 Asian flu pandemic with a death toll of 69,800 Americans. We should hit that number sometime early next week. That will leave only the 1968 Hong Kong flu pandemic (100,000) and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (675,000). It’s hard to see how we won’t top 100,000 dead sometime this summer. Hopefully we never catch 675,000.
Again, the point is that Covid-19 is not “just the flu.” It’s quite likely the 2nd worst pandemic the United States has ever seen, and special precautions — most of which were used in 1918 — are warranted.
There are a number of states doing antibody testing, but to my knowledge, all of the current tests also pick up some additional coronavirus antibodies in addition to those related to SARS-CoV-2, so they’ll read high. Worse, it’s not known that those other coronavirus antibodies give immunity to SARS-CoV-2, so it’s possible you could test positive, think you’re immune to SARS-CoV-2, and not be. Be careful.
Tom: I’m not sure where this came from or why it was addressed to me. I have made no criticism of Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis on this site nor praise for Obama and Cuomo. Why should I? I think Trump has handled it extremely well given the circumstances. He’s offered guidelines to the states, information to the public, and intervened to break up bureaucratic logjams when they occur but has otherwise left the states to handle it according to their own situations. That is, in my opinion, the right amount of federalism. It’s hard to see how anyone could have done better, though perhaps Ted Cruz or Rand Paul would have done as well.
mkent,
You wrote: “We have bodies piling up in hospitals, nursing homes, and U-Haul trailers.”
Although that is evidence of your worldwide anti-Trump conspiracy theory, I don’t buy into it. Most likely over reporting in America is due to the federal financial incentives that are related to COVID reporting, with the bonus of using the corrupted numbers to rationalize extending the lockdown. Since New York is sending COVID positive patients to their nursing homes, it is hardly surprising that there are a lot of deaths there. But you already knew that.
“My point is, and always has been, that Covid-19 is far worse than the ordinary flu, and special restrictions are warranted.”
Chris pointed to a real pandemic, not the phony pandemic you are trying to make COVD-19 seem to be. You called the 2009 Swine flu a pandemic, despite it being far less than the 2018-2019 regular flu season. You (and WHO) exaggerate pandemics. Models that assumed no action against spread made it seemed to be the case eight weeks ago, but it turns out that overreaching special restrictions were hardly warranted.
Now we are stuck with them, because the decision makers are afraid to make changes, due to the mission creep that changed from not overwhelming the system to the saving of even one life (even though that life is not being saved).
That you are so willing to continue to use corrupted data to make your point shows that you are gullible enough to toe the Democratic Party’s line.
“Tom: I’m not sure where this came from or why it was addressed to me. ”
It probably came from your anti-Trump conspiracy theory. I recommend that you throttle back on that theory, as it does not hold much water. It would be even more tragic if all this death, economic destruction, tyranny, and inability to put food on the table were only about Democrats trying to win a presidential election.
pzatchok wrote: “And I am soooo tired of hearing about the new heroes we have. Health care workers. ”
Actually, the real heroes are those who are huddled at home, losing their jobs, their businesses, their liberty, their own healthcare services, their ability to put food on the table, and soon their homes, all so that de Blazio can save that single life, even as he sends ill patients back to their nursing homes. That much sacrifice for so little benefit deserves credit, that has not been forthcoming, for heroism.
But then, real heroes do not strive for recognition.
Albert Camus wrote: ”The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants“.