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It's more likely than not that the number of US jobless claims will rise further to hit a new high the next time the number is updated.
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Although it remains to be seen if jobless claims will ultimately surge to as many as 15 million as feared, the number will certainly be colossal.
The coronavirus pandemic is blamed. However, jobless claim provisions across the US may have contributed to the quicker-than-expected increase in unemployment.
Workers are smart when it comes to dollars and cents and know how to calculate when they're told by employers to face the prospect of a deep pay cut.
How would you choose if you stood to get more by staying away from a job than by agreeing to a pay cut?
It's a real probability. For example, a New Yorker earning US$1,400 (HK$10,850) a week on average may get a little more than US$500 a week from the state after losing a job. Because of the pandemic, this worker may also receive an extra assistance of US$600 a week from the federal government for a few months as a result of Donald Trump's US$2 trillion stimulus and relief package.
In other words, the worker may get more by claiming jobless benefits than by agreeing to a pay reduction.
While it requires meticulous care to make a stimulus package function to the desired purpose, this is obviously not the case with that of the US.
The package also promises aids via the banking system for businesses, particularly small- and medium-sized ones. The problem is that, unless lenders are certain they will get the money back, they will be reluctant to release the loans to firms in need.
So policy promises have to be backed by administrative particulars for execution, without which banks will not lend.
Trump's handling of the crisis has been riddled with ironies.
His telling the media that nobody could have predicted the pandemic is miles away from the truth.
It is always far too easy to blame the disease for one's inefficacy.
According to former national security adviser Susan Rice, a pandemic was expected by the Obama administration and a dedicated office was created for global heath security and biodefense. The office, however, was dismantled two years ago.
Had the office still been maintained, would the Trump administration have reacted to the pandemic at least as quickly as Singapore and Taiwan?
Undoubtedly, Beijing should be criticized for keeping its people in the dark at the start of new virus outbreak. However, Trump cannot use this as an excuse to justify his failure to react to the pandemic situation more swiftly.
Meanwhile, the investigation of some lawmakers including Republicans and Democrats by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice for alleged insider trading involving sales of their stock holdings ahead of the Wall Street meltdown did not bode at all well for governance.
Trump has no moral right to blame New York governor Andrew Cuomo for thanking Beijing for giving it ventilators, let alone expecting Cuomo to thank him after he refused to send New York the number of ventilators requested.
