What A Day - The Incredible Shrinking Economy

Episode Date: April 30, 2020

New GDP data show the economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate in January, February and March. That’s the worst quarterly decline since the 2008 recession, and unfortunately, the current quarter is probably going to be worse. There’s an experimental drug called Remdesivir that the FDA is reportedly planning to approve for emergency use in treating symptoms of Covid-19. It’s not a cure, but some early trial data show that it reduces the length of the disease for some patients. And in headlines: a 1-mile asteroid picks the wrong time to scare Earth, NCAA to allow athletes to make money, and "Trolls World Tour" brings equal parts pain and pleasure.

Today's episode of What A Day is brought to you by Roman. So as the novel coronavirus pandemic escalates in the U.S., public health officials are encouraging those who are experiencing signs or symptoms of COVID-19, such as coughing or fever, to seek medical guidance remotely. If you or a loved one are feeling sick or are just feeling a little worried, there is a way to get help without leaving home. So Ro has a free online assessment that's going to help determine if you are at risk. And if appropriate, Roe will connect you with a medical provider for a free consultation.

Visit roe.co slash coronavirus on your phone or laptop to complete a free online assessment or to just learn more. If you're worried that you may be experiencing symptoms, go to roe.co slash coronavirus to start your free assessment today. That's ro.co slash coronavirus, ro.co slash coronavirus. It's Thursday, April 30th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we're sending a big virtual air conditioner to anyone dealing with high temps. But if you're dealing with cold temps, I don't know what to do.

We don't have anything else we can send virtually. We had no plan B, and we sincerely apologize for the error. On today's show, new data on an experimental treatment for COVID-19, then some headlines. But first, the latest. And again, we're on the other side of the medical aspect of this. And I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed. So the government, federal government, rose to the challenge. And this is a great success story.

And I think that that's really, you know, what needs to be told. Yeah. So that was Jared Kushner taking a glasses half full approach to the pandemic. Everyone listening, please don't listen to him. He is a dumbass. But moving on to news, we got more data on the state of the economy yesterday and it is shockingly bleak. So, so far, we've talked about unemployment numbers, which have shown millions of Americans out of work, but we got a new number demonstrating just how much the entire economy is shrinking. Gideon, take us through some of what we know. Yeah, so the Commerce Department said on Wednesday that the gross domestic product, i.e. GDP,

fell at a 4.8% annual rate in the first quarter of the year. That encompasses January, February, and March. Now, this is the first estimate of the year. That encompasses January, February, and March. Now, this is the first estimate of the impact of shutdowns during the pandemic, and it is not a good estimate. It marks the worst quarterly decline since the 2008 recession. But the real kicker here is that because this measured the first quarter, it is far from capturing much of the economic crisis. Seeing as a great deal of the most restrictive lockdowns we've seen throughout the country were only getting instituted in mid to late March. So when this current quarter shakes out, economists have suggested that we may find GDP down by 30% or more, which would be unheard of since the Great Depression.

Yikes, that sounds awful. And I mean, not looking forward. Well, despite what the Trump administration is saying, the idea that we're going to have a quick snapback is clearly starting to fade. There were projections this week showing that the economy may begin growing again later this year, but GDP won't get back to where we were pre-pandemic until at least 2022. Yeah, that's basically what people are saying. I mean, one of the major and maybe obvious reasons why it's difficult for a lot of people to see a swift recovery here is that it's hard to know when consumers will actually feel safe and confident enough to go back out and buy stuff and live seemingly normal lives. In other words, it doesn't matter if certain businesses

are reopening if no one is going out to them. And for good reason, people might be wary for a while until there's a sense that the health crisis is under control. And that could be predicated in part on developing a vaccine. Right. Well, a lot of the downturn was due to big drops in consumer spending, which, you know, by the way, makes up 70% of the economy. So you're definitely spot on there. There was less spending at restaurants, at hotels, and even on elective health care. And in the midst of all of this, many state and local governments are already starting to lay sector workers could be out of jobs or receive no pay. So yeah, I mean, while you have this public health crisis that is raging,

that could mean that essential jobs in education, sanitation, safety, and health could all be impacted for people who need it at a city level. One example of how this is playing out is in Dayton, Ohio. According to the mayor, the city furloughed 470 of its 1,900 employees already, and it's possible that they'll have to start another major reduction in the next year if the federal government doesn't help out. It is an urgent situation. This is why there have been all those pushes for more state and local funding from governors and Democrats in Congress that have been falling on somewhat deaf ears among Republicans. Anyway, while all of this was happening, stocks actually went up, strangely enough, mostly with the news that a drug to treat

COVID-19 was showing some positive signs. Yeah, you know, the market is completely tied to the hope that this pandemic is going to be under control sooner than later. But like, obviously, that makes all of this incredibly volatile until there is a vaccine, or at least like some sort of certain way out of this. Right. It seems like we're going to see a lot of swings for sure. But what did we actually learn then in these drug trials? All right. So the FDA is reportedly planning to announce emergency use of a drug called remdesivir to help as a therapeutic option for those suffering from COVID-19. So to be clear, a therapeutic is not a cure.

Here's a primer. You know, a therapeutic is not a cure. Here's a primer. A therapeutic is something that is used to hopefully alleviate symptoms, not actually treat the disease. So an example might be if you take naproxen for cramps, naproxen doesn't stop you from having cramps, but it will alleviate some of the pain and potentially shorten the suffering and make your life a little less sucky. So here's what you need to know about this particular therapeutic. Remdesivir, a medicine from Gilead, has been studied and the early trial data looks really promising. There's been some reduction in the length of the disease in some patients. According to an NIH study of a thousand patients, those who did recover, recovered four days sooner than those with a placebo. So, you know, excellent. But that study still needs to be peer reviewed.

And there was conflicting data in another study from China of severely ill patients where the drug had no effect at all. But, you know, that study wasn't fully completed. And, you know, if you're noticing a lot of confusion when you're reading about this drug, because it's going to be in the news a lot, that's pretty much why. Right. That makes sense. A lot left to learn. And we have an update on who is actually suffering the most in this outbreak, specifically in Georgia. What is the latest there? Yeah. The CDC found that 80 percent of hospitalized patients in Georgia are black. I mean, we know about major disparities in health care between black people and their white counterparts, whether that be,

you know, access to pain management, doctors listening and believing patients, or even just the broader issues of health care coverage and environmental factors that lead to all of the pre-existing conditions that we've talked about on the show. But this number, 80 percent, it's just staggering. And with the governor moving to reopen the state, community leaders are pushing back against reopening because, you know, as expected, black people are likely going to be the ones suffering the most. Right. So that's the update for the U.S. But what else is happening around the world? We've been spotlighting different regions as we go. And today we're going to focus a little bit on South America. So starting in Brazil, there were almost 500 deaths reported from COVID-19

on Tuesday, which is the highest single day for that country so far. And according to reports, when President Bolsonaro was asked about it, he said in part, quote, so what? I'm sorry. What do you want me to do? Oh, my God. Absolutely insane. He's a far right leader who has distinguished himself really from the rest of the continent, if not the world, for his disbelief in the virus. Bolsonaro has drawn ire from the rest of the world for consistently underplaying the crisis and making a mockery of it, calling it a, quote, little flu, telling people to, quote,

get back to work, and even going so far as to fire his health minister who implored him to practice social distancing, which the president has openly flouted there. There are deep concerns about COVID-19 in Brazil as it is emerging as a pandemic hotspot. Already, there are more than 5,000 known deaths in the country and more than 74,000 confirmed infections. And additionally, the country has low testing rates, so that could be higher. And it's hard to know if they've even reached their peak yet. Right. Cases showed up a little bit later in South America, and some countries like Argentina and Peru acted really quickly to impose their own lockdowns. But the

spread has been particularly bad in Brazil, as you mentioned, and also in Ecuador. So what's happening in Ecuador? Yeah, in Ecuador, the situation has been pretty horrifying in certain places. There were these images that circulated widely of bodies in the streets of Guayaquil in the past few weeks. Ecuador is the eighth most populous country in Latin America, but number two in COVID-19 cases and deaths behind only Brazil. Specifically, though, in Guayaquil, which is the hardest hit city in all of Latin America, there were a lot of carnival celebrations held in February. People are pointing to that as a possibility. Big gatherings. Some people may have brought back

the virus from European trips around that time, and others may not have been quick to follow the initial lockdown orders throughout the rest of the country. But then, following a nationwide curfew in late March, reports suggest that the daily fatality rate has been decreasing, which is obviously very, very good. Also, on top of all of this, as in the United States, you have massive wealth disparities, and those exacerbate problems in many areas throughout some of these countries as well. And that is the latest for now. It's Thursday, WOD Squad. The week is just sailing by. You know, it's time for another check-in. If we were at the office, I imagine our water cooler talk might be that, you know, the Oscars just announced streaming films are going to be eligible for awards next year.

Steven Spielberg is definitely writing a very strongly worded letter as we speak. But Giddy, where do you fall on this debate? You know, does Chris Hemsworth deserve an Oscar for Netflix's Extraction? I am ill-equipped to answer that because I have not seen Extraction yet. I heard that he kills like children in it, like a lot of children. Is that a spoiler? It's not a lot of children, but now it sounds like I'm defending killing children. All I'm saying is he doesn't deserve the Oscar. And I honestly think he lets the children go, if I'm remembering correctly. But I did look away several times. This is a very bloody film.

Well, we've ruined this entire movie for our audience already. And potentially the awards for it as well. I mean, broadly, like, yeah, they're already giving awards and nominating stuff that all they had to do was have this like limited run in theaters. Right. That were essentially, quote unquote, streaming movies, i.e. one that they call the Irishman. Other movies that have been around. Yeah. I mean, like so it's it doesn't seem that that big of a deal to me. Yeah, I think that that's that's fair. How much of a purist are you, though? Like, do you are you do you need to have you can't even base it on a reality where it's like, oh, it needs to be in theaters for a couple of weeks. Right. I mean, personally, I don't I've never subscribed to that. I think that the Internet is here to stay. I think that that's just how people watch

things. I was also like the kind of person who's like there is no real difference between streaming and like television or streaming and movies. Like it's just where you watch it and more people get to watch it so like why is that a bad thing I feel like you know arguing for the opposite is just kind of elitist like oh if you can't spend $30 to go see a movie that you probably won't enjoy then like you then like I mean I just don't get the point and I also think that most of those movies aren't that great anyway, so whatever. Yeah, I mean, I think it's like you want to get stuff in front of an audience as much as you can. And that should be the ultimate goal of any person that's making stuff. So, yeah.

More Trolls World Tour. Yeah, honestly, go off Trolls. All right, well, wham bam, thank you, ma'am. This is the end of the temperature check. Hope you're staying well within the healthy range and that everyone you're checking in with is also. And we'll check back in again tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. and it captures the officer pinning him to the ground and punching him in the chest. Many people were rightfully outraged by the clip, including California Senator Kamala Harris and Julian Castro,

both of whom demanded immediate action. The county sheriff said the officer was responding to what he believed to be an illegal sale of tobacco. Come on. Yeah, the boy has been cited for possession of tobacco and released back to his parents. A representative from Black Lives Matter noted that this was the third documented example Yeah, the boy has been cited for possession of tobacco and released back to his parents. A representative from Black Lives Matter noted that this was the third documented example of officers over-policing children of color in the Sacramento area this year. It's outrageous, and like all the teens are drooling, so really? Like, that guy should be fired.

All right, well, the NCAA announced it will support a proposal to let college athletes sign potentially lucrative endorsements. The board still needs to hammer out rules on how players get compensated for their name, image, and likeness, but those things are expected to be decided by January of next year. And hopefully by then, we'll have seen the return of the strange, forgotten pastime we once called live sports. Oh, the glory days. The new proposal follows a popular California bill that allowed student athletes to be compensated starting in 2023. The NCAA still maintains that athletes can't be considered employees of their schools, which is why the new rules bar students from being paid directly by the university. College athletes hoping to make money during lockdown should sign endorsement deals with Blackout Shades and or, you know, Reebok brand pajama pants. Two words, air couch.

It'll maybe work. An extremely tactless one-mile asteroid almost ran into our planet yesterday. The rocky object came within 4 million miles of Earth, which considering everything we're already dealing with down here is still way too close. This asteroid is called 1998 OR2 after the year it was discovered.

It's classified as potentially hazardous, though its orbit is well studied by scientists who say there is no chance it will collide with the Earth for at least the next 200 years. Now, at that point, we should have an airtight asteroid response plan ready from clone president Ivanka Trump 5.0. Oh, man. Good luck to those people. Some things in life are so beautiful that they make you cry because you know that such beauty can only lead to destruction. And that's definitely the case for Trolls World Tour, an animated movie about trolls and music that came out on VOD on April 10th

and made an impressive $100 million for Universal Studios. That puts it on track to be more profitable for its studio than the first Trolls, leading NBCUniversal CEO to say that Trolls World Tour, quote, demonstrated the viability of premium video on demand and, quote, as soon as movie theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats. For movie theater chain owners, some of whom are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of coronavirus, this comment amounted to, and I'm very serious when I say this, ruthless trolling.

The CEO of America's largest theater chain, AMC, retaliated within hours by announcing an international boycott of all Universal movies and AMC theaters. And like we said before, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced yesterday that it will grant eligibility this year to movies that got streaming-only releases. This fuels wild speculation among me and no one else that Tiny Diamond, the little glittering troll who loves rap, will snap up Best Supporting Actor. Hold me closer, Tiny Diamond.

Oh, man. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe leave us a review turn us into a viral meme and tell your friends to listen and if you're into reading and not just dollar signs on the side of big burlap sex like me what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at crooked.com subscribe i'm akilah hugh I'm Gideon Resnick. And try not to stress about the trolls. They're doing their best. Yeah, they're coming, regardless of what you do. Let's watch the movie and go on a world tour.

Yeah. What a day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.