Emergency powers: Car factories shutting down; more borders close.
Big Three automakers to close their US plants
MINNEAPOLIS – President Donald Trump on Wednesday moved to invoke a federal law that allows the government to marshal the private sector to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, as the economic damage mounted with word that Detroit’s Big Three automakers agreed to shut down all their factories to protect workers.
On a day of head-spinning developments, stocks tumbled again on Wall Street, falling so fast they triggered another automatic trading halt. More borders slammed shut across Europe and North America, with the U.S. and Canada agreeing to close their shared boundary to all but essential travel. And the Trump administration pressed Congress to swiftly pass a potentially $1 trillion rescue package to prop up the economy and speed relief checks to Americans in a matter of weeks.
Calling himself a “wartime president,” Trump said he would sign the Defense Production Act “in case we need it” as the government bolsters resources for an expected surge in virus cases.
With a growing number of Americans thrown out of work by the near-shutdown of much of the U.S. economy, he also said the Department of Housing and Urban Development will suspend foreclosures and evictions from public housing through April.
Two people briefed on the matter said Wednesday that Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler agreed to close all their factories. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because the closings had not been announced. The move would idle about 150,000 workers, who are likely to receive supplemental pay in addition to unemployment benefits.
Meanwhile, across the European continent, desperate travelers choked border crossings after countries began shutting the doors against the coronavirus, which has now infected more than 200,000 people worldwide and killed over 8,000.
A bright spot: Wuhan, China, where the virus was first detected in late December and which has been under lockdown for weeks, reported just one new case for a second day Wednesday.
But the death toll in Italy moved closer to overtaking China’s. Italy had more than 2,500 dead and was averaging about 350 a day; China’s toll was just over 3,200.
Meanwhile, the United Nations’ International Labor Organization estimated that the crisis could cause nearly 25 million job losses and drain up to $3.4 trillion in income by year’s end but that a coordinated global response in the form of fiscal stimulus and other measures could help reduce the toll.
In the first-ever breakdown of its kind in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that coronavirus deaths in the United States mirror what has been reported in other countries, with about 4 out of 5 deaths occurring in people 65 and older – and no deaths in children.
The CDC looked at more than 4,200 cases reported through Monday.