(Bloomberg) — The aversion of many Americans to wearing a thin piece of cloth across their faces is restraining an already-shaky economic rebound.
In Texas, the second most-populous state and a hotspot of the resurgent Covid-19, Republican Governor Greg Abbott on July 2 ordered mask-wearing in a reversal of his earlier opposition to enforcement. He said on local television this week that face coverings will prevent “having our economy shut down again.”
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said Friday that U.S. growth would be faster if all Americans wore masks. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates a national mask mandate could prevent the U.S. from losing almost 5% of its gross domestic product.
Yet millions of Americans — especially Republicans — have been reluctant to embrace masks, with President Donald Trump himself resistant. That’s in contrast with Democratic opponent Joe Biden, who typically dons a black covering in public appearances. Gallup polling in late June showed 98% of Democrats said they wore a mask outside home during the past week, compared with 66% of Republicans and 85% of independents.
Adding to the confusion, medical experts have sent mixed messages about when and how masks should be worn. While the World Health Organization has recommended masks in general, it said last month that there’s “no direct evidence” on the effectiveness of mass mask-wearing among healthy people. Other health officials say that while a mask won’t protect the person wearing it, it can help stop sick people from infecting others.
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The politics may be shifting as some policy makers try to avoid more shutdowns. In Arizona, Republican Governor Doug Ducey was initially reluctant about masks and hesitant to let local officials in his state impose rules requiring them. But in recent weeks, as the number of coronavirus cases swelled in the battleground state, Ducey has encouraged everyone to wear a mask.
Without measures like mask-wearing to reduce the opportunity to spread the virus, the health and economic consequences will worsen, said Eric Toner, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “And we will have no choice but eventually to lock things down again, which would be devastating to the economy,” he said.
Enforcement Questions
But as major corporations lobby for a federal mask mandate, questions of enforcement remain. In places that have already mandated masks, making that happen in practice has largely fallen on the heads of businesspeople like Tina Yake, owner of The Wooden Spoon restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas.
Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, ordered mask-wearing last week but counties were allowed to opt out and enforcement was left to local authorities. Johnson County, where The Wooden Spoon is located, went along with the mandate; the area includes the Kansas City suburbs along the state’s border with Missouri.
Yake said initially the restaurant put up a sign telling customers to check in at the front and wear a mask. “Those that didn’t want to wear a mask or check in, would leave in a huff,” she said in an email. The restaurant ended up adding a second, and then a third, sign with a neon pink border, as well as posting on social media that masks are required.
Despite some customers getting angry at the mask policies, Yake said the restaurant hasn’t faced adverse effects, and the requirement may even be helping business. “We have been congratulated and thanked for taking a stand on the mask issue and doing everything we can to keep our customers and staff safe,” she said in the email.
The opposite appears to have happened for The Grille at Flower Hill, a restaurant in Gaithersburg, Maryland, outside Washington. The establishment closed indefinitely after its owner received death threats over his refusal to follow the state order requiring masks for staff, according to local publication Bethesda Beat. The restaurant owner could not be reached for comment.
‘Vitally Important’
Alan Cobb, president of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, called measures including face masks and social distancing “vitally important,” but brought up concerns.
“It should not be the responsibility of businesses to enforce mask mandates,” he said in a statement, adding that state and local governments should be clear on what is required for businesses.
Davis Senseman, a Minneapolis attorney who has consulted with small businesses on face-mask enforcement, said government regulations are a “floor” and businesses can put in place more safety measures that customers tend to appreciate.
Senseman likens face-mask requirements to the signs in some businesses warning: “No shirt, no shoes, no service.”
“That has helped a lot of business owners realize, ‘Oh yeah, I’m not asking you to do much. I’m asking you to have a shirt on, I’m asking you to have shoes on and to put on a mask,’” Senseman said.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
