Tuesday morning news drop
Millions Are Saying No to the Vaccines. What Are They Thinking? Feelings about the vaccine are intertwined with feelings about the pandemic: The no-vaxxers I spoke with just don’t care. They’ve traveled, eaten in restaurants, gathered with friends inside, gotten COVID-19 or not gotten COVID-19, survived, and decided it was no big deal. What’s more, they’ve survived while flouting the advice of the CDC, the WHO, Anthony Fauci, Democratic lawmakers, and liberals, whom they don’t trust to give them straight answers on anything virus-related.(The Atlantic)
Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now Believe Widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus is here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough to restore normalcy. (New York Times)
The U.S. Has the Power to Tamp Down Coronavirus Variants — If We’re Willing to Use It We’re in a race against mutations all around the world. The fastest way to speed vaccination is to let other countries manufacture the vaccines developed by Operation Warp Speed. (Politico)
TikTok Is the Place To Go for Financial Advice If You’re a Young Adult TikTok is the place to go for new dances, viral taco recipes—and, now, financial advice. The big benefit of TikTok is that it allows users to dole out and obtain information in short, easily digestible video bites (called TikToks). And that can make unfamiliar, complex topics, such as those related to personal finance and investing, more palatable to a younger audience. But can TikTok users, many of whom are in their teens, 20s or early 30s, trust the financial advice that is increasingly being offered on the social-media platform? (Wall Street Journal)
Why the Plan to Raise Taxes for Rich Investors Isn’t Hurting Stocks Investors have largely shrugged off President Biden’s proposal to raise taxes on investment income for wealthy Americans, as the stock market hovers near record highs after news of a strong economic rebound and blockbuster earnings reports. The indifference is well founded, analysts say. Investors care more about economic data and corporate profits than an increase in the capital gains tax. It has usually been this way. (New York Times)
Joe Biden is about to test the politics of going big The administration’s theory of policy so far is to go big. The same goes for its politics. Taken together, President Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan and newly introduced $1.8 trillion American Families Plan come out to slightly over $4 trillion in proposed new spending. It’s an enormous investment in American job creation. (Vox)
Ten things to know about Canada’s 2021 federal budget On April 21, the Trudeau government tabled the 2021 federal budget. The budget includes additional COVID-related measures,[1] a major childcare initiative, and various forms of support for low-income Canadians (including for housing and homelessness). (Nick Falvo)
House Hunt Victoria April Hot or Top? The 1116 April sales were nearly 4 times last year’s total, and well over half of houses and townhouses went for over their asking price. There was a mere one month of residential inventory, which is a scorching sellers market by any measure. There will be many excited headlines in the news today about real estate. And yet at the same time the small signs that the market has topped out and is starting to slow have also increased. Let’s see what the month looked like in numbers. (House Hunt Victoria)
