Bloomberg

Unlike the Spanish flu, Covid-19 struck humanity in an era of hyper self-awareness. Swaddled with smartphones, 5G, and user-generated digital media, millions of people were equipped to understand how huge of a deal this was, and had the tools to document it. For that reason, the coronavirus crisis will likely create a different kind of impression in the historical record than its predecessors, said James Connolly, a professor of history at Ball State University and director of its Center for Middletown Studies, which produces research about economic and community life in small cities.

Last summer something strange started happening in the recreational-vehicle business. Even as President Donald Trump proclaimed “an economic turnaround of historic proportions” and his top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, asserted that “this is a boom that will be sustainable frankly as far as the eye can see,” RV manufacturers shipped out 11.4% fewer vehicles and trailers in June 2018 than in the same month a year earlier. Shipments rebounded in July but turned negative again in August, and have been falling short ever since.

Story notes that heightened risk of people losing their jobs to automation also “increases overall costs by $24 million to $174 million due to increase in prevalence of poor or fair health; $6 million to $40 million due to increased physical distress, and $7 million to $47 million due to increased mental distress,” according to a statement from Indiana’s Ball State University, which had faculty involved in the research.