World 4.3 million USA 1.4 million Spain 270K+ Russia 230K+
The US oil industry is in freefall with many oil companies heading towards bankruptcy. Food distribution is a big problem there too with food supply chains breaking down. Scary stuff. As outlined in this recent investigation by Four Corners, the chaotic mismanagement of this health crisis and lack of leadership in the US has turned a bad situation into a total catastrophe.
Here at home, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said he wants to see Australia’s economy ‘reshaped’ in the wake of coronavirus. Over coming years I think a lot of industries, across the globe, will be ‘reshaped’. Already a number of manufacturers have diversified and are producing much needed medical equipment. But it remains to be seen whether we will take this opportunity to move towards a green economy and away from fossil fuels.
The opposition is calling for the fast tracking of high speed rail and a boost to manufacturing to create new jobs. Personally, I don’t know why high speed rail has been in the too hard basket for decades. If we had a fast rail link between Sydney and Melbourne, we wouldn’t have needed the second airport in Sydney, which has been a problem issue for as long as I can remember. Now that it’s being built, but with so many flights grounded for the foreseeable future, will their second airport become a white elephant?
The Sydney-Melbourne route is the second busiest air traffic route on the planet with over 54,000 flights per year. By the time you get to the airport, check-in, wait to board, board, take off, fly, land, and disembark, with often a delay because Sydney airport is so busy, you could have travelled there by high speed rail with half the hassle in the same amount of time.