Coronavirus

Unemployment Claims Hit 6.6 Million. It's Officially Worse Than the Great Recession.

Plus: The feds are still targeting Juul, Call of Duty wins First Amendment lawsuit, and more...

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More than 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending March 28. That's a record-breaking number of unemployment claims for the second week in a row, and way more than analysts were projecting for last week.

The actual number of claims was "more than double the estimate of 3.1 million analysts expected," points out CNBC correspondent Eamon Javers. "The American job market is in free fall."

In the two weeks ending March 28, 9.9 million people filed for unemployment benefits.

At the peak of Great Recession joblessness in 2010, "there were 7.7 million more officially unemployed people than before the downturn," noted Atlantic writer Derek Thompson."The labor market is contracting at the rate of one Great Recession per 10 days."

Before March 2020, the highest number of unemployment claims filed in a single week was 695,000.


FREE MINDS

The company behind video game Call of Duty has emerged victorious after being sued by military contractor AM General, which objected to Call of Duty's depiction of Humvees. Call of Duty parent company Activision said it was a First Amendment issue, and U.S. District Court Judge George B. Daniels agreed. "If realism is an artistic goal, then the presence in modern warfare games of vehicles employed by actual militaries undoubtedly furthers that goal," the judge wrote. "The inclusions of Humvees in the foreground or background of various scenes …are integral elements of a video game because they communicate ideas through features distinctive to the medium."


FREE MARKETS

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing vape company Juul, because even in the midst of a real pandemic, bureaucrats can't stop targeting fake problems. The FTC alleges that Juul was not allowed to sell shares to tobacco company Altria and is accusing the company of violating antitrust law by letting Altria own a 35 percent share.


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