The coronavirus pandemic is causing immense economic damage. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits has surged as businesses nationwide close down and are forced to lay off workers. Has the country ever experienced anything like this? Paul Solman talks to Harvard University economist Ken Rogoff, whose book “This Time is Different” examines the history of financial crises.

Read more at PBS News.

Members of President Donald Trump’s economic team convene Friday on Capitol Hill to launch negotiations with Senate Republicans and Democrats racing to draft a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package amid the coronavirus outbreak.

It’s the biggest effort yet to shore up households and the U.S. economy as the pandemic and its nationwide shutdown hurtles the country toward a likely recession.

Read more at Associated Press News.

The West African nation of Mali has roughly one ventilator per 1 million people — 20 in all to help the critically ill with respiratory failure. In Peru, with more than 32 million people, about 350 beds in intensive care units exist.

The coronavirus is now moving into parts of the world that may be the least prepared. Some countries in Africa and Latin America lack the equipment or even trained health workers to respond.

Read more at Associated Press News.

Global stock markets and U.S. futures rose Friday on hopes that government and central bank action can help the world economy endure a looming recession caused by the coronavirus.

European markets were as much as 4% higher and Shanghai, Hong Kong and other Asian markets advanced. Seoul surged 7.4%.

Read more at Associated Press.

In 2019, more people than ever before took to the railways around the United States. According to Amtrak, it saw a rider increase of three percent on its Washington D.C., to Boston route, as well as a four percent increase in premium "Acela" high-speed service. However, there's one place where they need more riders, and that is long-distance routes, which saw ridership climb just one percent throughout the year.

That slow growth of longer routes may simply come down to people not understanding just how many options are available to them. But, that’s where Wanderu's new cross-country train map comes in.

Read more at Martha Stewart.

Thousands were ordered into quarantine after cluster of cases linked to department store.

Nearly a third of the confirmed coronavirus cases in Tianjin, a city of more than 15 million about 70 miles southeast of Beijing, have been linked to one department store, adding to fears about rapid transmission in tightly clustered communities.

Read more at the New York Times.

The next time you find yourself in a situation where someone is experiencing a heart attack, don’t panic, just follow these instructions and save a life. The only ingredient you need is cayenne pepper which can stop a heart attack in just one minute.

Both healers and herbalists claim that they have never lost a patient with a heart attack since they always bring cayenne pepper with them in their pockets. The very second a heart attack occurs, all you need to do is to take 1 tsp of cayenne pepper and pour it over hot water, like a cayenne tea. As a result of this mixture, the patient will get back to his or her feet in just one minute.

Read more at Chowhound.

Developers already have numerous options from the likes of Microsoft and Google for learning how to code in the popular Python programming language. But now budding Python developers can read up on the National Security Agency's own Python training materials.

Software engineer Chris Swenson filed a Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request with the NSA for access to its Python training materials and received a lightly redacted 400-page printout of the agency's COMP 3321 Python training course.

Read more at ZDNet.

When you are applying for a job online, you may see multiple roles at the same company that interest you and for which you are qualified. But don’t take that as permission to apply to all of them, career experts warn.

Job seekers may do this to show that they really want to work at the company. “Candidates apply to multiple open roles because they really admire the company and want to get a foot in the door,” said Sarah Johnston, former corporate recruiter and founder of Briefcase Coach.

Read more at Huffpost.

Small business owners face a number of challenges when it comes to accessing capital. Whether it’s debt or equity, many lenders and investors just don’t provide capital to startups.

According to Small Business Trends, only 56% of businesses started in 2014 made it to their fifth year. These statistics lend credible support to why banks do not lend to startups.

Read more at Black Enterprise.