We Have the Power!

One interesting way to look at the impact to the economy is through power consumption data.

Here is the data in 2020 for Lower 48 power in 2020 vs. the average of the prior 4 years. (Day of week adjusted.)

Power Consumption for the Lower 48 – 2020 vs. Last 4 Years

As you can see, power was tracking pretty similarly until late March. Then it dropped as compared to the prior average. Currently, power consumption is down about 10% year-over-year.

This suggests that demand for manufacturing are down along with other business activity that requires significant power.

Texas Cases Climbing

One of the largest states to reopen – Texas – continues to see an increase in the number of new cases per day.

In fact you can see that out side of April 9, the last 4 days have represented the highest new cases per day.

The questions are a. will this trend continue? and b. Do political leaders care? If it does and they do, this will have serious repercussions for our economic recovery.

More generally, it seems that the US has many people that are social distanced out. Even in the hardest hit areas – NJ and NY – people are going out as soon as they can.