The Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis just released an analysis of COVID-19 rates by level of financial distress in individual counties. For the purposes of this analysis, counties in quintile 1 have the lowest financial distress, quintile 5 the highest. While there are some confounds in terms of access to testing, what is clear is that affluent counties were hit first and hardest in terms of liftoff, and then in terms of deaths. Not surprisingly, these more affluent counties also skew older. How this plays out in terms of reduced travel and altered recreational activities remains to be seen, but the behavioral changes will be significant. Click here to read the article.

• COVID-19