Will The Economy Ever Be Normal Again?
Furthering the conversations gjohnsit has been writing about, Mark Blyth and Jimmy talked about what our economy is going to look like and they go into detail about rents and mortgages.
As others have stated this economic downturn crisis was going to hit us long before COVID was on the horizon. Retail stores have been laying off tens of thousands as have the big banks here and abroad. The trucking industry has been failing for months. And people have been having their cars re-poed at a increasing rate. Many other industries have been struggling and all the while banks and corporations have been loading up debt, buying back their stocks and not saving for a rainy day and here they are with their hands out. And congress gave them trillions without any means testing to see if they even needed. One of the worst besides the banks is Boeing who was headed or bankruptcy and now they are sitting pretty. Millions of Americans have no idea how to pay for their rents and mortgages, pay their car payments or buy food. Meanwhile congress is sitting on their asses at home and Nancy Pelosi is doing her "Let them eat cake" moment. They will stay at home until May 4th unless their is an emergency. I'd say people not able to pay their May bills is a big fucking emergency wouldn't you?
Comments
Define normal.
Nothing has been normal for 20+ years yet some think going back to the good ole obummer years would be great.
The new normal is absolutely abnormal.
Go ask Abby.
[video:https://youtu.be/yH97lImrr0Q]
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
But...but...but...
Prior to SAR2 plandemic: "This is the Best American economy in 50 years" Our economy was perfectly fine until some dam bat virus flew into our belfry. Dontcha know?
Jmmy will be live in about 10 min.
He says his guest will be Dylan Ratigan.
I got a pot of beans going, nothing better to do than watch JD while they cook.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cM4X5L-924 width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
No
Let's say "normal" means 1960s economy, low debt, reasonable income and wealth distribution. I see two ways to return to a sound economy. One- debt jubilee. Relieve the working people of their massive debt, let the rich eat it. (it's better than the alternative "eat the rich").
Two-let the economy fail, destroying debt and wealth. Then slowly rebuild it. Method one is the best, but our bought and paid for politicians would ever allow their owners to suffer wealth loss. So method two is it. The government is doing everything it can to print and spend as much money as possible right now to prop up big corporations, and the market. We will need that money to keep alive during the pandemic and then rebuild. Instead, we will have an insurmountable debt bogging us down, and a worthless currency, and eventually a government default.
Dylan is right, who will want to go into a workplace or store or shopping mall while we are COVID-19 infested? Open up- is meaningless.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
I just skimmed an article
about the head of the postal workers union saying that in 3 months, the USPS will cease to exist.
Trump will not sign any stimulus bills that gives them a cent.
So, how do we get paper ballots? The election will occur during flu season. How will they receive their voting registration card?
22% of US households do not have internet. How will those people receive their utility bills?
Some of my utilities are not set up for online payments.
Charities rely on mail.
Driver's license renewals come by mail. Property tax bills, too.
I guess the additional costs of using Fedex and UPS will be passed along to people with no jobs.
What's coming is, when stability or consistency is achieved, is a new normal, and will not bear much resemblance to the normal of 10 months ago.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
USPS: Dead in 3 Months
Indeed, the president of the Postal Workers Union is giving the Post Office three months. Here's a link to the article:
Postal Workers Union Leader Warns the USPS Could Be Dead in Three Months
Okay hands up
Who actually watched the video?
I watched it yesterday.
It was outstanding. Blythe makes the concepts easy for everyone to grasp.
edit: The chaos of privatization of the post office will add a dimension to the coming economic disaster.
Homeless people will be unable to receive their ssi checks. Banks will start charging exorbitant transaction fees.
It just goes on and on, farther and farther from "normal".
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
This comment really has nothing to do with anything.
The stunning irony will leave a mark that won't buff out though if the USPS belly up.
A very good friend was not at all happy with the answer I gave her when she asked for our address so she could send a thank you card to my wife. We've told her several times that there is not really such a thing as a post office in Ecuador. We can't receive regular mail. It takes 5 minutes to describe where we live for someone to come see us. Were it not for WhatsApp or Google Maps nobody who doesn't know this end of Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest city - 600,000+ with the surrounding areas, can find us easily. We have nothing anybody in the first world would recognize as an address. I send small important items to my local attorney's US office for inclusion in her semi monthly packages of legal documents. I could also have it sent by UPS or DHL but a letter size mailer runs about $80. There's not much I want worth the hassle.
She was a bit perturbed by the whole thing. I feel she has a resentment that I took her best friend, my wife, and moved us to the end of the earth. The opposite was true but I love our friends enough to just let it go. Her reply was rather sharp asking, "What backwater wilderness doesn't have a post office and an address?" Were she not extremely well educated and traveled I could take the comment as ignorance instead of snark and hurt feelings. It's all good.
But isn't there delicious irony that the greatest country on earth may soon not have a post office? But it does have addresses. For now anyway. 0-1 is much better than 0-2 so I guess I have that to sooth my wounded ego.
What is shocking is that there are awesome human beings in the US who just have no idea how fucked the place is. That's not news to anyone who could look past their own soda straw perspective and happy circumstances. It's like a bolt from the blue that they never saw coming. They're bewildered and totally confused.
I reject the predictions that this virus will change everything forever with no going back. This is the biggest mess in my 69 years but there have been worse and life slowly returned to what it was more or less before every disaster. The only variable has been how long it took. Those with means will still benefit from the mess and those without means are still fucked but just a bit more so.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Ecuador doesn't have a post office
because they do not need one, and their business, commerce, and elections obviously do not require one.
I am sorry your friend is miffed.
I am so glad you love your life in Cuenca.
I agree with Blythe that that we may expect permanent business closures, and permanent job loss.
While I foresee a country with a starving population and looming violence and unrest, and you foresee an eventual return to stability, I hope you are right, and that I am wrong.
Fedex and UPS offices are 40 miles or more away.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Yes, the economy will return to normal
with a vengeance. Those who have power will accumulate more power, and those lacking power will become even more powerless. With all the cash in few hands, credit will be the way most people will live, by renting, leasing everything, unable to really own anything of importance. We'll be even more at each others throats fighting for crumbs while the government and the wealthy pass solemn judgement on us.
The cost of maintaining the government will fall more and more on those on the bottom rungs of the ladder while reaping little of governments benefit. Then the wealthy will become bored and start inflicting petty injuries on us, just because they can.
No. Normal is over.
Ever read Olduvai Theory? The guy claimed the figure of merit was worldwide electric power per capita. This was when we were talking about peak oil and he went back and ran the numbers for all energy per capita. That moved it forward about six months. The peak was 72-73. It's been downhill since then.
The Trumpistas want to go back to those days. They're gone and they ain't coming back.
The economy has been smoke and mirrors since 2008, propped up with financial shenannigans. The Bidenoids want to go back to the Obama years. That economy is gone too.
Most people just want to go back to six months ago when they had a few coppers left over from a paycheck to go to dinner and a movie. Maybe we'll have a vaccine in a year or two, but will people want go to movies anymore?
The longer the lockdown goes on the more people will change their way of life. Small businesses will be dropping like flies as time goes on. Even when things reopen, with the jobs still be there?
This is going to require a cold restart of the economy. Think of a jet with every engine failed, losing altitude, and the pilot is trying to get one engine going again. No pressure.
Let's not forget there are climate impacts to the shutdown. The next few weeks will tell us just how bad they are.
Collapse is here, and there ain't no going back.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
The Trumpistas want to go back to those days.
Just the Trumpistas? Nope. It's the oligarchs that wants to return to that system. BTW just curious if you watched the video before commenting? I'm only asking because so far no one has addressed what was discussed in it except for on the cusp.