Sitting in my San Francisco apartment, my office closed for 3 weeks due to a pandemic, my mind has turned to the opening scenes of countless zombie movies.
I am not reassured from scanning the news.

Some media pundits are telling us to embrace the suck.

Whether Americans like it or not, Covid-19 is ushering in an era when big business will be more important than ever.
...For information on Covid-19, Twitter is a very useful stop. As hospitals become overcrowded, CVS and Rite Aid may become important as local health centers and sources of community information.
...
Whether Americans like it or not, after the worst of Covid-19 is over, theirs is going to be a nation where big business plays a larger role. The title of my most recent book gives some indication where I stand, and I predict more Americans will come to a new appreciation of big business over the coming months.

Twitter instead of actual news.
CVS instead of hospitals.
The big business that gutted public services and turned us into a 3rd world nation, and we will "come to a new appreciation over the coming months."
I'd like to get some odds on that bet.

Meanwhile Mom and Pop and Joe Sixpack are buying stocks during a crash.

As of last week, when the sell-off began to accelerate, BlackRock and Vanguard customers were net buyers every single day. By the end of the week, State Street’s customers turned into sellers. (We should get updated data on last week from all three fund managers later this week.)

In other words, as the sell-off progressed, Wall Street pros panicked and sold while moms and pops stayed calm and bought.

Retail investors are the dumb money? I don’t think so.

Sure, the people buying index funds and that don't even open their statements are the smart investors.

One major fund had this to say: "Given the size of our economy relative to where it was 10–15 years ago, it would probably be appropriate for Congress to pass a TARP-style program of $2 trillion."
That would sense if you discount the fact that it would totally destabilize our political system.

The only reason to go to zerohedge is for the economics (skip their politics).
This article is worth reading.

moments ago the Fed announced that, just as we reported earlier, it will establish a Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) - the same facility that was unveiled during the last financial crisis - "to support the flow of credit to households and businesses."
...now that the Lehman playbook is in play, the bailout of Corporate America is suddenly very political.
As part of the CP facility, the Treasury will provide $10 billion of credit protection to the Federal Reserve in connection with the CPFF from the Treasury's Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF). The Federal Reserve will then provide financing to the SPV under the CPFF.

Just $10 Billion from the taxpayer so far. Surely the media is asking "How are you going to pay for it?"
There's just one problem, and you can see it in this chart.

TD Securities rates strategist Gennadiy Goldberg said that the fact that the spread on the Federal Reserve’s resurrected commercial paper funding facility at 3-month OIS+200bp is larger than it was in 2008, when it was 3-month OIS+100bp, which "may limit the efficacy of the facility."

Why? Because according to Goldberg, "the Fed is probably hoping banks go to the discount window while non-financial corporates go to this facility."

The seemingly punitive rate may also "limit how much relief the facility provides to FRA-OIS. This is the exact opposite of the approach the have taken via the repo facility, where repo amounts on offer are effectively unlimited," and begs the question why does the Fed keep shooting itself in the foot when on one hand it appears to be offering unlimited liquidity at least until one reads the fine print.

Now the really bad news: by launching the Lehman playbook, the Fed is telegraphing that the US is now facing systemic risk crisis which also includes the banks and corporations, something which was missing until now.

Yeh, that failed to get on the TV news.