boisdevie wrote:The FED in the US has cut interest rates to 0.25% and will pump billions of dollars into the US economy - sounds to me like they're shitting their pants big time.
Sounds like financial types are pretty pissed their gravy train is being derailed. At least during 2008 it looked like it needed to be done.
Now it just looks like an attempt to cure a demand side problem by juicing credit to pump up demand that is being mandated out of existence. It is more amusing antics than anything else.
I think it is a wonderful stress test of the system, and to see how an America of special snowflakes reacts to the expected, but rare.
Which implies that Americans are as scared of their neighbours as they are of the virus.
No need to imply anything. You've got at least 2 here who post regularly on the forum. I can speak for myself in declaring that I don't know of anyone scared of their neighbors (but based on some neighbors I've lived near, I do understand it is possible), and VT can speak for himself in this regard. He has certainly never sounded as though he were afraid of any of his.
Anyone wondering whether this could turn out to be bigger than we think it is? At the moment most people are assuming that quite a few people will die, and there is going to be some major economic disruption, but in a year or two things will return to something resembling normality. And maybe it will. But I am starting to wonder if maybe it won't.
I guess what I am trying to say is that maybe it will turn out to be impossible to simply "reboot" the world as it was before, because while it was possible for it to exist like that as the result of a dynamic process, it can't just be recreated (by fiat). Instead it will have to be built up again from scratch, but who decides the starting positions? I can't imagine that the rest of the world will simply allow the US to continue having the advantage of a fiat reserve currency, and it will have no economic justification for being in that position, since neither its economy nor its gold reserves are enough.
No one has yet mentioned their feelings on being part of the great experiment where the disease is allowed to run its course among the population at large? Are the guinea pigs of the UK happy with this decision made by their government, or not?
ReserveGrowthRulz wrote:No one has yet mentioned their feelings on being part of the great experiment where the disease is allowed to run its course among the population at large? Are the guinea pigs of the UK happy with this decision made by their government, or not?
I'm not happy with it.
Is this where you ask if I'm going to overthrow the government with a kitchen knife ?
Are you happy with the decisions your government has taken ? If not, are you planning on shooting any of them ?
ReserveGrowthRulz wrote:No one has yet mentioned their feelings on being part of the great experiment where the disease is allowed to run its course among the population at large? Are the guinea pigs of the UK happy with this decision made by their government, or not?
Not many people are happy with it, and the number is falling rapidly. Not just the public - there is deep disquiet inside the government, and especially from elements of the tory party who never trusted Boris Johnson and wanted anybody else to win the leadership.
I don't believe they'll be able to sustain the policy. I am expecting them to cave next week.
I sincerely hope the global aviation industry collapses by at least 90%. Where I live anyone under the age of 40 assumes it is their god given right to at least have 3 intercontinental holidays a year. It destroys cultures all over the world, as well as its unnecessary greenhouse emissions. People need to learn live where they are, then they might learn to look after their own neighbourhoods.
PS_RalphW wrote:I sincerely hope the global aviation industry collapses by at least 90%.
Of course, it will be bailed out by the banks.
You can only mean that the entire economy is bailed out by central banks printing money, but I cannot see how this can actually work. Lending money to people at 0% isn't enough this time, because it can't ever be paid back. But if the US is left in a situation where the federal reserve is simply printing infinite amounts of fiat money in order to keep its own economy from collapsing, then that is surely the end of the fiat dollar. The world would just be flooded with dollars while the real-world value of everything in existence is decreasing, because all non-essential production and services have stopped. But what happens next? The world will have to agree to a new monetary system, and it won't be based on a fiat dollar.
ReserveGrowthRulz wrote:No one has yet mentioned their feelings on being part of the great experiment where the disease is allowed to run its course among the population at large? Are the guinea pigs of the UK happy with this decision made by their government, or not?
I'm not happy with it.
Does it have support among folks you know?
Catweazle wrote:
Is this where you ask if I'm going to overthrow the government with a kitchen knife ?
Of course not. Unless your statement of "not happy with it" really means far more than it indicates.
Catweazle wrote:
Are you happy with the decisions your government has taken ? If not, are you planning on shooting any of them ?
I am not happy with all of my government's decisions, no. So far, my disappointment in their actions towards virus response is coming to the party late. And no, I have no intention of shooting them, or anyone else. But I stand by the Boy Scout motto to this very day.
Mean Mr Mustard II wrote:So... this is what Fast Collapse looks like.
Not yet. As of right now, it looks like this is what life without readily available supplies of toilet paper looks like. And eggs. I found everything else on the grocery list this morning.
9mm FMJ is getting pretty thin, and when you find it, it costs 20% more than Wednesday.
Mean Mr Mustard II wrote:
'Interesting' times. Venezuelan daily life may be a useful rough guide.
Maybe. Then again, maybe not. Neither the UK, and even more moreso the US, are Venezuela. Which, as we know, was an "on purpose", not a Black Swan.
I support the principle of facilitating herd immunity. From a scientific standpoint, it is unarguable. Consequently, it is not really an issue worth debating since herd immunity is what we are going to get in any event at some point. The pertinent question is the means by which we get there. Either we get there in a hurry with a peak of infection involving 1.5 million or more needing intensive care at the same time. Or, we flatten the curve of infection out. Which will still mean 1.5 million or more needing intensive care. But, just not all at the same time. Those are the only choices available to us.
