More economic disasters due to government imposed shut downs
The beatings will continue until morale improves: Below are some stories I found today describing the on-going the collapse of the economy due to the nationwide lock downs imposed by state and local governments because of their panic over the Wuhan flu.
- Hawaii governor to cut teacher pay by 20% as tourism economy collapses
- University of Arizona announces pay cuts, furloughs for all faculty, staff
- San Francisco’s Three Twins organic ice cream company closes
- U.S. business formation tanks as coronavirus shuts economy
Note how the first two stories are about the sufferings of state employees, whether in government or academia. Note too how these stories only mention as an aside the collapse of the real economy. Who cares if millions of private businesses are going under? What’s really important is that we won’t be able to grab their profits and the government will have to shrink! Horrors!
Only the last two stories are about the real crash, with only the last, buried among many other stories on RealClearPolitics, telling the true tale:
The Commerce Department said on Thursday business applications dropped 21.4% in the week ending April 11, compared with the same period last year.
…The slump in business applications comes as states and local governments have issued “stay-at-home” or “shelter-in-place” orders affecting more than 90% of Americans to control the spread of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory illness caused by the virus, and abruptly halting economic activity.
At least 22 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the last four weeks. Retail sales suffered a record drop in March and output at factories declined by the most since 1946. Homebuilding crumbled in March at a speed not seen in 36 years. Economists believe the economy contracted at its steepest pace since World War Two in the first quarter. [emphasis mine]
A 21% drop in new businesses tells us that the economy will not recover from this madness very quickly. Money is drying up, the banks are under a strain, and the economy is shrinking like a burst balloon.
The middle paragraph in the quote above is intended to justify this crash and government abuse of power by the use of the word “lethal,” thus playing up danger of the Wuhan flu, even though the evidence still shows it to be, like the flu, only a threat to the old and the sick. Like the flu, most everyone else simply fights it off with no long term consequences.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The beatings will continue until morale improves: Below are some stories I found today describing the on-going the collapse of the economy due to the nationwide lock downs imposed by state and local governments because of their panic over the Wuhan flu.
- Hawaii governor to cut teacher pay by 20% as tourism economy collapses
- University of Arizona announces pay cuts, furloughs for all faculty, staff
- San Francisco’s Three Twins organic ice cream company closes
- U.S. business formation tanks as coronavirus shuts economy
Note how the first two stories are about the sufferings of state employees, whether in government or academia. Note too how these stories only mention as an aside the collapse of the real economy. Who cares if millions of private businesses are going under? What’s really important is that we won’t be able to grab their profits and the government will have to shrink! Horrors!
Only the last two stories are about the real crash, with only the last, buried among many other stories on RealClearPolitics, telling the true tale:
The Commerce Department said on Thursday business applications dropped 21.4% in the week ending April 11, compared with the same period last year.
…The slump in business applications comes as states and local governments have issued “stay-at-home” or “shelter-in-place” orders affecting more than 90% of Americans to control the spread of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory illness caused by the virus, and abruptly halting economic activity.
At least 22 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the last four weeks. Retail sales suffered a record drop in March and output at factories declined by the most since 1946. Homebuilding crumbled in March at a speed not seen in 36 years. Economists believe the economy contracted at its steepest pace since World War Two in the first quarter. [emphasis mine]
A 21% drop in new businesses tells us that the economy will not recover from this madness very quickly. Money is drying up, the banks are under a strain, and the economy is shrinking like a burst balloon.
The middle paragraph in the quote above is intended to justify this crash and government abuse of power by the use of the word “lethal,” thus playing up danger of the Wuhan flu, even though the evidence still shows it to be, like the flu, only a threat to the old and the sick. Like the flu, most everyone else simply fights it off with no long term consequences.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
And Democrats are rubbing their hands in Glee.
“We’ve got him now!”
What alot of people don’t understand is that an economy is as much psychology as supply and demand. Buyers need to have confidence in the future before they part with their own resources. Suppliers need confidence that they will make a profit before investing to provide a good or service. The economy took off after Trump was elected because the psychology of the country changed–people had confidence to buy and sell. That confidence has been thoroughly shattered thanks to hysterical, ill informed, and thoughtless lock downs imposed by governors. Governors may lift the lock downs but until confidence is restored the economy won’t recover. It’s therefore critical that leaders of all kinds emphasize that this CCP flu is not lethal to the vast majority of the population. It’s OK to come out of the fear cocoon.
Yeah, phrases like “the potentially lethal respiratory illness” are really spin, and they aggravate me more and more as this house arrest continues. Of course the disease is potentially lethal. A cold is potentially lethal, given the right set of circumstances. A cut finger is potentially lethal, if you’re a hemophiliac. Drinking too much water is potentially lethal.