[Mick]

There's no question our global leadership has been suffering for years.  Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic will crater the economy, which will throw the world into a Depression.  Right now, that's the only way we can be a leader. 

I get that Trump's a nutjob (43% Gallup job approval ratings).  What does that make Congress? (30%).

https://news.gallup.com/poll/308675/trum...mbles.aspx
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx

Is there a response we could be making that wouldn't crater the economy? I have my ideas but I'm curious to see yours.

Happy to give the list.  I won't list things we could have done, because like Satchel Paige, I don't like to look back.  So here are my suggestions.  

First, the politicians on both the left and right essentially refuse to work together for the good of the country, and it's been moving in that direction for a very long time, basically as long as it was clear that entitlements would one day sink the economy.  I'd like to figuratively knock their heads together, same with their respective supporters. The days of Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan compromising are long gone (with a few exceptions, such as prison reform).  As each generation has performed poorly compared to the prior generation, and as it's become clear that entitlements will sink us, politicians have shifted from "compromise" to "blame" and have implemented policies to enforce "blame" as their primary contribution, on both the left and right.  Society and politics has become polemicized.  

This didn't start with Trump, the seeds were sown in the middle of the last century.  That's why, in spite of the fact that I don't care for the current POTUS, I don't bleat my dislike for him or, frankly, for quite a number of California politicians, because there's enough of that going on.  And I hate to inform the right and the left, there's good ideas and good policies on both sides. It's why I'm a registered independent, and why both Congress and POTUS have approval ratings in the tank.

So if the politicians had agreed, or would agree to work together, we could blunt the impact of the economic debacle and 26 million (and counting) lost jobs.  It didn't need to crater like it has.

Second, it is blindingly obvious that social distancing is necessary.  This means that some industries have to re-engineer the ways they approach their business, customers, vendors and other stakeholders.  Take the meat production industry.  Two of the largest businesses have closed down.  Workers work shoulder-to-shoulder in businesses that you and I would never visit.  My family's business is similar, though it is produce-based.  They have (had) about 125 workers, and will need to create social distancing in the business; from ingress, to working spaces, to egress to restrooms, to closure of the lunchroom, to staggered shifts, etc., etc.,  This needs to happen for all industries that formerly involved either workers or customers in close quarters.  PPE should be mandatory, and we should re-engineer more businesses to produce more PPE.  Frankly, I wonder if a workable vaccine will ever be found.  Until that hopeful day, the habits we've accrued and the production of PPE need to protect us to the best extent possible.

Third, as a society, we have to adopt more risk than we have since the pandemic began.  It feels to me that we have gone overboard in avoiding risk, a natural reaction for a society that tends to focus on the self versus the greater good.  I genuinely don't say that as a slam, just recognizing reality, that powerful people in this society make the laws and the rules and the great unwashed have to abide by them.  That means, the Elites make rules that ensure their existence, not necessarily the existence of the common man.  So I'd like a little more concern for the common man, and that means businesses open earlier, so people can feed their families and pay their rent.  One of the unfortunate results of the pandemic is that companies need to conserve cash, and have stopped paying vendors, or are paying very slowly.  If you get a chance, take a look at "velocity" in economic terms, which is essentially the rate at which cash moves through the economy.  It's actually been dropping since 1995 as a long term trend, but I would very much like to see the weekly velocity statistics for 2020.  I could only find 2019 velocity stats.  My suspicion is that velocity has dropped significantly.

Fourth, we have to understand that our currency is ruined, or is on the verge of it.  We've voluntarily brought gigantic portions of the economy to a screeching halt and the various governments and consumers and companies have accumulated unsustainable debt over the decades.  A few factors (like dropping velocity) have prevented runaway inflation, but after the long months of no production, America (and the world) will need to reengineer debt, asset ownership, payment streams and the like.  And we need to do it proactively, or the American Revolution will take on a new definition.

Those are my top four.  I have others, but those are a start.

[Mick]

There's no question our global leadership has been suffering for years.  Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic will crater the economy, which will throw the world into a Depression.  Right now, that's the only way we can be a leader. 

I get that Trump's a nutjob (43% Gallup job approval ratings).  What does that make Congress? (30%).

https://news.gallup.com/poll/308675/trum...mbles.aspx
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx

Is there a response we could be making that wouldn't crater the economy? I have my ideas but I'm curious to see yours.

Happy to give the list.  I won't list things we could have done, because like Satchel Paige, I don't like to look back.  So here are my suggestions.  

First, the politicians on both the left and right essentially refuse to work together for the good of the country, and it's been moving in that direction for a very long time, basically as long as it was clear that entitlements would one day sink the economy.  I'd like to figuratively knock their heads together, same with their respective supporters. The days of Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan compromising are long gone (with a few exceptions, such as prison reform).  As each generation has performed poorly compared to the prior generation, and as it's become clear that entitlements will sink us, politicians have shifted from "compromise" to "blame" and have implemented policies to enforce "blame" as their primary contribution, on both the left and right.  Society and politics has become polemicized.  

This didn't start with Trump, the seeds were sown in the middle of the last century.  That's why, in spite of the fact that I don't care for the current POTUS, I don't bleat my dislike for him or, frankly, for quite a number of California politicians, because there's enough of that going on.  And I hate to inform the right and the left, there's good ideas and good policies on both sides. It's why I'm a registered independent, and why both Congress and POTUS have approval ratings in the tank.

So if the politicians had agreed, or would agree to work together, we could blunt the impact of the economic debacle and 26 million (and counting) lost jobs.  It didn't need to crater like it has.

Second, it is blindingly obvious that social distancing is necessary.  This means that some industries have to re-engineer the ways they approach their business, customers, vendors and other stakeholders.  Take the meat production industry.  Two of the largest businesses have closed down.  Workers work shoulder-to-shoulder in businesses that you and I would never visit.  My family's business is similar, though it is produce-based.  They have (had) about 125 workers, and will need to create social distancing in the business; from ingress, to working spaces, to egress to restrooms, to closure of the lunchroom, to staggered shifts, etc., etc.,  This needs to happen for all industries that formerly involved either workers or customers in close quarters.  PPE should be mandatory, and we should re-engineer more businesses to produce more PPE.  Frankly, I wonder if a workable vaccine will ever be found.  Until that hopeful day, the habits we've accrued and the production of PPE need to protect us to the best extent possible.

Third, as a society, we have to adopt more risk than we have since the pandemic began.  It feels to me that we have gone overboard in avoiding risk, a natural reaction for a society that tends to focus on the self versus the greater good.  I genuinely don't say that as a slam, just recognizing reality, that powerful people in this society make the laws and the rules and the great unwashed have to abide by them.  That means, the Elites make rules that ensure their existence, not necessarily the existence of the common man.  So I'd like a little more concern for the common man, and that means businesses open earlier, so people can feed their families and pay their rent.  One of the unfortunate results of the pandemic is that companies need to conserve cash, and have stopped paying vendors, or are paying very slowly.  If you get a chance, take a look at "velocity" in economic terms, which is essentially the rate at which cash moves through the economy.  It's actually been dropping since 1995 as a long term trend, but I would very much like to see the weekly velocity statistics for 2020.  I could only find 2019 velocity stats.  My suspicion is that velocity has dropped significantly.

Fourth, we have to understand that our currency is ruined, or is on the verge of it.  We've voluntarily brought gigantic portions of the economy to a screeching halt and the various governments and consumers and companies have accumulated unsustainable debt over the decades.  A few factors (like dropping velocity) have prevented runaway inflation, but after the long months of no production, America (and the world) will need to reengineer debt, asset ownership, payment streams and the like.  And we need to do it proactively, or the American Revolution will take on a new definition.

Those are my top four.  I have others, but those are a start.