OT: Corona virus

[Macclan5]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I think, this being such an erudite group, we are the exception that proves the rule. My monitoring of the local situation here in Pennsylvania there is scant discussion.

To a degree, I think you hit the nail on the head with point one:

Will there be a great business and human migration? Of course.

How in the world can anyone start a new business especially in a shutdown state? The simple answer is a business that can weather another shutdown or even profit by it. Other business will see wholesale business model changes as you allude to. I suspect starting a new business will be put off by those not independently wealthy, perhaps this leads to a huge restructuring of small business equity positions. The underground economy will certainly thrive.

Point three will surely be offset by increased cost of doing business including but not limited to additional employees to sanitize and additional insurance expense. I can only shudder at what that will cost, I also shudder to think how the states will change the unemployment insurance programs (which here in Pennsylvania is very fraudulent). In PA you will be able to continue collecting unemployment insurance even if offered your job back...the Gov'r's advice is for companies to simply pay more.

Anyhow, I see very little discussion of any of this.

Fair - I enjoy such discussions and this group may be the exception. This type of discussion is readily available for those that read "The Economist / Forbes / Barons" but that is a finite population.

(i) Starting a new business is subject to 'barriers of entry' or the economic cost to start up. Some industries are prohibitively high ( Oil refinery ) and some are very low ( Local Restaurant ).

With small scale business dramatically hurt - others will see a need unfulfilled. Especially in low barrier to entry industries and even more especially if 'local sourcing' and a de-coupling of the integrated Global supply chain becomes a Business imperative or (politically) is legislated.

(iii) Additional costs born by disinfecting or 'new business practices' may indeed offset the seeds sown by inexpensive energy.

However additional costs will be inexact - non uniform - uncertain for a time.

The oil glut and the corresponding decrease in energy prices is a massive - generally non inflationary - global economic stimulus. It feeds through the entire supply chain. Parts produced in Mexico - shipped to Penn - assembled - shipped California. Think of ~ 6 - 12% every step along a chain - not necessarily 1 step at consumer delivery (??)

Everything is touched by energy / oil - at least until Mr Elon Musk has a 80% Market Share in locomotives, semi-trucks and cars.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Macclan5


The oil glut and the corresponding decrease in energy prices is a massive - generally non inflationary - global economic stimulus. It feeds through the entire supply chain. Parts produced in Mexico - shipped to Penn - assembled - shipped California. Think of ~ 6 - 12% every step along a chain - not necessarily 1 step at consumer delivery (??)

Everything is touched by energy / oil - at least until Mr Elon Musk has a 80% Market Share in locomotives, semi-trucks and cars.

The price of oil will rebound very quickly, making this savings very short term. In addition, our leaders will see a lower oil price even more reason for raising taxes on it. For example, my best local gas price is 2.19, off from 2.40 before the virus....since taxes make up the lion share of the cost of gasoline in PA. Not much relief for the local businesses.

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

ORIGINAL: HansBolter




Frankly I find it to be a refreshing counterpoint to the never ending drivel of blithering village idiocy coming from the leftists.

A fine example of how one can strive to keep this thread "non political".

We all understand all too well that your interpretation of keeping the thread "non political" is allowing the leftists to get in their digs without the conservatives being allowed to offer any counter.

The delicate balancing act in this thread is that we speak about the better way to tackle this pandemic both on a personal and governmental level - and this, unavoidably, can get political. If I say "Approach XY is not only wrong - it can be dangerous." I implicitly criticise the political figures who are following it (and possibly the political beliefs of other posters). We strive to stay factual, but political/non political post are not separate by a white/black line. It is a gray area we strive to stay within.

Having said that, I see that you can post your Breibart News just fine, so I don't see what your problem is - unless you are standing in front of a mirror.

Note: where was your criticism of the post I responded to?

listening to the crickets........

As amazing as it may sound, I have things to do. I appear online because I always keep my MacBook Pro on, with this thread open in the background, but when I check it I usually see that the debate has created another dozen of pages, and I usually only skim them looking for things that I feel being interesting.

Please, point me to where I ignored you or PM me, and I'll see if I can give some sort of rational answer.

[Cap Mandrake]

Hey! How are all the boomers? Everyone take your stool softener and rub on your shark oil? Me and the boys broke into my dad's tequila and then jumped of the 2nd story balcony into the pool. Then we played X-box until 3 AM. It was rad.

Hans is right. "non political" here doesn't really mean "non political". A more apt description would be "conformity". Answer a question about of left-leaning source and one has descended to an earlier developmental stage. Post something from National Review. AVERT YOUR EYES!

It's like a bunch of Muslim grannies shunning the village girl for flirting with the Jewish boy.

As the Pigs say..."Some animals are more equal than others"

Vaya con Dios! Hope everyone makes it through.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
These are not dumb people, none of them want people to die, and all of them are trying to navigate uncharted waters.

You clearly don't watch C-span![:D] Perhaps illustrated best by stationing more troops on Guam will cause it to tip over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q

[Zorch]

It's time this thread was locked.

[Canoerebel]

Nah, we can handle it. There are bumps and bruises, because the topic (coronavirus and strategies to handle it) necessarily bleeds over into politics. But mostly people self regulate and move on. There is the occasional thunder and lightning but then people willingly move on (mostly).

[MakeeLearn]

US: Mayor offers Las Vegas as coronavirus control group
23.04.2020


https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-ma ... up/1816069


"The mayor of Las Vegas has offered the city as a social distancing control group to see if the measures really work against coronavirus, a controversial move slammed by many residents of Nevada state's economic powerhouse.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman told Anderson Cooper of CNN during an interview Wednesday that she would accept the city becoming a control group without social distancing measures to compare against other regions with strict coronavirus guidelines.

Goodman said she wanted all businesses in Las Vegas to be up and running again, mentioning that the city had only seen 150 COVID-19 deaths so far, out of a total population of 2.3 million. Cooper then asked her if the low death rate might have been due to people committing to the guidelines."

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Hey! How are all the boomers?

Doing great, don't need stool softener yet.[:D]

Always wanted to jump into the pool from the 2nd floor but never had the chance. In my fraternity days, we had parties for Halloween where we piled hay onto the front patio (large house, large patio) and jumped down into it from a 2nd floor balcony (complete with greek columns of course). We always had beer on tap, and at parties garbage bags full of grain alcohol and grape bug juice.

[Ian R]

The Australia report:

We have spiders and snakes and jellyfish and ccorcs and sharks and stuff that kill you for fun, and drop bears and Tassie Tigers that will bite you cause they don't like how you looked at them, but we don't have much covid.

Must be doing something right down here.

As at 3:00pm on 23 April 2020, there have been 6,661 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. There have been 12 new cases since 3:00pm yesterday.

These figures are of course B/S because according to worldometers, Australia has had 6,661 cases, of which 5,045 have recovered, 75 unfortunately died, and the other about 1500 are recovering.

It just hasn't been much of an issue here.

[Macclan5]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Macclan5


The oil glut and the corresponding decrease in energy prices is a massive - generally non inflationary - global economic stimulus. It feeds through the entire supply chain. Parts produced in Mexico - shipped to Penn - assembled - shipped California. Think of ~ 6 - 12% every step along a chain - not necessarily 1 step at consumer delivery (??)

Everything is touched by energy / oil - at least until Mr Elon Musk has a 80% Market Share in locomotives, semi-trucks and cars.

The price of oil will rebound very quickly, making this savings very short term. In addition, our leaders will see a lower oil price even more reason for raising taxes on it. For example, my best local gas price is 2.19, off from 2.40 before the virus....since taxes make up the lion share of the cost of gasoline in PA. Not much relief for the local businesses.

Here I disagree. I cannot foresee a price rebound in the world price immediately or in the short term.

Especially if social distancing - travel - tourism are slow to recover. If consumer uses are slow to ramp up. No planes flying on high processed fuel. No cars driving to work. No cars driving on vacation ? Production is not zero and we have no more room to store it.

I Concur at the consumer level limited relief.

$2.19 seems very high as CNN is speaking about USD $1.00 in 'some US Locations'.

The relief is not even.

The tax stays the same or actually increases as a percentage the overall cost ; however that does fund state spending in Penn - whether you agree or disagree with that spending.

Business will deduct as a cost of business / net profit loss. Certain industries - Farming - globally qualify for fuel tax rebates.

Every acre of land farmed in Pennsylvania - those local business people must be thrilled ?? Assuming weather cooperates and they have demand for their produce.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Nah, we can handle it. There are bumps and bruises, because the topic (coronavirus and strategies to handle it) necessarily bleeds over into politics. But mostly people self regulate and move on. There is the occasional thunder and lightning but then people willingly move on (mostly).

[HansBolter]

It has already dropped below $1.00 a gallon in some parts of Florida.

Boss traveled to Leesburg last week for a construction site meeting and noted that he saw gas for 86 cents a gallon.

Was talking about this with our two 'youngsters' in the office.

I told them how my father used to tell me how he could remember when a loaf of bread cost a nickle.
Of, course as kids we laughed.

Boss and I both told the youngsters we could remember when gas was 25 cents a gallon.
And of course, they laughed.

Late boomer here. Space Age baby born the year Sputnik was launched.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Nah, we can handle it. There are bumps and bruises, because the topic (coronavirus and strategies to handle it) necessarily bleeds over into politics. But mostly people self regulate and move on. There is the occasional thunder and lightning but then people willingly move on (mostly).

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Macclan5


Every acre of land farmed in Pennsylvania - those local business people must be thrilled ?? Assuming weather cooperates and they have demand for their produce.

PA dairy farmers are dumping milk, even as places like Philly are having milk shortages. So, yeah, PA farmers are thrilled.[&:] Holds true for lots of agricultural products.

https://www.inquirer.com/economy/corona ... 00421.html

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter


Boss and I both told the youngsters we could remember when gas was 25 cents a gallon.
And of course, they laughed.

Late boomer here. Space Age baby born the year Sputnik was launched.

I can remember seeing 22cents, perhaps at a Sinclair?

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Nah, we can handle it. There are bumps and bruises, because the topic (coronavirus and strategies to handle it) necessarily bleeds over into politics. But mostly people self regulate and move on. There is the occasional thunder and lightning but then people willingly move on (mostly).

+1

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: HansBolter


Boss and I both told the youngsters we could remember when gas was 25 cents a gallon.
And of course, they laughed.

Late boomer here. Space Age baby born the year Sputnik was launched.

I can remember seeing 22cents, perhaps at a Sinclair?

And you had to remember to push the button to reset the pump, else you'd be charged for the previous person's gas.

[RFalvo69]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Nah, we can handle it. There are bumps and bruises, because the topic (coronavirus and strategies to handle it) necessarily bleeds over into politics. But mostly people self regulate and move on. There is the occasional thunder and lightning but then people willingly move on (mostly).

Ending things not always ends well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB4I68X ... tu.be&t=96

[Chickenboy]

Bad news from abroad. My Aunt (and Godmother) who was in a nursing home in Quebec has been moved to the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. She is 91. [:(]