Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey

[The AD]

I'll be the first to admit I know nothing about running a business or economics, but it seems like living on the edge like that is bound to bite you at some point.

[Deebased]

Try to climb Maslow's hierarchy (are you a college freshman?) and recognize one quarter is followed by another. Push too hard to open too quickly and this quarter becomes a long "new normal." It's child-like magical thinking to say opening now fixes the problem.

Nah I'm amused by a 55 y/o man thinking smashing some bird a decade or two younger than him is a laudable feat.

Only a toddler would believe that this quarter isn't already the new normal until 2021 or 2022. The second wave in Q4 is a virtual lock unless we follow the NZ model. fully closed borders, ban air travel and mandatory social distancing coupled with nearly impenetrable international borders.

Me I'm good with it, let's do some national isolation and get kids back in school

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

^^^The result of corps using their free cash and borrowing to buy back stock

but we were told they were going to use that money to increase wages and invest in domestic expansion, hiring and production.

[huckbucket]

One of the things that's a little disturbing to me is what a house of cards the economy is. I understand something like this is going to hit small businesses hard, but the strain it's putting on even huge corporations like airlines is incredible. We're talking about corporations that pull in billions of dollars in profits annually and their very existence is threatened by a downturn in business (granted a severe downturn) of just a few weeks so far? Doesn't it seems like huge corporations should be prepared better for something like this? It seems an awful lot like the subprime mortgage bubble back in 2008. Way too many businesses leveraged just a little too much.

Why do you hate America bro? Just hang out until the market rebounds and we're all back on the train, duh.

[4matic]

Berkshire said months ago trouble was coming and therefore $128 billion in cash. It's why their stock was not rewarded in the runup prior to the crash.

[old goat]

He backed off from an order because it would be ignored by governors. Also, his approval ratings are dropping, something he checks every day, like you and I check the weather. He's probably also watching the approval ratings drop for other world leaders that are acting even more like an asshole during all this, like Bolsonaro.

I used to check the weather every day. Why bother now. Now I check the stock market.

New Zealand locked down before it had a single death. It has tested like crazy (15,000+ per million). It never accepted herd immunity or that ‘many loved ones will die’.

Yeah, well wait until the sheep flu pandemic.

[MultiVerse]

get kids back in school

Getting kids backs in school should be a priority for the younger children since we know early development matters most.

In the meantime, just throwing this out there in general, Khan Academy demand has spiked and they could use a little help:

https://www.khanacademy.org/donate

[Bunion 2020]

Only a toddler would believe that this quarter isn't already the new normal until 2021 or 2022. The second wave in Q4 is a virtual lock unless we follow the NZ model. fully closed borders, ban air travel and mandatory social distancing coupled with nearly impenetrable international borders.

Me I'm good with it, let's do some national isolation and get kids back in school

Here in Montana we have been largely spared and people want to get back to normal. Problem with normal is we attract a lot of visitors from all over the world. All the folks who want to open everything back up have no concept of what that could do.

[The AD]

Here in Montana we have been largely spared and people want to get back to normal. Problem with normal is we attract a lot of visitors from all over the world. All the folks who want to open everything back up have no concept of what that could do.

Yeah, that's the rub. Especially now when people are getting desperate to get out you can pretty much guarantee people will flock to anywhere that opens back up.

[XXX-er]

Nope. Ain't going to work. Unless he fakes an attack, a big attack. Even then, doubtful, unless it's another 9/11 on our soil. The mouth breathers supply the armies with bodies, or are related to someone in the military. They have had enough of these forever wars. A very large majority of Americans are going to say, what the fuck are you doing, asshole, get me my job back.

yeah but come on ... this is trump

[old goat]

If states start opening at different times it's going to make state imposed travel restrictions a lot more attractive. Montana banning Californians because of higher infection rate. Californians banning Montanans because of no stay-at-home or testing. Like it or not this is one country and what happens in one state affects every other state, in the same way that one person not socially distancing affects everyone else. It would help if we didn't have a narcissistic clown for a president.

[MultiVerse]

Utah tried to track/regulate inbound travel but was forced to abandon the effort because it was unworkable.

[Deebased]

fuck you

you created a straw man - the two don't correlate. The choice to end a pregnancy is the mother's choice - stop - end of argument - treating sick people with covid is not some type of existential decision. It is a medical decision and all people deserve care

you don't want your wife to have an abortion - that is between she and you - allow women to make a reproductive choice - it's not your call

you are a narrow minded fuck and nobody who participated in this thread will forget what a cunt you are

i would get a new user name if I were you

I could care less if my wife has an abortion or any other woman.

But the choice to terminate one physically and physiologically dependent ball of cells by its caregiver and the choice of terminating another physically and physiologically dependent ball of cells by its caregiver is one and the same.

72% of Covid deaths in the US are 70+; average life expectancy in 1950 was 68.14. Why do you prioritize diminishing the lives 10's of millions of kids education, Small Businesses, middle class families etc. for the benefit of boomers the vast majority of which have already achieved their life expectancy and are well within 12-24 months of their return to dust.

#stoptheboomerflu

[LeeLau]

^^^The result of corps using their free cash and borrowing to buy back stock

Or pay out dividends. In the past decade for both PubCos and Privates there's been immense pressure to reduce cash "hoards" and to return money to shareholders. It's actually been the rare few who could resist

[The AD]

Why do you prioritize diminishing the lives 10's of millions of kids education, Small Businesses, middle class families etc. for the benefit of boomers the vast majority of which have already achieved their life expectancy and are well within 12-24 months of their return to dust.

Simple: Because we value human life above kids being in school and the economy.

[Dantheman]

Here in Montana we have been largely spared and people want to get back to normal. Problem with normal is we attract a lot of visitors from all over the world. All the folks who want to open everything back up have no concept of what that could do.

Without the measures we've taken most of the country would look like NYC by now. Rural areas with limited medical resources would be in deep, deep shit.

[char_]

Man, pretty amazing that Republicans are coming around to "let the weak and old die" after clutching their pearls over "Death Panels." I'm sure they won't see the irony.

[Adolf Allerbush]

Man, pretty amazing that Republicans are coming around to "let the weak and old die" after clutching their pearls over "Death Panels." I'm sure they won't see the irony.

yeah, it is surprising, especially since the most susceptible to succumb to COVID-19 seem to be in the age bracket of their base.

[Notchtop]

Yeah, that's the rub. Especially now when people are getting desperate to get out you can pretty much guarantee people will flock to anywhere that opens back up.

I'm over in Red Lodge, MT, and my fears are twofold:
1. This town is gonna get hammered economically because the old folks who have second homes here aren't coming. Businesses close and Main Street becomes a ghost town.
2. And ... we're all going to get sick as shit in October as the 50% drop in summer tourism I expect still results in a doubling in town population with folks from generally the upper Midwest but truly from everywhere.
We can't close the state, and we can't track the tourists without putting dog RFIDs in em.

[mdblows]

but we were told they were going to use that money to increase wages and invest in domestic expansion, hiring and production.

Which is why bailing them out is the exact wrong thing to do. Let them go bankrupt.

If we continue propping up organizations in this manner, we will continue to incentivize this behavior.

[XXX-er]

If states start opening at different times it's going to make state imposed travel restrictions a lot more attractive. Montana banning Californians because of higher infection rate. Californians banning Montanans because of no stay-at-home or testing. Like it or not this is one country and what happens in one state affects every other state, in the same way that one person not socially distancing affects everyone else. It would help if we didn't have a narcissistic clown for a president.

Trump could just stamp his feet and say the states won't let him open the country which would make him look good/placate the mouth breatehrs

[ron johnson]

One of the things that's a little disturbing to me is what a house of cards the economy is. I understand something like this is going to hit small businesses hard, but the strain it's putting on even huge corporations like airlines is incredible. We're talking about corporations that pull in billions of dollars in profits annually and their very existence is threatened by a downturn in business (granted a severe downturn) of just a few weeks so far? Doesn't it seems like huge corporations should be prepared better for something like this? It seems an awful lot like the subprime mortgage bubble back in 2008. Way too many businesses leveraged just a little too much.

The Fed is the problem. They create these huge bubbles with artificially cheap debt and then bailout the big corps when it crashes. The big corps know the Fed will be there to bail them out so why bother with sound business practices? The sound businesses are the ones that get punished in this system.

The banks should have been left to fail on '08 and the airlines should be left to fail now.

[Deebased]

Here in Montana we have been largely spared and people want to get back to normal. Problem with normal is we attract a lot of visitors from all over the world. All the folks who want to open everything back up have no concept of what that could do.

Changing strategy now would be just about the dumbest thing we could do as a nation (don't put it past trump). its going to have to be shelter in place for another 30-45 days and then keep the national borders shut (maybe just a mandatory 14-28 day quarantine) while opening up specific regions (NE, NW, SW, etc)

[liv2ski]

Man, pretty amazing that Republicans are coming around to "let the weak and old die" after clutching their pearls over "Death Panels." I'm sure they won't see the irony.

Most CONgress & Senate cunts are OAF. I look forward to them all getting it this year and dyeing off so we can finally get some new representation.

[gravitylover]

^^^The result of corps using their free cash and borrowing to buy back stock

Maybe they should reduce any bailout/subsidy by the amount they've dedicated to stock buybacks in the preceding 2 years. Dividends are ok because that's the incentive for investment in the company.