With some 95% of Americans under lockdown amid disaster declarations in all 50 states in response to the coronavirus pandemic, governors are making plans to reopen business and public life.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott wants to begin opening parts of his state next week, ahead of his previous May 1 target. Continue reading
The New York Times says Small-Business Relief Effort ‘a Mess’
The Hill says Small businesses still struggling for loans even as $100B is approved
The Trump administration has approved roughly $100 billion of the $350 billion allocated for emergency loans to small businesses devastated by the coronavirus outbreak, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told lawmakers on Wednesday.
But the figure has done little to ease the rising fears of smaller businesses still struggling to access the funds — and growing ever-more concerned that the program is tilted in favor of larger enterprises with existing relationships with banks.
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Since Federal Reserve resources were barely able to prevent complete collapse in 2008, it should be expected that an even larger collapse will overwhelm the Fed’s balance sheet.
That’s exactly the situation we’re facing right now.
The specter of a global debt crisis suggests the urgency for new liquidity sources, bigger than those that central banks can provide. The logic leads quickly to one currency for the planet. Continue reading
A bill has surfaced in the Senate called the ‘Banking For All Act’, sponsored by the Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). In the press release, Senator Brown lays out the details of his bill as well as how he looks forward to urging his colleagues to include it as part of the coronavirus economic stimulus package. Continue reading
NEW YORK HEALTH OFFICIALS TOLD RESIDENTS TO CONGREGATE IN HUGE CROWDS IN “DEFIANCE” OF CORONAVIRUS
Back in February, health officials in New York told residents to congregate in huge crowds in “defiance” of Coronavirus, a move that could have exposed thousands of people to COVID-19.
New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot posted a tweet on February 9 urging citizens to flock to Chinatown in large numbers to celebrate the lunar new year while suggesting that advice to avoid crowds was “misinformation.” Continue reading
The unilateral response from governments to the coronavirus is to helicopter money to people and their businesses in unlimited quantities. Their priority is to keep the debt-driven Keynesian show on the road, and policy makers are approaching the task with unseemly gusto.
There was evidence that the credit cycle was already on the turn with the global economy entering its regular period of financial and economic crisis even before the coronavirus hit. Thinking it is only a matter of dealing with the pandemic before returning to normal is therefore a common and fatal mistake. The combination of current events is leading to an infinite problem: central banks, and the Fed in particular, are trying to backstop everything and they will undoubtedly fail. Continue reading
How long could you sustain your household if you were to stop earning income? If you are like most Americans, the answer is not for long. Only 40 percent of Americans can afford an unexpected $1,000 expense with their savings. In fact, nearly 80 percent of workers are living paycheck to paycheck. It is no surprise that the probability of an economic recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic caused many to worry. Continue reading
Even before the novel coronavirus appeared, many American families were falling behind on student loans, auto loans, credit cards and other payments. America’s debt overhead was pricing its labor and industry out of world markets. A debt crisis was inevitable eventually, but covid-19 has made it immediate. Continue reading
