Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump got the markets to jump a lot overnight on news that he'd announce his economic recovery plan later today at a press conference.

Only problem: there is no plan. Nothing's ready. McConnell and other Republicans are pushing back hard on the idea of a payroll tax cut.

The market in the past half hour doesn't appear to be happy to hear that Trump manipulated them once again.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/10/coronavirus-trump-plan-for-economic-response-not-ready-officials-say.html

[Jeff Buchanan]

This is a pretty good quick summary of why monetary policy can't solve supply chain disruptions attendant to COVID-19 and the various pressures fear of it puts on them and consumer confidence.

The best part of the article though is that fiscal stimulus - the kind that is emerging today in Italy, not as apparent or solid as in the US - has its limitations as well. This gets us to what Hanni offered a couple of days ago ..... prepare health care delivery systems to deal with the coming pandemic (I think it is already here), give them the resources and the independence to do so.

While I see a lot of talk about the US lagging behind in this endeavor, I can't find anything solid supporting a position on it one way or the other. My mission for the day.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/to-save-the-economy-from-covid-19-the-only-effective-policy-is-medical-not-monetary-or-fiscal-2020-03-10?mod=newsviewer_click

[Jeff Buchanan]

Trump got the markets to jump a lot overnight on news that he'd announce his economic recovery plan later today at a press conference.

Only problem: there is no plan. Nothing's ready. McConnell and other Republicans are pushing back hard on the idea of a payroll tax cut.

The market in the past half hour doesn't appear to be happy to hear that Trump manipulated them once again.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/10/coro...cials-say.html

Yep ........ Trump is deserving of every criticism he's getting on his handling of the COVID-19 situation in the US. While I have some concerns that the public is not getting the straight scoop on what the administration is up to given the presses dislike of Trump, the disarray within the WH, which is pretty well established in this particular case, doesn't bode well for the likelihood of the US government getting out in front of the economic fall-out attendant to COVID-19.

[froot loops]

It's not a very stimulative measure anyway, at least in the short term. The number one objective if they want to get the markets a little less jittery is to attack the problem with overwhelming force, get the tests going now like how they do in South Korea. Running around in the country in a bad campaign hat spouting lies about everyone being able to have a test when its false is ridiculous. This is a problem they need to underpromise and overdeliver. We used to crack up about Baghdad Bob, now we have government spokesman who speak like him.

[*JD*]

Vanity Fair article on how Trump is about coronavirus behind the scenes.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020...covid-19-story

[iam416]

getting out in front of the economic fall-out attendant to COVID-19.

There's nothing to be done. There's no stopping the Wuhan Virus and there's no stopping the global reaction to it. Words are words. Whatever. The reality isn't going to be changed by whatever any politician says.

Once the Wuhan Virus got out it was was out. There's no earthly way we're going to set up some sort of policy stop that train.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[iam416]

And the reality of PDJT's words is that he is, as Froot notes, overpromising and will almost surely undersell. The WuhanVirus has effectively killed off any chance had at winning in 2020.

[froot loops]

There's nothing to be done. There's no stopping the Wuhan Virus and there's no stopping the global reaction to it. Words are words. Whatever. The reality isn't going to be changed by whatever any politician says.

Once the Wuhan Virus got out it was was out. There's no earthly way we're going to set up some sort of policy stop that train.

You copycat what South Korea is doing for starters.

[iam416]

You copycat what South Korea is doing for starters.

And we'll see how that ends up. But, hey, perhaps they found the magic "Stop the WuhanVirus Button" that we're all missing. And maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem like the cases are concentrated in a particular region that we can isolate.

[froot loops]

Ultimately, the state and local governments look like they are picking up the slack. There just seemed to be a disconnect federally with the CDC and White House being at odds.

[Jeff Buchanan]

There's nothing to be done. There's no stopping the Wuhan Virus and there's no stopping the global reaction to it. Words are words. Whatever. The reality isn't going to be changed by whatever any politician says.

Once the Wuhan Virus got out it was was out. There's no earthly way we're going to set up some sort of policy stop that train.

There are a multitude of measures that the US government has in it's arsenal to mitigate the stock market volatility. Other nations are demonstrating how to get "out in front of " the impact of COVID-19 on their economies and their nation's public health fronts. The problem is that the federal agencies that can implement these measures aren't independent like the Fed is .... and we've pretty much covered the limitations to their tool box. Federal agencies have to rely on the executive to either order them or pass on the authority to agency heads to act. While I certainly don't have any facts to support that the WH's apparent disarray is holding things up on this front, it looks like they are. I'm not going to speculate why. I'll leave that up to others.

On the health front, the data is starting to come in that the US is way behind in testing and it is not clear why that is. Testing is absolutely key to sound resource allocation and planning appropriate responses to the spread of COVID-19 regionally. I think pressure is mounting on the US government to get their act together in the testing department. This weekend, I looked and couldn't find anything that either explained why the US is behind in testing for COVID-19 or that was critical of the government's testing approach. That's changing. The article below is decent but still incomplete with respect to answering why the US approach to testing is inconsistent with every scientist's view of the importance of it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-testing-numbers/607714/

[iam416]

Well, I guess I'm wrong. This is a self-made economic collapse (and pandemic).

[THE_WIZARD_]

:::hacks up a loogie toward froot:::

[iam416]

Another completely wrong take, I'm sure, but there's no stopping this. What we should be spending a fuckton on right now is responsive measures. We need to be building capacity to handle the inevitable onslaught. Preventative measures aren't going to stop it -- unless we're willing to shut down the entire country for 2-4 weeks. And even then....