COVID-19 / Coronavirus Discussion

[doon73]

14 minutes ago, exracer327 said:

That is bizarre.  Where is your USA headquarters?  We've (NJ) basically been in lock-down for a month already.

 HQ is Washington.

Edited April 8, 2020 by doon73

[$20 on joe vs dan]

Do everyone else here share the opinion Millennials don't save and will get absolutely rocked by all this?

 

[exracer327]

5 minutes ago, $20 on joe vs dan said:

Do everyone else here share the opinion Millennials don't save and will get absolutely rocked by all this?

 

They'll just go home and live with mom and dad.  Most parents I know that's what their kids did. 

Just based upon feedback I've heard from those managing Millennials, they'll probably be expecting a raise for surviving this.

[exracer327]

49 minutes ago, doon73 said:

 HQ is Washington.

Washington state or DC?  

[junkrigger]

Do everyone else here share the opinion Millennials don't save and will get absolutely rocked by all this?

 

I’m a millennial and I bet I save more as a percentage of income earned than almost anyone. Granted I save by buying Lego, silver, land, machinist and woodworking equipment and tools. Generalizations are foolish, as evident by the number of boomers with almost no retirement savings. What is it 40%

[Darth_Raichu]

22 minutes ago, junkrigger said:

I’m a millennial and I bet I save more as a percentage of income earned than almost anyone. Granted I save by buying Lego, silver, land, machinist and woodworking equipment and tools. Generalizations are foolish, as evident by the number of boomers with almost no retirement savings. What is it 40%

Do you have a basement full of them, Silence of the Lambs style???

[junkrigger]

In the past I have argued for and tried to convince others that economic patriotism and purging our country and all democracies of Chinese goods and influence is the only way to secure our future and the future of free democratic societies. I hope this time people are willing to listen and connect the pieces for themselves.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/08/coronavirus-chinese-wet-markets-incubators-human-sickness-column/2957755001/

[doon73]

7 hours ago, exracer327 said:

Washington state or DC?  

That'll be DC but sites all over the states

[doon73]

6 hours ago, junkrigger said:

I’m a millennial and I bet I save more as a percentage of income earned than almost anyone. Granted I save by buying Lego, silver, land, machinist and woodworking equipment and tools. Generalizations are foolish, as evident by the number of boomers with almost no retirement savings. What is it 40%

You've invested your money wisely (though I would recommend a world index tracker to your portfolio also) and buying woodworking equipment is also an investment to your skill base and will save you in the long run.

Sadly I think it's not just millennials who save very little and Im not talking people on the breadline but people who have vey well paid jobs. Thats consumerism for you.

If you have a spare 30mins I'd recommend The Overspent American by US economist Juliet Schor. Fascinating viewing, moreso that it was made 20 years ago.

 

[Foreman Porgy]

I’m also a Millinneal. I’ve always had an emergency fund of 6 months to pay my bills. I invest the rest. 

[Pseudoty]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/business/meat-plant-closures-coronavirus/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_content=2020-04-09T02%3A28%3A04&utm_source=fbCNN&utm_medium=social
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/economy/coronavirus-food-banks.html

[exciter1]

8 minutes ago, Pseudoty said:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/business/meat-plant-closures-coronavirus/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_content=2020-04-09T02%3A28%3A04&utm_source=fbCNN&utm_medium=social
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/economy/coronavirus-food-banks.html

Starting up MeatPicker.com folks

[Foreman Porgy]

18 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

Starting up MeatPicker.com folks

Meat Pickers very own Pick A Chick 🐥wall 

[SpaceFan9]

5 hours ago, doon73 said:

If you have a spare 30mins I'd recommend The Overspent American by US economist Juliet Schor. Fascinating viewing, moreso that it was made 20 years ago.

 

Interesting video.  Thanks for sharing.

 

 

 

[CosmicSpeed]

17 hours ago, Ed Mack said:

It is now the belief of many that the virus was indeed here back in November.  If that's the case, all the models may be wrong and we are peaking weeks before originally predicted.  

In early January, my sister-in-law was all kinds of sick. They did a flu test and it came back negative, she had all of the symptoms they are describing today about chest pains.She never went to the ER, but looking back and comparing the symptoms, there is an alignment.

Also I was in Suzhou in October of 2019, flying through Shanghai. I know those timelines don't line up from my end, but I fully agree that this was in the US before 2020 started.

[House Schubert]

One thing that I have been thinking about is this:

The other day I went in to our small business to do about 3 hours of work.  We have been very lucky in that we have a few (mostly) passive income streams that keep us afloat.  And as such, have basically been at home for 26 days.  I typically LOVE my work, and am happy to go to work each day, and a month ago, my wife wouldn't have believed that I could stay home for even a week without going stir crazy.

But, the other day I found myself already lamenting the end of our "stay at home phase" and was thinking maybe I should work WAY less, and instead stay home with my wife and kids more, and perhaps take a year off...

All of that is to say...Don't most people hate or barely tolerate their jobs?  If I am thinking about a new way forward, then A LOT of people are.

What is that going to do to the new economy?  Fascinating time to be a social scientist.

[CosmicSpeed]

14 hours ago, exracer327 said:

They'll just go home and live with mom and dad.  Most parents I know that's what their kids did. 

Just based upon feedback I've heard from those managing Millennials, they'll probably be expecting a raise for surviving this.

I hate I am lumped in with Millenials. 35, married with 2 girls. Self sufficient.

Gen Z (i.e. Gen "Me") are the new Generation to "hate on"

[CosmicSpeed]

1 hour ago, Foreman Porgy said:

Meat Pickers very own Pick A Chick 🐥wall 

Out of Context, I can see this going awry quickly 🤣

[jeff_14]

1 minute ago, House Schubert said:

One thing that I have been thinking about is this:

The other day I went in to our small business to do about 3 hours of work.  We have been very lucky in that we have a few (mostly) passive income streams that keep us afloat.  And as such, have basically been at home for 26 days.  I typically LOVE my work, and am happy to go to work each day, and a month ago, my wife wouldn't have believed that I could stay home for even a week without going stir crazy.

But, the other day I found myself already lamenting the end of our "stay at home phase" and was thinking maybe I should work WAY less, and instead stay home with my wife and kids more, and perhaps take a year off...

All of that is to say...Don't most people hate or barely tolerate their jobs?  If I am thinking about a new way forward, then A LOT of people are.

What is that going to do to the new economy?  Fascinating time to be a social scientist.

Agreed. My family has been fortunate to have stable jobs and as a history and economics student I am fascinated by all of this and the myriad other changes that could come from this, much as the world transformed after the wars and the Depression. Already we have seen dramatic improvements in air quality, those that still have jobs have probably seen their expenses dramatically drop, especially the price of gas assuming you even need to buy it now, plus borrowing costs. Not only is COVID not spreading but neither is anything else, including sexual diseases. Spain is already going to make a universal basic income permanent and I’m sure other countries will as well.

I remember a quote from my economics course 25 years ago - “If you had money the Depression was a great time to be alive.” I’ve never had anything like the LEGO and other toy sales I’m having now. Im actually worried I’m soon going to run out of the better selling sets and it’s getting harder to source more sets cheaply with stores closed and online deals becoming rare. Sets I expected to sit on for a couple years like Flintstones are already gone. 
 

If Amazon wasn’t king already it sure is now. I’d buy shares in the post office if I could. 

10 minutes ago, CosmicSpeed said:

I hate I am lumped in with Millenials. 35, married with 2 girls. Self sufficient.

Gen Z (i.e. Gen "Me") are the new Generation to "hate on"

Gen Me was already trademarked and sold off in a junk bond swap deal by boomers. 

[Darth_Raichu]

12 minutes ago, House Schubert said:

All of that is to say...Don't most people hate or barely tolerate their jobs?  If I am thinking about a new way forward, then A LOT of people are.

What is that going to do to the new economy?  Fascinating time to be a social scientist.

Nah, I like my job and my work place, I just do not like the commute.  Most days I just plain hate the traffic.  Not having to drive to work is nice but at home there are too many distractions (toys) for me

My ideal solution would be some kind of instant (5 minutes or less) transportation to/from work

[Mark Twain]

Jobless claims rose another 6.6 million to nearly 17 million claims.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html

Keep in mind:

These numbers don’t include those who could not file because the system was overwhelmed

Private contractors/ self- employed business owners

Those who’d been working at a new job for less than a few months/ those who’d just entered the work force

[Phil B]

To put things into context .. I know this is not an "official" documentary and I haven't validated all the statements in this video, but this does give a sobering look at what the WHO and all our governments are trying to prevent this time:

 

[JimboJet]

45 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

Jobless claims rose another 6.6 million to nearly 17 million claims.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html
 

And at the same time the Fed releases $2.3B in loan commitments including a new $600M for small businesses to prime the pump.  And the market is holding even today (no trading tomorrow for the Good Friday holiday).  I think the market baked the jobless claims into the 30% the market lost already.

Edited April 9, 2020 by JimboJet

[JimboJet]

9 minutes ago, Phil B said:

To put things into context .. I know this is not an "official" documentary and I haven't validated all the statements in this video, but this does give a sobering look at what the WHO and all our governments are trying to prevent this time:

 

I watched this on PBS, the parallels are striking.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/

[$20 on joe vs dan]

2 hours ago, jeff_14 said:

If Amazon wasn’t king already it sure is now. I’d buy shares in the post office if I could. 

If anything the time is ripe for Amazon competitors to take market share...Amazon's vulnerabilities have been showing..also them scaling back from directly competing w/ FedEX and UPS also says something.

who would have thought Zoom would take over Webex and MS Meetings so easily; both of which has been more or less the industry standard for years

Edited April 9, 2020 by $20 on joe vs dan