Losing 30% of retirement savings likely caused a chunk of this as well. Maybe not the bulk but I’d bet it’s a factor in people pulling back on all spending.
The state of the restaurant industry
211–220 of 591 posts
Re: The state of the restaurant industry
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
The WSJ Editorial Board has suggested that the Fed create a new facility that gives very cheap loans to businesses that need them. These loans will not need to be repaid right away and should sustain any business that needs it during this period. It sounded workable. https://www.wsj.com/articles/financing-an-economic-shutdown-...
Not an economist (just trying to understand all this) but wouldn’t this just be kicking the can down the road? I understand how loans and credit works in healthy markets/seasons but to me this feels like making a bet that these businesses would be able to take this infusion, weather out the storm, and then raise profits enough above what they were before to pay it all back. It’s fundamentally different from me starti…
If you can kick the can down the road until the virus goes away, you just saved the whole economy. The ability of my local Chinese place to serve customers is undiminished, my desire to eat Chinese food is undiminished, and all that's in the way is an ultimately temporary law.
Re: The state of the restaurant industry
#213I'm always a little surprised that so many people never picked up the ability to even do basic cooking. Of course, as recently as Sunday people like Nunes were telling people it was important to support their local businesses by eating out as if it were their patriotic duty. It might be different now that even Fox and Trump are saying the same thing as the CDC finally. Maybe not if people literally cannot feed themse…
It's not about knowing how to cook, it's about not always wanting to, and maybe trying something different.
My wife is an excellent cook (I'm crap, but I can cook enough to survive), but she also loves going to restaurants or ordering delivery. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you always have to.
Re: The state of the restaurant industry
#214At this point, what good is "seated diners" data when every restaurant is takeout and delivery only?
It's true. Would be great if JustEat and others posted similar data.
Re: The state of the restaurant industry
#215In France it's -100% by law, except for takeaway. Thanks a bunch, Xi Jinping!
Why do you think any other country would have been able to contain this outbreak?
Original GP went on "they're filthy" rant. If he had said the authoritarian state obsessed with wanting to always look good lead to failure in containing the infection and let it spread from Wuhan, making things much worse all over the world, I would've nodded in agreement.
Re: The state of the restaurant industry
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
UBI is honestly the only solution here.
I think targeted redistribution will work better. If you want to protect the economy, take the people with excess wealth — providing no utility right now — and give some of their wealth to those who cannot earn income during this crisis. It avoids the inflationary effects of printing money. You could accomplish this by raising taxes on the wealthy and sending the revenues directly to those who will lose their livelih…
That's why we (US, and much of the world) have progressive tax rates for earned income. Though in the US, we then give lower tax rates for unearned income...
Re: The state of the restaurant industry
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
We did it because we've got quite a few days in there, and would prefer not to have people scroll when we update the data on a daily basis.
Have it by default show the rightmost portion, so that people can scroll to the left if they want? This is how Yahoo Finance shows a stock chart.
Could do that. Took less time to change the ordering so we could get this out.
Re: The state of the restaurant industry
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
SBA just announced a program for loans up to $2M at 3.75% to make payroll
Loans don't solve this. It isn't like once this is over restaurant patronage will jump up to 200% of normal. This is business these companies will never get back. Giving them a loan that they can't repay is just delaying the problem.
Doesn't "delay" the problem -- it exacerbates the problem.
Re: The state of the restaurant industry
#219Getting ready to nose dive totally. Here in NC we just joined the list of states that have banned dine-in service entirely. Curbside or delivery only, after 5PM today.
Same here in Maryland (since yesterday).