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U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

bloomberg.com

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Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#181

Post by klmadfejno »

res0nat0r wrote: post #120
dudul wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this post is why I get so infuriated when I see all the blue-checkmarks on Twitter, calling people who want to go back to work "Selfish, stupid, idiot, etc". People don't want lockdown to stop because they need to go to their hairdresser, or because they need to go hangout at the pub, or whatever idiotic reason these privilege a-holes put in their tweets. People want to get back to work , because they need money…

I understand their thinking because not working is causing a massive amount of collateral damage, but the virus doesn't care about any of that. If everyone goes back to normal too early, this all just starts over, and folks are forced to be inside even longer, there's just no way around it.

> If everyone goes back to normal too early, this all just starts over, and folks are forced to be inside even longer, there's just no way around it.

This whole thing just starts over if we EVER go back to normal unless a vaccine is invented. Herd immunity is impossible to achieve during an effective lockdown. It's not like we're any closer to being able to safely resume activities than one month ago. A highly infectious disease with asymptomatic carriers cannot be eradicated.

I hate people saying generic statements like "we have to stay inside until its safe" with no reason to believe its getting safer.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#182

Post by cpursley »

Tistron wrote: post #157
cpursley wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In Scandinavia we've had some sort of pragmatic market socialism, not much central planning but reasonable redistribution in various ways. Seems to work fairly well, although large parts of it has been (and is being) dismantled by the liberals (those are the right here, not the left).

Yeah, but Scandinavians are civilized ;)

Seriously though, Scandinavia is proof that you can have a free market and social programs at the same time and have it work well. It's when bureaucrats get their fingers into planning the economy when things end up very poorly.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#183

Post by mark_l_watson »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #107
nakedshorts wrote: post #33

One year ago, if you had asked me what would happen if we printed $4T+ (that's 20% of GDP for perspective) out of thin air and injected it into the economy, I would've told you massive hyperinflation and immediate collapse of the dollar. Instead, we see the US Dollar Index strengthening over the last 6 months [1]. The dominance of the United States as a global hegemonic superpower truly cannot be overstated; I'm in a…

Printing money hasn't caused inflation since world war 1 and that's because the demand for USD is virtually unlimited. As long as the money printed comes back to the government as taxes, it's not an issue. Else it becomes a deficit. This was already theorized by modern money mechanics and this incident is proving it right

I agree with you, but...

eventually we will see a de-dollarization (there is a good book out with this name, which I recommend).

The thing that is really helping the USA now is that even countries that have been diligently working for de-dollarization do not want it to happen all at once. They want to slowly ease out of using the dollar for the reserve currency. I think that this may give us another decade of “owning” the reserve currency - that said, my friends correctly accuse me of over optimism, and I may be wrong about this.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#184

Post by inscionent »

cpursley wrote: post #171
spaceribs wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

blaming "Blue Checkmarks" for the fact that people are being victimized by capitalism during a pandemic makes me sick to my stomach. What a hopeless year this has been.

[flagged]

> monopoly of force

We The People

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#185

Post by cm2187 »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #126
nimbius wrote: post #98

This is anecdotal and it might come across as bitter and tonedeaf as someone who is not in a STEM job and cant see the bigger picture very well. Im a diesel engine tech who repairs those big trucks carrying food and shit tickets to grocery stores. the fact that ANY market is completely detached from whats actually happening to Americans is frustrating. My job just cut benefits and hours but we're "essential." Remembe…

What you're saying matches up with the reports I've been seeing. I think a lot of HN readers are simply unable to believe such a thing can occur; the recessions of the past thirty years were mild compared to what's happening right now. Personally, I'm absolutely terrified.

Agree, 2008 was the financial system having a heart attack and the economy being hurt as a result. 2020 is the economy having a heart attack.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#186

Post by pc86 »

bhupy wrote: post #131
milesskorpen wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Facebook definitely are not being helped right now. Advertising is drying up.

Alphabet just reported a 13% increase in revenue for Q1.

The lion's share of the pandemic closures have been in Q2 so this seems either irrelevant or disingenuous.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#187

Post by tree3 »

grey-area wrote: post #22

NB this is for the first quarter of 2020, which had hardly any impact from Covid-19 - lockdowns mostly happened late March and the start of April. So the second quarter will be a better reflection of the impact of shutdowns and changes in consumer behaviour/travel, but we won't see figures for that for a while. Almost more worrying, 20% of the value of the S&P 500 is now concentrated in the top 5 tech stocks, which a…

> NB this is for the first quarter of 2020, which had hardly any impact from Covid-19

Except the economy was impacted, since manufacturing in China was slowed during the first quarter.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#188

Post by cpursley »

inscionent wrote: post #178
dudul wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this post is why I get so infuriated when I see all the blue-checkmarks on Twitter, calling people who want to go back to work "Selfish, stupid, idiot, etc". People don't want lockdown to stop because they need to go to their hairdresser, or because they need to go hangout at the pub, or whatever idiotic reason these privilege a-holes put in their tweets. People want to get back to work , because they need money…

We can print more money right. Money isn't real. Death and this virus are. How about we just take care of those who need taking care of during this disaster. How about we put all national efforts to keep the lights on, providing safe housing and keeping the food supply chains intact. Instead we are worried about corporate quarterly profits and when the Ruby Tuesday can reopen, because somehow serving burgers for $3/h…

What type of marble do you have in your ivory tower? Hopefully it's at least locally sourced.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#190

Post by low_common »

nimbius wrote: post #98

This is anecdotal and it might come across as bitter and tonedeaf as someone who is not in a STEM job and cant see the bigger picture very well. Im a diesel engine tech who repairs those big trucks carrying food and shit tickets to grocery stores. the fact that ANY market is completely detached from whats actually happening to Americans is frustrating. My job just cut benefits and hours but we're "essential." Remembe…

Where do you live? That sounds apocalyptic.
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