More than half of American retailers didn't pay their rent in April and May

You'd see a devaluing of the underlying property, so you'd be upside down on your mortgage. Property owners would stop taking care of buildings in terms of rentals, so maintenance would be a significant issue.

There are a lot of bank loans using a real estate asset as collateral - those would now be significantly riskier for the banks to hold, so new loans would probably stall and/or become more restrictive, slowing growth.

Municipal services would start to take a hit next, since a lot of the property taxes go to things like schools and waste disposal.

On the flip side, people not paying their rent would have more money in their bank accounts to cover an unforeseen medical bill. I doubt retail would increase by that much if quarantining was still in place, though.

Suspension of mortgage would help the landlord not the renter. The owner/landlord pays the mortgage not the tenant, the tenant pays rent to the landlord.

My goodness, people here must really not have any experience either renting or owning. As a new homeowner, it is obvious what I used to be paying for -- someone to fix my living space any time something broke without charge and someone to maintain my building and my outdoor areas. It turns out that these things are actual work...

> Bed Bath & Beyond, Famous Footwear, H&M, and the Gap, AMC and Regal movie theaters, and 24 Hour Fitness gyms have all missed payments, jeopardizing the stability of their property management companies and municipal governments that rely on property taxes, The Post's Heather Long reported.

All roads lead to the Federal Reserve. Stores defaulting on rent payments starves landlords for cash. Landlords unable to service mortgages or pay taxes starves banks and state/local governments. Banks starved for money turn to the Fed for bailouts. States starved for cash turn to Washington. Washington issues bonds which the Fed buys because nobody in their right mind would buy 10 or 30 year Treasuries with the goal of holding to maturity.

The Fed's balance sheet has exploded higher (>20% GDP), with no end in sight:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL

Where does it all lead? There are two options:

1. Default on the national debt.

2. Currency depreciation.

The most likely outcome is (2). One way or another, the dollar is headed lower. Perversely, this could be great for stocks, bonds, and other assets nominally. The problem is the size of the dollar depreciation that would be required to bring the Fed's balance sheet back under control.

The only problem is that the dollar happens to be the world's reserve currency. As the Fed does its best to slaughter the dollar bull, every other country is printing money as fast as possible to depreciate their own currencies.

Nobody knows where this mess ends.

because they aren't running at cost/deficit but make actual money (profits). those would now be gone too.