Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 227 posts

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

#171

Post by jtolmar »

sokoloff wrote: post #64
airza wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you're being sarcastic, but what value is being provided to society by having landlords rent houses out to people who would rather buy them?

People who would rather buy houses than rent should feel free to do so. No landlord is forcing someone to rent their property. It is often the case that renting is quite a bit cheaper and always the case that it's more flexible to do so, which is why a lot of people choose to rent instead of buying. Society benefits when people who wish to rent housing have housing available for lease.

But the price of buying a home would be a lot lower if there was no rent (or other ways to own a home you don't live in). There are more homes than there are people.

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

#172

Post by jdm2212 »

jotm wrote: post #113
jdm2212 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole banking system would collapse like in 2007-2008 because "everyone stops paying mortgages all at once" is basically what happened then. Renters stop paying their rent so landlords go broke. Landlords stop paying their mortgages. Mortgage-backed securities go into default. Anyone with lots of exposure to mortgage-backed securities folds. Their counterparties in all sorts of financial arrangements can't collec…

What if everybody gets a loan, minimal/no interest with delayed repayment? Just pretend it's not a handout, but actual debt that will be repaid... someday? Just a thought

That's what the Federal Reserve is doing, in effect, by offering zero interest loans to every city, business, and bank.

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

#173

Post by devalgo »

prewett wrote: post #152
satvikpendem wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time in the market beats timing the market. If you continue to invest regularly even in a down market you will eventually make more than those who target peaks and dips.

> Time in the market beats timing the market. This has merits in a bull market regime. However, we may not in a bull market: history suggests that we will have a deeper bottom within 3 - 12 months. So if you buy stock now, when the market is within 10% of it's peak, and you have to wait for two years for the market to recover to that peak, there's plenty of time for someone to wait for the trough and substantially ou…

IF you're so confident then why don't you plug your life savings into shorting the market? You'll make millions.

There's been countless examples of projecting returns for an investor who tries to time the market and one who keeps buying and almost universally the timer loses.

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

#174

Post by devalgo »

ipnon wrote: post #128
satvikpendem wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time in the market beats timing the market. If you continue to invest regularly even in a down market you will eventually make more than those who target peaks and dips.

Compare this to the (once upon a time) conventional wisdom that buying a house with a mortgage is a sure bet because housing prices must go up. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying I don't know. Unprecedented times can result in unprecedented outcomes.

Doesn't this really only apply to variable rates that people thought they could consistently refinance as their homes value went up? If you have a set rate you'll just pay the same monthly payment for 30 years, I don't see how your homes value would really affect you unless you had to move and sell at a loss.

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

#175

Post by jrjrjrjr »

rwmj wrote: post #54
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't help the mortgage holders, though...

The normal way payment holidays work is the missing months are added at the end, and the interest (historically incredibly low at the moment) accrues as normal. So the mortgage holders are not really out of pocket here. Nor are the landlords since they can charge another tenant at the extended end of their mortgage term.

boy, is this a stupid statement.

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

#176

Post by devalgo »

russellbeattie wrote: post #108

Both of the movies The Big Short and Too Big To Fail have a moment where they're watching people come out of a subway or walk down the street, and say something like, "They don't have any idea what's about to hit them." It sort of feels like that now. Lots of normality still. There is definitely something not right about the stock market not feeling the impact of millions of unemployed and more than half of retail st…

>It sort of feels like that now. Lots of normality still. There is definitely something not right about the stock market not feeling the impact of millions of unemployed and more than half of retail stores missing rent payments.

Not saying their right but Wall St. types will tell you the market has already priced the pandemic and current unemployment numbers in and is forward looking.

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

#177

Post by Ididntdothis »

viscanti wrote: post #145
Ididntdothis wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The companies that are renting their space also have fixed costs.

Generally their biggest fixed cost is rent, which most didn't pay.

That’s very doubtable. I would guess biggest cost is salaries.

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

#178

Post by devalgo »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #45

When the next pandemic hits, I doubt any government will dare to attempt a closure. The costs for these closures have been high in terms of economic pain. In addition, the protests, though they are justified due to the oppression the community has experienced, are likely undoing a lot of the effects of social distancing by putting a lot of people together in close proximity for hours. So in the end, we will have expe…

>So in the end, we will have experienced a lot of economic pain for not that much benefit.

This is very US-centric. Our lockdown was more or less completely useless, it wasn't enforced and case numbers continue to rise while in much of Europe they appear to have worked exactly as intended.

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

#179

Post by IAmGraydon »

jawns wrote: post #38

It feels like a huge wave just crashed, and many people standing waist-deep in the water think things are on the upswing now -- when really they're about to get sucked into a powerful undertow. Judging by the state of the stock market, many investors seem oblivious to the magnitude of the effects of the pandemic. The S&P 500 lost more than a third of its value in the pandemic crash. Yet the index is now two-thirds of…

Think about it. Everyone you talk to is saying exactly what you’re saying. Do you really believe that you have insight that a hedge fund worth billions of dollars does not? Do you think they didn’t already think about this before the rebound even happened? Chances are very good that they understand this situation on a level that most do not. They are driving this rebound, not unsophisticated retail investors. Bearish investors will sit on the sidelines and miss out on potential gains or will go short and lose their money. The rich will get richer. Rinse and repeat.

I can tell you when the market will crash. It’s when you and everyone you know are convinced that your bearish intuition is wrong. That wont happen for some time.

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

#180

Post by ethbro »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #126
mperham wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've been building up a drum beat about debt and deficits over the last several decades FTFY

Which they've been complicit in creating with their rampant deficit spending.

Military spending and tax breaks don't contribute to the deficit. Those are investments in the future. /s
Post reply on HN