I refuse to wear a mask voluntarily. I despise anything around my mouth and neck, be it turtle necks, scarfs, masks, whatever. I buy XL shirts just for the extra space in the collar.
What I dont get is the arrogance in general, to start actual fights over such pettiness. No one can force me to wear a mask, but I cant force them to let me onto their property either. I know that if a store requires a mask, I have two options - put one on, or go somewhere else. It’s pretty hypocritical to be claiming that wearing a mask infringes on your rights, while at the same time you demand to be allowed to infringe on the rights of others.
I wore a mask in the store today, because it was required and I wanted to go there. I then drove past another store I was planning to stop at, because I didnt feel like putting that mask back on again. That’s on me, not the store.
It became politicized in both directions. There is a county here in Oregon that doesn’t require PoC to wear a mask because of potential racism. I guess it’s better to expose people to the virus than to require a mask. It’s nonsense IMO. What is the need to politicize a preventive measure that can reduce contagion?
Well, back to the topic, sort of, IMO, the stock market has been detached from reality for the last couple of months. Then again, I also admit that I’m just not that smart to understand all that’s driving it. In the end, I just don’t see how the market can be at this level.
See any correlation recently? Even correlating with the slight pullback in progress? (Flip to 5yr view, you can see this is not a “normal” amount of correlation)
Total US stock market capitalization as of end of 2019 is only estimated around 37 and a half trillion. Throwing around several trillions of dollars in just a few weeks will have an effect.
We’ve got double digit unemployment and the economy is just on the brink of major recession/depression due to all this. Yet stocks are flying high.
There are several reasons I can see why it may be propped up at least temporarily.
The extra $600 unemployment benefit is counteracting the impact of unemployment to a large degree. Most people on unemployment are taking in more than they did when they worked.
The fed is pumping trillions into the economy.
The stock market is valued based on the economy recovering and people are getting back to work.
Certain big businesses are doing fine and even had better revenue /profit due to the pandemic and some of those are also heavily weighted in the indexes.
But to me it still all seems like it will have to collapse at some point after the ripple effects fully hit the economy. But maybe I"m wrong. Maybe the delusions will continue…
I’ve been sitting it all out personally. I pulled out of the market around the middle of March. Too much uncertainty for my blood pressure.
Boggles me that those signs were widely posted and totally accepted without argument but now that we dare ask people to wear a mask to not spread a lethal virus that we balk at that…
Move some $ to Euro-Pacific fund? But then again, everything is connected these day.
I should mention that I’m shopping for a used car but car dealerships around here seems to be doing well despite of everything. I’ll update the used car thread if I close a deal.
The Fed has been putting a floor under it for months now. They’re even guaranteeing corporate debt via some shady workarounds, so moral hazard doesn’t apply now.
I mean, they are buying investment grade corporates, and also some junk bonds but mostly junk bond ETFs (comes to the same thing, more or less). But they’re not guaranteeing the bonds will be paid, and will lose taxpayer(?) money if the company eventually defaults. However, by being willing to buy a good chunk of these, they make issuance new debt much more feasible for companies and many marginal ones like airlines and cruises and sold lots of new debt to help them manage their old debt and/or cash flow issues.
Your description is better. AFAIK, they started with the etfs then moved onto the individual corps, like you mention. Yellen has also speculated publicly that they “could” buy equities as well in the future (and that she didn’t think it would need any additional authorization from Congress).
Am I the only one concerned about the Fed potentially buying equities? Seems like indirect nationalization of private companies. Sounds ripe for conflicts of interests, political interference, and even less Fed independence than whatever little they still have left.
Or is it a case of copying China’s central bank rigging their stock market? I’m really not sold on this and hope Yellen is wrong that the Fed can do this without Congress approval (and also hope Congress won’t give them approval).
The German government has invested in Lufthansa in exchange for some stock ownership and board representation. There is little alternative as otherwise certain key businesses would go under.
We haven’t seen a crisis like this one before; governments/central banks are navigating uncharted waters that require problematic/controversial decisions.
