The Economy

[TigerVols]

...it's in my kitchen, and yours, and everywhere around us.

I thought maybe we could try a running thread to discuss the CNBC and FBN side of our lives?

For starters, I'll posit that the downturn is here to stay and it's useless to try and turn it around by sending more money no-strings-attached to small (or mid-sized or large) businesses. Instead, we may just need to take our medicine.

What say you? What is your assessment of our collective financial futures?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

We’re ****ed.

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

Have a feeling this one might last for a year or two.

 

[Spartan Squad]

 

[Starman]

1929 didn't really end until the late 40s, and it took a world war to really fire up the economy.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

It figures to be a pretty long haul. I'd guess "normal life" won't be back for awhile. The bar/restaurant biz, especially in cities, is going to take a long time to rebound. The travel/tourist industry is going to be in the toilet years.

Hopefully it bounces back more quickly than I think. Some jobs will never come back, hopefully new ones we haven't considered will emerge.

I'm grateful to still be working right now. But my job will likely end up going away because of this. To be fair, it's been in danger for awhile, but this certainly figures to accelerate it ending. Like millions of others, I'll have to reinvent myself to get something in what will probably be a tough job market for a long time.

*All of this with the caveat of being different with a vaccine or great treatment plan arriving quickly.

 

[Slacker]

Tax the rich back to the '50s. They've had their fun.

 

[BTExpress]

Tax the rich back to the '50s. They've had their fun.

They had high marginal rates.

They also could deduct every penny of interest they spent. On everything. There were deductions and ways to avoid taxes out the wazoo back then.

What they actually paid the government in federal income taxes? Eh, about the same. 16.7 percent, compared to 14-15 percent today.

 

[goalmouth]

US business couldn't even survive a month of lockdown. What does that tell you about the economy?

 

[LanceyHoward]

...it's in my kitchen, and yours, and everywhere around us.

I thought maybe we could try a running thread to discuss the CNBC and FBN side of our lives?

For starters, I'll posit that the downturn is here to stay and it's useless to try and turn it around by sending more money no-strings-attached to small (or mid-sized or large) businesses. Instead, we may just need to take our medicine.

What say you? What is your assessment of our collective financial futures?

They had high marginal rates.

They also could deduct every penny of interest they spent. On everything. There were deductions and ways to avoid taxes out the wazoo back then.

What they actually paid the government in federal income taxes? Eh, about the same. 16.7 percent, compared to 14-15 percent today.

There are deductions out the wazoo now and also low rates. What is the source that the paid 17%. That number can be generated today from the IRS data base. I have always wondered how someone came up with that number from the 50's.

 

[LanceyHoward]

...it's in my kitchen, and yours, and everywhere around us.

I thought maybe we could try a running thread to discuss the CNBC and FBN side of our lives?

For starters, I'll posit that the downturn is here to stay and it's useless to try and turn it around by sending more money no-strings-attached to small (or mid-sized or large) businesses. Instead, we may just need to take our medicine.

What say you? What is your assessment of our collective financial futures?

The elephant in the room is how many additional deaths the country would accept to open up the economy again. While states are opening up would they stay the course if they turned into another New York?

 

[BTExpress]

Taxes on the Rich Were Not That Much Higher in the 1950s

 

[BTExpress]

While states are opening up would they stay the course if they turned into another New York?

Those other states don't have subways, trains and buses as the primary way of getting around and don't live so close together that (pre-pandemic) 6 inches of space once qualified as typical distancing.

The main reason they're as bad as they are now (which compared to NY isn't bad at all) is because of people leaving New York and seeding it all over the country.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

"The Economy" is akin to the role played by the gods in the written Iliad.

I was told this was the greatest economy ever. It wasn't even the best in my lifetime.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Those other states don't have subways, trains and buses as the primary way of getting around and don't live so close together that (pre-pandemic) 6 inches of space once qualified as typical distancing.

The main reason they're as bad as they are now (which compared to NY isn't bad at all) is because of people leaving New York and seeding it all over the country.

The rates for Suffolk County on the eastern end of Long Island, where density rates are comparable to other large metropolitan areas, are similar the boroughs of New York. I realize there are probably more people that use mass transit than in other cities but I think this idea that other metro areas are safe because they don't have a subway system is misguided.

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

Question...we can easily determine the live entertainment, restaurant and travel industries are ****ed for a while. What about real estate? Are we heading toward another housing bubble burst?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Question...we can easily determine the live entertainment, restaurant and travel industries are ****ed for a while. What about real estate? Are we heading toward another housing bubble burst?

Probably. And a car payment bubble burst. Once the unemployment benefits cease.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Housing, car loans, student loans. Universities staring broke in the eye.

It could get *really* bad. Things are tough now, but they could be far worse. The stat that came out this week, "40% of households with an income of $40k or less now have at least one member unemployed" scares the hell out of me.

 

[TigerVols]

US business couldn't even survive a month of lockdown. What does that tell you about the economy?

That is a great point.

 

[TigerVols]

Question...we can easily determine the live entertainment, restaurant and travel industries are ****ed for a while. What about real estate? Are we heading toward another housing bubble burst?

I read the other day that real estate appraisers - who took heaps of criticism after the 2008 collapse - are expected to start dialing back home value estimates in July or August and that is going to prick the bubble.