I don’t think most persons really comprehend the magnitude of what is going on and the depth of this rabbit hole. No insult intended, but most here are economically illiterate.
I’ve been following the economy for decades, I listen to the smartest people I can find, and I will say that the Coronavirus, as sad and difficult as it is, is ‘the least of our worries’.
In the simplest of terms, the world has piled up a mountain of TNT, on a pile of nuclear waste, sitting on a geological fault, upwind.
And Coronavirus just lit the fuse.
What happens next might invoke a “God help us” from even the most staunch nonbeliever.
Over a month ago, (I work for a LARGE auto manufacturing plant), I announced that “they will close this plant!!!”. I got stares from 25 people at the morning meeting. I know they thought I was a nutter.
It was not the first time I made such an announcement. The last time I made such an announcement was at another plant for the same automaker just prior to 2008 and I told the plant manager to his face with 100% of senior management present and the union plant chairman by my side. They closed that plant... permanently.
Note, the plant chairman had no idea what I was going to say. Even he was aghast.
Well, they closed this plant, just as I said they would. I’ve been in contact with senior management in my dept. and I have reminded them that I was trying desperately to make them see, although they made light of it. The last contact I had, they say they are taking it seriously.
(No kidding, really. Good on you guys.)
Italy has made it to the eye of the storm. Now the wind will shift and they will have to endure the Economic consequences. People are running out of food and money. There is no fix for this. Don’t kid yourselves.
People will do what people will do to try to live, and as they do, it gets ugly.
The US will suffer immeasurably. The buck will tank.
Food prices will jump all at once. A store will take delivery of goods and the clerk will look at the paperwork and do a double take.
I know some of you here want to criticize my view, and feel free.
But at my workplace, they stopped.