What Recession and Pandemic?

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

We’ve kind of talked about the medical and the societal impacts of the pandemic. We really haven’t talked much about the economic impact.

I don’t mean to make light of it, because I know certain sectors and a lot of people are impacted, but if you look out there it doesn’t seem like there is much economic hardship. What the hell is going on?

The first thing I noticed was this summer when we were eating at a hotel that had finally re-opened, we asked how bad it was for the wait staff, and they said oh we just took all the government money that we got and went on trips. So glad they got a paid vacation while I was still working.

I’m in the market to buy a car, and I know supply was constrained earlier this year due to production shut downs, but even now when I go to dealers look at cars and all they talk about is how high demand is and how that is affecting pricing.

We have two Labradoodles that have to be groomed because they have ‘hair’, and we spend more on their haircuts and we do it on mine. You’d think this is the first area that people may cut back on ha ha literally, but it’s actually hard to get an appointment going forward.

I was Jonesing for some Chicago style pizza this weekend so I ordered from Giordano‘s downtown and drove down there to get it. I was expecting a ghost town, but the number of people out on the 16th St. mall was crazy. Considering a lot of shops down there closed after the riots, I was even more surprised at the number of people milling around.

Looking for Christmas presents for the kids, it’s hard to find the electronics that they want. The Christmas tree lot was almost wiped out of trees, even though they were going for 20 bucks more than they were last year. It seems Home Depot and Lowe’s are pretty much cleared out of Christmas lights.

Maybe with less places to go and things to do people have more money for things. But it sure doesn’t feel look a recession to me.

If you look at the big picture, it kind of makes sense. The federal government has shoved so much money into the economy that in an aggregate sense it should be fairly close to par. It just seems weird.

And don’t even get me started on housing prices. What the hell is going on there? I know interest rates are super low, but you would think the risk of economic hardship would slow things down. Nope.

Some thing is seriously a mess. It sure seems like we are getting set for some pretty good inflation.

Like I said, I know there are people out there and definitely industries that have been decimated. But for some reason it doesn’t seem to be affecting the overall economy. I guess that is good, but there is a lot of damage out there, and I feel like we’re just throwing cocaine on the economy trying to hold off All the hitmen storming our mansion trying to kill us.

My family has been very lucky that we have been able to stay employed. But the increase in prices, especially on food, has an impact. We used to eat steak tenderloin, now I eat a lot of pork tenderloin. I know not a huge sacrifice, but damn things are getting expensive.

[chuckman]

My area is relatively chugging along, but then we weren't much affected by the housing bubble/recession thing in 2008 (?) either. My son is looking for another job, or some PT seasonal work, and the amount of businesses looking for seasonal work has plummeted---they just aren't hiring.

I have been through smaller towns in the eastern and western part of the state that have been hit pretty hard, things like the one 'big' employer shutting down or cutting 50% of the workforce.

[AndyLate]

House prices continue to climb here, 300-500 K houses are being sold soon after they hit the market and I see a lot of cars with temporary plates. The thrift store parking lots are certainly not overflowing and there seems to be no more donation drives than any other year.

Of course we all know that Americans are dumping huge sums of money into guns and ammo and home improvement.

I honestly keep waiting for the other shoe to fall. You cannot shut down/restrict businesses without affecting personal income and tax collection, but nothing seems to be slowing.

Andy

[THCDDM4]

Quite frankly, we haven’t even begun to see the affects ripple out even a little
Bit yet. But it will come. It will hurt.

Most people are stupid with money, they just spend, spend spend without saving or even thinking it through.

There is a lag of sorts due to people not going out as much or traveling as much. That won’t last long term.

We’ve been playing the “weekend at Bernies” game with our economy for so long, it just seems like business as usual.

It’s not gonna be fun dealing with all of this in a few years time when it all really hits.


“It just seems weird” is the understatement of the century right now.

[Straight Shooter]

I worked 6 days a week until June...then its been 7 days a week since. Every week.
The only time we had off was two day at 4July...and two day for Thankgiving. Only time we are off is when we are out of parts..and even then MANY nights they wouldnt send us home, so we rode out the clock for 7-8 hours. We asked to go- was not allowed to.
We have worked like crazy ALL YEAR...with absolutely NO END in sight.

[Grand58742]

Obviously, it varies greatly state by state. The event industry has been significantly impacted in ways not immediately seen. You think about the security, event staffing, concessions workers, hospitality and custodial services that aren't getting that income now. I saw figure that the Rose Bowl (provided that's the Granddaddy of them all) brings in mid eight figures to the local economy between the parade and game itself. So, there's a lot of hidden areas that aren't doing so hot right now.

People are buying more cars and houses at the moment, but not everything is peachy so to speak. Hiring for certain industries certainly hasn't been easy (like my event industry) and the economic impacts of the second and third level workers is pretty bad.

[Arik]

People love spending money especially when it seems to be free.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[ChattanoogaPhil]

I've lost track of the so-called Covid stimulus packages. What's it up to now $6 trillion or more?

Here in Chattanooga retail business appears strong. I was at BestBuy and Lowe's for curbside pickup. Both parking lots were near full with the exception of the few slots designated for curbside pickup which were empty except for me and one other guy.

[kirkland]

They've printed a shit ton of new money

Eventually I think that will come back to bite us in the ass somehow. But I'm no economics expert.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

They've printed a shit ton of new money

Eventually I think that will come back to bite us in the ass somehow. But I'm no economics expert.

I’ve been thinking that for 35 years.... and it seems to never come. Thought it had to come after 2008 and all that spending. Now we are dwarfing that.

Money, or the cost of money- interest rates - is basically nothing. So money is basically worthless. Maybe economics has more to do with psychology or quantum physics - it isn’t a problem until we have a psychotic break or crash the wave function. Maybe they economic issue is when all this cash starts to increase in velocity, it will raise interest rates and inflation.

This is the first time that I am seeing prices rise When there is little growth....