What would it take for the U.S. to enter a recession?

[JSH]

Originally Posted by freebeard

If the edit is for scansion, I'd go with:

"...people get tremendous anxiety and depression, and you have suicides over things like this when you have terrible economies. You have death. ...definitely ... in far greater numbers than the numbers that we’re talking about with regard to the virus."


He uses repetition. One of many persuasion techniques.

The point about suicides may be arguable. Suicides up but traffic accidents down?

Enough of the whataboutisms. Instead of arguing about how a news site paired down that rambling statement.

Did the president or did he not say more people will commit suicide than will die from the virus if we don't open the economy back up?

[freebeard]

Enough of the whataboutisms....Did the president or did he not say more people will commit suicide than will die from the virus if we don't open the economy back up?

????

Frankly, I don't care about speculative statements.

Two markers have been laid down. They expire on April the Ninth. What do you think might happen on 4-10-20? I'm just going to wait and see.

[Natalya]

See attachment. We're the next Italy. Except it's going to make them look like a joke. They're seeing 600 to 700 deaths per day right now. We'll pass that soon enough with the number of infections we have and our total lack of a response to this virus. Shelter in place is the only cure. That's why India just declared it for their whole country despite having less than 1000 cases.

[freebeard]

If anything, we're the next EU and our Italy is New York. That's an odd choice of graph. Descending values on the ordinate axis. The abscissa appears to be non-linear yet not logarithmic. It's half-pinion without Italy on the chart.

...and our total lack of a response to this virus. Shelter in place is the only cure.

4th generation warfare. The response dates to October of 2017.

China stole our IP and when it blew up in their faces they tried to pin it on us. ("Trump Virus", etc.) But with no mass gatherings there're no false flags. Some industries rise to the challenge, like auto manufaturers making ventilators. Others put their hand out and got it slapped down, like Hollywood.

Everything normal is new again.

[Xist]

How long does it take for changes to have a measurable result? I guess that we started "Quarantine" last Monday, but I do not know how much of a difference it makes for most people that I know. One sister is a nurse practitioner and needs to work. I honestly do not know if the other is working from home, we do not talk much, but apparently part of her job description is walking her boss's dog.

Unless she takes the dog with her, how does she do that from home?

Mom did not leave much before, but she only goes to doctor's appointments right now. She did go to the store on Monday to buy me ice cream and stuff. She said that she is going to Safeway's senior hours tomorrow.

Apparently they do not open until 8 now.

I am supposed to stay home, but I went to three stores today looking for toilet paper. Apparently Dollar Tree did not receive any this week.

Our hiking trails make the news because they are horribly crowded, so I am sure that people will die because people insisted on going hiking.

On Monday Big Lots taped boxes on the floor, six feet from the cashiers, had "Wait here" signs six feet away, and lines on the floor every six feet.


That works in Big Lots. I have never seen it that busy. That would not work for any other store that I visit. I have stayed six feet from the person in front of me, but the person behind me was pretty close.

It is impossible to stay six feet from the cashier at Dollar tree. I think the cashiers are about six feet apart--five.

I brought a tape measurer when I saw a client on Tuesday. It turns out that six feet away is the far corner of her long kitchen table.

I am 6'2". I should really understand how long 72" are!

I wash my hands whenever I visit a client and I make sure they wash theirs properly. I spray everything that I bring to my car with Lysol and wash my hands when I come home.

Many supermarkets are supposed to put up sneeze shields for the cashiers, which is good. One guy was arrested for terrorism after he coughed on a cashier and said that he had coronavirus. I just want to know where I can get an old phone handset, so I can pretend to visit the cashier in prison.

I joke, but it is a good move.

I have been in banks where the employees were sealed off from us unwashed masses. I never returned to any location that did that, but now I prefer it.

Teletherapy, telecommuting, on-line schools, etc., should be more common. Linus made a video about what they are doing about coronavirus. He said that they are a technology company, there is no reason that someone couldn't work from home if necessary, and complained about meetings that should have been taken care of through e-mails.

I see changes and sadly some are just because people are the actual problem, but I believe that we have a whole couple more layers of restrictions ahead of us, because this just isn't enough.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Xist

How long does it take for changes to have a measurable result? I guess that we started "Quarantine" last Monday, but I do not know how much of a difference it makes for most people that I know.

Really, a couple weeks. And that's if we do it right.

And you can't stop taking the steps the moment you get a measurable drop or you're just wasting all the effort.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Really, a couple weeks. And that's if we do it right.

And you can't stop taking the steps the moment you get a measurable drop or you're just wasting all the effort.

Exactly right and we haven't started yet. Some areas of the country are social distancing while in other's it is business as usual. We should expect this to roll across the country in waves until there is some coordination. You need at least 4 weeks of sustained effort to make a difference.

I got an email yesterday that in my city operations will be closed until the end of April.

As to the original question of this thread - last week 3.2 million peopled filed for unemployment. That is about 5 times more than the worst week during the great recession.

My company started layoffs yesterday.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

Mom did not leave much before, but she only goes to doctor's appointments right now. She did go to the store on Monday to buy me ice cream and stuff. She said that she is going to Safeway's senior hours tomorrow.

You should probably go instead of her. That said, if you get infected you'll likely spread it to mom.

[Fat Charlie]

Unemployment hasn't even gotten started here and it's already huge. So far I think the only legal restraints here are schools, bars and restaurants. But when I have to go out I see good distancing and sanitizing practices.

My state's Unemployment offices closed for a couple days last week to prepare for the way they're doing it now: strictly online, and depending on what letter your last name starts with, you have two time periods per week to file your claim.

Other departments here cut their hours last week and started real layoffs yesterday. I cut my guys' hours this Monday, and yesterday they got cut further. Next week it may get worse. And by may, I mean I don't know how badly yet. Their first claims will be filed Friday and Saturday, and they won't look bad because they won't have had a full week at the reduced hours- so next week's claims will be much worse, but probably not as bad as the next week's.

And If the state ever gets real with restrictions, even if we're declared essential (never underestimate lobbyists) then we may just be open in name only and I'll have to let them go completely.

[JSH]

This looks like a pretty good summary of the stimulus bill's effect on individuals:
https://www.nytimes.com/article/coro...gtype=Homepage

Xist (and other people that didn't file tax returns)

I sounds like you should get busy filing a tax return for your mother and brother.
IRS Free File - https://freefile.intuit.com/

From the IRS:

Non-filers: Haven't filed a tax return for a previous year? Take steps now.
The IRS encourages anyone with a tax filing obligation who hasn't filed a tax return for 2018 or a previous year to act now. – Pending legislation includes certain potential credits and rebates for those who have filed a return for 2018 and/or 2019. Those without 2018 tax filings on record could potentially affect mailings of stimulus checks

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-ope...tions-continue