Yes, and the cash should retain its value.
I learned that US money is printed on cotton from my second favorite Spike Lee movie:
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whatâs your first?
Summer of Sam.
25th hour is in third place.
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Looking at the way our numbers are going Iâm thankful Trump backed off the Easter. Weâre definitely paying for not taking this more seriously early on. The US numbers and death toll are staggering and looking at the potential projections make me sick. This has slowly started to spread to some rural areas that arenât even remotely equipped to handle this. And those people all go to the same stores, same fast food places, same gas stations.
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Just why did anyone think this was a good idea? I donât understand why these coronavirus press briefings have to be campaign rallies.
Youâre expecting a lot here. Attacking journalists, politicians who disagree with him (even those which share a letter), etc wasnât going to go away. Neither is his need to tell everyone how nothing is his fault and how great heâs doing.
I would be far more shocked if this didnât happen as it would be a huge change in character. He has instances where he strikes the right tone which needs to be calm and unifying. Itâs just these are followed the next day with the erratic childish behavior we are used to seeing.
I donât care to hear much from politicians right now doesnât matter which side. Iâd rather hear from health professionals.
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On a lighter note this is good for a chuckle. We might need an official coronavirus funny media thread.
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Thatâs what he said in his tweet. "biggest wealth transfer from common folks to the super-rich (Wall Street and bankers).
I canât say I agree with much of Jörg Guido HĂŒlsmann article all that much. Ignoring his attempt to discredit Schumpeter (akin to trying to discredit Newton or Einstein imo), he doesnât make a very persuasive argument (imo) that fiat money is fraudulent or that gold/silver is a superior alternative or an ethical alternative, which seems to be a significant part of his argument.
âInflation is an unjustifiable redistribution of income in favor of those who receive the new money and money titles first, and to the detriment of those who receive them last.â
I find this statement to be an interesting perspective, though. I have never though of inflation from this angle. To use an analogy, to me inflation is like water (costs) rising, but everyoneâs boat has a hole in it. Rich people just happen to have bigger boats.
I suppose perhaps I donât understand his argument. I agree with the idea that businesses, investors, etc⊠(wealth generators) will receive money with an inflated value sooner than everyone else (salaries will lag, fixed incomes wonât be adjusted, etcâŠ), but the purchasing power of that money will be lower (the money is worth less due to inflation) so I donât really see how itâs a transfer of wealth. Particularly considering other factors like our regressive tax system where we actually redistribute wealth to those that donât generate or even work for it.
âIn practice the redistribution always works out in favor of the fiat-money producers themselves (whom we misleadingly call central banks ) and of their partners in the banking sector and at the stock exchange. And of course inflation works out to the advantage of governments and their closest allies in the business world. Inflation is the vehicle through which these individuals and groups enrich themselves, unjustifiably, at the expense of the citizenry at large. If there is any truth to the socialist caricature of capitalism â an economic system that exploits the poor to the benefit of the rich â then this caricature holds true for a capitalist system strangulated by inflation.â
I can see how investors could see a benefit from inflation, but I donât really follow how others do. I would think COGS would increase significantly for a lot of products due to inflation and since common folk are last to the table a lot of businesses suffer due to inflation (canât raise their prices to compensation as their consumers canât afford the increases or become more selective in purchases. Plus the Fed manipulates rates when inflation becomes an issue (as much as they can anyway).
I can see some truth to what he said above, but it seems a bit shallow.
âThe relentless influx of paper money makes the wealthy and powerful richer and more powerful than they would be if they depended exclusively on the voluntary support of their fellow citizens. And because it shields the political and economic establishment of the country from the competition emanating from the rest of society, inflation puts a brake on social mobility. The rich stay rich (longer) and the poor stay poor (longer) than they would in a free society.â
Meh, Iâm not sure thereâs sufficient data to make this claim. What was social mobility like pre-fiat currency in the US. There are very few examples, I can think of anyway, where Gold/Silver was the currency and society was free. Itâs a nice hypothesis, but I have a hard time seeing how social mobility was higher with a finite resource as the currency.
It is certainly an interesting take, though.
Iâm not sure why you linked the budget? For a laugh maybe. I mean, the budget is a joke, but thereâs as much if not more redistribution to common folk as there is spending that enriches the already rich.
Sure, Iâm not a fan of printing money and generally, Iâm not a fan of inflation.
In China, international flights have been cut back so severely that Chinese students abroad wonder when they will be able to get home. In Singapore, recently returned citizens must share their phonesâ location data with the authorities each day to prove they are sticking to government-ordered quarantines.
In Taiwan, a man who had traveled to Southeast Asia was fined $33,000 for sneaking out to a club when he was supposed to be on lockdown in his home. In Hong Kong, a 13-year-old girl, who was spotted out at a restaurant wearing a tracking bracelet to monitor those in quarantine, was followed, filmed and subsequently shamed online.
Across Asia, countries and cities that seemed to have brought the coronavirus epidemic under control are suddenly tightening their borders and imposing stricter containment measures, fearful about a wave of new infections imported from elsewhere.
The moves portend a worrisome sign for the United States, Europe and the rest of the world still battling a surging outbreak: Any countryâs success with containment could be tenuous, and the world could remain on a kind of indefinite lockdown.
Even when the number of new cases starts to fall, travel barriers and bans in many places may persist until a vaccine or treatment is found. The risk otherwise is that the infection could be reintroduced inside their borders, especially given the prevalence of asymptomatic people who might unknowingly carry the virus with them
Following a recent uptick in cases tied to international travelers, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan barred foreigners from entering altogether in recent days. Japan has barred visitors from most of Europe, and is considering denying entry to travelers from countries including the United States. South Korea imposed stricter controls, requiring incoming foreigners to quarantine in government facilities for 14 days upon arrival.
âCountries have really been struggling to implement their own domestic solutions, and domestic solutions are insufficient for a transnational global health problem,â said Kristi Govella, an assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.
âEven countries that have been relatively successful in managing the pandemic are only as safe as the weakest links in the system,â she said, adding that in the absence of cooperation among countries, âclosing borders is one of the ways that individual governments can control the situation.â
The virus, which emerged in Asia and spread to the West, is at risk of ricocheting back. Citizens who were worried about outbreaks in Europe and the United States rushed home after finding themselves in the new epicenters of the pandemic.
Almost immediately, countries and cities in Asia started seeing a rise in new cases, often detecting infected passengers at airports as they passed through health screenings. Hong Kong, which had been reporting new daily cases in the single digits, suddenly saw new cases spike as high as 65 in one day. In Japan, where infections have remained relatively controlled, cases started to rise last month in Tokyo as travelers returned from overseas.
To try to stem the influx of infections, governments clamped down on their borders.
South Korea, which has been praised globally for flattening the curve quickly after an early explosive peak in infections, initially required travelers from some countries to quarantine. This week it expanded the list to cover the entire world.
Japan started by having travelers quarantine, but now bars travelers from most of Europe outright. It is discussing more bans, including for travelers from the United States.
China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan have simply shut their borders to virtually all foreigners.
âWe believe that under the current situation of the epidemic, minimizing unnecessary entry and exit activities is a responsible and necessary measure to effectively protect the life, safety and physical health of all Chinese and foreign personnel,â said Liu Haitao, director-general for border control and management of the National Immigration Administration in China.
Even some residents are having a hard time getting home. On mainland China, where leaders are keen to declare the worst of the outbreak that started there over, the new border controls have forced most foreign airlines to cut back to one flight a week. Ticket prices have skyrocketed and bookings are constantly canceled.
Alex Fei, a Chinese student at a university in Canada, has struggled to get back. His flights have been canceled twice â once after Hong Kong banned transfers through the hub, and another time when the airline suspended a direct flight from Vancouver to Shanghai.
Mr. Fei said he might have no choice but to remain in Canada. âOverseas studentsâ hands are tied for now,â he said.
Citizens who do return to Asia are often put under strict surveillance as they serve out their time in quarantine. In some cases governments are using the tools of criminal justice to enforce them.
Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese city, initially managed to contain its early coronavirus outbreak with swift measures like the closing of schools and government offices and restrictions on travelers from mainland China.
But as students and expatriates rushed back from Europe and the United States in March, officials warned that a new wave of imported cases was beginning to strain hospitals. Hong Kongâs leader, Carrie Lam, barred all nonresidents on March 19, and returning residents are now tested upon arrival.
During a 14-day quarantine at home, they wear tracking bracelets, and their movements are monitored by a smartphone app. Ms. Lam said that more than 200,000 people were currently being quarantined at home.
Technology is a key tool for enforcing quarantines. In China, returnees spend 14 days in government-assigned hotels and send their temperatures daily to neighborhood committees on WeChat, a messaging service. In Taiwan, the government uses location tracking on mobile phones and adds some old-fashioned police shoe leather; officers visit people at home if they leave or turn off their phones.
Filia Lim, 50, said the quarantine measures in Singapore were a âheadacheâ because she normally travels extensively for her job in human resources. But she said she was âthankfulâ that Singapore was monitoring returnees so closely.
âThe virus spread mostly because people didnât realize they have the symptoms, or for some they blatantly ignored those symptoms and they interacted with a lot of people despite advice by government to self-isolate themselves,â she said.
Punishment for breaking the rules of quarantine can be stiff. A 53-year-old Singaporean who breached the order had his passport invalidated, the immigration authorities said Sunday.
Japan officially says those who break quarantine can be imprisoned for up to six months or fined as much as 500,000 yen, about $4,600.
But the Japanese government relies on trust that those in quarantine stay cloistered. Upon returning from countries on the banned list, residents sign a pledge stating that they will remain in one place for 14 days and stay off public transit. If they go out for food, they are told to wear a mask and âbe quick.â
South Korea has yet to bar entrants from anywhere but the Hubei region of China. Critics say that simply quarantining foreigners may inadvertently put more stress on the medical system.
âSome say that there are people abroad who think they should come to Korea to be tested and treated,â said Dr. Park Jong-hyuk, a family medicine specialist and spokesman for the Korean Medical Association.
Dr. Park has called for a total entry ban on foreigners.
âIt is time to make efforts to protect one another on a global level by practicing international social distancing,â he said.
In the immediate term, when governments are still scrambling to protect their citizens, such measures make sense, experts say. But the longer it goes on, the more likely it could do sustained damage to the global economy and the collective psyche.
âAlthough the first priority should be on definitely trying to control the virus,â said Karen Eggleston, director of the Asia health policy program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, âone has to think about those very large costs, and as the crisis is prolonged, those costs can definitely mount.â
Sean Sierra, 30, a petty officer in the United States Navy stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, said he did not see an end in sight. After a recent posting to a ship based in Singapore, he was required to quarantine at home in Japan for 14 days when he returned.
Although he has completed his stint in isolation, the entire base is now sheltering in place. âWeâre going to be stuck here for a bit,â said Petty Officer Sierra. He said that his mother-in-law was scheduled to visit in two weeks but that the quarantine âputs a damper on any plans.â
Think about a poster like pat and youâll know who they are entertaining.
In the year 1910 for example, during the what is now known as the first globalization period, a citizen of the then German Reich could have freely traveled to the English countryside, bought a house and settled there without having to show any kind of document to anyone (except a boat and train tickets during the voyage) nor inform the authorities about his arrival and settlement in the country.
That this very natural free movement across borders would end in four yearsâ time would have seemed inconceivable at the time.
Not only that, it wouldnât be attained in the next 110 years, even during the heyday of the second globalization.
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The economic effects from a numbers standpoint may be bad or worse. From an experience standpoint today (I guess assuming we arenât quarantined for years) will be a million times better imo.
Not to say pain wonât happen
What do you mean experience?
I mean the experience of people in America during the Great Depression will be about a million times worse than the experience of Americans through this. Even if the short term economic numbers listed are worse. The quality of life will be much, much better.
I would guess very few people in America will end up being malnourished. Very few will end up having no clean water. Do you think the experience of most Americans who havenât been ill currently resembles anything like that? America is sitting on its ass watching Tiger King on Netflix. I donât see anyone in my community starving. Our drive thru lines are massive.
It will be the worst for poor people. It always is. My grandma was a child of the Depression. She can definitely tell you that what people are doing now arenât anything like then. Scary stock numbers donât mean much in the context of what day to day life is like for most people.
âWe will allow member states to issue their own debt.â
Jesus wept.
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Incredible. I used to walk by this place on my way to the gym. Seriously impressive stuff from the UK armed forces.
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Eh, will see about that.
Negotiations are extremely tense and ongoing, thatâs all I can say.
Itâs Ze Germans and the Dutch against everyone else.
If the âeveryone elseâ get their way, EU will look quite different, not only economically but politically as well. Much less progressive.