So everyone who wants a test can have a test, unless you don’t need a test, which according to the CDC is when you don’t have symptoms, which may allow you to silently spread the virus. Sounds really well thought through to me…
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Do 401k’s count as stock?
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Oh shit. My husband is having surgery next Wednesday and he went in for a covid-19 test and I have not heard that 20-30% of prospective surgery patients are found to be positive.
I am going to be his care-giver, I thought “I” would have a test as well. But no.
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I don’t know. A lot of people are part of ‘stock funds’ with their 401K; I think what the article was saying is that the stock INVESTORS are not the same group.
We are on University of California Pension; they are I am sure invested in the market (PERA I think they are called) but we don’t know about what they own. PERA has instituted suits against various stock agencies for ‘bad practices.’
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As a father, I’ve got to say that’s a very moving VoteVets ad – I like the tie-in to pandemic response at the end.
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WHENEVER I hear Redfield’s name I always think of RENFIELD from the first Dracula movie and imagine REDFIELD eating bugs too.
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I assure you that you do NOT want a market crash now. If a market crash were to occur now, WE would ALL be in a lot worse shape. Why? Because recovery would take even longer. A hell of a lot longer. After all, once investors don’t have money to invest, how do employers get money to hire employees and build businesses? No matter how fast the Fed prints it, money doesn’t grow on trees and there is a price to be paid for so much cheap currency; inflation. So, why haven’t we been seeing horrible inflation rates? Because the cost of production has stayed low, and that includes the cost of labor, and because the Fed has been buying back debt through “Quantitative Easing”. Kinda scary accounting tricks, IMHO.
Also, if the market crashes, everybody’s pension funds are screwed. IRAs and 401(k)s that are dependent on mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, etc., are screwed.
Speculation is driving the market up. People are betting that the future is bright. Why shouldn’t they? We’re getting rid of a worthless asshole and replacing him with a competent executive administration. If there’s no vaccine in early 2021 or the vaccines don’t work well, you’ll see some pain in the markets.
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This is rolling testing back to where it was here, in NYC, in April and May. Then it was because there weren’t enough tests, and we were in lock down – everyone agreed that testing and isolation were the only was to contain the disease, so we had isolation as the next best possibility.
Now, there are a lot more tests, so test scarcity isn’t the determinant. The disease is, also, much more obviously national and we’re not in lock down.
The only conclusion is that someone has decided that the spread of the disease doesn’t matter, or, worse, wants it to spread. This is at best depraved negligence but, more likely, criminal.
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This has become painful to watch and to listen to. Trump has achieved complete and total toxicity of the government through his mismanagement, ignorance and mental illness.
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This fucking Hamlet routine that these petty and easily cowed technocrats just made everything even worse. I cannot be the first person who is going to hear the phrase “follow CDC guidelines” and think, “What the hell for? Can they be trusted?”
Is there no one with any balls in this entire fucking government, besides Vindman and Marie Yovanovitch? Imbeciles.
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This is not a “step back”. It is the same policy restated.
Good to see Fauci throw this policy in the dumpster.
“Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That’s what the bottom line is,” Trump March 6, 2020 during a visit to the CDC.
As many Americans know first-hand, getting a test is not an easy request.
I hope Biden jumps on this, for all our sakes.
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Who the hell is in charge here? I am getting whiplash.
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He also added that the Trump administration wished to put more of a focus on “testing individuals with symptomatic illness, individuals with a significant exposure,” and certain vulnerable populations.
Still no attempt to model the outbreak, which information,I am guessing, would be helpful for public health departments (and the public), but bad for trump.
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You’re correct in noting what a disconnect there is between the state of employment (poor) and the stock market (seemingly oblivious). The biggest reason is because the CARES Act pumped so much capital into the economy such that anyone not immediately affected by the COVID-19 job losses has more free cash than ever to invest. We really reached into the future to grab money to use today, and most of it is benefiting those who didn’t really need that kind of stimulus.
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I have begun to suspect the the real purpose of the trump administration is a long con, run by people like Steve Bannon, the Mercers, Wilbur Ross, Steve Mnuchin, et al… Manipulate the markets, let their buddies know in advance whether to take long positions or short positions, and in what sectors, and let them reap the benefits (and I am assuming all of the people on the inside have ‘blind’ trusts being managed by someone who is in the game).
That is how to steal real money.
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And of course, there’s the follow-up question: “Which guidelines? Yesterday’s, today’s, or tomorrow’s?”
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AT this point I think the CDC should do us all a big favor and shut the fuck up.
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I’ve come around to thinking that the market doesn’t reflect anything in the actual economy. It’s just a casino.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t have an effect on the real economy. If most of the gamblers are winning, they feel flush and spend more money, which boosts the economy. If most of the gamblers are losing, they tighten their belts. Or, in the case of Republican gamblers, they start looking around for someone else’s belt to tighten.
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The historical P/E Ratio for the DOW is around 16. The current ratio is 28, and both the S&P and NASDAQ are in the high 30s. There is no rational basis for those valuations, it is a speculative bubble that is going to burst ala the dot-com bubble during the Clinton years.
@misterneutron We’re on the same page. Unfortunately the gamblers are going to take everybody’s 401 down with them when it all goes to hell in the proverbial hand basket.
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Welcome to yet another episode of …
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