The Undiscovered Horizon {Flattening The Curve}
I ran a running series of posts starting at the end of the Great Recession titled "Things are Getting Better". Those posts from time to time chronicled how things were improving as the economy and society began their long recovery from that economic depression. I'm going to start a new series in a similar vein as that older grouping but I'm changing the name. I'll call this "The Undiscovered Horizon". The title is in recognition that many things will be different on the other side of this pandemic and we need to try and recognize some of the ways that may occur and hopefully identify some of the key themes.
Today we'll look at one key piece of news which is that across the globe we seem to be flattening the curve regarding the virus. See as an illustration this chart below from the Financial Times.
If our experience runs close to China's then it seems like we might be able to start getting things up and running in the next 30 days or so, at least on a limited basis.
One other note about the economy. I think we'll see business return in phases and it will look different on many parts of the country. What I think is likely to be underestimated is the coming pent up demand for all sorts of different goods and services. For one thing most of America needs a hair cut! There is a lot of emphasis placed on those who are now out of work, as it should be. What's lost in that is there's still somewhere between 100 and 125 million people working or at least currently getting a paycheck. I've seen estimates that 19 million Americans receive a pension check. 61 million Americans receive a social security check each month. That's an immense amount of money accumulating in American's bank accounts that has the potential to be recycled back into the economy once folks feel secure about their job prospects and feel safe to venture out again.
I will try to post again Friday.
posted by CR English at 10:19 AM
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