The Corona thought police are sendng us into recession, causing job losses, to slow the inevitable.

MayCaesar

This is not as much political correctness as just fear and ignorance. Humans tend to overreact to everything. A couple of planes hit a couple of skyscrapers - "Let us initiate a huge war in an infamously unstable region and crack down on all basic human rights in our country!" Several terrorist attacks throughout a year happen on a huge continent - "Immigration is a problem; let us stop accepting refugees and close the borders between our nations!" Jeff Bezos' wealth crosses the $100b mark: "Evil rich people. We should take everything away from you! We need to tax their net wealth yearly, and their personal income must be taxed at the rate of 75%!"

There is this negativity bias: we would much rather not do anything, than do something that has an equal chance to give us X value or take X value away from us. Same here: when there is a tiny bit of danger in our perception, it tends to completely obscure our judgement of reality and make us blow the danger out of proportion. 
Consider this common scenario: asking a girl out.
Likely worst case scenario: she just says "No". Nothing changes, life goes on.
Likely best case scenario: she says "Yes". Life is awesome.
Yet so many people will not make a move, because, hey, what if, when she says "No", there is someone nearby who overhears it? And what if that someone then starts telling everyone else about it? What if, as a result, my friends and colleagues learn about it? What if they mock me over it? My reputation will be destroyed! No, better go back to my comfortable shell and do nothing.

It is the same here. Chances of getting really harmed by the virus for any given individual are almost 0. You can literally walk into a room full of people contaminated by this virus, give them all long hugs and kiss in the lips those of them who you are attracted to - and the chances that something terrible will happen to you are smaller than the chances that the next time you take a left turn at an intersection, some other car runs into you and hospitalises you.

The good thing is, people in such cases start behaving irrationally in many other ways as well, and savvy enough people can exploit that. If my visa allowed me to sell things for profit, I would be earning a fortune right now on reselling people the goodies they think are going to protect them from the virus. There is always a good side to everything!

WordsMatter

It's practically impossible to argue with your view. If these measures are effective it will just look like it was all a big overreaction. If we get through this without the virus spreading too much or killing too many people, it will impossible to prove that it was thanks to the steps that are being taken. You can't prove a negative.

Happy_Killbot

I have been doing some research, and I am not so sure that the market drop was entirely caused by Covid-19, but rather that we were due for a recession and fears over Covid-19 coupled with Saudi oil production increase triggered the crash.

the TL;DR is that the virus was the spark, but it didn't set up the conditions necessary for the fire.

The federal reserve has been keeping interest rates very low, (recently dropping them to 0) so that more investors are willing to take out loans to try and boost the economy. This has lead to a scenario where the Stock market has reached all time highs due to inflation of prices and over leveraging of accounts.

The yield curve inverted in 2019, which almost always happens right before a recession.

Phil413

It shouldn't be up to government to tell businesses when to close or tell people where, when, and how many can congregate. These businesses are closing probably because their lawyers told them to.

We_are_accountable

@WordsMatter

Yes, this will set a very dangerous precident whereby Government will take credit for this virus running it's normal course, and embolden them to take more control of our lives.

Trump was elected to prevent this big government takeover of our lives. He is now forced to deal with all the hysteria of businesses and sporting events shutting down.

We_are_accountable

@Happy_Killbot

I've been doing some research, and have come to the conclusion you are a fake news Trump hater, and no matter what happens, it will be Trump's fault.

Happy_Killbot

@We_are_accountable

We_are_accountable said:

@Happy_Killbot

I've been doing some research, and have come to the conclusion you are a fake news Trump hater, and no matter what happens, it will be Trump's fault.

So where in my post did I say it was Trumps fault? I have just made a strong argument it WASN'T TRUMPS FAULT, but rather market conditions guaranteed it would happen regardless of any action by Trump.

Plaffelvohfen

@We_are_accountable

Well by all means, go to church, organize huge pro-Trump rallies, plan a big party and invite every single one of your friends... You know, fight back right? 

We_are_accountable

If you followed the market, you would know that the record highs came AFTER interest rates were increased following Obama's zero percent interest rates from quantitative easing. They just lowered the rates after this virus popped up, trying to reduce the hit to the economy.

We_are_accountable

@Plaffelvohfen

No one needs to organize huge Trump rallies. The people love him and they come to see him. When you look at Democrat rallies, you see very small turn outs. There is a reason for this. Trump is the first President not beholden to any powers to be. He is his own man and fight's against the swamp. This is why the swamp hates him so much.

Plaffelvohfen

@We_are_accountable

Well are you attending any rallies soon? Please do and also keep going to church, it's very important you do so...

MayCaesar

@We_are_accountable

Is that why during his presidency the US had almost all the international corruption scores increased for it? Does not sound like fighting against the swamp to me, especially given how Trump has replaced virtually all people on leading positions in the executive branch with his friends or acquaintances - compare it to Bush or Obama who had a lot of people there actually from the parties opposing them.

As for the rally sizes, it does seem like Trump's rally sizes are bigger overall; Democrats only assemble large rallies on major events, while Trump manages large ones wherever he goes. But Trump is also a master marketer, who has been in a very competitive business for 40 years; where does the genuine love ends and the induced one begins? Is this even a valid question? Something to ponder on.

AlofRI

The market seems to drop after every Republican President. I don't expect any different after a Trumpian President …. other than the drop being connected to a bankruptcy like all the other Trumpian "drops". ;-( His sixth? I believe? :-) But then, he "Knows how to use the system." So HE will come out OK (Probably with a little help from his friends  ….. Putin, MbS, etc. …. screw the rest of us. ;-). 

Let's see, after Hoover, FDR had to step things up, Nixon left U.S. with a dip, Reagan had a big one in 87-88, after Bush it was "the economy, !" Another rebuild and … wonder of wonders … a balanced budget and a surplus! Next was the other Bush and a catastrophic mess, another rebuild ... left for Trump which he is tearing down … same old, same old …. Now some want to blame it on a virus?? One that very likely would have been much less of a catastrophe if the Orangutan hadn't thrown out several "protections" the previous (actual) President had put in place! 

If we only had as many test kits as we've had lies ….. we'd have 18,000 MORE, which would be a help, at least.