September 3, 2020
Dear reader,
Today, we look back at the year so far with an essay from Bill Bonner, one of the most compelling thinkers and writers in America today…
What 2020 Has Taught Us
By Bill Bonner
Unbelievably, August is over…
Summer has all but adjourned. The leaves are turning and the gavel is coming down.
And what have we learned? What is the verdict?
- It doesn’t matter whether you lock down or not.
- A face mask probably doesn’t help.
- Americans are easily panicked.
- They readily tyrannize each other.
- The Federal Reserve can inflate stock prices (at least some of them, sometimes).
- Nobody is worried about deficits, debts, or reckless money-printing.
- Neither political party can add or subtract.
- The economy is not going to bounce back.
Futile Lockdown
Thanks to the diligent, detailed, and deep analysis of David Stockman, we now see that COVID-19 acts just like the seasonal flu. It works its way through a population, infects many, and kills the weakest.
We know, too, that face masks provide little protection. They stop droplets – say, from a sneeze – from spreading. But the COVID-19 molecule is much too small to be snagged by woven cloth.
Another thing we know is that the lockdowns were a mistake. For three very good reasons:
First… They don’t make any difference.
Stockman highlights three approaches: No lockdown (Sweden), a light lockdown (Arizona), and a heavy lockdown (Illinois).
Guess which one has had the lowest death rate so far?
Right… Sweden.
But the numbers are so close – as we suspected, the virus doesn’t care whether you lock down or not. The results are about the same.
Needless Deaths
The second reason is that by shutting down the whole society, the people who actually needed protection didn’t get it.
The best policy solution is probably simply to try to keep old people and the virus away from each other. That is especially important in nursing homes, where people are already on the edge of the grave.
Instead, governments locked down those who were not at risk, and largely ignored the vulnerable. Deaths were needlessly high among those most at risk.
Collateral Damage
The third reason will take more time to calculate and confirm. But the collateral damage – deaths from other causes, including poverty… depression… stunted lives – will eventually be tallied. Among young people, for example, suicides are 22 times as common as COVID-19 and pneumonia deaths.
We already know some of the major costs – the $2.2 trillion “Everything Bailout”… the Federal Reserve’s $3 trillion money-printing spree.
But that is just the beginning. Even with a record current deficit of $2.8 trillion, Democrats and Republicans are “negotiating” (i.e., both sides bidding with other people’s money) even more boondoggles.
Not Bouncing Back
These amounts will rise over the next few years. Because the economy is not bouncing back. Restaurants are half-empty. Airports are operating at only a quarter of their pre-lockdown levels. Hotels, theaters, bars – the whole travel and leisure complex is depressed.
And after a bit of recovery from April to July, small-business employment is now drifting downward – signaling not just a weak recovery… but no recovery at all.
GDP growth rates have been trending down for decades. Under President Donald Trump, they reached their lowest level since World War II.
Staggering under $77 trillion of debt…
Fearful of more riots, race- or mask-shaming, and lockups…
With mortgages and rents unpaid…
A 10% unemployment rate…
Empty seats, empty desks, empty parking spaces…
Trillions in fake money…
Unemployment benefits that were often more than people’s income from working…
Helicopter money…
A public that has been indoctrinated to believe the coronavirus is like the Black Death…
And two presidential candidates, neither of whom has any idea what is going on…
It is possible that the economy will never recover… that the downdraft from the worst policies and stupidest mistakes in history cannot be overcome… and that we are on our way to an unavoidable reckoning.
Early and Often
The feds will continue to try to replace real, wealth-producing schlepping and bussing in the Main Street economy with fake, sweat-free dollars doled out by both the Federal Reserve and the federal government.
More loans, more $1,200 giveaways… more bailouts for businesses… and more “liquidity” provided by the Fed.
In the coming two months, for example, neither party will want to stand in the way of a gift to the voters. Later, the feds – Republicans or Democrats – will respond to events, rushing in with more cash and credit at every hint of Armageddon.
A new virus? A stock market sell-off? A dragging recovery? Sagging inflation? They only have one tool – fake money. Now we know that they will use it early and often.
The injury caused by the Fed will take even longer to tally. So far, it seems benign.
The indexes are all at or near all-time highs, just five months after a massive sell-off. That, alone, is remarkable enough.
But it is even more remarkable when we realize that this has happened during a severe recession.
No Bull
Another remarkable thing we’ve learned is that the indexes can go up and the media can report on the fabulous bull market… even while, for most investors, the bull market doesn’t exist.
While the leading stocks soar, the average stock in the S&P 500 is still down for the year… and there are 126 stocks in the S&P 500 that have lost more than 25% of their value.
And that’s only part of the story. Here’s fund manager Jon Boyar:
Look at the smaller names, which have fared the worst. I like to track the Russell 2000, because I think you find the most value in the micro-, small-, and mid-caps. As of July 9th, Russell 2000 was down about 14%, but the “typical” stock in that index has done far worse.
Again, simply computing the average of all the companies in the index masks real pain within it, with outliers like Novavax Inc. (NVAX) – which has gained around 2000% for the year – skewing the results. Calculating the median return for each company, however, produces a negative 20% return.
Even worse, about a third of the stocks in that index have seen their prices drop by a third or more over that span.
More Bull
But the Fed is ready to do even more mischief. Here’s Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, yesterday, with more mumbly-fumbly:
The persistent undershoot of inflation from our 2% longer-run objective is a cause for concern. Many find it counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation. After all, low and stable inflation is essential for a well-functioning economy. And we are certainly mindful that higher prices for essential items, such as food, gasoline, and shelter, add to the burdens faced by many families, especially those struggling with lost jobs and incomes.
However, inflation that is persistently too low can pose serious risks to the economy. Inflation that runs below its desired level can lead to an unwelcome fall in longer-term inflation expectations, which, in turn, can pull actual inflation even lower, resulting in an adverse cycle of ever-lower inflation and inflation expectations…
We want to do what we can to prevent such a dynamic from happening here.
The point?
We don’t know why the economy is doing so poorly. And we don’t care.
So, we’ll just keep the printing presses running hot!
Now here are some of the stories we’re reading…
David Stockman’s Contra Corner
Stockman’s vision in creating David Stockman’s Contra Corner was that it be “the place where mainstream delusions and cant about the Warfare State, the Bailout State, Bubble Finance and Beltway Banditry are ripped, refuted, and rebuked.”
Corporate Media Didn’t Report What It’s Really Like In Kenosha, Wisconsin, So I Will
The scene on Tuesday night was something I had only seen in photos of war-torn countries. Men and women stood with baseball bats, hand-guns, semi-automatic rifles, and shotguns in front of their businesses and homes. Many Kenoshans explained to me that law enforcement lacked the necessary numbers of officers to control the situation… leaving citizens to fend for themselves.
American Food Banks Are Being Overwhelmed by Worst Crisis Ever
If one place underscores just how dire America’s hunger problem has become during the pandemic, it is here – in the middle of the breadbasket that supplies food from coast to coast. The ranks of Americans fighting hunger are projected to swell some 45% this year to more than 50 million.
This stock-market metric has correctly predicted presidential election results since 1984
The LPL analyst says that a chart of the S&P 500’s performance in the three-month period ahead of Election Day, which is November 3 this year, has proven accurate over the past nearly four decades.
Scientists see downsides to top COVID-19 vaccines from Russia, China
High-profile COVID-19 vaccines developed in Russia and China share a potential shortcoming: They are based on a common cold virus that many people have been exposed to, potentially limiting their effectiveness.
Pelosi used shuttered San Francisco hair salon for blow-out, owner calls it ‘slap in the face’
“We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can’t – it’s a feeling – a feeling of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down… I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen.”
First You Clean the Dinosaur’s Teeth. Then You Open the Museum.
The American Museum of Natural History is going for an intimate experience – allowing hundreds, not thousands, of visitors in per hour – when it reopens on September 9.
Read our latest issues of American Consequences by clicking here.
And let us know what you’re reading at [email protected].
Regards,
Steven Longenecker
Publisher, American Consequences
With P.J. O’Rourke and the Editorial Staff
September 3, 2020
