How bad is this economy going to get?

Discussion in 'West Mall' started by AustinHorn24, Apr 1, 2020.

  1. Monahorns

    Monahorns 5,000+ Posts

    We need the economy to start opening back on May 4. Crank up production to provide medical resources and the like. None of this gets better by suppressing economic output.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  2. 4th_floor

    4th_floor Dude, where's my laptop?

    My renters all paid. One of my note holders hasn't paid yet, but they have always paid late.
     
  3. 4th_floor

    4th_floor Dude, where's my laptop?

    Cinco de Mayo celebrations are still on.
     
  4. Austin_Bill

    Austin_Bill 2,500+ Posts

    I'm mostly concerned about crop harvest and getting them to market so they can get to people.

    We have lots of food being grown, but we need harvesters and transportation to get it to market, don't want issues with milk going bad because it isn't going to market on time, or vegetables going bad in the field. If we are concerned about the economy, get ready for what will happen when food shortages start to happen.
     
  5. Musburger1

    Musburger1 2,500+ Posts

    Then you don’t want to see this.
     
  6. Monahorns

    Monahorns 5,000+ Posts

    If that happens we are all going to starve to death quickly.

    I bet the Progressives like LongestHorn will be happy, saying it is great that so many people are losing weight.
     
  7. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Ha!

    That's like 7-8 or so years ago when some politicians said it was great that so many of the new jobs were just part-time. That gives workers more time to spend at home with their families! A food shortage = a blessing in disguise for a fat nation! That's the spin.
     
  8. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Currently, the national food problem is mainly tied to breakdowns in the transportation, labor, and middlemen systems--not the underproduction of food. If planting season goes poorly, obviously that's a problem. If this shakes out marginal producers, count on a massive consolidation coming out of all this.

    The video talked a lot about dairy. Dairy has already been consolidated into a smaller number of huge producers (dairy is not alone in this). Many of them have been in California's Central Valley where the water problems and regulatory problems have gotten worse. Some of the big California dairymen have opened huge satellite dairy farms in the Texas panhandle, North of Amarillo, and are in the process of making the Texas farms their primary operations. As an interesting aside (for those who are interested), many of these giant California + Texas dairymen are descendants of Portuguese immigrants. There are also many recent Dutch immigrant dairymen and their progeny in the Texas big dairy farm industry as well.
     
  9. Musburger1

    Musburger1 2,500+ Posts

    That's true. Speaking of labor, a Tyson factory in Georgia just had two workers die from the virus (Link).

    And from another article (link) the following excerpt shows how supply line problems are beginning to threaten the nation's protein supply...in which case the amount of food would eventually become a problem in addition to the distribution problem.

    Days after President Trump extended America’s quarantine guidelines, Tyler Beaver, the 31-year-old founder of brokerage Beaf Cattle Co., couldn’t get hold of the rations that feed his clients’ cows. He’d already tried sellers in the traditional producing areas of the U.S. such as Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, only to find they were mostly sold out. Soon, in a bid to connect his customers with a feed mill still willing to sell, he changed strategy and tried to pull feed from the Delta region, hundreds of miles away — again without luck.

    Just as virus-spooked consumers have rushed to grocery stores to stockpile everything from toilet paper to pasta, farmers raising America’s cattle, hogs, and chickens have filled their bins with feed, fearing the spread of the coronavirus would disrupt their supply chains. “I’ve had some calls from customers of mine looking for feed because the mills are out,” says the Fayetteville, Ark.-based Beaver. “There’s a rush to buy just because of the uncertainty in the market. They just don’t want to be caught without.”

    Keeping America’s 95 million cows, 77 million pigs, and 9 billion chickens fed isn’t as simple as it may seem. Farmers are worried their feed mills could close as employees get sick or that their slaughterhouses could slow production, forcing them to keep animals for longer. They’re also concerned that a shortage of trucks, which are being waylaid to supply supermarkets, could make it harder for farm supplies to reach them.

    Even the plunge in gasoline demand affects the feed supply. As ethanol plants shut down — because the fuel additive isn’t needed when gas isn’t selling — the animal feed market is being starved of an important ingredient called dried distillers grains (DDGs) that are a byproduct of ethanol production. Distillers grain is a key ingredient in rations for beef cattle and dairy cows.​
     
  10. Phil Elliott

    Phil Elliott 2,500+ Posts

    And the media called people out of work during Obama's term "funemployment".
     
    • Funny Funny x 2
  11. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    I think that was in response to folks being furloughed, rather unemployed. Still.
     
  12. Chop

    Chop 10,000+ Posts

    Specialized agriculture is efficient, but the old-style (mostly) self-sufficient farms weren’t so vulnerable to supply chain problems. Long gone are the days where there were mostly small farmers who both farmed some cash crops and also raised some pigs, chickens, and/or cows (for personal consumption and cash), with a big vegetable garden and maybe a little orchard.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  13. LongestHorn

    LongestHorn 2,500+ Posts

  14. Phil Elliott

    Phil Elliott 2,500+ Posts

    McH, I am not sure I follow your comment. Are you saying the "f" in "funemployment" was to distinguish furloughed from unemployed? If so, that is not correct:

    Funemployment

    For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome
     
  15. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

    I recall similar articles talking about the benefits of being furloughed (taking every Friday or every other Friday off). These were mostly state employment jobs but it hit some private industry jobs as well.
     
  16. mb227

    mb227 de Plorable

    With the crap you spread, your garden must be SPEC-TACULAR!
     
    • Funny Funny x 2
    • Winner Winner x 1
  17. Musburger1

    Musburger1 2,500+ Posts

  18. LongestHorn

    LongestHorn 2,500+ Posts

  19. mchammer

    mchammer 10,000+ Posts

  20. Monahorns

    Monahorns 5,000+ Posts

    • Agree Agree x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
    • Winner Winner x 1
  21. Horn6721

    Horn6721 10,000+ Posts

    Was there any needs test? Were all 6,000 truly in need? If so then good
    But this from the link,
    "Families in need waited hours to get their hands on fresh fruit, vegetables and other non-perishable goods that have become hard to find in traditional stores as panic-buying leaves shelves empty. "
    suggests maybe some were there with a different motive
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  22. LongestHorn

    LongestHorn 2,500+ Posts

     
    • poop poop x 2
  23. Musburger1

    Musburger1 2,500+ Posts

    Well, if it makes you feel better, it says they waited in line for hours. How much fun can that be? So if they received, say $200 worth of groceries in five hours, that’s about $40 an hour. And while they performed no service and produced nothing, one can argue waiting in line for hours is kind of like work.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  24. Garmel

    Garmel 5,000+ Posts

    I'd probably find that funny if I was in the 5th grade. Unfortunately, that's about where the modern left is at.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  25. Horn6721

    Horn6721 10,000+ Posts

    They received enough food for the rest of the month
    If any slacker who did need it took food away from someone who really needs it the slackers should be ashamed
    Of course people who do that have no shame
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  26. Musburger1

    Musburger1 2,500+ Posts

    I agree, but what can you do? Have a government official have each person document they are destitute?
     
  27. Austin_Bill

    Austin_Bill 2,500+ Posts

    • Like Like x 1
  28. Garmel

    Garmel 5,000+ Posts

    I'd bet someone money that most of those people were democrat voters.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  29. Musburger1

    Musburger1 2,500+ Posts

    How come the people at the food banks are considered as sucking the government’s teat, but the CEO of Boeing and the hedge fund managers being bailed out by the federal reserve relieving them of their junk bonds are deserving capitalists essential to the well being of America? What’s the difference?
     
  30. LongestHorn

    LongestHorn 2,500+ Posts

    The Wall Street editorial board is a notoriously conservative group, usually supporting conservative policies and Republican presidents.

    So, when the WSJ writes an op-ed hammering the sitting GOP president, it's worth standing up and taking notice.

    Except on West Mall. And TexAgs.

    Fake News!
     

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