A Deep Recession in Our Future?
My stock broker sent me his company’s quarterly report that, as usual, is so bland and noncommittal as to be very difficult to stay awake through.
I never put too much faith in this type of forecasting, and especially not now. No one seems to be predicting this, but I don’t see why it’s so improbable that we’ll have a severe recession and possible depression as it becomes ever more clear that COVID-19 has:
- Wiped out millions of small businesses, shattering the net worth (and dreams) of all those entrepreneurs
- Put a permanent end to things like shopping malls, retail banking and probably dozens of other industry segments
- Crippled the U.S. far worse than the rest of the world, given our ignorant and reckless refusal to accept the advice of pandemic experts
- Permanently converted a large segment of the work force to stay-at-home, hurting productivity, not to mention morale, sanity, and sobriety
- Made it hard for many of these 40 million displaced workers to find employment again in a reasonable time frame
- Acted as the catalyst to drive the fossil fuel industry into the grave (not that that’s a bad thing)
- Delivered the final death blow to the “American Empire” that was on its way out anyway, even before Trump’s bumbling helped China put us in the ground.
If I were more exposed to equities right now I’d be very worried.
