I just came from outside to take in the garbage can only to see a huge amount of traffic on the main road. Okay, what the hell is going on?
The death toll in the US has hit a new single day record. Due to testing and the rabid desire amongst people to go out, there is a dark possibility we will be looking back on this as a low water mark of sorts. Look, I hope not, but the NYC death toll as of this typing is just shy of 11,500 and we are far from over. There has been talk of a group of people in New Jersey organizing a protest against the shut in. Lovely. That attitude is all over Michigan right now and it seems to be right about time for things to start getting itchy in terms of emotions.
The stock market is just gushing right now and I cannot fathom it. It is no secret that the US economy is deeply based in consumption, on buying things. Some estimates say that it is around 80+%. What in the hell are people buying NOW?? Home building has slowed the most since one point in 1984. The housing market was booming again and there was a shortage of homes. This is going to get a bit bonkers when even some of the dust settles by mid-May. Credit card debt, already a bubble before this pandemic, is now being hit like they were in the crash of 2008. With unemployment so high, I cannot see this getting any better and, when the full ache of all this begins to show once the panic has slowed down, a crisis will ensue.
It kind of boils down to this: people and businesses were taking out loans based on what had been happening. That debt, insane by most rational minds, seemed fine and dandy when expecting a "same as yesterday" future. But now that people are not spending, jobs are being lost, and oil is at record lows, well, there is little coal to fuel the engines that were running at a breakneck speed. How is anyone going to get a loan when the odds of paying it back are horrible. How can a business that is carrying six times its value in debt, say a national guitar and music instrument chain, get money to refinance a business that is going to be bleeding like a firehose for the next few years? Alas, there is always money to be made and the super wealthy shall always exist endnote feel any pain. Don't believe me? Three words: The Great Gatsby.
It is cold out and I cannot figure out what season it is. We are in what, April? What does that even mean anymore? Every day seems like a blob ascending from the bottom of a lava lamp. Why the hell are so many cars on the street? Where are people going? I have no clue about this. There have been over 450 cases in my town alone as of two days ago. Okay, well, the odds have it that you will be fine. True. That being said, I went to the Post Office yesterday and the place had transformed into something between an ICU and a commercial refrigerator. There was a huge sheet of plastic between the place where the counter starts and the workers. All the workers had on gloves and masks. Most people had on masks. AND THIS IS THE POST OFFICE! THE POST OFFICE! It is impossible to overstate how insane it all looked. So, yeah, you may not get sick, but....yeah, if the POST OFFICE is looking like an outtake of the movie "12 Monkeys", you may want to have a pause before you go to the 7-11 because you are bored.
I can tell that it is going to be hard to sleep tonight. I believe that the last remnants of the old world are burning off and that the anxiety of this unknown future is going to start rising.
Whatever, I can always take a nap at some point, right?
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