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Bolsonaro is playing a reckless game of chicken and he is dragging the Brazilian people along for the ride.
COVID-19 was slow to hit Latin America as the first case in Latin American case was not confirmed until Feb. 26 in Brazil. It has escalated sharply in March.
Brazil’s health minister, contrasting the number of beds with the rapid spread of the disease, said on March 20: “Clearly, by the end of April, our health system will collapse.”
Of course, Bolsonaro has expressed dissatisfaction with the Health Minister who is a doctor and the only cabinet member who refused to condone the president's stupid theories about the pandemic.
Bolsonaro has sought to downplay the pandemic as a "fantasy" and "hysteria" promoted by the media to weaken the government.
Despite warnings by public health experts, he recently called on his supporters to join pro-government protests in cities across the country.
"On the day of the march, Bolsonaro personally greeted hundreds of supporters in front of the presidential palace while still waiting for his own virus test results (they eventually came back negative), after more than a dozen of his advisors had tested positive following a trip to the United States."
The protests in Brazil that destroyed/ended the presidencies of Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer could place Bolsonaro in a similar fate.
I was in Brazil in 2014 when the Petrobras scandal was unfolding and I remember the deep sense of outrage many Brazilians rightly felt about that. The Covid 19 pandemic has the potential to make that look like child's play.
I'd rather not have my property rights violated, my business tanked and millions of others thrown out of jobs so an 80 year old can live to see 83. That is reality.
More than 1/3 of the population has one or more conditions that predisposes them to complications. And they are not all elderly.
Just curious Frank, what kind of business are you in?
Trump is nationalizing industries. Federal relief is being deployed to corporations by the Fed as we speak. Globalist Trump looking to consolidate power under a single governmental authority that is de facto controlled by corporations. Stalin.
Same thing was said about Bush and Obama.
Beneficiaries of TARP paid back loans with interest.
In terms of globalism...
With less than 5% of the world’s population, the US consumes 35% of global resources. We do not have the population size to sustain this. So the choices are:
Import labor, and/ or
Import stuff, and, or
Reduce ( significantly) our consumption
Given our economy is substantially dependent on the latter, a drastic reduction in consumption has serious consequences.
Government subsidies =/= nationalization. If you want to know what nationalizing an industry is like then look at Cuba or Venezuela.
It is customary to take an equity stake / lien future income in exchange for a loan.
A secured loan, say a mortgage or car loan, gives the lender or its assignee an interest in the underlying collateral and your future income. Depending on your state, most mortgages and auto loans are recourse loans. This means the the borrower remains responsible for outstanding debt in excess of the value of the asset upon resale.
People must stop speculating and just look at what we actually know about the economy as we deal with COVID-19:
- Balance sheets are healthy.
- The challenges that businesses see are cashflow. That's not a hard problem to solve.
- The Fed has already backstopped tightening of not just treasuries, but all government bonds.
- Depression is extremely unlikely. So unlikely that it's not even considered as a risk by economists.
- Recession is most likely and wouldn't be as impactful as a depression.
- Looking at the economics, in a depression scenario, access to food would be isolated and would not impact 1% of the population across the board. Those isolated areas have existing issues today and they are known. To alleviate any food shortage concern, we (and others that are well off) should make sure distribution of food to people without it is improved.
- We've been at worse risk, economically, and came back profoundly strong. We'll do it again.
- It's too early to fully understand the impact of the virus, but the Trump Administration, Congress, Doctors, and Scientists agree that there's a reason to have concern and act appropriately. It's already stressing out infrastructure in certain areas.
Times like these it's important to be rational. Pushing unnecessary over-dramatizing of fear of economic collapse is unwarranted and unfruitful.
I would agree with you, and I would like to agree with you, but until you can describe the scenario where COVID 19 disappears, these conditions will persist and flare up at least periodically. There is no escape hatch. Social distancing could be the norm for years to come. Public gatherings and public entertainment make up a big percent of our economy. If we come up with a vaccine that is at least 80% effective, then I'd say then we can relax a bit. But even a vaccine won't solve our larger healthcare issue. And the next wave of bird flu rips through in 3 or 5 or 7 years and we have to spend another $10 trillion to pay the piper. We have a lot of issues to deal with here.
So for you it goes:
“To save our economy, I throw our elderly and sick fellow Americans into the meat grinder, but those damn illegals amirite? ( <obligatory mad face)”
I figured since your so American you’d look to protect ALL AMERICAN LIVES.
So what is it? Sacrifice lives for the economy? Or sacrifice the economy a but to save lives?
Either way we’re all gonna hurt. Depends if you want the pain to be economical stress or national grief...
And either way, we’re gonna get hit hard economically. Only difference is if people still get to see their loved ones after all this.
Get lost with your rhetoric, misinterpretation of what I mean, spin of the actual truth and your race card. Buh, bye.
This is 100% right. We need hope and plans of moving forward. We need things to look forward to. Not just constant panic.
I do not want anyone to lose their grandmother. Grandma need to be protected. The only want is through hand washing. By her and her family that are there to help. No one else can protect her.
Exactly.
Here's what I think needs to be done.
By mid or late April most non-essential businesses should be allowed to re-open under limited circumstances. Which means a skeleton staff that uses protective gear while working and requiring customers to do the same. Limiting how many customers can be in the store at one time also. Seniors with health issues and the vulnerable should still remain at home and only go out for essentials using protective gear and with designated senior times. Social distancing of a few feet should still be practiced.
This will get our economy moving at least at a slow pace and many Americans returning to their jobs with protective gear in place.
Anyone who finds fault with this is not dealing in reality and is still in an unwarranted panic mode.
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<obligatory mad face)”