RE-discussionExcellent points raised and parallels a lot of my own thinking. Its not rocket science but hard core
basic understanding of how businesses work and make profits. Operating at 1/2 speed with extra
costs which may not be able to be passed on to a spending conscious public is not going to cut
it for the vast amount of smaller and medium sized businesses.
At the best of times businesses need to operate at full capacity, and at maximum efficiency levels
in order to generate enough returns to make it worthwhile. There are periods of slow times in
every business but nothing like what they are experiencing today.
This does not bode well for the overall economy. The other part is the unemployment rate that
will continue to be a weight. This will be a drag on the consumer spenidng cycle that is the
underpinning of any economy. Exports can not make up for this lag. This is a world wide
problem so there is no magic bullet to fall back on.
One other point is taxation. Both federal and municpal gov'ts will be cash starved for revenue
to pay for all the services and entitlement programs that people expect. So taxation levels
cannot be rolled back to reflect this new "normal"(I hate the term because its anything but normal)
At some point the ugly reality that gov'ts can't hold the whole system up forever will dawn on
the markets and that is what I fear and am trying to prepare for. I am praying for a vaccine
to bail the system out but prayers are not always answered on a timely basis.