Politics Before Polity
"#StimulusChecksNOW" was trending on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, if that tells you anything about the mood in the US, where lawmakers spent another day debating the details of a virus relief package, while delivering the customary smattering of upbeat soundbites.
"[We're] still talking and I think we're gonna get there," Mitch McConnell said, while speaking to reporters. The Senate has been asked to make itself available over the weekend in case it takes until Friday to get a House vote.
"We
The only way Pelosi has a chance at maintaining optionality for additional stimulus in 2021-2023 is by stonewalling McConnell’s liability waivers. One he gets Senate control, and this corporate shield from all responsibility, he will not have a single incentive to “work” for the next two years.
H-Man, stay the course. Politics affects markets, spin your tale on politics but keep anchored to investments. What does politics have to do with markets? You tell me.
With this meek FED, political dysfunction (like H describes) is “good” for markets, until it isn’t. McConnell knows this as well as anyone.
Knowing that a high ranking member of the current administration says behind closed doors that the machinery of the state will be used to infect more people will help you put the mismanagement of this crisis in perspective. This article is very much tied to markets: you need a fiscal, monetary, and health response to recover from the pandemic. This article highlights we’re getting effective monetary action and that there is no intention to protect the population at large.
What does politics have to do with markets?? EVERYTHING! When the only constituent the Senate Majority Leader seems to care about are corporations, and thus he only is willing to allow the legislative process to occur when it’s beneficial to those constituents, well I’d say that has market impacts.
In high school, we had to read “A Man For All Seasons”, about Sir Thomas More living his moral and intellectual convictions until the petty rulers around him killed him for doing so. Wiki explains: “All people in positions of power — King Henry, Cromwell, Wolsey, Cranmer, Chapuys, even Norfolk — are depicted as being either corrupt, evil, or at best expedient and power-hungry.”
We should teach this play again in high school, so when a student asks “Which of the bad guys was trump like?” , the teacher can answer “All of them”. Ditto McConell, the Silent Republicans, this yokel Alexander, and the rest of the gilded Dementors.
The trump administration and Congress, for four years, has been like watching the Broadway adaptation of A Man For All Seasons – but with the character of Sir Thomas More simply absent from the stage. The rest just wander about in costume, dispensing banal evil, until the audience gets tired and goes home.
I love the use of a play for an analogy! The movie looks quite good, as well. I’ll have to check it out.
Great comment!
Released in 1966, “A Man for All Seasons” won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 39th Academy Awards, as well as the Oscar for Best Director (Fred Zinnemann) and Best Actor (Paul Scofield). It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Best British Film.
I fear the democrats are clueless enough to pass a watered down stimulus bill and let the republicans off the hook in Georgia.
Clueless or backed into a corner?
We’ve come so far. It would be so great to win in Georgia.
KKK Barbie and Day Trader Davey are both beatable. It’ll be close.
KKK Barbie … ? … got a good laugh on that…! … let’s go, Georgia …
The herd immunity strategy was tried in Sweden. Didn’t work out so well, did it?
As well, the herd immunity concept assumes no lasting effects on the health of the infected and “cured” younger cohort.
But for those who still advocate keeping businesses open no matter what, you should carefully watch Indonesia which is about to embark down a similar path. They plan to give preference to inoculating younger people to build herd immunity. We’ll see, but it is a bit more humane than “doctor” Alexander’s strategy. (To be fair, back in June the vaccinate the young option was not yet available.)
Interesting stats”
Sweden:
Population – 10.2 million
Total Covid Positives – 349,000
Total Covid Deaths – 7,800
Los Angeles County:
Population – 10.0 million
Total Covid Positives – 566,000
Total Covid Deaths – 8,600
But Sweden does have 37x the land area…