Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Theroadlesstravelled]

This is equally as cringey as that Jocko DJ -

 

 

[welshbairn]

58 minutes ago, ArabianKnight said:

Great video I watched earlier. Seems to me to make a lot of sense.  Guy has done his research and this isn't any tin foil hat nonsense. 

 

 

Someone no longer having her picture on a website doesn't amount to proof of anything for me. Him saying it's well researched and not tin hat doesn't make it so.

Edited April 20, 2020 by welshbairn

[Fullerene]

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

You end up with hyperinflation. The money people have becomes worth much less and prices sky rocket.

Following WW1 Germany printed money to pay off its war debts. In the end, children played with huge bundles of banknotes worth trillions of Marks as they were absolutely worthless.

See also Zimbabwe.

You take bags of money to the supermarket to buy something you can put in your wallet.

[SmudgePop]

On 22/01/2020 at 15:47, Honest Saints Fan said:

I wear a lovely surgical mask when travelling. It's got a nice purple pattern on it. Need to look good...

Did you buy it or did you make it and customize? Does it have filter for protection? TIA

[Mon_The_Fife]

That’s lockdown over here extended for another 5 days until Monday 27th at 11.59pm. An extra few days of FIFA and beers for me then!

[MONKMAN]

I know a few younger people who vote for the tories. The idiots somehow think that because they’re mortgaged our their eyeballs in a 3 bed detached new build, with a leased bmw in the drive, that they’re somehow middle class. Strange behaviour.

 

Also ****, **** vote Tory to “save the union”.

 

[throbber]

I worked for a Tory between the year 2007-2012 on and off and it was only after I left and got a bit of life experience that I realised that’s what he was. Would not recommend if you require money to pay for things.

Edited April 20, 2020 by throbber

[Mastermind]

7 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Where’s the PM m8?

Still in hiding?

 

We independent yet m8?

[Turkmenbashi]

7 hours ago, ICTJohnboy said:

Half a million English live in Scotland.

Lovely people of course, but perhaps just a tad politically naive.

No need for that.

We have plenty of our own home grown idiots. Many of English here, are perfectly decent non-Tory people.

[madwullie]

8 hours ago, Mastermind said:

Brutal. Makes Mhari Black look eloquent. 

TBF to the guy, he's a published author, won the Orwell (?) Prize, has been on QT a number of times amongst other accolades. Meanwhile you guys are low grade trolls on a football website. Quality  

[dirty dingus]

4 hours ago, Fullerene said:

You take bags of money to the supermarket to buy something you can put in your wallet.

Tesco selling Charlie?

[Jacksgranda]

8 hours ago, pandarilla said:

I'd like to see this discussion play out a bit more (along with the nurses pics).

Every instinct i have says they're has to be long term and very damaging consequences to this. But I'm generally pretty clueless on economics so I'm happy to be persuaded.

What are the main reasons that we can't keep borrowing /printing money? And why do you guys (and a couple of others) think that doesn't need to apply?

Same here.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

15 minutes ago, madwullie said:

TBF to the guy, he's a published author, won the Orwell (?) Prize, has been on QT a number of times amongst other accolades. Meanwhile you guys are low grade trolls on a football website. Quality  

Plus he doesn’t hide in fridges or country houses when the first sign of taking responsibility happens.

[ICTJohnboy]

15 minutes ago, Turkmenbashi said:

No need for that.

We have plenty of our own home grown idiots. Many of English here, are perfectly decent non-Tory people.

 

I wouldn't dispute that. Quite a few of our own "home grown idiots" regularly present themselves on here from time to time!

Might be interesting all the same if some kind of meaningful survey could be undertaken, as to how non- Scots currently resident in Scotland have voted in past elections, including referendums, and what their future voting intentions might be.

[jagfox]

[Bairnardo]

A few smoggies I know, and use as a barometer for the mood in the North East of England have managed to turn Coronavirus into a race relations thing, claiming that it's only the daft immigrants that cant follow the rules, and even dropped the classic "your only not racist cos they havent reached your country yet" line.

Some boys the English.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, pandarilla said:

I'd like to see this discussion play out a bit more (along with the nurses pics).

Every instinct i have says they're has to be long term and very damaging consequences to this. But I'm generally pretty clueless on economics so I'm happy to be persuaded.

What are the main reasons that we can't keep borrowing /printing money? And why do you guys (and a couple of others) think that doesn't need to apply?

Sterling devalued and inflation coupled with your credit rating being downgraded which means Government borrowing becomes much more expensive.

There will already be huge repercussions that will undoubtedly mean wage freezes, loss of bonuses and possibly even wage cuts for many.  You'd also expect taxes to increase along with an extra couple of percent on NI as someone will have to pay for this and that will most likely be the working classes as usual.

People generally seem rather gullible and placid these days so I'm pretty sure the government will get away with another major round of austerity which will last at least a decade.

This will see the salary gap from top to bottom widen again and the billionaires become even richer (due to the markets being propped up) and on the opposite side of the coin there will be many working poor and high unemployment.

Oh well, another cheery post from myself if nothing else and I do honestly hope that I'm wrong.

Edited April 20, 2020 by WATTOO

[jagfox]

Coronavirus: Plasma treatment to be trialled

 

[pandarilla]

From what I've read by people who ought to know on the left and right, if we don't borrow and spend our way through this we won't have an economy to come back to. There's little point in the country having less debt if we have 30% unemployment by July and catastrophically less money in the system.

Printing money is a risk, but it's not correct to be as black and white as 'printing money = catastrophe'. For example, the Japanese economy has done fine out of the central bank using money out of thin air to buy up government bonds. There are a lot of factors involved in that, but it's not the case that printing money always leads to disaster. America's current approach is similar to the Japanese model, for example.
As for borrowing, interest rates are extremely low just now, meaning, in simple terms, that it's a great time to borrow money. This will obviously lead to a huge spike in national debt, but governments may reasonably come to the conclusion that that's better than dealing with the economic and social consequences of a large percentage of the public losing their jobs: How can the public help a recovery when they have no job and no savings?
Huge debt levels can be handled. It just relies on smart policy. The approach to debt in the west after World War 2 was largely very different to post-WW1, and much more successful. Generally speaking, austerity (such as post WW1 Britain) to deal with this kind of thing proved to be a bad idea as it simply slowed output and made the problem worse. The whole point is that you borrow to prop up the economy and then accept that it's a shit situation and we need to wait quite a while to bring the debt back down to levels we are happy with. Governments could also implement financial repression, where they force banks etc to lend to them on terms that favour the government. 
Handled well, a massive increase in debt needn't be much of a problem. If that debt has ensured the public come out of this with disposable income, then they are ready to go shopping once it's over and get the economy moving again. It may cause a rise in inflation if governments choose some version of printing money to accompany borrowing, but short-term that's not going to lead to a Zimbabwe situation.
So, I think the government will continue to borrow their way out of this. Certain newspapers will bang on about rising national debt, but it's not really something to panic about, especially when compared to the alternative.

2 excellent posts.

I teach hyperinflation in secondary schools and it's my favourite topic. I know the basics, and the statistics surrounding the price of bread blow their little minds. But the conversation always goes to a place where i fell less qualified (they ask good qs, and i admit when i don't know the answer). The best question i ever got was, 'why didn't they just buy rolls?'

I get that qi has been very similar (except it was used to prop up the fucking rich) , and we've managed to keep inflation under control. But how long could this borrowing last?

Surely if other countries are trading and getting going and we're still in lockdown printing money shit will happen eventually.

In the short term, we obviously need to borrow our way out. But could we pay everything on tick for the medium term - into a number of years?

[Fullerene]

9 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

Scots are voting for the Tories because they think Labour and SNP are worse.

There is no other explanation.

In any country there are some people who are instinctively right wing.  They believe in a smaller state and lower taxes.  They believe in the police and the armed forces to protect them from other people.  They think you get nothing in this life and if you want to get anywhere you have to do it yourself.

Not my point of view but I have met plenty of people like that.  Some are Scottish.  Some have lived in Scotland all of their lives.

For these people the Tories are always a good fit even at their worst.  These people would never consider voting Labour nor would they care much for Nicola Sturgeon.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Fullerene