Investing (aka GameStonk and other gambling events)

Real estate agents in the US are usually 100% commission. No need for sacking.

Well, no, a good stimulus bill. Freezing rent & mortgages and at least $1K/mo UBI for every adult, with another $500 per child. They need to pass a bill to prove that the working people will be taken care of, because they are the engine of the economy. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it needs to show the right motivation and be very good - get us most of the way there. They can come back and fix some stuff around the margins in a week, right now they just need to pass something big that is in the right direction to pump some certainty and stability into the equation.

It’s like they have a race car, and it’s on fire and slowing to a halt with smoke billowing from it, and they’re like, “Hmm, maybe if we add a nice new exhaust system it’ll fix our problems.”

No, dummies, grab a fucking hose!

“Well, the exhaust didn’t do it. What if we dropped a Ferrari engine into this sucker, that would do it!”

No, you assholes, grab a fucking fire truck!!! YOUR CAR IS ON FIRE!!!

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Money is not magic. Working people are the engine of the economy because of the work they do.

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Don’t tell me my car is on fire, peasant. I went to Harvard!

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And the money they spend too.

Yes, because that results in other people working.

The issue is that when this is over, whether it’s in 3 months, 6 months, a year, whatever, we don’t know what condition that engine will be in.

Will people be unemployed, broke, underwater in debt, homeless? Unemployment at 25-40%? If so, we’re looking at maybe a 10 year recovery. Maybe worse.

Will people be furloughed, but still in the same homes with ~the same or manageable debt, ready to resume their old lives? Unemployment at 10-15% with the other 10-25% instantly rehired? If so, we’re looking at maybe a year or two to get back to where we were.

We’ve got to keep people afloat so that when we press play, the pieces are still in place and able to return to work.

Of course there’s also the moral aspect of it, you know, keeping people fed, clothed and housed… But obviously Trump, the GOP, Wall Street, the wealthy, etc, mostly don’t care about that, so I’m focused on the cold hard economic situation in this context.

So how is Jim Cramer an essential worker, exactly?

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It’s not a belief, it’s a fact.

As the living mascot of CNBC, I think he actually sleeps under that desk. He just pops out in the morning and switches his jammies for a suit and tie. Last time he stepped out into the real world, Jon Stewart bitch slapped him so hard he resolved to never go outside again.

Serious answer: he’s basically alone in a studio so it doesn’t piss me off too much, it’s possible their studios are legit in his building or the next building over or something, or that he’s sleeping in the offices there. I haven’t seen what real news networks are doing, but I’m sure they’re all going to keep a couple people in their studios for the duration because from a technical perspective, all these remote connections they’re using are at a higher risk of having technical issues and you do need one person in the studio just in case.

You’re not wrong, but economists have learned this One Neat Trick where increasing the money supply has real and observable economic impacts. So it is kind of magic, but if overplayed it becomes an obvious magic trick with not great outcomes.

It works for sure when the fundamental problem is lack of confidence or liquidity. When the problem is people are closed off in their apartments it doesn’t magically make work happen.

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You are wrong on this.

I’m not saying it’s a good system. But this is certainly how our system works and you are wrong if you believe otherwise.

Agreed. This has been expressed elsewhere as they are trying to use economic crisis tools to fix what is essentially a war time type crisis. That may be too glib but it brings true to me.

This is true imo. And perhaps some reorganization takes place that is good. I’m worried that under the circumstances any reorganization will be bad.

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Yeah like a huge part of the American economy is a huge game of financial musical chairs, but the music never stops, they keep taking away more and more chairs, and 90% of people never glance over to see how few chairs they are. Now the music is about to stop, and everyone is looking over and realizing WAAF.

So basically I think we’re all in relative agreement that none of us think this system is right/best/proper/good. But what Jbro is telling you is that, despite how he wants it to be, this is the way it is right now.

Like I think ~everyone on this forum would snap call for an economic system more in line with literally any other western democracy, we might bicker over the fine print details, but I think we’d all be pretty thrilled to wake up tomorrow in say Germany’s system, France’s system, Canada’s system, etc.

So is the Fed just going to have to do the stimulus on their own? I’m seeing chatter they’re just going to make forgivable loans with money they create.

Awesome. More money for share buybacks.

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