Tom Toles for May 10, 2020

This is a reference to a market concept called “the dead cat bounce”. I hope Toles got it wrong: A dead cat bounce is when, during a long decline, prices rise, briefly, before the decline resumes. (Investopedia). I’d much prefer a partial recovery that keeps on recovering! I’m fearful that he got it right, though: by opening too soon, we are setting ourselves up for a second wave of disease and the effect it will have on the economy.

The best hopes were for a V or U recovery but now a W is likely due to COVID-19 spiking and hopefully NOT an L (recession). This all could have been avoided with an expedited deployment of WHO testing while we developed our own tests (as other, more advanced, nations were able to do).

That will be entrails and blood running on the ground.

Let’s be crystal clear on this: Regardless of what blissfully ignorant rhetoric emerges from the mouth of the self-proclaimed “stable genius”, hope is not a strategy! We need hard facts, good science, and clear communication from the top. The hard facts and good science are readily available from people who know what they’re talking about, but this idiot manages to mangle them beyond all recognition — and unfortunately way too many Americans believe whatever garbage he happens to be spewing on any given day.

Dead cats make for smelly, messy landings….

If that’s Schrödinger’s cat, we have nothing to worry about.

Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road Stinkin’ to High Heaven!” – Loudon Wainwright

Is this your cat? No, my cat isn’t flat.

Trump says a lot of thing, and this economy will hit the ground, but not runnning, but with a huge and bigly THUD!

I am ready to go out and spend as soon as this is over. But will it ever be over, that is the question.

And now the a.s.soul is getting his hands on our TSP accounts. Sigh.

“. . . [H]it the ground running”? If so, it’ll be running like a nose runs.

(Take-off on “Macavity: The Mystery Cat,” by T. S. Eliot)

“Mac-travesty: the Catastrophic Cat”

Mac-travesty’s an audacious cat, he rules with sharpened claws,

For he’s a roguish president who oft defies the nation’s laws.

He’s the sworn bane of FBI, and the Democrats’ despair —

For when they call him out on crimes, the DOJ cries, “Not Fair!”

.

Mac-travesty, Mac-travesty, behaves like no other prez in History.

His arrogance and ignorance have brought us near catastrophe!

His doctors give him sane advice, the CDC does much the same,

But he goes with his gut instinct, then never ever takes the blame.

And when bad economic “mews” his cheery claims frustrates,

He takes the poor honest cat by its tail and it defenestrates.

.

Mac-travesty’s great prophecies are made with native cunning.

He predicts the Economic Cat thus thrown will bounce and take off running.

But will the Cat’s present harsh trajectory make it truly ricochet

Straight upward in V-shaped line, or splat flat on the ground and stay?

The Fancy Feast and Meow Mix stimuli fed the Business Cat Elite

Are more filling than the bare fish bones thrown to cats on the Main Street.

.

Economists may speculate upon the kitty’s doom or other fate.

Do they hold up their writ scorecards to its performance scale to rate?

Mac-travesty meanwhile has so many other smelly fishy things to do —

He has environmental regs to waive, and perceived enemies to screw.

And his fat cat Barr has scratched a way in his litter box to uncover a win

By rewriting an old cliche to read instead, “Out Like Flynn.”

The economy grew at a weak 2.1% the 4th Qtr of 2019 BEFORE Coronavirus. The Trump Recession is going to be worse than the Bush Recession.

We saw what happened when there were only a few (relatively) contagious folk.. now, just a guess there are a lot more wandering the streets.. bars and workplaces. Nothing has changed folk.. except perhaps the ICU has geared up with PPE and is ready for another batch..

Reminds me of the story about the two brothers that lived together. The one brother had just returned home and the other brother says, “Your cat is Dead”. This upsets the brother and he yells, “Don’t just say it’s dead! Ease me into the bad news by saying like the cat was up a tree and you called the fire department to get it down and then it gone ran over by the firetruck as it was leaving. Never mind the cat, how’s Mom at the nursing home ?”

The brother doesn’t want to upset his brother again so he says, “Mom’s up a tree”.

The economists don’t want to tell Trump HIS economy is dead.

“Hope” is all these golems profess to have. And they don’t believe in it for a New York City second. I hope they learn the hard way that gold 1) can’t buy clean air, water, and wholesome food, and B) is inedible and therefore not worth as much as they believe.

Our Economy’s Trajectory – {4 beats/line}

Our economy’s a Covid-strangled cat

which’ll crash and burn and limply go “Splat!!”

and then it’ll lie quite inert on the mat

where the Trumpian promise has fallen flat.

… Coda:

All will be hurt but the Plutocrat

who gains from the deeds of an autocrat.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The reality is no president could have handled this. And because we still have too many unknowns, in retrospect, a high percentage of responses will turn out to have been wrong. But most presidents would not spout readily disproved lies and try to take ongoing premature victory laps where there wasn’t a victory.

Let’s get real here; everything that depends on a Trump decision turns to shit. Has he ever made a decision that benefited anyone else? Everyone who comes in contact with him comes out diminished and discredited. He has destroyed and damaged many policies, agreements, and treaties, without building anything new. He is a destroyer, not a creator. NAFTA.2? It was NAFTA with some improvements provided by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic House. Easy to tear down something someone else has built. But, as he has famously said, he has total authority, but takes no responsibility.

The economy is the only thing that “just disappeared.” It didn’t even have to wait for the warmer weather.

Republicans killed the USA with their lying and denying. Stop voting for them.

Poor cat.

It’s a mineshaft cat. When you see that it has died, it’s time to get out of the damned mine before your turn comes up.

Economists don’t do what Tom has depicted. They observe and model.

Paul Krugman Blasts Donald Trump, Republican Party: ‘We Are Ruled By Quitters’

In a series of tweets published on Saturday, award-winning economist Paul Krugman blasted President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, reports Raw Story.

Krugman criticized Trump and Republicans’ response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, describing them as “quitters.” The Nobel Prize-winning economist amplified a post by Andy Slavitt, who ran the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for former President Barack Obama, writing that the United States “finally started to implement a real strategy to cope with Covid-19 — then Republicans just gave up.”

“We are ruled by quitters,” he noted, explaining that it is not only the response to the public health crisis that has been inadequate, but also the administration’s handling of the economy. After initially providing some economic relief to workers and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Trump and allies have basically put a hold on policy,” Krugman wrote.

According to the economist, Republicans do not seem to have a coherent strategy to fight the unprecedented crises caused by COVID-19. Instead, despite the fact that the virus is still spreading, they appear to believe that the economy will rebound on its own once the country reopens. The actions Trump has taken amid the coronavirus pandemic also reflect his “deep psychological insecurity,” Krugman tweeted.

“All the evidence suggests that he has no faith in his own ability to make actual policy. That is, he’s deathly afraid of being called on to actually be a president, as opposed to playing one on TV. “

Krugman — who writes a column for The New York Times — concluded that Trump and Republicans’ inaction will have catastrophic consequences for the United States.

https://www.inquisitr.com/6045025/paul-krugman-donald-trump-republicans-quitters/