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This is yer Friday heads up, ahead of the weekend.<\/p>\n
Joe Biden has announced that he will be promulgating his stimulus plan, which includes $1400 checks to supplement the $600 checks that went out in December or January or Saturnalia, or whatever. The full package total comes to $1.9 trillion, instead of the near-impossible $4 trillions he had originally proposed last week.<\/p>\n
However, AOC has a problem with it: she \u201cthinks\u201d (huh?) the stimulus checks should be larger, as in $2,000. Apparently, simple arithmetic \u2013 meaning Joe’s $1,400 offer to make up the difference between $600 in December and Trump\u2019s proposal for $2,000 \u2013 is beyond her. And she has a degree in economics, or something, so she’s got that going for her, right? Right?<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/01\/14\/biden-wants-to-raise-stimulus-checks-to-2000-how-payments-will-work.html<\/a><\/p>\n What Biden proposes is generous, indeed, but no one is looking further than next Thorstag, which is the day before Frejastag, and yes, it will help a lot of people who are literally hurtin\u2019 for certain since the shutdown started last year.\u00a0\u00a0The problem is that not one of those clowndog Democrats in WDC thinks any further ahead than next month or maybe two months ahead, max. The rest of us, whether we run businesses or not, have to look further ahead than the next six weeks.<\/p>\n We\u2019re in a recession, which is not lightening anyone\u2019s load right now. It will be prolonged, and likely become more painful over the next three years, so just where is this money to come from if 6.7% of taxpayers are out of work and there are no taxes to be had from them? Unemployment is now<\/em> at 6.7% nationwide. The unemployment rates vary from state to state, which you can check on here:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/web\/laus\/lauhsthl.html<\/a><\/p>\n If you recall what I said last week about retail chains closing their doors or reducing their outlet numbers, partly due to online shopping which is a throwback to the printed catalog shopping from bygone days, that does have a good deal to do with it. It\u2019s not that people are not working, but has more to do with places like restaurants closing their doors for good because of dining restrictions.<\/p>\n So I give it 18 more months of this decline before the reality of it sinks in. Maybe Nancy and AOC could get together and do what Mickey and Judy used to do: have a barn dance and save the town.<\/p>\n I\u2019m adding the following link to a news alert on retail sales, which fell 0.7% in December, instead of flatlining as had been expected. There is no text connected to it yet, but it will show up shortly. https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/01\/15\/us-retail-sales-december-2020.html<\/a><\/p>\n Friday is the day when the counting houses count the coins and then file reports. There is more to this coming down the road, so keep an eye out for it. Also, there are people who have Bitcoin accounts, but so seldom used their passwords that they can\u2019t remember them now, and can\u2019t get into those accounts any more and Bitcoin\u2019s encrypting system has no sympathy for them. It makes sense, then, to keep a written record of such things in some safe place, like a little pocketbook of phone numbers used to be something you could carry with you, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n There\u2019s more to come in re: the economy. This recession is going to be prolonged and difficult, and handing out cash money will help some people, but the real goal needs to be to get people back to work. I know that there are people who find it to be an opportunity to try their wings at financial independence by starting a small business online. I’m glad the weekend is here. It means we are one week closer to Spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"