The article claims that there was a financial crisis in 2020, but thats simply not true. If you look at the stock markets, they all went steadily up, in large part thanks to newly printed money which was injected by governments and central banks. The effect is that the financial crisis was postponed, but it cant be postponed forever. So the real question is, when will the next financial crisis hit? I think it could likely be in the next few months already.
Right, 20% of all US currency was printed during past couple of years and now inflation is close to 7%. Meanwhile, wages are remaining flat and minimal wage pays nowhere close to the cost of living. I expect the fallout from the omicron wave is going to be more severe than any of the past waves.
At the start of the pandemic there were at least some attempts at containment. As ham-fisted as they may have been, it was better than doing nothing. Now, there’s no will from the government or the public to take any action. However, case counts are already making other waves look flat, and Delaware was just forced to issue state of emergency because hospitals are getting overrun.
The real surge is likely to hit after a week or two since everybody just went to visit friends and family for the holidays. These people will come back and infect their communities, and it takes around a week or two before symptoms get bad enough to require hospitalization. This means we can expect a huge wave towards the end of January.
At that point there’s likely going to be need for mass shutdowns and that will lead to market panic. This is likely to be the start of the deferred financial crisis. It’s not really clear what the strategy is going to be at that point. Printing even more money will obviously make inflation even worse, but there aren’t any other readily available solutions either.
It was always expected that Covid would get more infectious and less deadly over time. Eventually it will be similar to a flu, and almost everyone will catch it. You can see very clearly in the case of Spain how deaths per day are lowering with each wave, while infections per day increase with each wave.
There is an indication that omicron is less deadly, but it’s still a dangerous virus that’s much worse than regular flu. The idea that viruses get more mild over time is based on the fact that milder versions have a better chance to spread thus outcompeting more serious ones. However, this is more of a rule of thumb than anything. Lots of viruses are very infectious and deadly.
It’s also worth noting that death rate isn’t the only relevant metric. Numbers of hospitalizations and long term disabilities are just as important. Omicron is currently overwhelming healthcare systems in US and Canada because a lot more people end up in the hospital due to how many overall infections are happening. I’m in Ontario, and we just announced a slew of restrictions because our healthcare system can’t keep up.
Once the initial pandemic is over, then the question is going to be how many people developed long term problems. This will again put more stress on healthcare and social services, as well as impact people’s ability to work.
If the main capitalist countries destroy themselves through pure incompetence, I appreciate that. It gives a lot of opportunities for legitimate protest and organizing.
Yeah, I think we’re headed towards the irreversible collapse of the global capitalist system at this point. The pandemic has shaken its foundations to the core, and now climate change is unfolding at a faster rate than anyone expected. I don’t see how capitalism can survive a disaster on such a scale.
Yeah technically there wasn’t, a slowdown for sure at the start of the pandemic becoming global in 2020 but that’s about it. There’s definitely one coming soon for sure.
However I always take issue with bourgeois economists saying that a few years after 2008 was when the economy began to rise again. Sure if you go by the stock market and other such metrics it wasn’t 2008, but the rebound basically affected businesses; I saw very little difference in improvement for the working class post-2008.
The article claims that there was a financial crisis in 2020, but thats simply not true. If you look at the stock markets, they all went steadily up, in large part thanks to newly printed money which was injected by governments and central banks. The effect is that the financial crisis was postponed, but it cant be postponed forever. So the real question is, when will the next financial crisis hit? I think it could likely be in the next few months already.
Right, 20% of all US currency was printed during past couple of years and now inflation is close to 7%. Meanwhile, wages are remaining flat and minimal wage pays nowhere close to the cost of living. I expect the fallout from the omicron wave is going to be more severe than any of the past waves.
At the start of the pandemic there were at least some attempts at containment. As ham-fisted as they may have been, it was better than doing nothing. Now, there’s no will from the government or the public to take any action. However, case counts are already making other waves look flat, and Delaware was just forced to issue state of emergency because hospitals are getting overrun.
The real surge is likely to hit after a week or two since everybody just went to visit friends and family for the holidays. These people will come back and infect their communities, and it takes around a week or two before symptoms get bad enough to require hospitalization. This means we can expect a huge wave towards the end of January.
At that point there’s likely going to be need for mass shutdowns and that will lead to market panic. This is likely to be the start of the deferred financial crisis. It’s not really clear what the strategy is going to be at that point. Printing even more money will obviously make inflation even worse, but there aren’t any other readily available solutions either.
It was always expected that Covid would get more infectious and less deadly over time. Eventually it will be similar to a flu, and almost everyone will catch it. You can see very clearly in the case of Spain how deaths per day are lowering with each wave, while infections per day increase with each wave.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/spain/
There is an indication that omicron is less deadly, but it’s still a dangerous virus that’s much worse than regular flu. The idea that viruses get more mild over time is based on the fact that milder versions have a better chance to spread thus outcompeting more serious ones. However, this is more of a rule of thumb than anything. Lots of viruses are very infectious and deadly.
It’s also worth noting that death rate isn’t the only relevant metric. Numbers of hospitalizations and long term disabilities are just as important. Omicron is currently overwhelming healthcare systems in US and Canada because a lot more people end up in the hospital due to how many overall infections are happening. I’m in Ontario, and we just announced a slew of restrictions because our healthcare system can’t keep up.
Once the initial pandemic is over, then the question is going to be how many people developed long term problems. This will again put more stress on healthcare and social services, as well as impact people’s ability to work.
If the main capitalist countries destroy themselves through pure incompetence, I appreciate that. It gives a lot of opportunities for legitimate protest and organizing.
Yeah, I think we’re headed towards the irreversible collapse of the global capitalist system at this point. The pandemic has shaken its foundations to the core, and now climate change is unfolding at a faster rate than anyone expected. I don’t see how capitalism can survive a disaster on such a scale.
Yeah technically there wasn’t, a slowdown for sure at the start of the pandemic becoming global in 2020 but that’s about it. There’s definitely one coming soon for sure.
However I always take issue with bourgeois economists saying that a few years after 2008 was when the economy began to rise again. Sure if you go by the stock market and other such metrics it wasn’t 2008, but the rebound basically affected businesses; I saw very little difference in improvement for the working class post-2008.