Could the Coronavirus 'burn out' in the UK?

[Bletchleyite]

Are you sure about that? And don't forget, its not just PPE we import.....

Yes. It's QE or bankrupt.

 

[HH]

Yes. It's QE or bankrupt.

We were already QE'd to the hilt, so I doubt this very much. Besides, the markets weren't very impressed.

 

[Bletchleyite]

We were already QE'd to the hilt, so I doubt this very much. Besides, the markets weren't very impressed.

You can't "QE to the hilt" as that implies a hard limit or that it is a state rather than an act. You can QE as much as you like. It's just like businesses issuing more shares, diluting existing capital.

 

[HH]

You can't "QE to the hilt" as that implies a hard limit or that it is a state rather than an act. You can QE as much as you like. It's just like businesses issuing more shares, diluting existing capital.

Yes, but the point is that the more you do it, the less benefit it has.

 

[yorksrob]

Are you sure about that? And don't forget, its not just PPE we import.....

It's no use saying "well, this is made cheaper somewhere else" if you can't afford the funds to pay for it - parrticularly if you're paying someone unemployment benefits. At some stage you're better off paying the unemployed person to manufacture what you need.

 

[HH]

It's no use saying "well, this is made cheaper somewhere else" if you can't afford the funds to pay for it - parrticularly if you're paying someone unemployment benefits. At some stage you're better off paying the unemployed person to manufacture what you need.

Thank you FDR. This has always been one economic argument. Maybe it's time has come... again.

 

[yorksrob]

Thank you FDR. This has always been one economic argument. Maybe it's time has come... again.

I'm not convinced it ever went away.

 

[BRX]

People not spending money on holidays (which by the way holiday companies are currently working with people already booked to simply book dates later this year or next, so that's not as helpful as you might think) will not even begin to fill the hole left in lost revenue (income tax, VAT, NI etc).

If the amount of money spent annually on holidays is something like 3 months' earnings, then (if extracted in tax increases) by definition it would fill the hole left by - say - the loss of 3 months' worth of income tax, VAT & NI revenue, would it not? In fact, it would exceed it.

If holiday companies are working to rebook dates next year, then that's only relevant if it means people are planning on taking two holidays next year. And that's not really going to work anyway, because presumably the tourist industry doesn't have the capacity to have one year where there is twice as much trade as normal.

The fact that we're a wealthy enough country that (on average) everyone can spend 3 months' income going on holiday ought to indicate that we can afford, in exceptional circumstances, to divert substantial amounts of money to dealing with a crisis such as this. That money of course is not held equally across the population (and there are lots of people who can't afford to spend 3 months income on holidays) and I'm aware that money does not necessarily equal resources that can be diverted to different ends. I guess we have to wait and see how this all pans out afterwards, but the reason to resist an oversimplified story of "we're all going to have to pay for this for years to come" is that this is a story that is used to justify measures that can extract the extra work necessary in an unequal way - by imposing cuts that affect the worst off. And that includes the effects of rushing out of lockdown for fear of economic impact, because the effects of an overly speedy exit are likely to hit the worst off the hardest, just like most things do.

What actually happens is going to depend on the political decisions made on how to move on economically post crisis.

 

[cactustwirly]

Why do younger people have more 'lose' than older people from the lockdown? In what way do younger people lose that older people don't?

The prospect of having a job for the next 10-20 years.

 

[yorkie]

Does anyone have anything more to say about the original question?

If so feel free to post.

If not I will lock the thread as the matters currently being discussed in this thread aren't related to the original question and we are having multiple similar discussions on different threads.