Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worry that we spent all our money doing truly stupid things (covid largess when we are all getting covid anyway, etc), and our government will have nothing left for a true crisis . . . Save printing more money and creating an Argentine situation. Best to not think too much, especially with the latest round of stupid (student loan forgiveness) happening.

COVID was a true crisis. Much like 2008 there are people who fail to understand what could happen if the government failed to step in.

Everyone has gotten covid anyway. We should not have squandered all our money to fight an uncooperative virus . . . Sweden was correct.

false, we got the vaccine and allowed our bodies to be exposed to the new virus. After that, getting it is not as much of a problem. Our hospitals and doctors were OVERWHELMED until the vaccines came out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Subaru is offering 2.9% financing. Were you on one of those “Johnny says YES to bad credit!” sites?

Toyota

The Toyota dealership in N. Arlington are thieves, they are marking up the MSRP by thousands - it's just greed. It's disgusting that Toyota allows the dealership to drive away customers for good.

Supply and demand, baby. Don’t like it, go somewhere else.

Car dealerships are going to change their sales model post-pandemic. They will keep fewer cars on the lot, you’ll have to order versus driving it off same day, and they will continue with the scarcity model because, if they can make more money selling one car than three, who bother with the other two? There will be no more haggling for below sticker pricing and a page of incentives.

Why are dealerships needed, anyway. Customers should be able to order straight from the factory and have cars delivered to their homes. Soon, dealerships as we know them will be extinct. They will be mere showrooms. Dealers see the handwriting on the wall and are trying to make money while they can.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Subaru is offering 2.9% financing. Were you on one of those “Johnny says YES to bad credit!” sites?

Toyota

The Toyota dealership in N. Arlington are thieves, they are marking up the MSRP by thousands - it's just greed. It's disgusting that Toyota allows the dealership to drive away customers for good.

Supply and demand, baby. Don’t like it, go somewhere else.

Car dealerships are going to change their sales model post-pandemic. They will keep fewer cars on the lot, you’ll have to order versus driving it off same day, and they will continue with the scarcity model because, if they can make more money selling one car than three, who bother with the other two? There will be no more haggling for below sticker pricing and a page of incentives.

And if this is the case, people will just keep their cars longer and avoid buying new cars, or do what our family did and make it work with one car. Doesn’t seem like a great strategy. People love feeling like they got a deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Subaru is offering 2.9% financing. Were you on one of those “Johnny says YES to bad credit!” sites?

Toyota

The Toyota dealership in N. Arlington are thieves, they are marking up the MSRP by thousands - it's just greed. It's disgusting that Toyota allows the dealership to drive away customers for good.

Supply and demand, baby. Don’t like it, go somewhere else.

Car dealerships are going to change their sales model post-pandemic. They will keep fewer cars on the lot, you’ll have to order versus driving it off same day, and they will continue with the scarcity model because, if they can make more money selling one car than three, who bother with the other two? There will be no more haggling for below sticker pricing and a page of incentives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the UMC, things will continue to be fine. For the MC, LMC, and the poor, things have been bad for a while and will continue to get worse.

It’s been a tale of two cities for a while OP.

Job seekers are now looking for $20/hr. They're done with $15/hr, that's not enough.

Yes, prices are going up. So are wages. No one is happy - but isn't that good?

damn stupid workers wanting to make a living wave, right PP?

Meanwhile productivity has crashed… https://fortune.com/2022/05/05/worker-productivity-largest-decline-1947-expert-opinion/amp/. Not good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worry that we spent all our money doing truly stupid things (covid largess when we are all getting covid anyway, etc), and our government will have nothing left for a true crisis . . . Save printing more money and creating an Argentine situation. Best to not think too much, especially with the latest round of stupid (student loan forgiveness) happening.

COVID was a true crisis. Much like 2008 there are people who fail to understand what could happen if the government failed to step in.

Everyone has gotten covid anyway. We should not have squandered all our money to fight an uncooperative virus . . . Sweden was correct.

China increasingly showing weakness:

https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-economy-manufacturing-51661933781?tesla=y

Who is going to buy stupidly $1000+ iPhone 14s and $60k Teslas? China is sick, and American firms are going to get hammered as Chinese consumption wanes due to economic problems. Once big time companies like Apple and Tesla start tanking they'll take the entire markets down with them, along with the wealth effect that encourages consumer consumption in the US.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am less concerned about the US than about the UK and Europe. They are facing a very harsh winter with little heat and are scouring the world for sources of energy including war torn areas like Yemen.

Because of the shortage of energy, they are facing far higher inflation than we are. This is new territory for us and it is difficult to see from here what the knock on effects could be, including on the US.

One can only hope for a mild winter.

Germany is telling all residents to keep heat no higher than 64 degrees this winter. It will be rough.

No. They telling offices and public buildings that.

They can kiss Oktoberfest and Christmas Markets good bye though. Germany is turning off lights and hot water across cities. It is going to get bad, very bad for them this winter.

They closed all of their nuclear power plants while not making contingency plans for Russia causing energy problems even though they've been told for 40 years now to get off Russian oil. How could Germany be so stupid? Now they're going to have a full blown energy crisis because they made big pushes to go green with no plans for worst case scenarios during the transition stage. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the UMC, things will continue to be fine. For the MC, LMC, and the poor, things have been bad for a while and will continue to get worse.

It’s been a tale of two cities for a while OP.

Job seekers are now looking for $20/hr. They're done with $15/hr, that's not enough.

Yes, prices are going up. So are wages. No one is happy - but isn't that good?

damn stupid workers wanting to make a living wave, right PP?

Unless you are freeloading off mom and dad, you can't keep a roof over your head around the DMV at $20 per hour.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Subaru is offering 2.9% financing. Were you on one of those “Johnny says YES to bad credit!” sites?

Toyota

The Toyota dealership in N. Arlington are thieves, they are marking up the MSRP by thousands - it's just greed. It's disgusting that Toyota allows the dealership to drive away customers for good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the UMC, things will continue to be fine. For the MC, LMC, and the poor, things have been bad for a while and will continue to get worse.

It’s been a tale of two cities for a while OP.

Job seekers are now looking for $20/hr. They're done with $15/hr, that's not enough.

Yes, prices are going up. So are wages. No one is happy - but isn't that good?

damn stupid workers wanting to make a living wave, right PP?

Europe should be incentivizing work-from-home to the greatest expense possible in order to conserve power. There is zero reason for most office workers to commute into an office if they can do most of their job at home remotely.

European pensioners should go south to warmer climates for the winter, if they can afford it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am less concerned about the US than about the UK and Europe. They are facing a very harsh winter with little heat and are scouring the world for sources of energy including war torn areas like Yemen.

Because of the shortage of energy, they are facing far higher inflation than we are. This is new territory for us and it is difficult to see from here what the knock on effects could be, including on the US.

One can only hope for a mild winter.

Germany is telling all residents to keep heat no higher than 64 degrees this winter. It will be rough.

No. They telling offices and public buildings that.

Anonymous wrote:Sir this is a Wendy's.

Anonymous wrote:In the US, the elephant in the room is the national debt. As interest rates rise, the cost to maintain the current level of debt will rise significantly, and we keep adding to it, which makes the problem worse. And we also have the potential problem that, at some point, we may no longer have buyers of that debt.

I thought it was the opposite, that with inflation the debt Is a smaller share of GDP.