#coronavirus #COVID19 #FlattenTheCurve #EconomicPain
Walter Isenberg has seen revenue at his hotel and restaurant group in Denver drop from $3 million a day to $40,000 a day.
“It’s just going to be a very long and slow recovery until such time as there is a therapeutic solution (to the coronavirus) or a vaccine,” Isenberg was quoted in an economic explainer published April 19, 2020, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Companies affected by the shutdowns say restarting the economy will not be easy, the article says.
Even after certain shuttered restaurants and other businesses reopen, as some have already, stay-at-home orders and other restrictions resulting from the pandemic have added a good bit of fear in consumers and workers. In short, people are afraid of getting really sick and dying, so, even as the businesses open – many with modifications to keep disease mitigation in place – some still will be afraid to venture out, the article says.
The employees of the businesses, too, will be, in many cases, afraid to go back to work even if they can get their jobs back. There’s a carrot-and-stick approach here: The carrot is regaining a paycheck. The stick is potentially losing jobless benefits, some of which pay more than their working salaries. Thus, employers, thus, have leverage in getting folks back to work sooner than they feel comfortable going back.
As for the fear among consumers and patrons of those businesses, while the businesses may reopen, they run the risk of no one coming in, out of fear.
“Returning to work will be gradual” and phased in, the article quotes Suzanne Clark, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It’s going to be the opposite of a green light. It’s going to go from red to yellow and then green,” she said.
A few other stats quoted in the article:
• A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, by economists from Northwestern, Stanford, the University of Chicago and Boston University predicts that the economy will shrink 11 percent at year’s end from the same period the year before. That would be the sharpest contraction since 1946.
• Many economists warn that rushing back to normal life without the safeguards needed to prevent a second wave of outbreak could worsen the economic damage further.
• A survey by Seton Hall University found that seven in 10 Americans would not feel comfortable attending a sporting event until a vaccine for the virus was developed.
• Polling by the Sports and Leisure Research Group Engagious and ROKK Solutions finds that only about a third of Americans would fly, see a movie or go to a theme park, even if they were allowed.
To quote from the movie “Field of Dreams,” “if you build it they will come. “ Relating to this situation, if you open, will they come?
If you find yourself fearful to go back to the job you had, and are looking for different ways to make money, even if you don’t want to leave your home, there are many vehicles out there that can allow you to do that. To learn about one of the best, message me.
Officials have said recently that we cannot flip a switch and have the economy roar again immediately. It will be a long, slow process that will not be without economic casualties – companies going out of business, companies not rehiring all the workers they had prior to the pandemic, among others.
You’d be wise to prepare for all eventualities. You’d be wise to develop an economic Plan B, should the worst befall you.
Peter