The usual Open Thread rules apply: be concise, be charitable and, above all, be amusing!
PopeWatch: Open Thread
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
In reading how Europe is closing most all its national borders to outsiders now, I find the Vatican strangely silent about such “evil.’ Could it be that the corona-virus in Italy itself has an enlightening effect?
Dang nabit Jim, I’m a
Doctor!historian, not an economist/finance expert.The politicians trying to buy back our good graces after blowing up our lives are proposing, at least in the Senate, to give every individual tax payer $600 ($1200 for every married household) +$500 for each dependent minor).
Supposedly, this is “stimulus” to keep the comatose economy from flatlining altogether. Critics of stimulus argue that it tends not to stimulate the economy because the recipients tend to use the money to pay down debt instead of going out and spending it. I tend to think that paying down debt is actually the idea –i.e. it’s about making sure that creditors/debt holders (I don’t even know if those are the same thing) aren’t as hurt by the economic downturn (we only do that to investors, if I correctly recall how the auto bailouts went in ’09).
So, if I’m right (and I have no idea, so I’m not invested in this supposition), wouldn’t it be easier, perhaps more cost effective, to just impose some kind of short-term debt relief? I have no idea what that would look like, by the way.
Discuss
Or Dismiss, as appropriate.
Pope? We have a pope? or two?
In Greek mythology, Deimos represented terror and dread, while his brother Phobos was panic, flight and rout. They were sons of the war-god Ares who accompanied their father into battle, driving his chariot and spreading fear in his wake.
Three fourths of the World is running around with its hair aflame.
Just a thought, not being an alarmist: They’re murdering say 25% of the economy. That’s Great Depression magnitude. How quickly will it recover?