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by _ea1k 2282 days ago
I actually really hope someone does check back in a couple of months and see if people still think their gloominess about financial matters was warranted.
1 comments

IMHO gloominess about financial matters will be warranted, but probably not in the way people expect. I think the stock market will have mostly recovered, most people (who don't work for small businesses) will still have their jobs - but we're going to have very significant inflation, perhaps even hyperinflation. The Fed just injected what, $2T over the last week into a supply-side shock. Prices are going to go up anyway because of supply chain disruptions now facing 75% of companies, and then on top of that we have a massive amount of liquidity being injected. I think it very likely that that'll kickstart higher inflation expectations, which are hard to tamp down once they've started. Best case we get 1970s-style 15-20%/year inflation. Worst case we get 1920s-style Weimar hyperinflation.

Wish I could do a RemindMe!3months.

I did just read this [1] and do agree that the strategy in South Korea was productive. I think a variant of that where local hospitals provide testing could be useful here in the US.

As for inflation, I think we are little too early to point to one outcome as the likely one. Right now my view is that I can either let my mind go into full freak out mode or I can think about the fact that I do have fairly extensive contacts of people who are first responders, healthcare workers, research scientists, policy makers, innovators and I trust them. If I can trust them, then I can trust that the overall system is going to work imperfect as it is.

1. https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-respons...

The part that frightens me is that every doctor I know is totally freaking out right now. If practicing medical doctors said it was going to be okay, I think I'd trust them. That's not what they're saying.