Three basic principles in five words should guide economy sustaining and stimulating efforts for the coming months and years.
- Main Street
- not Wall Street
- Clean
- not dirty
- Future building
- not past restoring
Likely far more than rumors, Team Trump is looking to his comfort zone and his contributors to bailouts in putting Republican contributors before the nation, to go with privatized profits and socialized risks, and act totally contrary to the three principles above. Look at this list of potential bailouts according to Washington Post reporting:
The Trump administration has already moved to help the oil and gas industry by announcing plans to buy oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to buttress companies hit by a downturn in energy prices. Trump administration officials have also said the administration will push for special financial relief for the airline, cruise and hospitality industries, which have also been hit hard by the coronavirus.
When it comes to non-society essential sectors, with the very real potential of a total economic meltdown staring all of U.S. (and the global community) staring us in the face (with a real potential of Depression level unemployment by the end of the summer … think 25% or more) and the reality that whatever the United States government uses to ‘stimulate’ the economy will be borrowed from China (essentially, since Trump burned up reserve space during good times), let’s us look to a paraphrased Marie Antoinette for guidance: Let them eat bankruptcy.
Yes, YES, before delving further — we must enact provisions, quickly and with resources, to help the employees and communities survive.
However, unlike a decade ago, we must put Main Street before Wall Street.
And, if/when there are decisions to act to ‘save’ businesses, we must act sensibly and not with reckless indifference to the public interest.x
Seriously, Wynn and Adelson can live on millions of dollars and can donate $1,000s to radical conservative causes rather than the billions and millions that they have been used to. Donald Trump is experienced at bankrupting casinos — time for his experience to have some actual relevance.
As to cruise lines, is there any reason to do a temporary bailout? How long a time and how many resources will make sense to keep them on life support? Does anyone expect to hop on a cruise ship anytime soon? In the next six months? In the next year? How long and how much money? And, by the way, this doesn’t even account for the basic reality that this is an industry with minimal (to no) social responsibility as seen in its heavy pollution load (local and global), worker exploitation, and the abysmal Norwegian Cruise line effort to confuse people about coronavirus risks.
When it comes to airlines and hotels, there is a role for them in society. As to airlines, they used roughly 96% of spare cash over the past decade to buy back stock and boost executive pay rather than build up resiliency to enable paying workers and tiding through catastrophe. Airlines, somewhat like the auto industry have a real role in the economy. As to hotels, unlike airlines, there is a huge mix of major firms and the local mom & pop. We can’t abandon the second to rescue the first. Even as some (many) might go bankrupt, we should consider paths to help the industry survive this disruption but only do so in ways that give the public an equity (or other serious chance for return on investment) and guaranteed worker protections along with other corporate social responsibility (from environmental policies to disclosures to pay equity to …). And, when it comes to ‘Mom & Pop’, perhaps part of the ‘rescue’ can be helping them go ‘clean’: solar on their roofs along with serious energy efficiency (anyone else spent a night in a cheap hotel with the toilet leaking and the door so poorly sealed that you can see your car through the gap when the door’s closed?).
As to the fossil fuel sector, there are many ways to support workers (do you realize how much environmental clean up is doing) without bailing out the Harold Hamms of the world. We shouldn’t focus on rescuing a sector so focused on increasing risks and liabilities into the future.
Recognizing that Democrat politicians are highly unlikely to say “let them eat bankruptcy,” we must — at minimum — demand theat they (we) learn and apply the lessons from a decade ago.
Again, three basic principles in five words should guide economy sustaining and stimulating efforts for the coming months and years.
- Main Street
- not Wall Street
- Clean
- not dirty
- Future building
- not past restoring