Level 2 is the end of the first chapter, so curb your enthusiasm

16
1022

We will be at Level 2 come Thursday.

Keep your celebrations to a minimum.

Talk that the economy will ‘bounce back’ seems inanely optimistic to me – consumers become citizens when their immediate well being is threatened and the intense fear this pandemic has generated won’t dissipate u til people know they are safe.

Instead of spending money they’ll be cautious, and they will save and hoard.

There can be no normal until a vaccine so the economy is amputated until then with borders closed.

Level 2 is the end of the first chapter, so curb your enthusiasm

16 COMMENTS

  1. Given the economy is only as good as the health of it’s people, it comes as no surprise that health itself has been well and truly underfunded for at least the past 10 years. That needs to be addressed.
    Which also leads to the evidence that “rockstar economy” was bullshit and well disguised propaganda.

    • I’m hearing rumours that Soho New York has a 35% occupancy rate and that’s optimistic. Hugo Boss hasn’t committed to reopening their New York store and this is the strongest economic engine in the world. The FED will commit to fiscal stimulus and they will fail because y just can’t magic up shoppers on demand. So we will get depression style stagflation which is stagnant demand and inflated asset prices.

      Yknow financially there isn’t much people can do financially to protect themselves from distressed retail markets you would have needed to at the very least 6 months ago sold all your risky assets/debts like the least debt you’d have 6 months ago the better, at least you would have had a chance to buy gold, silver, forestry or Bitcoin.

      Gold is just a currency we use when dollars are worthless
      Silver is for advanced industrialization
      Forestry because that brings rain and water
      And Bitcoin just means that FIAT has packed it in because the fossil fuel industry has packed it in

      Yknow if big brand labels like Hugo Boss, Banana Republic, Vasace can’t even pay there power bill we don’t really need to ask what consumers are going through because it’s just a massive mental health issue.

      Yknow by pain of extinction we will get a UBI and wealth taxes. Yknow people can stand in the way and fake smooth headed geniusness, Yknow the government should be ramming through those welfare recommendations but Carmel is standing in the way acting like she knows a better way.

      Yknow just take a look up Queens Street there’s graffiti. The writings on the wall. Yknow Jacinda and Grant Robertson better be skilfully deceiving everyone just to spring their economic and military grand plan on everyone. Yknow what if we totally failed to contain the virus, if not this one what if we totally fail to contain the next Yknow Jacinda better have an A game tucked away because this B+ effort won’t cut it against a death rate of 10-20%.

      Yknow I’m not upset that this weeks budget lockdown isn’t happening Yknow if treasury was making mistakes then we would want more transparency. I’d be really surprised if there are any significant budget cuts because we tried dragging ourselves up by the boot lass p with fiscal conservatism and that failed under John Key to respond to the corona crises. So now it’s time to give Modern Monatary Theory a crack, run deficits and do what Mike Hoskings dreads the most when Labour spend spend spends.

  2. Bloody right there Martyn.

    We are still heavily exposed now since Jacinda left wearing masks off the last so anyone coughing within 20 ft of the coughing will be exposed to aerosol droplets that will infect many if the person coughing is not wearing a mask. 100 countries now are making masks mandatory of advisable. – Jacinda has gambled on all our health and safety even before we have a cure for it?????
    https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3074351/coronavirus-can-travel-twice-far-official-safe-distance-and-stay
    Authorities advise people to stay 1-2 metres apart, but researchers found that a bus passenger infected fellow travellers sitting 4.5 metres away
    The scientists behind the research said their investigation also highlighted the importance of wearing face masks because of the length of time it can linger

    • To bloody right to you too CLEANGREEN ….. NZ dodged a bullet in the world wide covid-19 scheme of things ,,, but there is bound to be a few live rounds go off in NZ yet …. especially as battle field earth is on the whole ,,,, losing.

      In a catch 22 situation ,,,,, NZs lockdown & Luck in not having a epidemic, ,,, has emboldened the Trumpsters, or as Martyn calls them ‘Death Cult Capitalists’ among us ,,,,

      Bizzarly those who were minimizing the virus ,,, and objecting to the extreme anti distancing measures we took ,,,, are somehow pretending our world record low case numbers ,,,vindicates them.

      The virus is still out there ,,, it is still a threat ,,,, and wearing masks WILL slow down transmission out from the hot-spots which will occur .

      I think compulsory wearing of mask in order to enter any indoor public spaces ,,,like super-markets, malls, public transport etc etc,,,,, will serve NZ well ,,,,

      The minor inconvenience of wearing a mask would be a powerful reminder that although we did well in the first battle,, we must continue some war footing actions against our invisible viral foe.

      It will help maintain the mind set that we need.

      ” People need social proof to change their behavior. Asking only sick people to wear a face mask makes little sense since people are unlikely to want to advertise they are ill. Covid-19 can infect people who never show symptoms, don’t know they’re sick, and yet may infect others. If we all started wearing face masks in public, we’d limit the spread of the disease by making mask-wearing socially acceptable, as it is today in much of Asia.”

      https://medium.com/behavior-design/why-we-should-all-be-wearing-and-making-face-masks-right-now-fc9c2420e106

      Frankly, the only safe way to behave is as if you’re already infected, because we really don’t know. This is solidarity.

      “If everyone wears masks, then it’s not about protecting yourself, it’s about protecting each other. The virus has to get through not one but two masks to get anywhere. If everyone wears a mask it’s blocked on both ends.”

    • I suspect the “don’t need a mask” bullshit is because we haven’t got a sufficient supply of masks for the public.

    • I take my directions from Wellington not Beijing. All I needed to see is the word china in your link to be suspicious or are you trying to dump your faulty masks on NZ.

  3. Face masks are a waste of time for day to day use but would be a good idea to insist they are worn when on public transport
    or in the supermarket. If you need to take them off to talk then they are of little use.
    I am not sure how hospitality venues are going to operate . If you have 2 seperate tables of 10 and you know people in the other group are you not going to go over and speak. If you do who will be in trouble?
    At least we are moving forward let us hope this truck kept on going forward and they do not need to find reverse

  4. Have to get the economy restarted Cleangreen, you would have us in lvl 3 for what…until there are no new cases at all?
    Easy for someone in their mid to late 70’s like you who doesn’t work calling for all to stay at home still?
    Or if you do work, it’s on a farmlet and no boss so you could have been working for the last 6 weeks.

  5. With less than 2.5% of the population tested, we’re definitely on for a second wave. Another shite decision by this Roger Douglas led Labour party!
    Putting Corporates and NZ Business needs ahead of the people will end in ‘cluster-fuck’ by June/July.

    With the current inadequate testing in place, Maori are going to get hammered!

    What will the ‘House-Maori’s’ do I wonder??

  6. Meanwhile in crazyworld, David Farrar desperately trying to convey his appreciation of Govt response without actually saying that. He has made the mistake of saying NZ had ‘done well’ only to be shouted down by his following of contrarians, conspiracy theorists and ACT supporters. His announcement last night of Level 2.5? was met, not with ‘hallelujahs’ but universal condemnation and personal abuse directed at the Prime Minister including a description of her as a kindergarten teacher called ‘Mz Jizz’. I emailed Mr Farrar asking for clarification on what that term meant and it magically disappeared just as the term ‘Mong Prinzess’ also disappeared when I asked for clarification last week. I almost feel sorry for the bloke….almost. I might have to send him an invoice for my time as his conscience though.

  7. People need jobs for health and well being also. They also need “hope” for the future.
    No one is saying go buy that new car! People can still choose what they spend their own money on based on personal ideology. What gets peoples backs up is when ‘other’ try to do that for them via guilt tripping.
    People want there freedom back, they want the right to visit friends and get back to some normalcy of life.
    This move was well overdue.

  8. Martyn, you need to be careful because you’re singing my song again! 🙂

    Dead right: A significant portion of the population will have been financially stressed by the lock-down and put their wallets away for the duration.
    Worse: The government throwing cash at ill-advised projects will ultimately exacerbate the problem.

  9. First Chapter is right. The heroine had a lucky escape, she should know that that it wasn’t all “hard work” any more than being born into a rich family is “hard work”. We were lucky because NZ socialises in small distinct class groups, and the ones bringing it in don’t use and aren’t forced to use public transport in highly populated areas. That’s luck. No one sat around in 1980 planning this way of living. It was 80% luck. Unfortunately, NZ have been demonstrable dumbasses during lockdown, and the government interchanges science for expediency at whim. They must just be rolling dice in Wellington. The weirdest thing is I don’t even think a good strong case of death will change how people think. There were cheers in my street yesterday at 4:30pm. The All Blacks had won the test match against Covid19. People spilled out into the street whooping, and today life as normal has resumed. It’s just a sport, this virus, and if it turns up again we’ll just have to “go hard” and puff out our chests and do a haka, or something. That’ll sort it. If there is a chapter two, there won’t be any further lockdowns. Any deaths will just be a bit of added excitement, and in 100 years no one will care.

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