One of the enduring legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic will be its impact on people’s finances.
Whereas the financial crisis hit more in the markets and the banking sector, it had less of a relative impact on individuals. It still hurt everyone, just that we didn’t have restaurants closing and laying off their entire staff. We didn’t have retailers shutting down, firing everyone, not making rent payments, and going into hibernation. The scale of job loss so far is staggering.
And while stimulus checks and and boosted unemployment will help … there will be folks who fall into (or deeper into) debt.
And debt is dangerous.
If you have no choice, you have no choice. But if you do, enter into it very carefully.
Mafia plots post-coronavirus pounce [Politico] – “‘The mafia offers a loan to a business owner who needs money. He knows who he is dealing with but thinks he can manage the situation. He is mistaken,” said De Lucia, describing what he called ‘the method.’ […] The owner is turned into a prestanome, or front man, for the mafia, which benefits from his relationship with the banks, and his books.”
As someone who isn’t religious, this next piece was interesting to read because it illustrates how a framework and way of life could be so subtle as to not alert its adherents to its existence.
You’re a Slave to Money, Then You Die [Church Life Journal / University of Notre Dame] – “But neoliberalism is a thing, and it is more than a paradigm of politics and markets. Neoliberalism names an attempt to remake human life in the image and likeness of the market. It is a moral and metaphysical imagination in which capitalist property relations provide the template for understanding the world.” hmmm…
Before you go onto your day…
My Summer Job at the Bohemian Grove, Serving Milkshakes to the Shitfaced Global Elite [Gawker] – “The elite need a lot of help to unwind in the wilderness. So every year, hundreds of young people shuffle through the Grove’s assembly-line hiring process to spend several weeks bussing their picnic tables and parking their Porsches.”
Stay safe Apexian!