How far can the government go to prevent further market bleeding?

[gaussian]

Keep in mind college cost $800/semester and virtually all health care costs were paid 100% by group plans when you were a whippersnapper. The rise of socialism isn’t all that surprising. In fact why wouldn’t they challenge the system.

Yeah, boomers seem to ponder on why socialism is becoming popular and it couldn't be that the wealth gap is now a wealth chasm, wage stagnation in an environment of soaring profit margins, globalization, automation, schools becoming more expensive by virtue of free money from indentured students, unaffordable housing driven by post-2009 buying frenzies by boomers, and a skill floor that is quickly reaching "bachelor's degree". Healthcare is currently the #1 hot button issue for Americans even above immigration and student loan debt. The fact we have a system where the only way to maybe protect yourself from going to the poor house is to be a wage slave. Not very entrepreneurial of America I'd say. How many good Americans would start businesses if they didn't have to worry about being stuck with expensive and worthless exchange healthcare?

Everything, and I mean everything, was easier for boomers. They're confused because they thought gen X and millennials wouldn't wake up and ask why school was affordable on a summer job, housing was affordable on one income, healthcare was cheap, and jobs would train you. Instead of trying to help them (and keep the system going) they pillaged everything they could. Just wait - it will get worse. We'll learn that boomers reverse mortgaged their 7 houses and now their inheritance is $0 and housing will crash once more with the injection of all the bank repossessions.

The specter of socialism hanging over every election cycle now is the doing of boomers. Don't ever forget that. They could've done something to stop this. Now we have to deal with the very real possibility of Bernie getting elected, implementing MMT, and running the country completely into the ground.

 

[ph1l]

Yeah, boomers seem to ponder on why socialism is becoming popular

Socialism is more popular because of people who want others to be responsible for their mistakes.

 

[ironchef]

The specter of socialism hanging over every election cycle now is the doing of boomers. Don't ever forget that. They could've done something to stop this. Now we have to deal with the very real possibility of Bernie getting elected, implementing MMT, and running the country completely into the ground.

Socialism is more popular because of people who want others to be responsible for their mistakes.

Education, healthcare are not socialism they are services that a modern society normally provides, similar to protection of its citizen.

We already have free education through high school. Such system has been in place since the 1940s. Now, a high school education is no longer sufficient to function in a modern society, extends it to 4 more years through college is reasonable for the competitiveness of our society.

We also have a patch work of "free" healthcare for seniors and those that cannot afford it. Extending it to every citizen is again not an unreasonable thought.

IMHO, we shouldn't debate whether they are rights or privileges, but how to pay for them, for everyone.

Life is unfair. Some of us on ET makes more in a day than someone working for a year at a fast food joint. Giving up some of that, by the 1% or corporations, for the education and healthcare of our fellow citizens seems fair to me, whether I am a boomer or a Gen X, Gen Y or Gen Z...

 

[Cuddles]

bumping

 

[AKUMATOTENSHI]

Whatever it takes to keep the ship on course. A major shift in consumer/pleb culture would help things on many levels. Saving, Repurposing and abandoning the credit card culture would have a major impact for future generations. The Fed can only due so much with the tools they have been given.

Akuma

 

[Cuddles]

I don't think the government / Fed / etc will rush into this too quickly. With major spread in the USA now seemingly inevitable (see how the CDC are prepping the public for this) they need to keep the "bazooka" in reserve for when the crisis really hits here. China's radical mass quarantine measures and total economic shutdown of the affected areas has created a great deal of fear that the same thing will end up happening in NYC, Chicago and LA.

The main thing at this stage is to see how things evolve in SK and Italy. If they end up being forced to duplicate China's policies (which seems fairly likely at this stage) then markets will stay weaker for longer. If it turns out to not be much of a hit to economic activity, then they'll recover more quickly.

our last "the sky is falling" happened late last year, so just hang in there snowflakes the good feeling will come back sometime next month.

Wow, OP is quite the drama queen and a well-known partisan poster. Stocks are down less than 10% from a huge series of all-time highs. No wild conspiracies are needed right now. Besides, the biggest gov't intervention was in the Obama era--it's not even close.

• The end of marked-to-market accounting (on almost the day of the 2009 bottom)
• Almost 8 straight years of ZIRP
• A big and hugely inefficient stimulus dump
• Obama's buddy Warren Buffett (world's biggest market cheerleader) getting involved and being a major TARP beneficiary
• Endless rounds of QE

0%

so now that the fed blew his load, what's next? Are we really gonna talk about negative rates in the good 'ol USA?

 

[ironchef]

We may have no choice but to go negative, following Japan, Germany, Swiss and Scandinavia.

 

[Nine_Ender]

We may have no choice but to go negative, following Japan, Germany, Swiss and Scandinavia.

Mark my words, never going to happen, and in a year the virus will be forgotten ( as will be Trump as a politician ).

 

[CET]

Powell said today that the Fed does not currently have authority to buy stocks, and it does not plan to seek such authority. He also said their studies do not support going negative on rates.

 

[Nine_Ender]

Powell said today that the Fed does not currently have authority to buy stocks, and it does not plan to seek such authority. He also said their studies do not support going negative on rates.

One of the great ironies today is how many on here have believed the US government has been buying equities or futures for the whole bull, and it was very clear that came up as a possibility for a NEW strategy today. In other words, none of that occurred as I posted numerous times on this site.