1. Those of us who used our $1200 checks to buy groceries or pay rent;
2. Those who didn’t really “need” the $1200, got it and added it to an IRA, or used it to help others—in our town pooled $1200s to create a community help fund;
3. Those who didn't get it and are OK with that;
4. Those who didn’t get it and wouldn’t notice $1200 if they got it.
Protests are sweeping across America and the world. Police departments are staggering. State and federal lawmakers are scrambling, passing legislation they wouldn’t have looked at six months ago. Coronavirus deaths are down in the US, but cases and deaths are spiking in some states and other countries. The world is fighting COVID-19 hard, and measles and polio are being neglected—and might erupt again. We are officially in a recession with 21 million out of work…
And… the DOW bounces along up and down, mostly up after the first big shutdown hit, down last week as shareholders sold off and took profits, then a few up days, etc, etc. It’s up about 7 % today from May 20, when I wrote about a guy who put $3 million in a trading account to “play” with. He made $210,000 if he indexed $3 million on that day and sold today. If he’d lost $210,000, he’d still have $790,000 to play with.
Most Americans agree that capitalism is a good way to organize the economy and provide opportunity. But we understand capitalism in terms of the investments and hoped for returns we and our friends make in homes, businesses, and bank accounts. We have no notion of the gyrations that allow a few to cash in on stock options; we don’t have millions—or thousands!—in E-trade accounts to play with, and we tend to our own and our neighbors’ needs gratefully with our $1200 checks.
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