I do wonder a lot how Coronavirus ends economically👾

They just keep printing money at the federal reserve and borrowing money at all levels of government. You can’t put all of life on credit forever, even if interest rates are low.

Both residential and commercial landlords aren’t collecting rent from many of their tenants and it seems likely that the back rent is forever gone from the economy. Sure the government can continue to print and borrow money but ultimately it’s a tax on the future. Local governments are losing tax revenues that will never be collected.

Ultimately it all will be paid off by higher rents on everybody in the future and higher taxes for all. And exploding federal deficit means more future money dedicated to debt services. Various borrowing schemes at the state and local level will only lead to more debt service costs down the line.

Does this mean inflation? In the very real sense that a paycheck goes less far because rent goes up and taxes increase then it is inflation. But will it be widely felt outside of the rental market or the relm of government taxes and fees? Not sure.

There may be a lot of resistance to government raising taxes by democratic forces, they might instead rely on service cuts. Likewise, while landlords might seek to raise rate to cover losses it’s not clear that there is enough residential or commercial tenants willing to or able to fill existing vacancies. Many landlords may just have to eat the losses.

The fuel crisis of 1973 was a very different crisis – oil is baked into the economy in many more ways – and its a lot less flexible than either landlords or government. While you could always use less oil, very few entities wasn’t able to negotiate a better price for it. Unions and workers were in a better position in mid 1970s to argue for higher wages than exist now. It’s not like Coronavirus is driving the cost of groceries or transportation – just the cost of government and possibly rent.

Most of the printed money by the federal reserve has gone into the stock market or savings accounts of the wealthy. Very little of economic stimulus for Coronavirus stays in working folks pockets, it’s mostly been passed through for emergency uses and ultimately ended up in the market where it exists just on paper – although I guess at some point it could be spent but for the forseeable future is unlikely to be spent.