As U.S. weekly jobless claims hit a new pandemic-era low, Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Rattner discusses how the resurgence of the coronavirus has hit consumer sentiment.
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Steve Rattner: Virus Resurgence Has Hit Consumer Sentiment Hard
Not a real great sign if consumers get nervous or stop spending.
Hunter can buy only so much parmesean cheese.
@SNIFFIT-21 VIRUS Who is Hunter? Is Pizza goin up?
@john smith you know, the guy who wrote about smoking crack and parmesean cheese while his dad was VP.
we should be saving for our retirements anyway
@SNIFFIT-21 VIRUS There’s at least one thing in common he has with Trump. They both love prostitutes. Trump pays way more for his but it doesn’t matter.
Just wait for DeSantis to claim in the near future that higher jobless rates in his State due to the high rate of covid cases in his State are Biden’s fault.
@SNIFFIT-21 VIRUS The people caring for the surge of COVID patients in your hospitals, and the patients that CAN’T GET IN to overcrowded hospitals in your super-spreader state might not share your enthusiasm.
@MeanGeneSanDiego nurses are ecstatic to make double their salary because of the overtime.
@SNIFFIT-21 VIRUS i am from the north east and I will never give money for vacation in Florida. Usually northern citizens have and demonstrate high level critical thinking. Sorry dude, Florida is a crap state right now
@SNIFFIT-21 VIRUS You must be in seclusion or possibly quarantined.
@Brennan Clark What would have been Trump’s excuse ?
People in Europe know not to fly to the Southern States for holiday.
Blessed be. I won’t spend my money to travel to Florida.
Yay more needing to take three minimum wage jobs to still get further into debt!!!
@Wisconsin Man How much is Rent a month were you live?, and then tack on all the other expenses $12 don’t cut it.
@john smith Well thats BK you slow learner. Try and better yourself instead of looking for a handout. Let’s say they make Minimum wage $20 and hour. That will solve many problems right? WRONG that will mean everything will go up and it will be the same boat. The biggest problem today is that people want a $1,200 cell phone, numerous Cable channels. A new car. Well guess what, NONE of that is needed. Get a home phone and an antenna for the TV, many stations now. And a good used car.
@coolmodelguy So how do these people get wealthy? SOME have it passed down, MANY start small and get big. What’s stopping YOU from doing that? Or at least having a comfortable life. My mom and dad went to 8th grade. Dad joined the Army at 16 for just over 3 years. Was a cook for a while when he got out. Then did construction for 10 years. Then started an insulation business and opened a souvenir store next to the Smokies. Retired at 42..kinda.. never 1 to sit around. Got into Horse racing. Never a Multi Millionaire but everything he owned was paid for and never a DEBT since 1972. So how did he make it? My mom only worked at the store, starting in 1977 until 1983, when they sold it and the insulation business.
@Wisconsin Man – When you refer to your parents and the wealth building they accomplished, that was done in a completely different era. Capitalism was highly regulated and the United States was still on the gold standard. If your parents were to attempt the same today, the odds are 99% that they would fail. Now we have a scam economy, where those who have money get more money for free. Didn’t you ever wonder how “investments” could make a greater rate of return than the annual rate of economic growth? That would not be a problem if total “investments” were less than a fraction of the sum total of economic output, but they are a greater sum by a factor of five. This is why some people need three jobs to support themselves, because they are also supporting the lazy rich people, who do not labor for their “earnings” from financial assets. Since 80% of financial assets are owned by only 10% of the population, that 10% get wealthy without actually having to do the work as your parents did in their day.
@coolmodelguy So from 76 until 83, that was an ERA when anyone could make it? (that’s when my dad opened those 2 business) HE did the insulation, occasionally had someone help. My mom ran the store, no employee’s. My dad and an uncle would go to Mexico 3-4 times a year get stuff for the store and drive a Uhaul back. Yet I worked and minimum wage was 3.35. Had an uncle who installed garage doors, showed me his check one week and it was $314 and he was stoked. That was a 50hr check. Now lets get to the ERA (now) that no one can make it. Why do I have friends who MADE IT? Started with nothing, had an idea, went to a tech school or college and started their own business. You just want to make excuses why you have nothing. What would happen if Google, FB, Wal Mart pretty all those companies that have thousands or even millions of employee’s said. Screw it. People want t bash us, then let them start a company.
“…there really is no substitute for being in the office, working shoulder to shoulder…”
Absolute cringe.
3 out of 4 disagree.
@Jyv Ben You can tell he’d be the corpo simp going around asking everyone how much better it is to be crammed back in the office, then go back to his soundproof private suite, overlooking the “open-concept” production floor, to get minimal work done, in between executive meetings.
@Tweety Bird but employees aren’t children…or… 🤔
and its been proven this past year and half. Not suitable for eveyone I agree but where it is suitable it should be allowed.
@Hotspur37 Exactly. Where it works, let it; Where it doesn’t, don’t.
@Damien Darko247 I think Tweety Bird is talking about nurses and doctors and those who work in a close contact situation who can’t see their children for fear of infecting them
Steve Rattner is brilliant. I really wish Joe would stop interrupting him and let the man speak.
This is one of the MAIN reasons I stopped watching Morning Joe. Joe keeps interrupting. Why invite guests for a conversation if all you do is interrupt?
Joe interrupts everyone. I feel sorry for Mika who can never get a word in edgewise.
I find “Joe” a mystifying way to present news, his questions are slanted- overburdened with assumptions. I don’t want to hear what he’s hearing but what the guests understand. Morning Joe is a total car-crash
I wish Joe&Mika’s CO2 detector would fail.
I asked my doctor when Covid will no longer be a threat and he said “I don’t know I’m not a politician. “
“Listen fat, here’s the thing…Afghanistan is great again. I did that. I did that.”
– Sheik Johammad Biden
That’s the most honest answer I’ve seen. Politicians make predictions, and some make more accurate predictions than others.
No, you didn’t.
What’s the name of your doctor
@nosuchthing8 Dr. Jill Biden, kindergarten teacher extraordinaire.
This is so easily explained. People are not spending as much money in the hopes that prices on consumer goods go down. I hate to say it but those prices for the most part, are here to stay. When corporations figure out that they can get away with charging higher prices then they’re going to keep doing it.
Doubtful. When people stop buying things, prices go down on those things. HOME DEPOT is seeing its sales go down. Maybe that is the boycott because of their support for right-wingers, but maybe it is just the normal supply and demand fluctuation.
I don’t think thats how pricing works lol
@Jeanne Lesinski speaking personally, I will not pay $67 for a sheet of OSB like it is now when I know that it’s true value is around $15 per sheet.
The US economy was destroyed when Corporations began closing down in the US and moving jobs overseas. It will NOT recover until the Corporations bring the jobs back.
@David Romney Just change the spelling to MONEY and your good to go!
@David Romney So I had to look up Mammon…it means money or wealth, so you could have just said money instead of using some ancient term thats not been used for 2000 years and is almost never used.
It is called Globalization. Only benefits Corporations and Super rich, and Rasssp to rest of us.
Corporations only job in life is to make money. Profit trumps patriotism at every turn.
@David Romney Is that a grain or a cereal ?
I’m just disappointed in the morning Joe show. Because it’s just a show.
watching the bond/debt market cannibalize itself. we are in for a real crisis when China backs a digital currency with gold.
Let’s not forget, unemployment numbers are being reduced because states are also kicking people off of unemployment.
An excellent point.
No they aren’t. They’re just stopping them from receiving the extended benefits. That doesn’t effect the numbers.
Consumer sentiment has never been good when people can’t participate.
Maybe “sentiment” and anticipation of future events is tied to a growing understanding of the harm we continue to inflict upon ourselves by the constant politization of the pandemic and the attempts to bring it under control. When our public servants – Governors, Senators, Representatives – wage war against the efforts of a community to stop the spread of covid and prevent it from developing more powerful forms of itself, we can’t ignore the practical effect. Disunity causes bad results to otherwise solid plans. Disruption of the economy will continue. Costs of doing some things will rise unexpectedly and other parts of our economy will not be as attractive for investment.
We should be fighting the pandemic as a unified effort but we are not. What happens when entire States – some with huge populations, others with huge events – decide to wage a war with sound practices for destroying covid? Those with a pragmatic approach will see the logical outcome and take actions to retrench, reduce expenditures, change plans, protect themselves. Consumer confidence will reflect these feelings.
The material point to remember is the need to shift the burden to those responsible for choosing to side with the spread of covid rather than choosing to side with the effort to stop the spread of covid. Does the effort to help everyone need to be tied to the effort of everyone to be responsible for their decisions? If some of us want to expose themselves to infection when safe alternatives are available, are they opting out of assistance made available to the rest of us who are generating the economy producing and paying for that assistance?
The question then becomes how the vaccinated can best protect themselves from accepting the burdens brought on by the unvaccinated. Surely those who are doing what they can to stop covid have rights also. What are those rights? What are the limits of the rights of the others to burden the majority with the expense and futility of supporting those who are insisting on bringing infection to others?
Many restaurants are just charging a service charge so they can pay employees more. Of course, ignorant Trump supporters are complaining about it.
No, people are running out of benefits. Jobless for over 6 quarters!
I live in the UK, my daughter and Grandkids live in California, not seen them for nearly 2 years. I cannot fly into the US until the earliest January 2022. In US 30/40% of folks not vaccinated, so I think things are going to get a lot worse, hope I am wrong.
Our economy is entirely fictitious; The only way new money is created is through debt and virtually all types of debt are at an all time high. Nobody can pay back most or all of what they owe.
The republican party is doing everything they can to prolong the pandemic.
Steve – how far behind in the post-pandemic economic curve is US vs China? Are they (China) 6, 12 or about 18 months ahead of us in general economic activity?