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The initial shutdown was bad enough. But what’s coming next, the economic devastation to America’s small and medium size businesses happening between now and when we get a vaccine, is for me what’s truly frightening. https://www.wsj.com/articles/small-businesses-brace-for-prolonged-crisis-short-on-cash-and-customers-11595433150
People hear “small businesses” and think “mom and pop”, but it’s easy to forget that all businesses start small. And now even tech startups, which only recently were in an environment in which funding was plentiful, are feeling the chill. https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-startup-funding-declines-as-pandemic-drags-on-11595494800
If you want to understand the importance of small businesses, not to mention the huge swaths of our economy that have essentially been zeroed our, like travel and hospitality, look at how many people remain unemployed. It’s bad. https://www.wsj.com/articles/unemployment-benefits-weekly-jobless-claims-coronavirus-11595444039
But stock futures? They’re up. Earnings aren’t as terrible as everyone thought, for many reasons. But how long will the initial lockdown surge in spending (in US and abroad) on stuff made by big companies, from lumber and soap to PCs and Teslas, last? https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-stock-markets-dow-update-7-23-2020-11595495605
“Cash is emperor,” one analyst told me in an interview yesterday. Amidst crashing profits and swelling debt, spending on things that are bellwethers for corporate spending as a whole is dreary, looking into the rest of 2020. But for more on that you’ll have to tune in Saturday.
