You can expect to hear a lot about the following issues over the next few months:
- Millions of mortgage payments won’t be made this month, which ultimately threatens the health of the banks. They say they are in much better shape than they were in 2008. Can they handle a downturn of this magnitude? We’ll see.
- State and local governments are required to balance their budgets. The virus means their revenues will fall far short of the projected figures, which in turn will lead to substantial cuts in staffing and services in the near future. The stimulus bill provided some aid–was it enough? I doubt it.
- Soaring unemployment in our system means tens of millions of workers are going to lose their health insurance, which is a catastrophe under the current conditions. They will be applying for Medicaid. Can the bureaucracy handle the vast influx of applicants? Is there enough money in the system, even with federal help, to deal with the virus? I doubt that, too.
On a related note, Bernie Sanders argues that we would be in far better shape to deal with the virus if we had M4A. It is a claim that should be taken seriously. I will be addressing it in a future post.