Coronavirus Economics/Finance

G

groveChuck

U-matic Member
Thought I'd spin this off to look at the financial side- (no politics, please)

Personal/Business/National/Global. Problems, Resources & Solutions.

$ US Congress (the $1200 dollar bill).
TBD, allegedly coming to a mailbox near you soon, stay tuned (it's Congress, so it's politics, but here for informational purposes only, not discussion).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-p...bill-limbo-crunch-times-arrives-capitol-hill/
(Story includes Rand Paul becoming first US Senator to test positive for Covid-19 "Sunday after working out with fellow lawmakers in the Senate gym only that morning").

$ Florida Small Business 0% 1yr Disaster Loans. I posted this elsewhere- (check your state or equivalent).
I'll be getting one, not sure on the amount (counting months, reading the future, etc).
https://floridadisasterloan.org/application/

$ US Small Business Administration low interest loans:
https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/

$ If you have a mortgage, talk to your lender. I got a 90 day extension.
https://www.bankrate.com/banking/co...ffering-help-to-customers-financial-hardship/

$ There's also renter assistance, though I'm not sure where.

$ Auto Loans- my wife got a 90 day extension for her car loan.

$ Homeowners Insurance- checking Monday. Doubtful, but if you don't ask...

$ Business Liability Insurance- cancel it? Will discuss with my agent Monday, see if it's onerous restarting it.

$ Auto Insurance- haven't found anything there yet, but it's worth keeping up with.

Be careful, and don't get into worse debt trying to stay out of debt.

I'll post resources as I come across them, hope you will too. Money saving tips, career advice, whatever.
Good luck everybody!
 
My understanding, the bill didn't not pass earlier this evening. And there are probably very few, IF any of us, unless you are a staffer somewhere, that would qualify. A few of us in our little "group" around here(guys I work with) actually have a client that we work for as W-2 employees, but no one has been "fired", laid off, furloughed, etc. We're not full time. We are just hired as needed. PLUS, most of us make too much money to qualify, anyway. I think I heard some numbers thrown around that were roughly in-line/mirrored the income levels that qualify people for insurance subsidies.
 
"The bill would seek to flood the economy with money in an effort to protect millions of jobs and businesses that now appear to be on the brink. It would direct payments of $1,200 to most American adults and $500 to children. It would steer $350 billion towards small businesses to stem the tide of layoffs, and push billions more towards hospitals and the unemployment insurance system...

...The direct payments to households would appropriate $1,200 per qualifying adult and $500 per child at a cost of around $250 billion. The cash disbursements in the new agreement would phase out for people with incomes of $75,000 and above"
 
Run&Gun said:
My understanding, the bill didn't not pass earlier this evening. And there are probably very few, IF any of us, unless you are a staffer somewhere, that would qualify. A few of us in our little "group" around here(guys I work with) actually have a client that we work for as W-2 employees, but no one has been "fired", laid off, furloughed, etc. We're not full time. We are just hired as needed. PLUS, most of us make too much money to qualify, anyway. I think I heard some numbers thrown around that were roughly in-line/mirrored the income levels that qualify people for insurance subsidies.
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Well, well, well. I wonder how this translates for CA, where the infamous AB-5 law made many formerly freelancers into employees. If indeed the relief only applies to employees, then I guess having tons of people who were re-classified is a huge boon to them. But sadly, this law only applied to CA, so those in CA will be super glad right now, and states that have no such law are out cold. Seems - yet again - CA is ahead of the curve. There was a lot of clothes-rending, crying, wailing, teeth gnashing and severe criticism of CA, but look at it now. I wonder if the author of that law will receive any apologies - that's OK, seems like this will boost her popularity for all time. Anyhow, the whole point of such laws is protection of workers. It's like insurance. One hates paying the premiums, but sure is glad it's there when disaster strikes. I think there's a lesson in all of this somewhere.

But this is a serious question - did AB-5 workers luck out? What about those whose industries or sectors that carved out exemptions - are those folks out of luck?

Given how many Americans work as freelancers, I think it's silly for Congress to not cover freelancers. I hope the bill will be amended to help everyone out.

Since it's not finalized, let's hope they pass something sensible. My best wishes go out to everyone in need. This is a good thread to keep track of it all.
 
OldCorpse said:
Well, well, well. I wonder how this translates for CA, where the infamous AB-5 law made many formerly freelancers into employees. If indeed the relief only applies to employees, then I guess having tons of people who were re-classified is a huge boon to them. But sadly, this law only applied to CA, so those in CA will be super glad right now, and states that have no such law are out cold. Seems - yet again - CA is ahead of the curve. There was a lot of clothes-rending, crying, wailing, teeth gnashing and severe criticism of CA, but look at it now. I wonder if the author of that law will receive any apologies - that's OK, seems like this will boost her popularity for all time. Anyhow, the whole point of such laws is protection of workers. It's like insurance. One hates paying the premiums, but sure is glad it's there when disaster strikes. I think there's a lesson in all of this somewhere.

But this is a serious question - did AB-5 workers luck out? What about those whose industries or sectors that carved out exemptions - are those folks out of luck?

Given how many Americans work as freelancers, I think it's silly for Congress to not cover freelancers. I hope the bill will be amended to help everyone out.

Since it's not finalized, let's hope they pass something sensible. My best wishes go out to everyone in need. This is a good thread to keep track of it all.
Click to expand...

That's presuming that people actually got hired as employees anywhere. That was one of the flies in the ointment. A lot of businesses just parted company with their former freelancers as opposed to taking them on as employees.
 
Well, gas prices are going down thanks to the tiff between Russia and the Saudi Arabia/OPEC.

To slightly twist Clausewitz, oil wars are politics by other means.
 
OldCorpse said:
Well, well, well. I wonder how this translates for CA, where the infamous AB-5 law made many formerly freelancers into employees. If indeed the relief only applies to employees, then I guess having tons of people who were re-classified is a huge boon to them. But sadly, this law only applied to CA, so those in CA will be super glad right now, and states that have no such law are out cold. Seems - yet again - CA is ahead of the curve. There was a lot of clothes-rending, crying, wailing, teeth gnashing and severe criticism of CA, but look at it now. I wonder if the author of that law will receive any apologies - that's OK, seems like this will boost her popularity for all time. Anyhow, the whole point of such laws is protection of workers. It's like insurance. One hates paying the premiums, but sure is glad it's there when disaster strikes. I think there's a lesson in all of this somewhere.

But this is a serious question - did AB-5 workers luck out? What about those whose industries or sectors that carved out exemptions - are those folks out of luck?

Given how many Americans work as freelancers, I think it's silly for Congress to not cover freelancers. I hope the bill will be amended to help everyone out.

Since it's not finalized, let's hope they pass something sensible. My best wishes go out to everyone in need. This is a good thread to keep track of it all.
Click to expand...

Sincerely doubt it will work that way. 'On the books' I'm an 'employee' of a certain big broadcast
company based in CA because of AB-5. I only work one to three days a year for them though.
Almost certain I'm not going to qualify for this money despite being 'an employee.' I don't even
live anywhere close to CA and I certainly don't qualify for their health benefits or company
match on retirement. But I get to receive a whole bunch of junk mail informing me all about
those things which I can't have....lol.
 
So I and many of my friends in the business are self-employed, not W2. We have been without work for weeks now, and everything I know of that was booked into the summer is cancelled. We do not get unemployment insurance. I don't see any of us making many of our payments due. At what point do we default on everything (except maybe the mortgage and car loan)?
Hoping that in a couple months things will start back in production, but is it too late by then?
 
Run&Gun said:
That's presuming that people actually got hired as employees anywhere. That was one of the flies in the ointment. A lot of businesses just parted company with their former freelancers as opposed to taking them on as employees.
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Bingo! This year, up until this disaster, was already shaping up to be a financial disaster for my company. We've barely been scraping by, now this. AB5 has been an unmitigated disaster for me, completely screwed me and most of my colleagues over.
 
forbyfiev said:
We had been slow since the end of 2019 also
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Typically, creative media work is slow all winter, from Thanksgiving till March. One of the first three months will be a good month, but never know which one it will be.

Usually rely on Spring, Summer, and Fall to bulk back up. So, many creatives have already been dipping into savings, or worse, some have even invested in gear in anticipation of the year to come. Not such a big deal for established creatives, but this will definitely hit a lot of the newer ones, and some of the smaller ones that are still trying to break in. Should see quite a few leave the creative industry for something more reliable.

For a lot of people, they knew we were overdue for another financial slump. Normally that does effect mass entertainment, but the pandemic does. The entertainment and media industry is much like construction, people have to come together to build something, but.... it is not considered an essential service, like utilities or gas stations, so a pandemic is a worst case for many. Time to figure out PTZ camera operating from home.
 
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In January I said to my broker that I was interested in converting to bonds because all bubbles burst. But I got busy looking for a new car and other distractions....
 
James0b57 said:
Typically, creative media work is slow all winter, from Thanksgiving till March. One of the first three months will be a good month, but never know which one it will be.

Usually rely on Spring, Summer, and Fall to bulk back up. So, many creatives have already been dipping into savings, or worse, some have even invested in gear in anticipation of the year to come. Not such a big deal for established creatives, but this will definitely hit a lot of the newer ones, and some of the smaller ones that are still trying to break in. Should see quite a few leave the creative industry for something more reliable.

For a lot of people, they knew we were overdue for another financial slump. Normally that does effect mass entertainment, but the pandemic does. The entertainment and media industry is much like construction, people have to come together to build something, but.... it is not considered an essential service, like utilities or gas stations, so a pandemic is a worst case for many. Time to figure out PTZ camera operating from home.
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Yep, during the last recession from the housing bust, the TV/entertainment industry was still firing on all eight, and I used to think that us not being in an “essential service” kind of insulated us, but everything has been impacted by this. Things have already been changing and tightening for the last ~5 years in the industry. Some think this will be a thinning of the herd and those that can’t weather through this will move on to something else, which is possible, but it also concerns me that companies will look at what they’ve been doing without or how they’ve been doing it differently during the pandemic and when it’s ok to “return to normal” they just decide to keep operating as they are now.
 
Run&Gun said:
Some think this will be a thinning of the herd and those that can’t weather through this will move on to something else, which is possible, but it also concerns me that companies will look at what they’ve been doing without or how they’ve been doing it differently during the pandemic and when it’s ok to “return to normal” they just decide to keep operating as they are now.
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Could you elaborate? Sports (a large percentage of your clients) is heavily funded by media. Right now, most sports are cancelled. So, once the virus is over, sports will just decide to stay cancelled forever? Or they'll decide to start sports again, but no longer film it or any docs or pre-game footage? Neither of those makes sense.

I don't see how the virus would make people realize they never needed video in the first place, when video typically fulfills a need that directly (or indirectly) helps businesses make profits.
 
Run&Gun said:
That's presuming that people actually got hired as employees anywhere. That was one of the flies in the ointment. A lot of businesses just parted company with their former freelancers as opposed to taking them on as employees.
Click to expand...

Like we discussed in the other thread re: AB-5, the intent was good, but the execution was very poor, it needed and will be amended. The problem was that genuine freelancers, got wrongly swept up in this - this should not have happened and hopefully will get reversed. The intent was to fix the situation where companies were employing people without choice and just classifying them as "freelance" to avoid paying them benefits. Anyhow, that's water under the bridge at this point.

My beef right now is that Congress is being completely unrealistic regarding how a great number of Americans work - as freelancers, independent contractors, part timers etc. It is stupid to just give relief to employees - that shafts a ton of folks through no fault of their own, and privileges large companies again. But guess who pays the lobbyists and makes campaign contributions - big companies. Now freelancers, like so many folks on this board are out cold, because the politicians only respond to their corporate donors. This is messed up.

As voters we should all put the politicians on notice: you work for us, and you have to represent all people, not just the lobbyists special interests. I'm not a freelancer, so this doesn't affect me, but I think we should support one another and stick together, which is why I want Congress to do right by everyone. This country is too divided, we need a bit of solidarity, because in the end we're all Americans.

I vote: if you're going to give financial relief, make it for everyone no matter how they earn their living (as long as it's legal), not just a bailout to big companies.
 
90428024-10158236459174124-5496748013558693888-n.jpg
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Could you elaborate? Sports (a large percentage of your clients) is heavily funded by media. Right now, most sports are cancelled. So, once the virus is over, sports will just decide to stay cancelled forever? Or they'll decide to start sports again, but no longer film it or any docs or pre-game footage? Neither of those makes sense.

I don't see how the virus would make people realize they never needed video in the first place, when video typically fulfills a need that directly (or indirectly) helps businesses make profits.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean that sports would never be covered again. I meant more in a broader sense. Just kind of a continuation(possible acceleration) of the last half decade of relying less and less on professionals and high-end equipment and more and more on prosumer/consumer equipment and their own people, like producers, PA's, PR people, even talent shooting themsleves with cell phones(happens a lot more in TV at the network level than you'd think). 10 years ago I never would have taken this train of thought, but the changes I've seen tell me otherwise.
 
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