Big If True: Bernie's Numbers Don't Add Up

I hope you're sitting down - Bernie has released cost and revenue estimates for his 70's era bong-induced fantasies proposed plans and they don't add up. From many candidates I'll pick this passage as my current favorite:

Any credible economist will assert that raising taxes by $30 or $40 trillion would substantially harm entrepreneurship and economic growth, which would dampen the new revenues. Instead, Sanders assumes that these taxes would bring a burst of new economic growth that saves $3.6 trillion over the decade from new tax revenues and less need for safety net spending. No economic analysis is provided defending these extraordinarily unconventional assumptions.

Apparently there are a host of would-be entrepreneurs chained up by our current system and waiting only for exorbitant taxes and a several new phone books of regulations before they start hiring.

Maybe!

Comments

[anonamom]

Good news!

CricketDiane
@AmBeautifulShow
·
13h
Replying to
@ScottGottliebMD
and
@CitizenCohn
Researchers in Germany have identified potential drug for #COVID19
For attaching to ACE2 receptors, SARS-CoV-2 requires a protease TMPRSS2.
Camostat mesilate (drug used in pancreatitis) inhibits TMPRSS2 & has been found to block virus entry into lung cells
#COVID
@CDCgov

@BNODesk

[anonamom]

This too

https://twitter.com/AmBeautifulShow/status/1236787890388193280/photo/2

[Another Bob]

The interesting bit of perspective on the market is despite the volatile downward movement in the last couple weeks, today’s action will represent only a one-year low.

Thanks Trump!

(Of course, the problem is this is likely to continue for a while.)

[jimmyk]

And a little vignette on how this virus can innocently spread. Mrs K and I are on vacay in a safe (virus- and otherwise) part of Europe. So we're at a not-so-busy (as it's off season) tourist spot, trying to take a selfie, and this American-sounding student offers to take our picture. "Sure," we say, and I hand her the phone. She takes the picture, and then we chat. "Where are you from?" She's in UMaryland, but was doing a semester abroad in ... Italy, and was leaving early, stopping here for a day or two. "Oh, where in Italy?" "Milan."

Now Mrs K has been listening to all these self-proclaimed experts predicting 100 million in the US getting the virus and hundreds of thousands of deaths. I've been pretty skeptical of all that. Still, I got to the first WC I could and wiped down the phone and washed my hands, and I'm thinking to myself, "How stupid was that?" Both on our part and the student's. I wonder how she even got out of Milan without having to self-isolate.

Anyway, if you don't hear from me ever again you'll know why. :)

[jimmyk]

And my thinking on all these predictions by "experts": No one has any clue about the ultimate number of cases, deaths, etc. Too many variables. But I'd like to pin them down on where it will be in a week, two weeks, three weeks. If they're way off on those short-term predictions, then we can even more safely ignore them on the long-term ones.

When I pointed out to Mrs K that the number of cases in China seems to have leveled off, she said that according to her experts, it's just a lull due to all the shutdowns, and once they all start going back to work it will start spreading exponentially again. Maybe, but at least that's a near-term prediction that is verifiable. Also, if the cases do start climbing again they'll shut back down, presumably.

[James D.]

Jimmyk @ 7:56

If you replaced every NYT op-Ed columnist with an illiterate mentally ill homeless person, would you be able to tell the difference?

[Old Lurker]

"But I'd like to pin them down on where it will be in a week, two weeks, three weeks."

Aw come on, Jimmy. These people can tell you the temperature in Central Park in 100 years so of course they can predict to China Cough next week. Easy Peazy.

[jimmyk]

If you replaced every NYT op-Ed columnist with an illiterate mentally ill homeless person, would you be able to tell the difference?

And Douthat is supposed to be relatively "conservative," no?

I'd like to be able to say to him: "Now do Obama and H1N1." Obama waited something like 6 months before doing anything, and something like 11,000 people died. But the left would sneer and call that "Whataboutism."

Here's New Neo on Obama and H1N1:

https://www.thenewneo.com/2020/03/07/do-you-remember-the-msm-announcing-the-death-count-every-day-during-h1n1-epidemic-death-by-death-by-death/

[Another Bob]

Not just NYT. WSJ types have now taken to extensively quoting people calling themselves “social epidemiologists” who “study” the “biological consequences of social inequalities”.

[James D.]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/driver-in-biden-crash-wanted-name-cleared/

He hadn't been drinking. He has passed away, but his daughter wants his name cleared.

Biden's been a liar all his life.

If Biden is the Dem candidate, President Trump should make sure the daughter is at the first debate, and regardless of the rules, he should bring her on stage to ask Biden in person to stop lying about her father.

[James D.]

Look at the headlines listed above on the thread and elsewhere in the world, and then tell me that this virus wasn't planned.

That's pretty much where I am now. I'm 99% convinced the Chinese Communist Party released it on purpose, to do as much damage to the U.S. economy (and other western countries) as possible.

And our crooked media, and the treasonous Democrat Party, is helping them.

[Captain Hate]

I still haven't heard a damn thing from my primary care physician about the Alar virus and, until I do, my worry about it is nil.

[Neo]

I can’t see the Obamas putting their “billion dollar brand” on hold

[rse]

jimmy-

was at whole foods over the weekend getting a few things with longer expiry dates including frozen wild sockeye salmon. Get to register and I was there when it opened and clerk is reading magazine and puts it down. She is ringing up my merhandise and my wf app is not downloading to get discount so I said you need to scan this as they have a hand device that never touches.

She grabs my phone from me and comes around to do it herself and I got upset that she had transferred whatever she had on her gloves to my phone and then from phone to her cask register panel and then everything she was touching from then on. She held up her hands and said "there is no problem, I have on gloves."

I said the gloves protect you from germs they don't protect your customers from germs on them and most cell phones are filthy. Manager comes over and sends her for wipes and he finished ringing me up and had her change gloves and wipe everything down.

No transmission when wearing gloves is a terrible mindset for a sales clerk to have.

[Threadkiller]

I saw the 6O Minutes episode last night that included Fauci. Here is a portion of an interview with another expert. It caught my attention:

Dr. Tom Inglesby is director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. He is an internationally recognized authority on how to prepare for an epidemic....

...Four months ago, to help expose weak spots in disaster preparedness, Dr. Inglesby gathered industry and government leaders from around the world for a simulation exercise. Attending were representatives who could be hard hit during a global pandemic. Industries like airlines and hotels and organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control were also there, from both the U.S. and China. Remember, this was just a few weeks before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China.

The group spent an intensive day simulating how they would handle a pandemic of a new strain of coronavirus, one much deadlier than COVID-19.

The simulation utilized actors reporting on the fictional outbreak, complete with fictional travel bans, shortages of medical supplies, and economic freefall.

"I think it opened the eyes of leaders in various places," Inglesby said. "The CDC director from China was one of the participants. And he has commented since then how eerie the similarities are between the exercise and real life."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-containment-dr-jon-lapook-60-minutes-2020-03-08/

[Neo]

NYPost:
Elizabeth Warren lost by copying Hillary’s victim act
https://nypost.com/2020/03/08/elizabeth-warren-lost-by-copying-hillarys-victim-act-devine/

[henry]

@CNBC

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock launches Senate bid, a boost in Democrats' push for majority

[Threadkiller]

In that same 60min report, in between taking shots at the administration, they note that “80% of the cases are mild.”

[hoyden]

James D. What did illiterate mentally ill homeless persons do to get slimed as NYT op-ed columnists?

[jimmyk]

No transmission when wearing gloves is a terrible mindset for a sales clerk to have.

Yes, rse, I suspect many don't realize that those latex gloves only protect others if they are changed every 5 minutes.

Thinking about my comments on Douthat, maybe the left is consistent: They think Trump is an autocrat, so why couldn't he just snap his fingers and make the entire health and government bureaucracy shift on a dime? It's just that rather than question their belief that he is Mussoline on steroids, they'll just rely on it to reaffirm that he's only using his autocratic powers to evil ends.

[Buckeye]

rse

Sounds like Whole Foods isn’t quite “woke” enough, despite their act.

[rse]

This has some very good info in it. https://www.city-journal.org/coronavirus-and-the-economy

Harvard Medical School professor Jeremy Samuel Faust, writing recently in Slate, argues that the latest data suggest the coronavirus is far less deadly than previously thought—something we have discovered in the aftermath of previous epidemics, such as the 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak, where the actual mortality rate turned out to be one-tenth what was first reported. Increasingly, it seems that the coronavirus commonly takes a mild form, and that severe cases are especially rare among the young. The most vulnerable population is the elderly. One recent report in Italy found that the average age of those who had died in the country was 80. On the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that was quarantined, 705 people tested positive for the virus, and six died—all were over 70. These rates are consistent with what we know about the flu. Every year, as many as 80 percent to 90 percent of those who die from seasonal influenza are elderly, many with health problems that the infection worsens.

“This all suggests that COVID-19 is a relatively benign disease for most young people, and a potentially devastating one for the old and chronically ill, albeit not nearly as risky as reported,” Faust writes. “In particular, we need to focus on the right people and the right places. Nursing homes, not schools. Hospitals, not planes.”

The biggest worry is that, in the general panic over the coronavirus—as healthy young people rush out to stockpile supplies and governments shut down soccer games—we’ll fail to direct our efforts where they are most needed. “What worries me the most is that people are going to be so panicked they will overwhelm the health-care system and push to the side people who really do need medical attention,” said Paul Offitt, a physician and infectious-disease expert at the University of Pennsylvania, in a recent interview.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

I'm thinking about preventative self-quarantining.
If I don't stop reading the hysterical and partisan Wuflu bullshit I'm going to get sick.

[James D.]

Dr. Tom Inglesby is director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. He is an internationally recognized authority on how to prepare for an epidemic

He may be all that, but "internationally recognized" by whom? I'm done with trusting experts just because people who I already know I can't trust (anyone who works for CBS news, for example) tell me I should.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

It appears the epidemic has peaked in China.
Cases have also slowed considerably in South Korea suggesting the same.
Charles Mackay barely scratched the surface.

[jimmyk]

James D, just lie back bend over and think of the Queen.

[Captain Hate]

Global warming virus.

[Buckeye]

By this time next year we will understand that -19 deserves about the same degree of concern and precautions as a strain of influenza.

Unfortunately Biden or Moooch (punchbowl hardest hit:)) could very well be President.

[Neo]

Slate Continues To Write Idiotic Memes While Coronavirus Cases Surge

[Jim Eagle]

At one time Puerto Rico was the epi-center of US drug production that is now in China. And guess who is to blame: William Jefferson Clinton.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/07/coronavirus-shows-us-needs-to-restore-pharmaceutical-production-in-puerto-rico/

[Buckeye]

Trading halted. That didn’t take long.

[James D.]

Neo, is anyone (well, anyone with a functioning brain) still reading that trash site?

[anonamom]

No transmission when wearing gloves is a terrible mindset for a sales clerk to have.

It is a VERY common mindset to have,and why people should NOT wear masks as well. False sense of security to the wearer, who then does NOT take the proper precautions that DO keep you disease free.

Wash your hands. Do NOT touch your face. Stay hydrated.

[Neo]

DOW down 1700
Max von Sydow dead at 90

[Buckeye]

Turned back on so it can puke some more.

[Jim Eagle]

Your oddball story of the day:

https://www.foxnews.com/world/pig-fire-england-pedometer-excrement

Firefighters believed that copper from the pedometer’s batteries reacted with the pig’s excrement and dry hay to ignite the fire.

[Buckeye]

Washing my hands enough that I am using a LOT more lotion.

[Buckeye]

Only good news about the Saudi move is that it might drive a stake through Iran’s heart.

Probably through US frackers too.

[James D.]

Trading halted. That didn’t take long.

So Wall Street is completely, 100% irrational now, driven entirely by unfounded fears and emotional swings that an 8th grade girl suffering her first crush would be embarrassed by?

Got it.

[Captain Hate]

Is killfile available for Safari?

[Buckeye]

James D

Markets always been that way.

[Buckeye]

CH

I don’t think so.

[Captain Hate]

I didn't think it was, Buckeye.

[henry]

According to the Democratic National Committee, the next debate — which is all but certain to be a head-to-head matchup between Sanders and Biden — will allow both candidates to be seated and take audience questions. This would be a dramatic change from the previous debates, during which the candidates faced questions from the moderators and stood behind lecterns for several hours.

“The DNC has changed the format for the next debate, where Joe Biden would have had to stand at a lectern for two hours and answer questions from professional moderators, to one where both men will be seated and answer questions from the audience,” tweeted Common Dreams senior editor and writer Eoin Higgins.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/360764/

[henry]

new thread

[MissMarple2]

I have been trying to pay my internet bill. AT&T has so many gimcracks and gizmos on their bill-paying page that I had to get someone special to help me.

PLUS, the guy who was handling my bill sounded like Jose Jiminez!!! I expected to hear Senor Wences next!

[Barbara]

Concerning the large number of Coronavirus cases in Northern Italy due to a high concentration of Chinese immigrants:

Posted by: rse | March 09, 2020 at 06:59 AM

Thank you, rse. I had no idea and missed that article.

If you have a link, please post it.

Many thanks again.