Relaxation of Restrictions, Part III - **Read OP for Mod Warnings**

Banana Republic 1

ElvenAl wrote: »

Coronavirus: Car rental firm Hertz files for bankruptcy after pandemic losses
The car hire company had lost all its revenue by the end of March, court documents show.

Despite being allowed to stay open as an "essential business", the firm was forced to close the majority of its branches when COVID-19 hit - including in the UK and Ireland.

The company lost all its revenue and plunged £15.3bn into debt by the end of March, court documents reveal.

It has also had to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide and put 4,000 more workers on furlough.

Hertz has filed for a Chapter 11 restructure, which means creditors will have to settle for less than full repayment of its crippling debts, but the business will still be able to operate.

It had already flagged major debt concerns in its first-quarter report released in May.

Who next? And don't tell me that it is a case of 'economy vs lives', a completely destroyed economy will cost lives; a lot of lives. And a completely destroyed economy is what we are looking at right now. We need to end this insane lockdown now. Right f**king now. Otherwise you will see a catastrophe you cannot even begin to imagine.

Firstly if you cant write an op ed without cursing it’s time to take a chill pill.

Second hertz was in trouble long before this like debhanhams.

Third, chapter 11 isn’t liquidation but it’s like getting shot in the liver tbh.

Fourth, Ireland has yet to setup the testing and tracing infrastructure needed to open up the like of which you see in Denmark, Finland or Norway who have populations of five million and have only had a few hundred deaths between them.

ElvenAl

Forbes

List Of Retail Companies On Bankruptcy Watch Is Growing Fast Amid Coronavirus Crisis

Closed for business! That is the sign on the doors of non-essential retailers in 45 states, with “non-essential” being defined as stores that trade in discretionary (clothing, home furnishings, electronics, beauty) as opposed to life-preserving products (food, pharmacies, cleaning supplies). Closures are expected to extend through April 30, but given the unpredictable nature of the coronavirus pandemic, local closures could be mandated longer.

Adding up the major national non-essential retailers impacted, Neil Saunders of GlobalData Retail estimates more than 190,000 stores have been closed, accounting for nearly 50% of U.S. retail square footage. That effectively closes down the nation’s roughly 1,200 malls and most stores in strip shopping centers and on America’s Main Streets.

To say this is going to be devastating to American retailers is to put it mildly. With little to no revenues coming in for non-essential retailers through at least the end of April, other than sales from digital channels, retailers will face a day of reckoning later this year or early next.

Credit rating downgrades
That day just got closer for nine major retailers, as Fitch downgraded credit ratings for:

Today In: Retail

The Fashion Industry Just Outlined A Vision For The Future. Will #RewiringFashion Be Good Enough?
There Is Still A Little Life Left In Lord & Taylor, Two Locations Reopen
Coronavirus Isn’t Hurting All Discretionary Spending: April Video Game Sales Hit A Record High
Capri Holdings (Michael Kors, Versace, Jimmy Choo)
Dillard’s
J.C. Penney
Kohl’s
Levi Strauss
Macy’s
Nordstrom
Signet (Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, Piercing Pagoda)
Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman)

And please don't think that just because they are American companies it doesn't matter. America's economy affects everything. They were just the first that came from a 1 minute search.

Calina

vladmydad wrote: »

The damage being done is staggering. Economic suicide. Everyone now knows we should have just Isolated the vulnerable (nursing homes, immune compromised etc) and allowed everyone else get on with their lives. But we’re so far into this nonsense that governments won’t lose face, so we continue with the charade. In 10 years time this will be known as the biggest overreaction in human history.

Spoken like someone who thinks they aren't amongst the vulnerable. Very easy to suggest stuff like this when you think it won't affect you.

ElvenAl

The economic shock from Covid-19 will also affect our health
Loss of income can lead to changes in health behaviours, which in turn can affect wellbeing

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the Irish economy into a severe recession. Apart from the direct impacts of Covid-19 on those who have died or recovered from the virus, what are the likely impacts of this economic shock on the health and wellbeing of the Irish population?

The evidence on whether recessions are good or bad for health is mixed. This is due to the complexity of health and wellbeing and the different natures of past recessions and policy responses.

It is clear, however, that recessions are bad for mental health, and that they can exacerbate existing inequalities in health and wellbeing. For example, evidence from the Growing Up in Ireland study has shown that the 2008 financial crisis was associated with a deterioration in child physical and mental health, and particularly among those who were socioeconomically disadvantaged prior to the crisis.

However, the current economic shock is different. The restrictions on social and economic life that have been put in place to protect public health are wide-ranging. This requires us to look more broadly at the evidence to come up with some clearer predictions and to identify some likely longer-term health policy challenges.

A unique dimension of the public health measures put in place to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic has been the physical distancing and social isolation measures. The additional restrictions on the movements of those aged 70+ have particular implications for their health and wellbeing, as set out in a series of recent reports from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

There is a wide body of evidence documenting the negative association between loneliness, social isolation and health, and some very recent evidence on the negative mental health impacts of social isolation and quarantining measures. Social isolation is not just an issue for the older population; for young people in particular, important sources of support such as friends and teachers are less available at present.

Behaviours
Unemployment and loss of income can lead to changes in health behaviours, which in turn can affect our longer-term health. Some changes may have positive health effects – people spend less on tobacco and alcohol, and spend more time preparing their own food, sleeping and exercising. However, the evidence also shows that the stress of unemployment leads to poorer health behaviours.

irishgeo

vladmydad wrote: »

The damage being done is staggering. Economic suicide. Everyone now knows we should have just Isolated the vulnerable (nursing homes, immune compromised etc) and allowed everyone else get on with their lives. But we’re so far into this nonsense that governments won’t lose face, so we continue with the charade. In 10 years time this will be known as the biggest overreaction in human history.

Maybe you should try saying this to 345,000 dead people. Oh wait you can't they are dead.
It's only a business for God sake. Retail is in trouble before this anyway. Maybe it's time these CEO paid millions a year, to earn their money and come up with ideas to save the companies they run.

Hego Damask

It is funny though the way people go on about lives being so important, yet the 500k people that die every year from seasonal flu globally don't even make the news - lockdowns would save them too...

average_runner

irishgeo wrote: »

Maybe you should try saying this to 345,000 dead people. Or wait you can't they are dead.
It's only a business for God sake. Retail is in trouble before this anyway. Maybe it's time these CEO paid millions a year, to earn their money and come up with ideas to save the companies they run.

Retail is in trouble because its stuck in the 80's.
Shops should be for just fitting clothes on, 1/8 the size of them now

Hego Damask

Look just everyone stay at home until no one dies anymore ever!!

average_runner

Hego Damask wrote: »

It is funny though the way people go on about lives being so important, yet the 500k people that die every year from seasonal flu globally don't even make the news - lockdowns would save them too...

There is a vaccine for the flu though. So the option is there. It's not the flu that kills you it's what it develops into.

Once we have a vaccine for this it be treated like the flu

Unearthly

average_runner wrote: »

Retail is in trouble because its stuck in the 80's.
Shops should be for just fitting clothes on, 1/8 the size of them now

Yes online shopping is growing and only going to get bigger

vladmydad

Calina wrote: »

Spoken like someone who thinks they aren't amongst the vulnerable. Very easy to suggest stuff like this when you think it won't affect you.

Oh I am vulnerable.....to losing my job, House, investments, mental health.... the response was like taking a sledgehammer to do surgery.

padser

Forcing companies to go out of business has a huge economic toll. The notion that if the demand is there so other companies will expand to take the place of those that fail is dangerously simplistic.

It's true in one sense in the long term - but its simply not true in a 6 / 12 / 18 month window in most industries.

And that short term impact is huge, and has long term measures - let's imagine it's just hertz and in 3 months Eurocar has expanded to fill the void
- workers in those companies lose their jobs and are out of work for 3 months. Most people live pay cheque to pay cheque - so those 3 months has a personal impact and hits their spending (they cancel health insurance, the cancel netflix etc)
- your pension fund (that's your pension by the way in x years time) just had had Hertz default on its debt, so now your pension will be lower when you get it
- the governement just had to pay 3 months unemployment to that hertz worker before they got hired by Eurocar - that's 3 months of spend that cant buy a new children's hospital
- you know that netflix account that was cancelled in point 1? That's a new hire that netflix pushes out a month because growth is slower etc etc

All of that is without evening starting to think about the company infrastructure lost when an industry loses a big player, or the higher prices we all pay when eurocar expands because its major competitor is now gone.

We simply can't shut the economy down and expect everything to to back quickly to where it was. The economic toll will be enormous.

Argue the toll is worth paying if you want - don't bury your head in the sand and pretend there is no economic toll.

vladmydad

average_runner wrote: »

There is a vaccine for the flu though. So the option is there. It's not the flu that kills you it's what it develops into.

Once we have a vaccine for this it be treated like the flu

The flu vaccine is only 60% effective in a good year and in the low 30’s in bad year.

vladmydad

Oafley Jones wrote: »

What a surprise that the OP’s account has been dormant for three years and has just sprung into life to spread toxic ****e.

Toxic !!!!!! People’s livelihoods have been destroyed for a virus that’s so weak the average age of those it kills is 84. We’ve condemned another generation to poverty but this time emigration won’t be an option.

Azatadine

Good morning Ivan Yates.

Redgirl82

Has everyone picked up it’s only US and Canada, not Europe?

Hertz Europe is still ok for now

Jim_Hodge

OP, why not read the threads already discussing all this rather than have us all repeat the same old sh1te here just for you?

Redgirl82

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

OP, why not read the threads already discussing all this rather than have us all repeat the same old sh1te here just for you?

Seemingly if more fun this way

Oafley Jones

Redgirl82 wrote: »

Has everyone picked up it’s only US and Canada, not Europe?

Hertz Europe is still ok for now

Yes. But these are obvious talking points for an American audience. The OP just lazily added Ireland and UK to make it fit.

minikin

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

There has to be confidence in the market for that to work.
Business confidence has and continues to be destroyed and will take years to recover

Business Confidence (temporary) V. Dead Parents (Permanent)
Get a grip the lot of ye.

Kauto

This lockdown should end immediately. Not likely as we have given Dr Tony and co a free run at things and the political leaders are petrified of making the correct decision.
How is DR H able to keep a straight face in the press conferences every day whilst announcing less than 20 deaths(majority of whom were dying anyways) and continuing with the lockdown charade?
I'm off for a weeks holidays down the country from today.

Harry Palmr

The economy will be opened when doing so is shown to be safe, get the next bit wrong and we'll be back to square one. That will be the real catastrophe for business.

Wibbs

Redgirl82 wrote: »

Has everyone picked up it’s only US and Canada, not Europe?

Hertz Europe is still ok for now

While the economy here is in trouble and how that pans out is both anybody's guess and a worry, it is too often the case of late, that too many Irish people are focused on the US.

Kauto

Harry Palmr wrote: »

The economy will be opened when doing so is shown to be safe, get the next bit wrong and we'll be back to square one. That will be the real catastrophe for business.

It is safe to do so! Go back to bed you idiot.

Redgirl82

Wibbs wrote: »

While the economy here is in trouble and how that pans out is both anybody's guess and a worry, it is too often the case of late, that too many Irish people are focused on the US.

Let the US worry about themselves

This seems to be a case of the OP not really understanding that Hertz Europe and the jobs in Ireland should be largely unaffected by this announcement

Jim_Hodge

Redgirl82 wrote: »

Seemingly if more fun this way

For whom?

Whirlaway

Hey OP tell us what you really think (not just copy-and-pasting articles).

Between that and the link dumps in the restrictions thread...

Redgirl82

Kauto wrote: »

This lockdown should end immediately. Not likely as we have given Dr Tony and co a free run at things and the political leaders are petrified of making the correct decision.
How is DR H able to keep a straight face in the press conferences every day whilst announcing less than 20 deaths(majority of whom were dying anyways) and continuing with the lockdown charade?
I'm off for a weeks holidays down the country from today.

Hello Dr kauto, what medical training have you got?

flazio

OP must have been slapped very hard by the midwife when they were born.
I can't see any other reason to be so flippant towards our hospitals and their capacity.

Kauto

Redgirl82 wrote: »

Hello Dr kauto, what medical training have you got?

We will never come out of lockdown if the medics are making the decisions. There comes a time when economic considerations will have to take precedence. It's crazy the country is still in Lockdown.