When I started to write this blog, I think part of the reason was to create a record that I could look back upon in the future. This could help me learn and become a better investor and it would also be nice on a human level to remember how I felt at moments that were historically and economically important.
I must say, now very definitely feels like one of those moments. Unemployment claims are soaring, and economists are issuing dire predictions of the blindingly obvious – that GDP is plunging the real question being how long the recession lasts for. My fiancé and I live I a flat in pleasant central Cambridge and we do not have kids, so life for us is pretty easy at the moment. We are working from home, and although there are possibly dark clouds over the horizon, in terms of our jobs, right now things are fairly nice. I don’t have my long daily commute and we are eating well, given all the extra time we have for home cooked meals. Once a day, generally, we will go for a walk or a bike ride. Spring is coming in the UK, and Cambridge is a very pleasant place normally. With the lockdown in place, there are very few cars on the road. I imagine it is currently a little like my mother knew it, when she was growing up in the 1950s, with lots of cyclists on the road, 2 abreast and moving at a leisurely pace.
Our parents seem to be coping pretty well with the situation. They are all taking the required precautions and all have access to food and a TV! The internet is a godsend as well. It allows families to keep in touch in a way that they would never have done before.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that – apart from having a glimpse of a slower, older world – I am extremely insulated from what must be a near hell a short distance up the road at Addenbrooke’s hospital. If news stories are to be believed, and why wouldn’t I, medical staff are short of equipment and are trying to do a job which requires close contact, diligence and compassion in an environment which must feel chaotic and uncontrolled at times. Elsewhere in Cambridge, good people are trying to make the best of life when their businesses have been forced shut by the virus, not knowing when to open. Japas Sushi, where we go for our weekly date night, is now takeaway only and it seems to just be the proprietor and chef working there. They seem stressed and rushed off their feet. The beauty of sushi is that it doesn’t have to be ready at a set time. It comes when it comes and people sitting at the restaurant table don’t expect it all to be at the same time. It’s different with takeaway and I’m sure that’s why they seem so stressed. The proprietor told me on Friday that he wasn’t sure he could stay open because he couldn’t get supplies. So it looks like he will join all the other business that are shut down. Very often, these are individuals that had a dream – of opening a neighbourhood café or arts & crafts shop - and those dreams are shattered. And there’s still a load of pain to come. We are in the eye of the economic hurricane here in the UK. The chancellor has announced all sort of economic support measures, many of them delivered via the retail banks, who “owe the nation” after being bailed out by the taxpayer in the 2008 financial crisis. Those measures include the furlough, whereby lots of employees that would have been made redundant are effectively having their salaries paid by the government for three months. But the question is – what happens after that? It seems clear that the current lockdown of the population is not something that will end, just like that. Rather, we are set for a long grinding year of phased lockdowns and there will undoubtedly be economic scarring. Who knows, maybe myself or my other half will be victims but for now, we should be grateful for what he have – our health, our comfort, and that of our loved ones.
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