CV and mad panic behaviour

[LP]

IMO, Dodge, lockdowns and elimination should have been used to buy us time to vaccinate quickly. But the Federal Government has been like a uni student who used swot vac to party and then tries to cram everything in the night before the exam. Right now, we should have been where we’ll be early next year. Unfortunately, it seems that outbreaks and subsequent lockdowns are the only way to generate supply of and demand for vaccines.

Yep, the politicians placed a bet driven by short term economic arguments, to look after their business constituency, but almost ignored the "What If we get it Wrong" consequences and now it's actually hurt the commerce even more.

Ironically, I note the banks are today playing ball voluntarily pausing mortgage repayments, but cynically it won't help if after the pause they just want mortgagees to catch up. I understand there are contractual issues that have to be sorted for this to change, but given most terms are many years or many decades surely there is time and they can act more aggressively in the short term. But I heard one economist claim that the problem is the banks know that after a bust comes a boom, and they know that long term they can get a bigger slice of the boom by grabbing a bigger slice now while the buying is cheap. So maybe that voluntary action is not so altruistic!