CV and mad panic behaviour

[ElwoodBlues1]

We wont be going back to normal even with high vaccination levels and masks/social distancing are something we are going to have to live with for a while IMHO. Cousins of my wife bought a cafe/restaurant in Sydney middle of last year and our now faced with the fact they will only ever be able to have the place half full. Took out a business loan thanks to a mortgage broking shark to buy what they thought was a cheap bargain and now want some of the family to help them out with money or they could lose their home which was security.
This is the other side of CoVid, people going bankrupt and ending up with nothing after failed business ventures and money grabbing vultures exploiting people being desperate.

[Gointocarlton]

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.

Firstly the Fed government along with a large US/Australian Pharma company were committed to building pandemic ready vaccine facility well before Covid broke, fact. Secondly, buying in vaccinations from other parts of the world where all the big players are when youre an outpost and pimple like Australia is no mean feat. I think we did well to secure the doses we did if I'm honest. As for lining up locally with CSL to make the AZ vaccine, it was the only choice the government really had. Pfizer doesnt manafucture it here and isn't big enough or ready to make here it anyway. CSL was. Do you think CSL was going to get in bed with Pfizer to contract make their vaccine for them? Yeah right. Be like Carlton and Collingwood sharing coaching/IP resources.

[Gointocarlton]

We wont be going back to normal even with high vaccination levels and masks/social distancing are something we are going to have to live with for a while IMHO. Cousins of my wife bought a cafe/restaurant in Sydney middle of last year and our now faced with the fact they will only ever be able to have the place half full. Took out a business loan thanks to a mortgage broking shark to buy what they thought was a cheap bargain and now want some of the family to help them out with money or they could lose their home which was security.
This is the other side of CoVid, people going bankrupt and ending up with nothing after failed business ventures and money grabbing vultures exploiting people being desperate.

These stories are the real cost of Covid and it makes me sick to the core. As I have stated previously, I hope we as a nation have learnt a few lessons from this thing, I know I have.

[Mav]

I like the nuance in your post EB. You’ve blamed Covid for your in-laws plight rather than the lockdowns or restrictions that are used to contain it. And I’m sure everyone can empathise with their plight as we’ve all suffered to some degree (though, I hope, not to the same degree). Sure, cafés & restaurants have always been risky, but who could have foreseen they’d be swept away by a tsunami like this?

[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!

[LP]

I like the nuance in your post EB. You’ve blamed Covid for your in-laws plight rather than the lockdowns or restrictions that are used to contain it. And I’m sure everyone can empathise with their plight as we’ve all suffered to some degree (though, I hope, not to the same degree). Sure, cafés & restaurants have always been risky, but who could have foreseen they’d be swept away by a tsunami like this?

Yes, being a newbie in that sector would not help, supplier issues, functional changes, you would be learning on the ropes while the shape of the ring and opponent keeps changing.

Ironically, in my area some food based services are booming, I think it's partially just luck of the draw. They have reduced wages because they don't employ wait staff, and sales are up dramatically based on takeaway and home delivery. Others that were primarily focussed on seated service have been smashed. Obviously, experience must play a part, especially in managing waste.

[LP]

This is the other side of CoVid, people going bankrupt and ending up with nothing after failed business ventures and money grabbing vultures exploiting people being desperate.

Yes, this is horrendous, I think the government has been far too negligent in this area, they have allowed too many to become victims or 3rd party predators. Dodgy financiers, bridging finance crooks, the lowest of the low some of who are profiteering from the collateral victims of COVID-19!

The Feds could have stopped all this by having the big commercial banks act more responsibly for the longer term, I'm surprised the big banks didn't take the opportunity to cut the crooks out of the market, they could have probably done so with Fed Reserve support. Not that the big banks aren't also crooks from time to time, or all the time.

[ElwoodBlues1]

I like the nuance in your post EB. You’ve blamed Covid for your in-laws plight rather than the lockdowns or restrictions that are used to contain it. And I’m sure everyone can empathise with their plight as we’ve all suffered to some degree (though, I hope, not to the same degree). Sure, cafés & restaurants have always been risky, but who could have foreseen they’d be swept away by a tsunami like this?

Mav, they are nice people but have a history of poor decision making with business and lost their parents home to the bank
when another business venture failed. Buying a cafe/restaurant in CoVid times given the extreme lockdown rules in Aus is like buying a surfboard when there is a Tsunami due the next day....a dumb decision which we warned them against.
They want my wife, her sister and brother to give them a loan, they are Slavic/Nth Italians so the family are close and there is this expectation its our duty to help. My wifes sister and her husband have already said No so of course the pressure is on us and her brother to find the money.

[Gointocarlton]

Mav, they are nice people but have a history of poor decision making with business and lost their parents home to the bank
when another business venture failed. Buying a cafe/restaurant in CoVid times given the extreme lockdown rules in Aus is like buying a surfboard when there is a Tsunami due the next day....a dumb decision which we warned them against.
They want my wife, her sister and brother to give them a loan, they are Slavic/Nth Italians so the family are close and there is this expectation its our duty to help. My wifes sister and her husband have already said No so of course the pressure is on us and her brother to find the money.

Tough situation EB

[Mav]

Oh boy! I missed the point they’d bought after the pandemic hit. What a risky gamble.

I can’t believe they’d look to relatives to bail them out. If I went to Crown casino and lost $200k at the roulette wheel, I wouldn’t have the chutzpah to tell relatives they needed to foot the bill.

In the taxi industry, taxi owners would band together in a form of Insurance pooling. If one of them was sued over a crash, they’d share the costs (and perhaps also share the costs of fixing the taxi). But that was all organised ahead of time and featured reciprocal obligations. Any owner who was deemed to be a cowboy wouldn’t be allowed into the pool. But here, your in-laws have, unbeknownst to you, effectively made you a co-borrower who is jointly responsible for the loan. You had no chance to assess risk or opt out. And if the café had gone gangbusters, no doubt you wouldn’t have shared In the success.

I don’t envy you. There’ll be heaps of pressure from the family and ironically the sister who refused to pay will probably have some reason why you should pay when she didn’t, thus successfully passing the hot potato. I like to read Ask Prudence in Slate and so many people write in with variations of this issue.