How will the COVID-19 Shut-Down Affect Small and Big Businesses (It Could Get Ugly...) #66

Ryan Kia (of quantiumresearch.co.uk) begins this episode looking at the impact of the nation-wide economic shutdown on small businesses. He focuses on a friend’s family restaurant and why it decided to not use traditional food delivery firms such as Just Eat and Uber Eats, and instead take the bold decision to terminate operations until the shut-down is over, despite being offered 80% of staff costs by government. He then goes macro, looking at airlines, oil and gas and traditional retail companies, outlining some clear mistakes from history (such as excessive buybacks) that have increased the vulnerability of such companies in the present day. He finishes the episode by reiterating the difference between short-term market fluctuations (including temporary recessions/depressions) and long-term market moves. It is important to remember that investors in US stocks would have been roughly 15-20 times up on their initial investment from 1987 (pre-crisis) to the present day (amidst an ongoing crisis).