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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-estate-billionaire-barrack-says-230309693.html
(Bloomberg) -- Real estate investor Tom Barrack said the U.S. commercial-mortgage market is on the brink of collapse and predicted a “domino effect” of catastrophic economic consequences if banks and government don’t take prompt action to keep borrowers from defaulting.
Barrack, chairman and chief executive officer of Colony Capital Inc., warned in a white paper and in a subsequent interview on Bloomberg Television of a chain reaction of margin calls, mass foreclosures, evictions and, potentially, bank failures due to the coronavirus pandemic and consequent shutdown of much of the U.S. economy.
“To keep people employed, you have to support the employers,” he said Monday in the interview. “The biggest part of employer expense is rent. When commerce stops and they can’t pay rent and they can’t pay interest on the debt, and then the banks and the intermediaries can’t pay their investors, it all collapses.”
This really depends on the ability of the Federal Reserve to issue huge amounts of money that will keep up with the banks’ liquidity shortage. Can the Fed do this? Theoretically yes, since it can create any amount of money that it thinks is necessary—especially now that the interest rate is down to ZERO.
But government subsidies cannot make up for the collapse of an entire economy that comes from a lockdown and quarantine. At least, not for long. I have never had faith that the government can do an adequate job when it comes to a good-sized natural disaster, and the present crisis is much more widespread than a mere hurricane or earthquake.
It would not be a bad idea to leave a minimal amount of money in the bank and to keep as much cash at home as you can. If the banks shut down, the FDIC will insure it up to $250,000, but again, the FDIC itself could be overwhelmed. The Fed would have to create more money to bail out the FDIC, and you may then get your money back in a few months or perhaps next year. But what if you need the money now? And what if next year’s money is hyperinflated, so that it doesn’t buy much compared to today?
By the end of 2020 a hyperinflated Federal Reserve Note could well be a thing of the past. Since the Fed’s creation in 1913-1914 was the start of the final form of Mystery Babylon, I believe its collapse will mark the final end of the Babylonian system that has kept the nations in bondage since the fall of Jerusalem in 604 B.C.
And now for the bad news….
Oh wait, the news is all good.