Covid-19's big winners are the globalists

this is why a Cheesecake or a Darden or a Brinker can charge ahead. They have little competition now. https://t.co/xKY7d6SnI0

— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) June 3, 2020

Conventional wisdom is covid-19 hurt the globalists because people are starting to call Red China "Red China" again. But Jim Cramer followed the money. The lockdowns helped big business.

CNBC reported, "The corona virus pandemic and corresponding lockdown made way for 'one of the greatest wealth transfers in history,' CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday.

"The stock market is rising as big business rebounds from state-ordered stoppage of nonessential activity, while small businesses drop like flies, the Mad Money host said.

"'The bigger the business, the more it moves the major averages, and that matters because this is the first recession where big business … is coming through virtually unscathed, if not going for the gold,' he added."

I mentioned this in a post yesterday that was posted before Cramer's show. (And there is no way Cramer read that post.)

The post said, "Tanking the economy actually helps Corporate America (which sides with Democrats) because it drives its competition out of business. While the mom-and-pop stores shuttered, Amazon flourished."

And of course, big business can endure short-term losses easier than even a well-financed small business.

Cramer's take is that the economy is screwed but not the stock market.

The CNBC story said, "In order to help small businesses make it to the other side of the pandemic, the federal government needs to pass another stimulus package, given the social distancing mandates that remain in place, he added. The American Bankruptcy Institute said Thursday that U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcies in May ballooned by 48% compared to a year ago."

Cramer said, "That’s that pesky real world asserting itself, but the only big bankruptcy we’ve seen in the stock market is Hertz."

And Hertz already was hurting.

Cramer also said, "The companies that took the money just got a big break: they only need to spend 60% on their employees to get the loans forgiven, down from the original 75%. That’s important, as most small businesses fail because they can’t afford to pay the rent.

"But, in the end, the stimulus package probably won’t be enough, for one simple reason. It’s not going to work because of social distancing."

I know most readers realize covid-19 was overblown. Yes, it is a horrible disease that killed many an old person. But the threat never justified a national shutdown.

But politicians and their corporate allies feed on fear.

My wife's family recalls that in World War II there was a fear in West Virginia that German planes lost looking for Washington would drop their bombs on Grantsville, population 1,052. And so they participated in the nightly blackouts, too.

The only thing that has changed since then is Grantsville's population has been cut in half.

Fear is a powerful weapon. It just caused cops and National Guardsmen to bow before the marauding mob of riots and looters in city after city.

Corporate America is living off those fears. Why do you think there are so many Alone Together PSAs on?

The one thing I learned as a parent is children go by what you do and not what you say. In political blogging, that is what I try to do. They want to destroy the middle class by taking out mom-and-pop operations. I bought my last roll of toilet paper from Walmart. It is a few cents more at Poca Food Fair. So what?