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Re:Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus by quotemstr on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @11:31AM (#22475965)
What you're talking about is government spending crowding out private spending, which is what happens when the economy is already at full capacity. In this situation, all the spending does is cause inflation, since money alone does not cause goods to spring into existence. It's like pushing on a string.

But are we close to full capacity?

Re:Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @12:01PM (#22476305)
Capacity dropped because China shut down. That's temporary (we trust), but it's a drop in global capacity.
Re:Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus by AnthonyMouse on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @01:27PM (#22477287)
That's a different question from whether capacity is available. You could have less than before and still have plenty.

There is also a question of short term vs. long term. In the short term if some things are made only in China they may become temporarily scarce. In the longer term either China will come back online or capacity will be created somewhere else (or both).

Re:Fed cuts half point in emergency move amid spreading virus by AnimalMuppet on Tuesday March 03, 2020 @01:43PM (#22477470)
True.

This is my opinion, not backed by hard data or numbers or anything else - just my opinion. I think that the world (or at least the west) became dependent on China's capacity. We outsourced and off-shored, and a bunch of factories closed and companies shut down. China didn't add capacity, it replaced capacity. So in the short term, if China shuts down, there's an actual shortage of capacity, because much of the other capacity is gone.

In the long term, as you say, sure, we can start back up here. It will take a while, but we can get there. The buildings didn't die, and the people who knew how to do it didn't all get lobotomies. In the medium to long term, we'll be fine, whether China comes back or not.

Note again: This is my guess. Anyone with real data, feel free to supply it.