Young man wearing mask considers the future

News and Views Roundup: Considering Our Country’s Future

News and Views Roundup: Considering Our Country’s Future

by Bill High

All 50 states are reopening now.

Some companies are having great years in this season: Nintendo, Clorox, Amazon, Peloton, Publix, Kroger, Wayfair, Facebook…

Similarly, here are some of the companies that are hiring: Amazon, Home Depot, CVS, Dollar Tree/Dollar General, Zoom, Instacart.

Despite the coronavirus, our friends at ArkMalibu tell us that 123 business sales closed in the U.S. and Canada over the seven days ending May 22, 2020.

Looking ahead to the future, here are a few interesting snippets from a Bloomberg article from a couple weeks back, “What our Post-Pandemic Future Looks Like”:

After the pandemic stabilizes, the New Cold War will be more visible between China and the U.S.-led West. …China will shift further back to its Communist roots… – Chen Zhiwu, Director of the Asia Global Institute

There will be a vast tangle of unpaid debts that cannot be cleared, and—what is different from 2008 and 2009—the model of foreclosures, evictions, and repossessions to deal with them is going to be absolutely unacceptable. … This is similar to the farm foreclosure confrontations of the 1890s and 1930s in this country, but on a much larger scale, and in many cases urban and suburban… So the whole financial system will have to be reset. – James Galbraith, Professor of government, University of Texas

The biggest change will be how businesses look at the supply-chain issue. That’s the 1,000-pound gorilla. Will companies that are dependent upon China for essential parts for their businesses move production out of China or at least second-source out of China? – Jim Chanos, Founder of Kynikos Associates

 

The reality of change and the need for change

In the charitable world, there’s great optimism that the philanthropy can act as a change agent. Philanthropy is far more suited to take risks that the investing world cannot. And indeed, we need those risks taken now. Job creation, poverty alleviation, and a move to a gospel-centric, peace-driven world are all front and center.

My hope is that we’ll all get to the point where we can stop staying, “I’ll be glad when we get back to normal.”

Our world has changed, and the rate of change accelerated dramatically. Because of that, we’ve never been in such a time where we need to come together, acknowledge that change and begin to move forward together.

 In that vein, what changes do you see?

 

 

Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash

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Published May 29, 2020

Topics: Culture Commentary

American ValuesBusinessCharitable GivingWealth

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