Tippets by Taps - Issue #133
New week, new issue! First, a Happy Mother’s Day to all the superheroes out there - essential doesn’t begin to describe you. I hope this finds you and yours healthy and safe. This week we look at some troubling data from the reopening of Dallas and Seoul, what a post-reopening economy could look like, the Supreme Court’s first ever live broadcast, and more. Enjoy!
I Hired a Team of Secret Shoppers to Find Out How Businesses Were Opening in Dallas. It’s Not Good.
The road to re-opening and recovery is going to be long, drawn out, and not easy at all. Despite most people being ready to return to normal, the lack of standards and protocols on health and safety measures, and a consistent means of ensuring compliance, means this is going be messy. This data in this piece by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who hired secret shoppers in Dallas to investigate “how Dallas businesses were responding to the Open Order for Texas” shows just how challenging it will be.
36% of businesses chose to open on opening weekend
~96% of businesses were non-compliant across all mandatory protocols and all locations
~60% of mandatory protocols were followed and ~54% of all suggested protocols were followed
There is a wide discrepancy amongst individual level performance by location type
Early assessments show a pattern in the data of highly variable compliance within a parent franchise
Expect a lot more of this going forward.
Coronavirus: 2,000 bars shut in Seoul as 17 new COVID-19 cases linked to one man
This headline is the worst punchline to “a man walks into a bar” ever. South Korea has gone to great lengths to manage the virus, and their approach has been heralded as among the best in the world. Despite all this, upon the government relaxing some of the social distancing measures, “more than 2,100 nightclubs, hostess bars and discos in South Korea’s capital have been shut after 18 new coronavirus cases - with all but one linked to a 29-year-old man.” Not a great sign for the US when coupled with the data from Dallas, given the comparatively strict COVID-19 measures South Korea has enforced.
One guy in a bar can ruin the whole thing
Taiwan Never Needed Shutdowns to Control Covid-19. Its Economy Is Stalling Anyway.
Taiwan is a country of 24 million people living very close to China. A betting person would have pegged the percentage of COVID-19 cases in Taiwan to be above average. However, as of today the total number of COVID cases in Taiwan: 440. Four hundred forty (for those of you who blinked twice thinking it must be a typo). Total number of deaths? Six. Taiwan has never needed to resort to shutdowns to control the coronavirus, but its faltering economy bears lessons for U.S. and European countries looking to reopen.
Taiwanese consumers have slashed their spending despite the seemingly robust domestic situation, and they started doing it before the global economy went into free fall in mid-March. Movie ticket sales started collapsing in mid-February even though the government never shut the theaters. Box-office receipts had been on track to match 2019 but are now running about 76% below last year.
While Taiwanese consumption is holding up better than consumption in the U.S. and Europe, the drop is nevertheless consistent with a severe downturn. Containing the virus and keeping businesses open haven’t been enough to save the economy. The U.S. is far behind Taiwan at getting the virus under control, but even if it were to succeed, Taiwan’s experience suggests much more would need to be done to get people back to work and end the crisis.
Which Supreme Court Justice Flushed the Toilet During Oral Arguments?
It looks like Supreme Court justices are regular people with regular people COVID-19 challenges after all. This week the highest court in the land reversed their long held precedent disallowing the live broadcast of oral arguments. Naturally, there were some growing pains.
Well, on Wednesday as the world listened intently to high-minded constitutional debate live-streamed for the first time, someone unmistakably, audibly, and with what sounds like gusto, flushed the toilet.
LISTEN: Toilet flush during U.S. Supreme Court oral argument (h/t @nicninh) https://t.co/He3QGMzvJI
9:48 AM - 6 May 2020
Robert Caro writes, and waits, during the COVID-19 outbreak
Some of us are using this time during Shelter-in-Place to join Tik Tok (this is Anthony Hopkins’ Toosie Slide…). Many are learning about sourdough. Luckily for all of us, Robert Caro is still writing. I’ve long been a fan of the prolific author who, at the age of 84, is still working on his final installment of his prolific series on Lyndon B. Johnson.
Caro began the Johnson books in the mid-1970s, around the time he turned 40. He has completed four volumes, totaling more than 3,000 pages, and has outlived many of his key sources.
It might take another pandemic to get through the entire series, but it will certainly be worth it.
Quote I’m thinking about: “We should no longer allow a mother to be defined as "just a mom”. It is on her back that great nations are built.“ - Oprah Winfrey