Governors orders Impact the Economy

The California Governor in March issued a stay at home order for all the residents in California county amid the coronavirus outbreak. “We need to bend the curve in the state of California,” Newsom said, as he announced a statewide order for Californians to stay home. “There’s a social contract here, people I think recognize the need to do more ... They will begin to adjust and adapt as they have been quite significantly. We will have social pressure, and that will encourage people to do the right thing,” he said, in addressing how this order will be enforced.

This order by the governor is the strongest statewide restriction in the fight against the pandemic. It came just a few days after similar restrictions were made by the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County officials. As the number of the infected continue to rise globally, the number of confirmed cases in the United States doubled. So, this order is in effect, how does it impact the economy of California?

Essential services in California will remain open, these are; Gas stations Pharmacies Food: Grocery stores, farmers markets, food banks, convenience stores, take-out and delivery restaurants Banks Laundromats/laundry services Essential state and local government functions will also remain open, including law enforcement and offices that provide government programs and services.

Dine-in restaurants Bars and nightclubs Entertainment venues Gyms and fitness studios Public events and gatherings Convention Centers

Giving the order, the governor said “This is a moment we need to make tough decisions. We need to recognize reality.” The rule is in effect till further notice; however, he noted that the order was not “not a permanent state, this is a moment in time”. “We will look back at these decisions as pivotal.”

The state is among the first in the country to enact blanket restrictions. In early March, Nevada issued an order that all non-essential businesses should be closed for at least 30 days. The order by California Governor allows residents to leave their homes to buy groceries and some other essential supplies, or walk a dog or take exercise, but seek to limit public interactions. The governor said that parts of the state saw the rate of infection spread double every four days. He added that the virus “will impact about 56% of us - you do the math in the state of California, that’s a particularly large number… We believe with a 20% hospitalization rate, that’s about 19,543 people that would need to be hospitalized – above the existing capacity of our system.”

In a letter to the U.S. Senate and House leaders, the governor said that financial aid is vital to the state’s ability to procure PPE and ventilators among other medical supplies, activate the state-run hospitals, deploy mobile hospitals and meet different healthcare needs.

“The economic disruption caused by this public health crisis will have immediate and devastating effects on our entire country, including too many families in California,” Newsome wrote. “The magnitude of the crisis is extraordinary, and the federalstate-local government will be more critical than ever before.” More states are pleading for the rapidly diminishing stocks of their emergency supplies, and more experts are predicting more devastating economic effects of the pandemic which could cross into next year. The problem is that the pandemic is not something the federal government had anticipated and it has nearly emptied its emergency stockpiles of protective medical gear, stuff like masks, gowns, and gloves, and some states are in dire need of ventilators.

The Department of Labor in March reported that more than three million people filed for unemployment from march 15 to march 21, which is the largest singleweek increase in American history. The figure is expected to increase according to one analysis of Google search data by economists Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham of Yale and Aaron Sojourner of the University of Minnesota.

Remember, late last year there were fears of a downturn, if these forecasts are accurate, there will be as many claims of unemployment as in the first six months of the Great Recession. If an economic downturn happens, it will be far much more punishing and long-lasting than initially feared.

“This is already shaping up as the deepest dive on record for the global economy for over 100 years,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist. “Everything depends on how long it lasts, but if this goes on for a long time, it’s certainly going to be the mother of all financial crises.”

Right now, it may be harder than initially thought for the many millions of Americans to get the stimulus payments they had been promised. The low-income residents and others who were initially not required to file a tax return will have to do so if they want a stimulus check according to the guidance issued by the Internal Revenue Service. The guidance had been a surprise to most policy advocates for the seniors because the legislation signed by the president gave the Treasury explicit permission to use the Social Security databases.

The payment information on the databases will be used to push payments to people automatically without the need to do anything else. The treasury department has so far backtracked and gave a directive that Social Security beneficiaries who do not typically file for their returns will receive payments automatically after all. They will get the cash as a direct deposit or paper check depending on how they usually get the benefits. Even as the government imposes stringent measures to intensify restrictions on business to stop the spread of the virus, the fear of the virus impedes consumer-led economic expansion.

“This is already shaping up as the deepest dive on record for the global economy for over 100 years,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist and co-author of “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly,” a history of financial crises. “Everything depends on how long it lasts, but if this goes on for a long time, it’s certainly going to be the mother of all financial crises.”

The stocks on the Wall street plummeted, with the S&P 500 closing down more than 4 per cent bringing its decline in over two days down to 6 per cent, as investors braced for a more worsened economic condition.

Resource: Yes We Received the Ventilators, One Glitch Though: Thousands Do Not Work! Resource: Predicting Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Using Google Trends

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/world/ coronavirus-live-news-updates.html https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51970815 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/californiagovernor-issues-statewide-order-to-stay-at-homeeffective-thursday-evening.html

Mr. Acosta has also founded or co-founded several mortgages, real estate, and technology companies, including New Vista Asset Management, CounselorMax, and RealEstateEspanol.com. In 2013 he co-founded The Mortgage Collaborative, a cooperative of mortgage companies that work together to increase profitability and market share.

Mr. Acosta is a former appointee of the consumer advisory board (CAB) of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the federal agency responsible for regulating consumer protection in the financial services industry. He served as the 2014 chairman of the CAB mortgage committee. In 2012, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America awarded him with their prestigious “Investing in Communities” annual award. REALTOR® Magazine named him one of the 25 Most Influential People in real estate, and Hispanic Business

Magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America.

He is a current member of the board of trustees for the Home Builders Institute and is a former member of the board of directors of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. He has also served on advisory boards for several Fortune 500 companies, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mr. Acosta grew up in Montebello, California, and received his education from Pomona College and the University of California at San Diego. He lives with his family in San Diego, California. l 17

Growing up, Gary was a basketball fan, and so, he got himself into the pitch, and this is where he met his first giant. At Pomona College in Claremont, California, Acosta played for Gregg Popovich, who at the time very new to the role of the head coach, but who has since risen to become the longest-tenured head coach in the NBA, leading the San Antonio Spurs since 1996.

“The one thing that I remember most about Gregg Popovich was there was never a moment where he was willing to settle,” Acosta says. “Pomona College is a Division III school . . . a very small basketball program. But not to him. To Gregg Popovich, we were Duke. Every game we played was just as important as if we were playing in the Final Four. “That sort of intensity and consistent commitment to excellence has stuck with me to this day,” Acosta continues. “No matter how small the playing field that you’re currently in, you play as if you are on a world-class stage.”

This lesson would remain with Acosta, permeating into his career. Acosta was the grandson of a pastor who co-founded a church and later became the “community godfather,” and from a very tender age, Acosta developed a passion for entrepreneurship. At the age of 26, Acosta founded his mortgage brokerage. This was his starting point in a long career in real estate. Through his brokerage firm, he crossed paths with Ernie J. Reyes, who at the time was a real estate broker. “He was about twenty years older than I was, so he was introduced to me as somebody that would be a good guide,” Acosta recalls.

“Somebody who could help me navigate the San Diego real estate community.”

Acosta and Reyes grew more like partners, and often, Reyes would refer business to Acosta, and they began frequently meeting to celebrate closing a deal together. “But when we got together, we rarely talked about business,” Acosta says. Interestingly, Reyes had a background in politics as he had worked for the Northern California Congressman Leon Panetta. With his position, Reyes had helped organize and manage several campaigns in San Diego. “He loved to philosophize about life, his passions, and politics,” Acosta recalls. “I knew nothing about those things at the time, so he was terrific in that regard.”

Ten years down the line, the relationship between Acosta and Reyes and their philosophic discussions turned into actionable ideas. Acosta approached Reyes with the NAHREP idea. “We structured the organization as a professional trade association because we wanted it to be a business organization,” Acosta says. “But we decided that the mission statement should reflect more of a community focus . . . we believed in the virtues of homeownership, and that [those virtues] would resonate with people. We ended up saying our mission is to help advance Hispanic homeownership in this country. It was one of the best decisions we made—that inspired people.” However, to launch NAHREP, the two partners needed another partner. “There’s a funny anecdote,” Acosta offers. “We filed the paperwork, set up the corporation, and about three months before we were going to have our launch event in Los Angeles, Ernie said, ‘You know, you and I don’t have the credentials to start an organization like this.’ And I’m like, ‘Ernie, I don’t know why you’re telling me this now.’ But what he was getting at was—remember, he’s a

political guy—he said, ‘What we need is somebody who does have those credentials to endorse us.’”

As a result, they sat down and wrote a list of names, and a name they both wrote was Henry Cisneros. He was not just an ordinary guy; he had just completed his tenure in Bill Clinton’s cabinet as the HUD Secretary. And this was the man they needed to propel their dream forward. They wrote to Cisneros, thinking it was a long shot to expect a reply. However, much their surprise, Cisneros writes

back offering to help launch NAHREP. They wanted him to keynote their launch event, therefore Acosta called with an ask, “His assistant said, ‘When is the event?’ and I said, ‘It’s whenever Henry can make it.’” They secured a date wrote a press release announcing that Cisneros was the keynote speaker. “That’s where the buzz for the organization really started to build,” Acosta says. “It was right around 2012 that we started to call it the NAHREP National Convention and Latin Music Festival,” Acosta says. “We realized a couple of years into the event . . . I mean, people would come to the event, and they would cry because they

RRemember, all this is happening in the 2000s. The 2000 census data was released and showed that for the first time in history, the Hispanics were going to be the largest minority group in the US. To add to that, the

Information Age was dawning, leading to NAHREP launching its website. Back then, it had a domain, realestateespanol.com.

“It really took people aback,”

Acosta says. “They were like,

‘We haven’t seen anything like this before.’ Most Latino organizations were in the civil rights genre, and this was focused on business, forward-thinking in terms of technology, and yet had a very compelling, community-focused mission statement.”

When the 2008 recession hit, the housing industry was particularly walloped. And NAHREP was also hit. “We went from a $2.5 million budget down to an $800,000 budget, and our staff went from twelve to one,” Acosta says. Over the course of four years, from 2008-2012, Acosta and Reyes took that opportunity to reinvent the organization, with that, came major structural changes and their were so moved by their experience. They were just so inspired by being around people like themselves who had similar aspirations and backgrounds. People have as much an emotional connection to this organization as they do an intellectual or a business connection... We made sure that the event itself had that sort of cultural and emotional piece interwoven into the program.” Today, NAHREP annual budget is more than $14 million and with a full-time staff of thirty-four people.

The NAHREP cultural convention concept was a unique one and, better yet, a successful one, and with that, Acosta began to develop an idea for an event with a larger scope. “Once I really felt like we were good at [putting on the event], I thought, ‘Why do we have to just stay in our own lane?’” Acosta says. “Maybe we should start taking some of this secret sauce to other segments of the economy.”

In 2014, another disaster struck, Reyes passed away, but by luck, in 2015, Acosta crossed paths with another giant who had a think-big, world-class mentality, first introduced by Popovich; Sol Trujillo.

Later, Acosta was invited to do a presentation from the NAHREP’s State of Hispanic Homeownership Report at a Latino Donor Collaborative event in Beverly Hills. “There was a big focus on the entertainment industry at this particular event,” he remembers. “The session before me had a panel

Ywith the chairman of Warner Brothers, the CEO of Fox Network, and the CEO of Starz. And while they’re up there, Sol asked them all a question. He said, ‘You know, we released a study today. We determined through various sources that Hispanics purchase about 28 percent of all movie tickets in the United States. Twenty-eight percent, even though we’re only 18 percent of the population. Yet only 3 percent of the product’s you guys put out have Latinos in any lead or substantial role. Explain that to me. Is this our problem or are you guys just not very good at what you do?’”

“It is a celebration of what we describe as the ‘new mainstream economy’ and attracts the best and brightest within our culture and community,” Acosta says. “But it is also an effort to change the narrative around the Latino community. It’s about bringing together decision-makers, resource allocators, those people who have the capacity to move money and to green-light projects. That’s what’s different about L’ATTITUDE than any other event that’s out there.”

Acosta approached Trujillo after he saw his candor and ability to gather the heads of these significant corporations. “What I just saw on stage was amazing,” he told Trujillo. “The only problem is that there are a hundred people in the audience when there should have been five thousand people hearing that. I have an idea I think you might be interested in.” “And that,” Acosta says, “was the genesis of our relationship.”

In 2018, Gary co-founded L’ATTITUDE, a mega event that celebrates the achievements of the Latino community in business, entertainment, technology, and politics.

This is a four-day event that has been running for two years now. The game has welcomed giants from entertainment, business, politics, technology, and the media.

https://nahrep.org/about/staff/gary-acosta/ https://hispanicexecutive.com/gary-acosta-lattitude/ https://hispanicexecutive.com/2017-best-of-the-boardroomhenry-cisneros/ https://nahrep.org/que-pasa-nahrep/2017/10/16/ernie-jreyes-memorial-scholarship-program-funds-providedby-the-felix-deherrera-living-trust/ https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/6533874

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