Buzzwords on Social Media Explained

Important sounding buzzwords and terms you should know

Coronavirus and COVID-19

On February 11, 2020 the World Health Organization announced an official name for the disease that is causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, first identified in Wuhan China. The new name of this disease is coronavirus disease 2019, abbreviated as COVID-19. In COVID-19, ‘CO’ stands for ‘corona,’ ‘VI’ for ‘virus,’ and ‘D’ for disease.

For more information about COVID-19, go the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO).

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites are not generally considered reliable sources of accurate information.

Corporate Bailout

Government financial help to a corporation which might otherwise would be on the brink of failure or bankruptcy. The GOP is normally quick to offer corporate bailouts in a declining economy.

Chinese Virus

President Trump has referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus.” The virus originated in China, but it is commonly believed that Trump used the racist term to distract attention away from his disastrous pandemic response. In March 2020, the Leadership Conference and 180 other organizations sent a letter to the FBI, the White House, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) expressing concern over the dramatic increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and racists slurs since the start of the COVID-19 spread.

Democratic Socialism

The 2020 Presidential Candidate, Bernie Sanders, calls himself a Democratic Socialist. The term is defined by some as being opposed to “…the Stalinist political system and the Soviet-type economic system, rejecting the perceived authoritarian form of governance and the centralized administrative command economy that took form in the Soviet Union and other Marxist–Leninist states during the 20th century.”

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest democratic socialist group in the U.S.A. with an estimated membership of 50,000 people.

Distance Learning

When students are educated without in-person interaction among their instructor or peers. Often, students learn from their own homes. The learning process is almost exclusively individual. Instructors may use webinars, videos, audio recordings, email, snail mail, or textbooks to teach their students.

Epidemic

An outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time.

Fascism

The classic definition from 1938 is that Fascism is the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinist and most imperialist elements of finance capital.

In more common language, it is defined as a political philosophy, movement, or regime that promotes nationalism and often race above the individual and stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader.

Green New Deal (GND)

Proposed by Senator Sanders in H. RES. 109, the GND is a complex, comprehensive Resolution that lays out in very detailed language an effort to reduce carbon emissions and create a green economy.

Hoarding

Civil unrest or threat of natural disaster may lead people to hoard foodstuffs, water, gasoline and other essentials that they believe, rightly or wrongly, will soon be in short supply.

Infection Rate

Knowing just the numbers of infections identified by surveillance activities is not sufficient to identify the risk (probability) of infection; rates must be used.

An infection (incidence) rate is typically used to measure the frequency of occurrence of new cases of infection within a defined population during a specified time frame.

Pandemic

A type of epidemic (one with greater range and coverage), an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population.

Price-gouging

When a seller increases the prices of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. Price gouging is considered unethical and may be illegal.

Market Correction

In investing, a correction is a decline of 10% or more in the price of a security from its most recent peak. Corrections can happen to individual assets, like an individual stock or bond, or to an index measuring a group of assets.

Means-testing

An examination into the financial state of a person to determine eligibility for public assistance.

Means-testing in public policy is normally a way to reduce cost and target outcomes. In practice, it is used to phase-out benefits after a certain income is reported by a taxpayer.

Means-testing in itself is not good or bad, it is where the lines are drawn that has attracted criticisms, such as too few people getting benefits, for example. There are those who advocate for “universal” social benefits, which are less complex, but not targeted at all, meaning the poor and the very rich get the same benefit.

Medicare for All (M4A)

This is legislation proposed by Senator Sanders in The Medicare for All Act would provide comprehensive health care to everyone in the U.S. without any out-of-pocket expenses. It would allow all Americans, regardless of their income, to get government provided universal health care.

During the 2020 Presidential primaries, a number of candidates proposed other plans to improve and expand healthcare.

Mint the Coin

This unusual funding is based on the premise that under the Coin Act, Congress can fund the program by using its legal authority to create legal tender via coin seigniorage without raising the debt or requiring Congress to raise the debt ceiling.

Mortality Rate

Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Put another way — It is a measure of the number of deaths due to a particular cause in a population. For example in the US: Lung cancer has a high mortality rate (46.0 per 100,000) vs thyroid cancer (0.5 per 100,000) which has a low mortality rate.

Money-financed Fiscal Program

According to Brookings this involves an increase in government spending or a reduction in taxation, with the fiscal spending financed directly by the central bank. It is also known as “helicopter drops” of money, though the policies involve a mix of traditional fiscal and monetary policy actions.

This is a novel funding mechanism, which in theory, could be used to circumvent debt limits and/or the requirement for legislative action to raise the debt ceiling. This type of funding will likely be challenged as it affects monetary policy (by increasing currency in circulation) which is Fed Policy and should be independent of political influence.

Quantitative Easing (QE)

A form of monetary policy used by central banks to quickly increase the domestic money supply and spur economic activity. It usually involves the central bank purchasing longer-term government bonds as well as other types of assets such as mortgage-backed securities (MBS). It is regarded as an extraordinary way to stimulate spending in an economy when interest rates fail to work.

Recession

A recession is a macroeconomic term that refers to a significant decline in general economic activity in a designated region.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines a recession as a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales

Regime-change Wars

This term was frequently used by 2020 Presidential Candidate Tulsi Gabbard. It was meant to describe U.S. wars intended to force a change of government in another country.

Gabbard, a Major in the Hawaii National Guard, was not anti-war or anti-imperialist, but argued that regime-change was too costly, rarely successful, and had unintended consequences that ran counter to U.S. interests.

Self-quarantining

To refrain from any contact with other individuals for a period of time during the outbreak of a contagious disease usually by remaining in one’s home and limiting contact with family members

Social-distancing

Measures taken to restrict when and where people can gather to stop or slow the spread of infectious diseases. Social distancing include limiting large groups of people coming together, closing buildings and canceling events.

Stock Buyback

The repurchasing of shares of stock by the company that issued them. A buyback occurs when the issuing company pays shareholders the market value per share and re-absorbs that portion of its ownership that was previously distributed among public and private investors. There are numerous reasons why it may be beneficial to a company to repurchase its shares, including ownership consolidation, undervaluation, and boosting its key financial ratios.

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

A periodic cash allowance given to all citizens, without means test to provide them with a standard of living above the poverty line. An unconditional income that is sufficient to meet a person’s basic needs (at or above the poverty line) is sometimes called a full basic income while if it is less than that amount, it is sometimes called partial income.

Virtue-signaling

An attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media.

Virtue signaling is the popular habit of indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favor for certain political ideas or cultural happenings.