Apple's Jeff Williams 'bullish' about post-coronavirus economic recovery in US

AppleInsider

Apple's Jeff Williams says that supply chains are running well and that the company is optimistic about the future for the economy both for itself and for America as a whole.

Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams

Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams says that he's optimistic about how the company and the larger US economy can recover from the damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

"I am optimistic," he told Fox Business in an interview. "As you look around, you see the resilience of the people working through this challenging time. And when I take a look inside of Apple, I couldn't be more encouraged."

"You know," he continued, "during [the] last quarter, we -- even though these are challenging times -- we launched three new products. And I feel great about the economy in the long haul. And it's just a matter of getting from here to there."

Pressed about whether that means Apple and the US recovering quickly, he stressed that he is speaking as a COO, not as an economist. "It's hard to make a prediction on exactly when and how it will roll out," he said. "But I feel great about the long haul."

"You know, our supply chains are running largely at capacity and people are continuing to work," he continued. "I couldn't be prouder of the Apple team and how resourceful they've been. You'll see us opening retail stores in the coming weeks and like I said, we're bullish in the long haul."

Regarding the continued speculation that the "iPhone 12" will be delayed by a month, Williams would neither confirm nor deny, but he did answer about how Apple sees these reports.

"We just put our head down and don't pay a lot of attention to the latest sort of speculation about our products," he said. "We put our head down and get our work done. I couldn't be prouder of the team finding new ways to get their job done. We're not typically a work-at-home kind of culture at Apple, it's not part of our playbook. And people have been really resourceful and we're moving the ball forward. We are getting stuff done."

Williams did also speak to what he sees as a misunderstanding about Apple's reliance on particular companies or countries.

"Our products are global products and so... they aren't built in one location," he said. "There's a real misconception about that. And our products are built around the world, with a ton of that right here in the United States."

"I see we'll have a global supply chain for quite some time and that's going to allow us to make the very best products for our customers," he continued.

sdw2001

Let's hope the recovery is quick.  My concern is several states (like mine) remaining on lockdown the both the curve has been crushed (not flattened) but the evidence is starting to show extended lockdown does more harm than good.  We can't recover until business can open, even if that initially means no dine-in and pubic gathering initially, followed by distancing , followed by more normalcy through the summer.  Hard to recover when you're still under stay-at-home orders like we are in PA, NJ, DE, MD, etc.  

lkrupp

As far as the economy goes I don’t want to hear a single politician claim the virus did this. The virus did nothing to the economy. The politician’s response to the virus did this to the economy. And no, I don’t think the recovery will be quick at all. Does anyone really think all those people who lost their jobs will wake up one morning to find their job is back?

Finally, I’m bracing myself to endure the politicians congratulating each other on how they saved the world from the apocalypse. “I saved you. You must vote for me if you value your life!” I already received my stimulus check letter from Trump saying just that. More to come from Cuomo, Pritzker (Illinois), etc. The news media will switch from 24/7/365 coverage of the virus to 24/7/365 coverage of the blame game that is sure to follow.

spice-boy

Hey Lkrupp, I almost entirely agree with you. People are fooling themselves if they think this pandemic is like a thunderstorm which darkens the sky, dumps some rain they the sun returns the next day and the birds are chirping. There will constant outbreaks and spikes for years to come. We are dealing with something the most brilliant medical minds are just starting to understand and they realize how little they really know about the effects and possible mutation of this virus. Our economy is based on consumer spending and people only spend money when they are somewhat optimistic about the present and near future. My neighbors are dying, I've been in shutdown since mid-march, I fear states who ignore safety to re-open will keep this virus spreading for another years at least. 

lkrupp

I mean, what else could he say? “Sorry America, we’re fubar’d."

lkrupp

spice-boy said:

Hey Lkrupp, I almost entirely agree with you. People are fooling themselves if they think this pandemic is like a thunderstorm which darkens the sky, dumps some rain they the sun returns the next day and the birds are chirping. There will constant outbreaks and spikes for years to come. We are dealing with something the most brilliant medical minds are just starting to understand and they realize how little they really know about the effects and possible mutation of this virus. Our economy is based on consumer spending and people only spend money when they are somewhat optimistic about the present and near future. My neighbors are dying, I've been in shutdown since mid-march, I fear states who ignore safety to re-open will keep this virus spreading for another years at least. 

Even the ‘great' Andrew Cuomo recently said that continued lockdown of the country is unsustainable. The population won’t stand for it much longer, people will start starving, there will be a rebellion, armed if necessary. As I have posted on other occasions, you as an individual are perfectly free to remain locked up in your bunker until you think it’s okay to venture out. No one will force you out of your bunker into the world. That will be up to you. So I don’t buy the “we have to stay locked up for years” mentality. That is a defeatist mentality. I’m in the highest risk category, 70 years old, a tad of COPD, heart disease, but I have no intention of staying locked up for years.

Dan_Dilger

sdw2001 said:

Let's hope the recovery is quick.  My concern is several states (like mine) remaining on lockdown the both the curve has been crushed (not flattened) but the evidence is starting to show extended lockdown does more harm than good.  We can't recover until business can open, even if that initially means no dine-in and pubic gathering initially, followed by distancing , followed by more normalcy through the summer.  Hard to recover when you're still under stay-at-home orders like we are in PA, NJ, DE, MD, etc.  

The point of stay at home orders was partly to "flatten the curve" of infections hitting overburdened ERs and ICUs, but was also suposed to allow time to establsh testing and contract tracing to identify anyone who needed to be isolated to prevent further infections. Other countries did this (Germany) while the USA did not. Instead, Congress spent trillons to socialize losses by banks and big companies without any oversight, and the White House put some donors in charge of organizing young Heritage conservatives to roll out a high school bake-sale scale, random drive-through testing program at 100 WalMarts, gathering worthless data that didn't solve anything. The USA will continue to have Vietnam-scale deaths all summer while the rest of the world continues to recover. The entire Cabinet doesn't care because they all expect to be Raptured soon. Other countries (again, Germany) have done quite a lot to support the self employed, artists, and others. That entire segment of America is going to be destitute reall soon now. It's awful. All because 1/3 of the country refuses to belive in science.

[Deleted User]

lkrupp said:

As far as the economy goes I don’t want to hear a single politician claim the virus did this. The virus did nothing to the economy. The politician’s response to the virus did this to the economy. And no, I don’t think the recovery will be quick at all. Does anyone really think all those people who lost their jobs will wake up one morning to find their job is back?

Finally, I’m bracing myself to endure the politicians congratulating each other on how they saved the world from the apocalypse. “I saved you. You must vote for me if you value your life!” I already received my stimulus check letter from Trump saying just that. More to come from Cuomo, Pritzker (Illinois), etc. The news media will switch from 24/7/365 coverage of the virus to 24/7/365 coverage of the blame game that is sure to follow.

You are presenting a false dicatomy. Either everyone wakes up with a job or we have a long recovery. A qucik economic recovery can be something other than overnight. 

red oak

lkrupp said:

As far as the economy goes I don’t want to hear a single politician claim the virus did this. The virus did nothing to the economy. The politician’s response to the virus did this to the economy. And no, I don’t think the recovery will be quick at all. Does anyone really think all those people who lost their jobs will wake up one morning to find their job is back?

Finally, I’m bracing myself to endure the politicians congratulating each other on how they saved the world from the apocalypse. “I saved you. You must vote for me if you value your life!” I already received my stimulus check letter from Trump saying just that. More to come from Cuomo, Pritzker (Illinois), etc. The news media will switch from 24/7/365 coverage of the virus to 24/7/365 coverage of the blame game that is sure to follow.

Y

[Deleted User]

lkrupp said:

spice-boy said:

Hey Lkrupp, I almost entirely agree with you. People are fooling themselves if they think this pandemic is like a thunderstorm which darkens the sky, dumps some rain they the sun returns the next day and the birds are chirping. There will constant outbreaks and spikes for years to come. We are dealing with something the most brilliant medical minds are just starting to understand and they realize how little they really know about the effects and possible mutation of this virus. Our economy is based on consumer spending and people only spend money when they are somewhat optimistic about the present and near future. My neighbors are dying, I've been in shutdown since mid-march, I fear states who ignore safety to re-open will keep this virus spreading for another years at least. 

Even the ‘great' Andrew Cuomo recently said that continued lockdown of the country is unsustainable. The population won’t stand for it much longer, people will start starving, there will be a rebellion, armed if necessary. As I have posted on other occasions, you as an individual are perfectly free to remain locked up in your bunker until you think it’s okay to venture out. No one will force you out of your bunker into the world. That will be up to you. So I don’t buy the “we have to stay locked up for years” mentality. That is a defeatist mentality. I’m in the highest risk category, 70 years old, a tad of COPD, heart disease, but I have no intention of staying locked up for years.

That may be true about human behavior and desires, but it doesn't change the fact that with 30+ million unemployed, people aren't going to be buying luxuries.  If they are they're imbeciles and that might explain why like 1/2 of this country only has $500 in savings.  The headlines everywhere are saying that American household debt has skyrocketed since the lockdowns began.  Not that credit is ever good but I'm hoping that's credit card charges for groceries and not MacBooks but nothing would surprise me in the U.S. anymore.  Point remains, Jeff Williams and every other executive for every company in America can be bullish on recovery and that's their job.  What do you expect him to say?  Yeah we think sales for Apple are going to suck for the next 2 years?  He's a stockholder himself.  Frankly this kind of chatter should be illegal because he's pumping the already Fed-inflated markets with more hype that some sucker is going to fall for.  

I use Apple everything but I'll tell you that I'm getting pissed off fast that every time I use Final Cut on my 16" MBP (tricked out) that when I walk away and the thing goes to sleep and I wake it up I see an Apple logo because it has restarted.  Both Catalina AND Final Cut (since I have issues with FCP on my 2015 running Mojave) are BUGGY and do all the things that led me to switch from Windows to Mac 15 years ago.  Apple has become LAZY on all things not called iOS and it's getting frustrating.  A $3500 brand new laptop should not be doing this kind of crap.  Nevermind the fact that it runs HOT. 

GeorgeBMac

lkrupp said:

spice-boy said:

Hey Lkrupp, I almost entirely agree with you. People are fooling themselves if they think this pandemic is like a thunderstorm which darkens the sky, dumps some rain they the sun returns the next day and the birds are chirping. There will constant outbreaks and spikes for years to come. We are dealing with something the most brilliant medical minds are just starting to understand and they realize how little they really know about the effects and possible mutation of this virus. Our economy is based on consumer spending and people only spend money when they are somewhat optimistic about the present and near future. My neighbors are dying, I've been in shutdown since mid-march, I fear states who ignore safety to re-open will keep this virus spreading for another years at least. 

Even the ‘great' Andrew Cuomo recently said that continued lockdown of the country is unsustainable. The population won’t stand for it much longer, people will start starving, there will be a rebellion, armed if necessary. As I have posted on other occasions, you as an individual are perfectly free to remain locked up in your bunker until you think it’s okay to venture out. No one will force you out of your bunker into the world. That will be up to you. So I don’t buy the “we have to stay locked up for years” mentality. That is a defeatist mentality. I’m in the highest risk category, 70 years old, a tad of COPD, heart disease, but I have no intention of staying locked up for years.

No, lockdown / social distancing was never meant to be sustainable.  It was a means to bide time and keep the surge from overwhelming the healthcare system and, for the most part, it did exactly that.

Unfortunately, unlike other countries, we never used the time it bought to ramp up our supplies of protective equipment (masks, gloves, antiseptic) so it could be available to businesses and the general public to enable them to protect themselves.   People in China and elsewhere are wearing real masks -- here the best we can do is act like a third world country with DIY crap with people making their own masks and antiseptic wipes.   So, where are the masks, gloves and antiseptic wipes?   Still unobtainable by people living in the richest, most powerful country in the world!   So, currently the only means people have to protect themselves is isolation and social distancing -- which we are now (correctly) saying is "unsustainable".

So, as far as personal protection we are faced with:   Social Distancing or nothing.

Further:   all it takes is one infected person to start the epidemic all over again -- and that person can come from pretty much anywhere.   So, as we end social distancing a resurgence of infections is quite likely to occur -- which is why the estimated number of deaths just doubled.   That's a hell of way to manage a crisis killing Americans:  Instead of taking effective action, we tell people to prepare for death.

The benefit of Social Distancing was to reduce the "R0" number (the number of people one infected person can infect from 2 or 3 down to less than one).  Without social distancing or personal protection, the only other way to do that is mass testing and effective contact tracing to remove the infectious from our streets, businesses and stores -- before they can infect a bunch of others.   But that, apparently, is not part of the plan.

So, for the American people, that pretty much leaves the last option:  prepare for a high probability of death.

[Deleted User]

corrections said:

sdw2001 said:

Let's hope the recovery is quick.  My concern is several states (like mine) remaining on lockdown the both the curve has been crushed (not flattened) but the evidence is starting to show extended lockdown does more harm than good.  We can't recover until business can open, even if that initially means no dine-in and pubic gathering initially, followed by distancing , followed by more normalcy through the summer.  Hard to recover when you're still under stay-at-home orders like we are in PA, NJ, DE, MD, etc.  

The point of stay at home orders was partly to "flatten the curve" of infections hitting overburdened ERs and ICUs, but was also suposed to allow time to establsh testing and contract tracing to identify anyone who needed to be isolated to prevent further infections. Other countries did this (Germany) while the USA did not. Instead, Congress spent trillons to socialize losses by banks and big companies without any oversight, and the White House put some donors in charge of organizing young Heritage conservatives to roll out a high school bake-sale scale, random drive-through testing program at 100 WalMarts, gathering worthless data that didn't solve anything. The USA will continue to have Vietnam-scale deaths all summer while the rest of the world continues to recover. The entire Cabinet doesn't care because they all expect to be Raptured soon. Other countries (again, Germany) have done quite a lot to support the self employed, artists, and others. That entire segment of America is going to be destitute reall soon now. It's awful. All because 1/3 of the country refuses to belive in science.

Brilliantly said.  Now cue the haters toward both of us, you for posting and me for agreeing.  This country is in trouble and while Wall Street milks it for it's last drop until the Fed runs out of ink for it's printers, Main Street is suffering.  

GeorgeBMac

So why did the Trump administration censor expert advice from scientists at the CDC on what people and businesses need to do in order to end social distancing and re-open without endangering lives (or at least minimizing risk)?  

Is it because it did not comport with their idyllic picture of a perfect America making itself great again?  
Was it more convenient to simply double the predicted death count?

CDC compiles new guidelines to help organizations reopen

https://apnews.com/2a1cf36c0ad1ae31938351f6f74abe28

US shelves detailed guide to reopening country

https://apnews.com/7a00d5fba3249e573d2ead4bd323a4d4

SpamSandwich

corrections said:

sdw2001 said:

Let's hope the recovery is quick.  My concern is several states (like mine) remaining on lockdown the both the curve has been crushed (not flattened) but the evidence is starting to show extended lockdown does more harm than good.  We can't recover until business can open, even if that initially means no dine-in and pubic gathering initially, followed by distancing , followed by more normalcy through the summer.  Hard to recover when you're still under stay-at-home orders like we are in PA, NJ, DE, MD, etc.  

The point of stay at home orders was partly to "flatten the curve" of infections hitting overburdened ERs and ICUs, but was also suposed to allow time to establsh testing and contract tracing to identify anyone who needed to be isolated to prevent further infections. Other countries did this (Germany) while the USA did not. Instead, Congress spent trillons to socialize losses by banks and big companies without any oversight, and the White House put some donors in charge of organizing young Heritage conservatives to roll out a high school bake-sale scale, random drive-through testing program at 100 WalMarts, gathering worthless data that didn't solve anything. The USA will continue to have Vietnam-scale deaths all summer while the rest of the world continues to recover. The entire Cabinet doesn't care because they all expect to be Raptured soon. Other countries (again, Germany) have done quite a lot to support the self employed, artists, and others. That entire segment of America is going to be destitute reall soon now. It's awful. All because 1/3 of the country refuses to belive in science.

As is so typical of your posts, you present a Leftist progressive view of what really happened. The $2 trillion “bailout” for the banking sector was larded with crap demanded by Democrats, nearly all of which had absolutely nothing to do with protecting people or solving the medical issues surrounding COVID-19. The initial “bailout” was $1 trillion and Democrats doubled that. Snap out of your own propaganda.

spice-boy

lkrupp said:

spice-boy said:

Hey Lkrupp, I almost entirely agree with you. People are fooling themselves if they think this pandemic is like a thunderstorm which darkens the sky, dumps some rain they the sun returns the next day and the birds are chirping. There will constant outbreaks and spikes for years to come. We are dealing with something the most brilliant medical minds are just starting to understand and they realize how little they really know about the effects and possible mutation of this virus. Our economy is based on consumer spending and people only spend money when they are somewhat optimistic about the present and near future. My neighbors are dying, I've been in shutdown since mid-march, I fear states who ignore safety to re-open will keep this virus spreading for another years at least. 

Even the ‘great' Andrew Cuomo recently said that continued lockdown of the country is unsustainable. The population won’t stand for it much longer, people will start starving, there will be a rebellion, armed if necessary. As I have posted on other occasions, you as an individual are perfectly free to remain locked up in your bunker until you think it’s okay to venture out. No one will force you out of your bunker into the world. That will be up to you. So I don’t buy the “we have to stay locked up for years” mentality. That is a defeatist mentality. I’m in the highest risk category, 70 years old, a tad of COPD, heart disease, but I have no intention of staying locked up for years.

Never said locked up for years however I implied that unless we all follow the same safety measures we won't be able to contain the spread which could go on for years. This pandemic has shown what our country really is, a place where the poor must risk their lives keeping the wheels moving, making sure there's food, while having no health insurance or at least a policy they can afford. Everyone I know with money has fled. the city and are getting cozy in one of their vacation homes. My sister unfortunately works for Whole Foods and must deal with thousand of strangers daily.  Remember as long as there is one infected person (knowing or not) out and about those that make contact with them will lead to multiple infections and a percentage will die.  

Mike Wuerthele

Dial the squabbling back a bit, please.

foregoneconclusion

corrections said: All because 1/3 of the country refuses to belive in science.

That's the big lie that the GOP hopes people are buying: that they don't believe in science. What they actually don't believe in is democracy. The last thing Republicans want is for the general population to think democratic governance is helping them. They've spent decades trying to convince the country that the private sector has the answers to everything and that democracy isn't really necessary. Every day that goes by in the pandemic proves otherwise, so they've got to rush to "reopen the economy" at the behest of private business in order to try and prop up the illusion that business owners are in control. 

SpamSandwich

foregoneconclusion said:

corrections said: All because 1/3 of the country refuses to belive in science.

That's the big lie that the GOP hopes people are buying: that they don't believe in science. What they actually don't believe in is democracy. The last thing Republicans want is for the general population to think democratic governance is helping them. They've spent decades trying to convince the country that the private sector has the answers to everything and that democracy isn't really necessary. Every day that goes by in the pandemic proves otherwise, so they've got to rush to "reopen the economy" at the behest of private business in order to try and prop up the illusion that business owners are in control. 

The US is not a democracy at the Federal government level. Why? Because it was designed that way from the beginning. The US is a republic, a coalition of States with representatives “hired” by each State to represent them in Washington. It is not a kingdom, not a direct democracy, not a dictatorship, not a Marxist panacea.

dewme

It's all about balance. It's like a warship that's damaged in battle. I don't see or hear anyone who doesn't recognize that we need to repair the damaged ship to keep it from sinking while at the same time keeping the ship moving so it doesn't sustain additional damage. It has never been about doing only one or the other, it's always been about doing both. You can't stop the ship dead in the water for too long or the consequences of not moving will doom your ship. But you also have to control enough of the damage so you do not sink. Sunk ships can't win any battles. In the Covid-19 case, the aggregate health care system and people involved are our damage control force and our leaders are the ones managing the ongoing battle, like the captain and combat execution team on the ship. They must all be working together to save the ship.

What's sickening to me in our current situation is having leaders who are more interested in assigning blame, like "who the hell blasted that hole in my ship's hull?" instead of making sure that the damage control team has everything possible at their disposal to plug the damn hole. Hey, maybe we'll talk about what caused the hole - how about after we save the ship and we don't all die?

Then there's the partisanship. Will the hole in the ship only cause republican or democratic sailors to die if the ship sinks? The unaffected sailors can maybe take a break out on steel beach and work on their tans. Or maybe not. 

What about leadership? Does the captain of the ship, in the midst of the crisis, get on the ship's intercom and start talking about what a fabulous battle plan he/she put in place and how he/she expertly maneuvered the ship before it had a bigass hole blown in its side? Maybe the captain speculates that placing a big sheet of plastic wrap over the hole may help, what's to lose, or starts reminding sailors of an upcoming port call where the beer is going to be so refreshingly cold. I hope not, maybe the captain should be thinking about the bigass hole in the ship and getting the ship making headway so as not to acquire an additional hole? 

There's always time to play politics, assign blame, award medals and commendations after the battle is over. Personally, I'd prefer that any awards that I receive not be posthumously awarded. So maybe we'd better just focus on plugging the damn hole and keeping the ship moving. 

Yeah, I realize that this scenario only applies if we are all on the same ship, which we all know is not the case. But the analogies are valid.

 

GeorgeBMac

SpamSandwich said:

corrections said:

sdw2001 said:

Let's hope the recovery is quick.  My concern is several states (like mine) remaining on lockdown the both the curve has been crushed (not flattened) but the evidence is starting to show extended lockdown does more harm than good.  We can't recover until business can open, even if that initially means no dine-in and pubic gathering initially, followed by distancing , followed by more normalcy through the summer.  Hard to recover when you're still under stay-at-home orders like we are in PA, NJ, DE, MD, etc.  

The point of stay at home orders was partly to "flatten the curve" of infections hitting overburdened ERs and ICUs, but was also suposed to allow time to establsh testing and contract tracing to identify anyone who needed to be isolated to prevent further infections. Other countries did this (Germany) while the USA did not. Instead, Congress spent trillons to socialize losses by banks and big companies without any oversight, and the White House put some donors in charge of organizing young Heritage conservatives to roll out a high school bake-sale scale, random drive-through testing program at 100 WalMarts, gathering worthless data that didn't solve anything. The USA will continue to have Vietnam-scale deaths all summer while the rest of the world continues to recover. The entire Cabinet doesn't care because they all expect to be Raptured soon. Other countries (again, Germany) have done quite a lot to support the self employed, artists, and others. That entire segment of America is going to be destitute reall soon now. It's awful. All because 1/3 of the country refuses to belive in science.

As is so typical of your posts, you present a Leftist progressive view of what really happened. The $2 trillion “bailout” for the banking sector was larded with crap demanded by Democrats, nearly all of which had absolutely nothing to do with protecting people or solving the medical issues surrounding COVID-19. The initial “bailout” was $1 trillion and Democrats doubled that. Snap out of your own propaganda.

LOL... Typical right winger! 
Anything honest, true and accurate is condemned as "leftist" -- and then you tack on some right wing propaganda.  

GeorgeBMac

SpamSandwich said:

foregoneconclusion said:

corrections said: All because 1/3 of the country refuses to belive in science.

That's the big lie that the GOP hopes people are buying: that they don't believe in science. What they actually don't believe in is democracy. The last thing Republicans want is for the general population to think democratic governance is helping them. They've spent decades trying to convince the country that the private sector has the answers to everything and that democracy isn't really necessary. Every day that goes by in the pandemic proves otherwise, so they've got to rush to "reopen the economy" at the behest of private business in order to try and prop up the illusion that business owners are in control. 

The US is not a democracy at the Federal government level. Why? Because it was designed that way from the beginning. The US is a republic, a coalition of States with representatives “hired” by each State to represent them in Washington. It is not a kingdom, not a direct democracy, not a dictatorship, not a Marxist panacea.

Nice spin!

But that story will change as soon as Republicans lose control of most states.  Then on to the next story.   And the next.  And the....

Funny though how Trump wanted total, unchallenged control -- until faced with a pandemic he had no idea how to deal with.  Then suddenly everything shifted to the states.