I don't suppose you did get an answer, as there are more unknowns than knowns at present.
This is an unprecedented and sudden world wide depression currently.
At this time economic experts are agreed, that the virus is in charge. There has been
unprecedented disruptions to manufacturing supply chains and transport. A perfect storm.
This has caused vast amounts of capital to evaporate, and a rapid increase of indebtedness both private and public, especially the latter.
The behavior of the Covid 19 virus is very much open to conjecture. However further outbreaks and peaks are more likely than not. One thing I can say that there is universal agreement on, is that there will be ongoing severe disruptions until an effective vaccine is produced and distributed in sufficient quantities to end the uncertainty by putting an end to the pandemic.
Now the question becomes will there be a
massive roll back of globalization? That is very much and open question.
Factors that would drive such a move would be the fact that dependency on Far Eastern manufacture has put western societies at huge risk and disadvantage. Look no further then the fiasco for PPE, and medical supplies in general. It has also put national security at great risk.
Many jobs are lost for ever. So the need to provide new jobs in the western nations will quickly become an overriding issue.
Then we have to consider the impact of the huge amounts of public dept on top of pretty much unsustainable dept of many nations from over liberal expenditures over many years now. In standard economic policy this would require large increases in taxation. This will pretty much guarantee a non existent recovery or at least a painfully slow one. How this will play out it is not possible to judge at this juncture. However it is highly likely that there will be money printing on an unprecedented scale. This will likely lead to a run on national currencies and application of exchange controls. This could certainly lead to nations not trusting each other's currencies. This would certainly bring global trade to a rapid halt. I just provide this as an example of one possible scenario in the aftermath of this catastrophe.
Lastly, and worse, this event has made the
chance of war with China somewhat more likely than pre pandemic. As events could play out similar to the aftermath of the great depression of 1929. There was a monetary picture similar to what I outlined above. It was the closing of US and other markets to Japan that was the principle incitement to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
So what of the effect on electronic goods? Well, I think people will, and should be advised, to hold onto cash. In other words to spend only on essentials. This reduces the incentive to bring new products to market.
The supply disruption will also be a major disincentive. In addition while there is danger and fear of recurring peaks of infections, resources will be concentrated on medical supply issues and food production and distribution.
For all the above reasons other items will take a back seat.
So while there is inventory on hand, then business will in the short term encourage sales by keeping prices low to raise cash. After inventories are depleted I expect massive price rises.
I do think there will be a retrenchment from globalization, at least in the short term. However history has shown that restrictive trade practices lead to severe distortion in markets. A review of duties on agricultural products in the nineteenth century are particularly instructive. In the UK there was a long and acrimonious battle over the repeal of the corn laws. Since that time the UK has basically been a nation in favor of free trade. Sir Robert Peel being an early proponent of free trade. Although the repeal of the corn laws cost him his premiership.
So to cut to the chase. If you have to replace your TV do it now. Going forward expect price rises and goods like TVs and receivers etc will be hard to come by. I expect we will all have to make do with what we have now for some years to come. So reliability and quality should now be dominant factors in decisions to purchase, as replacing a receiver or TV may well become vary difficult and very costly.
If you TV is working fine for you now, keep it and conserve cash.
I do think there will be huge incentive to return manufacture to our nation states again and I expect this to happen, though the period of readjustment may be quite painful.
