My Australian friend was one of the individuals to get off the MS Westerdam and get back home. He said only two planeloads left Cambodia before the authorities stopped any more from leaving due to the supposed single case that was found. Some 255 people were still stuck on the ship while an estimated 800 others were sequestered in hotels in Phnom Penh waiting to be tested. He also presented some of the questionable aspects of the diagnosis of the single passenger as well as very plausible larger political, diplomatic, and legal reasons for why she was detained. He had used elderberry syrup and masks at my suggestion and wisely kept his family socially isolated and protected to the best of their ability. The details of his family’s experience was interesting but that’s all I’m going to say here for now.
He is a very wise and intelligent person, kept his cool, and stayed surprisingly calm about the whole situation. He is also a Vietnam vet so I’d guess after surviving that, this didn’t seem like much in comparison.
While this corona virus is certainly a matter of grave concern and has the potential to alter global dynamics in a historical manner, it hasn’t yet reached the point where I would consider it the biggest event of my lifetime. When you consider the Americans, Australians, French, South Vietnamese, North Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Chinese, Russians, etc. who were killed or wounded in the course of the Vietnam conflict, the refugees created, the homes destroyed, and the political, geopolitical, economic, and monetary repercussions, the Vietnam War was of far greater consequence. Look at the death tolls. There is no comparison. And if you happened to be Iraqii or Iranian, the Iran-Iraq War entailed a level of carnage that was apocalyptic for those people. And I could go on and on naming conflicts during my life time and the horrendous losses that were involved. So, yes, the corona virus could be the biggest event of our lifetime but it has not yet, according to the facts and data so beloved on this site, reached a level to surpass a number of those other events. Let’s hope and pray it never does.
P.S. To get some idea of what I’m saying, read about just one day in one battle in one conflict the Battle of Hamburger Hill (Hill 937) in Vietnam in 1969. On May 20th, the hill was pounded with 20,000 artillery rounds and 272 air strikes with a total of 1 million pounds of bombs dropped and 152,000 pounds of napalm dropped leaving a minimum of 630 dead NVA and probably far more (and with the number of wounded unknown but an obvious multiple of that), 72 dead Americans, and 400 wounded Americans at the end of the battle. Think of the cost of life and limb, the economic cost, the environmental impact, etc. If I had to pick being in the middle of that fighting or the middle of Wuhan, I know what I’d pick.
- The second you claim the title is the moment you’re disqualified. I love ironies. I also love this site and (what I humbly observe) is an unselfish passion that Chris and Adam devote to “complex systems” and the “complex problems” that come with them. Is anyone really surprised that a man with Martenson’s background and education would become a little passionate and focused on something like this? Beyond that, this subject, although new, has all the elements of everything this site is devoted to - how the real world and it’s explosive problems in ecology, biology and yes psychology, are the ultimate dictators of our “financial health” As Chris and Adam remind us, we’re living in incredibly unique times with incredibly unique threats - and these are global Sounds like a little devotion to a global pandemic with a virus unlike anything seen before is far from over doing it
I know South America is one of the continents. Where are the confirmed cases since Chris said the only continent not to have a case is Antarctica.
Phil and AO…isn’t CEF supposed to have actual reserves?
Look at the italians , at least they are testing … here they would not meet the criteria… and even if they did apparently they dont have the ability to test - according to the release about postpone the surveillance in the four cities in the US… by testing people who present with flu like symptoms . So, I have no words… the US is just letting it fly. I guess they want all the elderly people to die - so they dont have to pay the SSA and medicare we pay… This is just another tax… that we will never see. Forth turning … US is done… look at all the beautiful helpful accurate information and infographics and videos put out by the asian countries - even north korea… meaning while in the US we are morons… its just flu but milder. US is done…
Is it possible that a large number of the “SARS-2” (COVID-19) cases in Wuhan could be among people who previously had SARS-1 (the original SARS), and therefore they are experiencing this 2nd-infection phenomenon you described above?? Seems like this could explain the obviously very high death rate in that region, and even the cases of people “collapsing in the street”. What do you think?
And let me add: I appreciate all the different perspectives here at PP (on this topic, and others). I mostly read; don’t post very often. I find that I can get valuable info on Topic B from someone I disagree with on Topic A. So thanks to all who contribute!
NordicJack - I just checked the official CDC site (the real experts) and there’s only 15 US cases. So no worries ?.
Oh wait, what about the cruise ship evacuees? Other sites like World meters list 27 and WSJ that says 34 cases? ?. And that humboldt county CA case?
I’m so ??? !
Sorry, misread your post. 
There are a lot of us who are rather skeptical of his demise. My money is on he is alive and living it up under Israeli Mossad protection. I hope it is no where near young women…
Andy, your link is behind a paywall. Here is one that covers the shipping concerns that isn’t:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/05/business/shipping-coronavirus-impact/index.html
Also, hackers are using the crisis to try and infect port computers. No doubt for ransomware attacks.
https://www.proofpoint.com/us/corporate-blog/post/coronavirus-themed-attacks-target-global-shipping-concerns
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/global-shipping-industry-attacked-by-coronavirus-themed-malware/
Dtrammel, you make some excellent points regarding ways one might catch the virus or transmit it to others. Right now I’m trying to avoid catching the regular flu, which is severe in my area, because I have lung problems and lowered immunity. My background includes working with hospitalized patients who had severe communicable diseases, and so I’m trying to educate my partner in infection control techniques. Sigh. Not an easy thing to teach to someone who never studied biology or needed to worry about infections.
Automatic responses sometimes creep in. A friend sees you and rushes up to give you a hug and a close greeting. Or someone enthusiastically greets you with an outstretched hand and before you know what you’re doing, you shake it. Or you use your hand sanitizer after you handle the store shopping cart, but then you handle the packages, your car handle, your keys and the steering wheel – then you use the hand sanitizer again. Whoa, see the whoops there?
I was active on Peak Prosperity years ago but my computer crashed and with it went the login info. COVID19 has brought me back. I did all the prepping in 1999, then again for the ‘bird flu’ worries, and then for the 2009 swine flu. Here we go again but this time with a renewed earnest effort. Thank you Chris and Adam, Dtrammel and all the posters for the information you’re sharing. I read and absorb and try to prepare, again.
Well I gotta say I feel much better now after reading your essay.
You did leaveout a couple of things though. I assume you have a very complete arsenal to defend all that gold and silver. Plenty of ammo too.
I would like to get your thoughts on the “Mad Max” movie we will be starring in should all of this unfold as you predict. Btw just where will you be spending that gold and silver and on what?
Yes, it is certainly better than GLD but again there’s that counter-party risk issue. Also, there’s the “friction” issue with any precious metal fund including CEF. It costs money to maintain that fund, so each year your principal is gradually whittled away by the 0.73% annual management expense ratio. That adds up pretty quickly, especially if gold and silver are trading sideways or heading downward. There’s also the problem of the trust being based in Canada. A number of years ago, Canada burned American holders of energy trusts with changed regulations and with a distinctly left leaning leader in Canada, I’d be fearful of a similar situation potentially occurring with a gold and silver trust at some point in the future.
I have it on good authority he is living in the Clinton’s basement
I said the poster child of self-responsibility. There’s a difference. I’m not sure what that disqualifies me from since you didn’t state that but if that thought comforts you in your mind, who am I to question your perception regardless of whether it is misplaced or not.
I just love it when some taxpayer-funded bureaucrats get into a pissing match with some other taxpayer-funded bureaucrats. Tells me, at least, what a great team we have here. I checked out the CDC site today and they changed the display from what I remembered a couple days ago. The “imported” cases were previously described in a footnote, now they are broken out/reported separately. Since I finished enough grade school to feel comfortable doing easy math, it would be simple (at least IMO) to have a line that indicates (i.e. adds up) all cases in the U.S. I suspect the contest described above (and in some other posts) has something to do with this. If one or more of the 18 “imported” positive cases infect others in the U.S., will we have a yet third category of confirmed cases?
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html
https://www.amazon.com/Markets-Mobs-Mayhem-Modern-Madness/dp/0471233277
The reading of which can be accompanied by the reading of the poem, If, by Rudyard Kipling.
If you start heading too far to the right of the Yerkes-Dodson workload curve, your performance and life will suffer.
https://hbr.org/2016/04/are-you-too-stressed-to-be-productive-or-not-stressed-enough