The lockdowns predicted in yesterday’s video update are already starting to happen.
Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Israel and a growing number of countries are locking down their borders and tightening restrictions on movement.
More and more US states & cities are banning public gatherings and forcing closure of non-essential businesses. Rumors of a coming national curfew circulated this morning.
Meanwhile, grocery and pharmacy shelves are being stripped bare . Even the slow-movers are now panicking.
A similar panic has gripped investors. The stock market is experiencing a historically vicious sell-off – after falling 24% by the end of last week, the Dow is down another 13%(!!) today.
So far, no matter what the Federal Reserve and world government's have pledged, the market hasn't been convinced it will be enough.It's a global fire sale; investors want the safety of cash. And they're selling everything to get it.Such is the psychology of crowds. When the herd is spooked a stampede ensues.
And this is with less than 4 thousand confirmed coronavirus cases in the US. How will the herd react when that number is 4 million?
When the panic is raging like this, narrow your focus on doing what it takes to keep yourself and your family safe. In the big picture, that’s all that truly matters.
If you’re one of the many new readers here on Peak Prosperity, be sure you’re up-to-date on developments with the coronavirus. All of our latest covid-19 video updates, podcasts and articles can be accessed here for free.
And here’s a brief list of the more recent material that Chris and I have published for our premium subscribers, to give you a sense of what’s behind the paywall (free executive summary, enrollmentrequired for full access)
I am a visiting nurse on the South Shore of Boston. We have received no direction from the company on how to keep ourselves and our patients safe. I took it upon myself to send out a group text trying to educate based on what I have learned from Chris, number one suggestion was Wear a Mask! Finally today we were enlightened. We received this text from our boss:
“Just listened to Webinar from Mass Gov relating to home care. The information that has been passed out over the past week (stay home if you’re sick)by our agency is right on target. There is a state wide shortage of mask, gloves, gowns. Masks should be offered to the client if they are coughing. This will eliminate spread of germs from client. It is more beneficial for the person coughing to wear the mask than for a nurse to wear a mask thinking they are protecting them self.”
And if you haven’t read them yet, the coronavirus preparation megathreads available for free on PeakProsperity.com are a great resource for preparing for lockdown:
The Megathreads, which are a collection of all the comments on those subjects, from the videos, blog posts and articles Chris and Adam have done since 1/23 have been updated to include those of 3/9.
They have been moved to their own site, and can be found here:
Peak Prosperity Covid19 Library of Files
In addition, I have begun to do subject specific compilations. There are 4 so far, with more to follow, and can be found if you click the Blog link on that site.
You may request a download of these three files by sending me a PM on this site. Please include your email.
Here in the Philippines, we are in Enhanced Community Quarantine (Total Lock down) the whole Island of Luzon. Only Health workers, police, military, Food Delivery are allowed to pass through check points. Mass Public transportation is suspended. People are advised to stay at home.
The government’s cry is Flatten the curve.
Here is what my Iyengar yoga teacher posted about having the coronavirus. She and her husband are in their early to mid-60’s. He works in a ski shop in one of our Colorado ski areas (epicenter of a local cluster). So I don’t usually post private things online but I think this might be helpful. Husband started feeling a little sick on Friday with a sinus cold and decided not to go to work on the mountain. They then closed the ski area on Saturday, he was not the only worker to call in sick. I was feeling fine on Sunday morning then all of a sudden around eleven I felt like I was hit by a bus. I had chills, slight cough, slight fever and aches. Then I got a really bad headache, I had a night from hell! I called the call center and they recommended I get tested for the virus today. They tested me for the flu to rule that out and it came back negative, so they said to assume we both have the virus. They did not then test for the virus since they are short on tests. They recommended staying home for 2 weeks and told me if I get any shortness of breath to call my doctor and or go to the ER. I feel a little better today, the head ache is gone. I am relatively healthy so I’m sure I’ll be ok but I can now understand why they are telling people over sixty to stay home. We are all in this together so we need to show support and love. Stay home, read a good book, watch Netflix, do yoga, take walks in the fresh air. It seems like the young people will be ok, but they can pass the virus even if they don’t have symptoms.
There are not enough X@#$% test kits! The US statistics are absolutely unreliable. Grrrrrrrr!!!
The “good” news is that our county is shut down. All ski areas are closed. University and public schools are closed. All hotels & motels are in mandatory closure. Libraries, child-care centers, rec centers, hockey rink, public transportation – all closed. The county released a public health order prohibiting groups of 10 or more from gathering in public spaces including bars and restaurants (so most of them have closed). We have 8 confirmed cases in a county with a population of about 17,000 humans. That equates to 470 cases per million. And we’re not adequately testing, so the numbers are probably MUCH higher.
A lot of people have sent us thanks that these daily updates helped them recognize the magnitude of the coronavirus threat over a month ago and thus prepare early.
Perhaps few visuals demonstrate the value of taking that early action better than this:
[embed]https://twitter.com/i/status/1239658325228347394[/embed]
Last Tuesday, 03/10, 1000+ cases confirmed. Friday, 03/13. 2000+. Today, Monday, 03/16 , 4,000+. So even with poor testing, I would say doubling time about three days.
So human trials started for a vaccine candidate. I am sure they are not really informed -while getting paid just 100$ per clinic visit. Ha ha.
You won’t catch me lining up for that shot/. These people are real fools.
I subtitled a video where he says these things. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q7jE7gRQPA
This man seems to be living in a theoretical, ideological fantasy world and is unaware of and/or rejects everything else. He says he follows the “consensus” of “heavy-weight” British scientists but is unaware of basic, and crucial, facts such as the fact that the virus spreads well asymptomatically.
He also says it is better to implement measures to arrest the spread later, when more people are infected, because then it has greater effect. That is likely technically true but what does that matter when our healthcare system is overloaded well before that and people are mass-dying needlessly.
More and more is reveiled about how woefully unprepared our nation is. In 1993 we had thousands of ventilators available, now we have less than 600. We used to have sophisticated portable military hospitals, now we have none of that. Hospitals are already lacking protective equipment and, likely, we have a lack of testing supplies. Our governments in recent years have thought we don’t need that stuff any longer since they think the EU will pick up the slack. But with the same crisis hitting all of the EU and everyone needing all the stuff they have, deliveries have been stopped.
Full lockdown is here for us: https://www.sfchronicle.com/local-politics/article/Bay-Area-must-shelter-in-place-Only-15135014.php
Starts at midnight tonight. Our CEO called an emergency meeting around 2pm when the “shelter in place” order happened and gave those of us who don’t have 3 weeks food/water/tp permission to leave and battle the hordes at Whole Foods. I would say about half of our small company are young apartment dwellers that usually eat out or order from Instacart and they immediately left the call (we’re all remote already of course), returning later with dramatic videos, some of which you’ll probably see on the news.
I don’t have to tell anyone here, but if your state isn’t already in lockdown, take advantage of the calm before the storm to get what you need.
No need to make this post long. This one’s pretty obvious. No way in hell do i trust the greek 10 year right now; but i wanted to see if the periphery was disconnecting from the EU’s “core” (and the UK cause why not)
Yep. Betcha didn’t expect that. I didn’t either. Seems we have another problem on our hands sometime these next 2 weeks, and maybe even as early as tomorrow.
Wish we could keep it virus central but the virus seriously isn’t the biggest oncoming problem anymore. The authorities are at least starting to take that seriously but the above is a much bigger problem if that gets out of hand. Which honestly it’s looking like it will because that greek line is WAY too steep. Greece is the bellweather for the EU bond market and it’s not looking good.
Agree with Granny from the last thread - for the sake of simplicity and finding things or following comment threads, we need to split virus/honey badger related discussions from the finance/economic/PM discussions. PP site admin - what can we do to facilitate this? Thx! @Shimz re your comment on the previous thread:
The rich western healthcare systems are “lean and mean”, normally operating at over 95% capacity. Efficiency is good in predictable times, it’s not good for meeting the unexpected.
It struck me that this parallels what Hussman was saying about the markets being overvalued because of having no risk built into them. The healthcare systems are the same - operating on narrow margins and tightly managed for efficiency with virtually no room for risk or flexible capacity responses - at least not without far reaching implications. Case point: today BC announced that thousands of elective surgeries are being cancelled to free up beds for the expected 'boom' (my word). Like the economy, you don't just stop doing things on a dime and expect to be able to resume on a dime later on. It just does not work that way. Also, BC just cancelled all non-essential dental services due to that recent big dental conference in Vancouver - wow. A number of positive virus cases have been traced to that conference. That is likely millions of appointment cancellations... the scheduling logistics/planning for all of the above are simply mind-boggling, not to mention the impacts on staffing.
https://globalnews.ca/news/6685494/elective-non-essential-dental-services-paused-after-covid-19-cases-linked-to-vancouver-conference/
And still, people are largely not getting it, and still carrying on as if this is not a big deal, evidence all over the place. The one phrase I have not seen Chris use yet in his videos (I could be mistaken but I do not think so) is 'social contract'. As a member of society people are bound by a social contract that provides a framework for behaviours. Is not adhering to the social contract merely a slow adjustment response? Is it ignorance? Stupidity? Stubborn resistance? I don't know, and I don't get it either.
Sadly, we have for a long, long time now seen that social contract dishonoured by our so called leaders, politically and financially. Party affiliation does not matter. They are all the same. The bail outs, the financialization, the money printing, the crony and disaster capitalism.... So when your average Joe and Jane see all this lying, cheating and lack of accountability or consequences for leaders is it any wonder they don't feel like the rules matter. Selling sanitizer on Ebay for a profit - who TF cares?!? What's the big deal?!?
We have lost our way. Big time. I am though heartened by all the good things I see happening, the many people caring, such as Chris, Adam & team, as well as all of you here who contribute. I am disheartened by the gaping tears in the social fabric to the point so many have forgotten what goes into being a good and decent human being.
We ARE all one - the virus is proving that. For all of our sakes I hope people start buying that meme sooner rather than later.
Jan
Hours later, he was no longer an employee.
Just a few minutes after Wheeler sent the email, he was summoned to a vice president’s office to a conference call with human resources. In a call with TechCrunch, Wheeler said his email was described as “irresponsible” and “inciting fear.” He said it was hard to understand why Charter had not implemented a work-from-home policy after the coronavirus outbreak was upgraded to a pandemic.
Wow, lets punish people who question safety and peoples wellbeing.
Sounds like the Doctors in China who tried to sound the alarm. Maybe profit is more important than people?
Chris, you mentioned that you’d give us some anecdotal data around why you think the China data is bad, but I don’t think you did. I agree that it seems unlikely but they have been in lockdown for some time, so maybe the data is right? In any case, it will be interesting to see how those numbers change once they do seriously try to restart the economy there.
Tony
According to a friend whose daughter serves in a Pacific Island the whole Peace Corps has been ordered home by the end of the week. Are we indeed preparing for a New Zealand style border shuttering and national internal lock down? I’m sure the public health powers have a master plan based on a very short time line.
Our local response started out like that of St Louis in 1918. After one reported case, the schools were closed, courts closed, employees told to work from home. The local powers fizzled out dealing with restaurants and smaller businesses. They are leaving that to the national powers. Apparently lots of restaurant owners and employees must vote locally.
Even the American Dental Association put out a timidly worded directive today advising practitioners to consider “postponing elective procedures for the next three weeks and concentrate on emergency dental care.” Loads of room for interpreting that based on your debt load.
I sense Draconian moves ahead. Hatches battened, belts buckled, tanks full, and not to forget the new national currency–toilet paper.
