Friday, March 13, 2020

COVID-19 or ETFs? Which virus is worse?

A few weeks ago, I had a cold and helped my ex move her stuff out of her apartment on a cold weekend. Day one: managing the load coming in (stacking boxes). Day 2: unloading boxes on cold morning into the sidewalk while waiting for other friends and getting them to and then into the apartment while the others took the truck back to load furniture. At the end of each day, I hit a wall on what could be done.

On day 2,  Sunday, I went for lunch then to Rockville Library to work on graphics for the new edition of my book in the national debt. Used public computers, as I do frequently. So do a lot if people. I likely got sick from these and infected others. Big vector but my immune system is likely better for doing so.

Monday the 2nd, stayed home with aching muscles and a cold with chest congestion. Stayed home on Tuesday too. I take hydroxyzine for asthma, so symptoms are under control. Wednesday to Friday, working on blogging and comments to Hill on tax policy (Fiscalequity.blogspot.com). Saturday, Pho. Stay in Sunday. Out on Monday., went to library, came home.

Next day (this past Tuesday), was going out in afternoon, but hit a wall. No energy, congestion still there (not a big deal). I have not been out since. No energy to do so. 

Cold symptoms are mostly gone. Told followers on FB that I am in self-quarentine and they went nuts with panic in their health, wondering if I have been tested. I have not been. I am pretty sure from symptoms and having heard how people who have had virus say it feels like when interviewed that I have or had it.

 Probably not contagious anymore. I was hardly feeling sick when I was. A very contagious disease is one that spreads before symptoms. The morality play of social distancing has no impact in behavior. Everyone has likely been exposed.

Blaming the crazy old man (Trump) for not reacting is simply piling on. He was probably correct. For this illness, most will be fine. The major inconvenience is how you feel in the recovery stage when respiratory symptoms are almost gone and the body is concentrating in making antibodies. 

I have no interest in going anywhere and spreading this illness, if I even am contagious. There are probably millions with the same story. 

Most people will not need respirators. Those who do would get pneumonia from any cold or flu. You can only die once if old and frail.

The media fueled panic is not really justified. Nor is piling on the idiot at 1600. This is Swine Flu 2020. 

All of the stock market losses are price deflation. The market is entirely monopoly money, not inflation in plant and equipment. It us savings, not investment. 

Tax cuts merely fuel savings by the lucky rich, profiteer scammers in (see bitcoin) and people with retirement accounts who should have had PAYGO pensions. It is amazing how people equate saving with the kind of investment defined as an element of economic growth. These are totally different.

Aside from Bitcoin, the hot savings instrument (the ones being advertised as 10 times savings accounts) are Exchange Traded Funds loaded with oil futures and heavily leveraged single family rental mortgage backed securities. When lots of people cannot pay because we have closed down the economy, all this monopoly money will go up in smoke.

I wonder how many people who sold this week were taking out the trash.

COVID may be the least of our problems this year. I wonder if some in the market were waiting for an opportunity to get out. This is not the time to buy.

1 comment:

  1. Mnuchin negotiated income subsidies for poor workers with Pelosi, which is good for his bond holdings.

    ReplyDelete