Friday, March 13, 2020

The OVERDUE Recession is Starting NOW

Preface
Below is the latest email (slightly edited here) I sent to family & friends.  The Recession hasn't officially started, because the Powers-That-Be in Gov't need at least two calendar quarters (I think) of data before declaring it.  Anyone who doesn't have his/her head buried in the sand, though, probably would agree:  this is the beginning.  Act accordingly, as follows.
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Be safe, & keep stocked up.  This is the start of a Recession...possibly even worse, a Depression.  Irrational exuberance re the economy already is evaporating.  Distribution of goods already is being affected.  "Runs" on grocery stores already (just barely) have started.

If anyone never has believed me in the past about the overdue Recession, believe this now:  it has started.  
The covid-19 Black Swan, predicted by Daniel Zhang, is at the beginning of crushing the economy.

We'll all survive that, but those of us with a cache of extra household goods (not just food) will be much more comfortable than others.  Distribution of goods eventually will slow way down...temporarily...maybe only for a couple of weeks, maybe for a bit longer.  It hasn't kicked into high gear yet, but it will...no one knows exactly when.  Stock up... food, OTC meds, paper goods, anything you use daily or weekly.

Thanks to the slow response (& lack of previous preparedness) by most governments--- especially in the USA ---covid-19 sooner or later will infect multiple millions, and will devastate the world economy.  If we all don't pull together on this situation, many fewer millions will die (directly or indirectly).  That's not hyperbole.

p.s.  Worldwide:  140,000+ cases; 5,300+ deaths; 123 countries (including "territories").
USA:  1,650 known cases; 41 deaths; 47 known States.
Compare these numbers to those in the March 10 post/essay immediately previous to this one.
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Not only my opinion.  "Be Prepared"  (A long, long time ago, I was a Boy Scout.  For those who don't know, that's their motto:)

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Latest COVID-19 Stats - Not Looking Good (at 11 PM, I edited the numbers)

Preface
This info is from several sources.  The main one is:
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
Multiple charts/graphs there to analyze.
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Latest Stats---
Deaths
Worldwide - 4,026
USA - 31
Known Cases of Infection
Worldwide - 118,000+
USA - 901 (a short time ago, this number was 2, & in the past 3 days, it has more than doubled)
Global Death Rate
Depending on the information source, the fatality rate ranges from
2.3% to 3.48%.  As I pointed out in the last post/essay, even at one percent covid-19 is ten times deadlier than the flu; and the flu kills up to 650,000 people every year.
Countries and USA States Known to Have the Virus
Countries - 105 (not long ago, this number was 50)
USA States - 36 (not long ago, this number was 7)
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Speculation

Trump recently stated (regarding covid-19), "...and then one day, it will just disappear.".  That's possible.  SARS seems to have done that, but maybe not.  It just as likely could have mutated and hopped back to some animal population.  In the future, it could mutate again in such a way that it jumps back to humans.  In my opinion, instead of Trump's scenario about covid-19, it's more likely that we're stuck with the virus...in the same way we're stuck with the common cold and influenza.  They haven't disappeared.

Like with the cold and the flu, it's possible that warmer weather will scale back infections of covid-19; but it's too early to tell.  It's every bit as possible that won't happen.  One thing's certain:  this virus is not contained.  Despite reluctance by WHO and the CDC to declare it such, it's a pandemic.

Trump is looking very grim these past few days.  He's not concerned about covid-19 infections; instead, he's worried about the impact on our economy, and thus the impact on the upcoming election.  The way he talks about the whole virus situation is truly pathetic.
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Not only my opinion.  Be Well
p.s.  Again, for any new readers here, I'm not a Republican or a Democrat.  Despite what The Don says, this issue is not about politics.  It's about health.


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