2019-nCOV, page-523

Little of what's happpening in the world and financial markets appears to make sense at the moment.

General fear grips the world as media warn us we’re all at risk and governments in turn fuel the fires of panic even more as they implement general controls that impact everyone and therefore the entire economy. But why?

According to the latest statistics out of Italy, only the elderly need truly worry since 99% of all people killed so far have been over the age of 60%:

“One percent of those deceased so far were aged between 50 years and 59 years, some 10% between 60 and 69, 31% between 70 and 79, another 44% between 80 and 89, and 14% were over 90”

Why not let commonsense prevail and call on the elderly to stay home and isolate rest homes etc thereby saving most of our jobs and economy from needless destruction? And let’s not forget that the common flu continues to kill a 100 times more people everyday than the Coronavirus. Yet no one panics over the flu.

None of it appears to make sense. However, the answer to this riddle can be found in history.

It’s no coincidence stock markets were at records highs just before the outbreak and well overdue for correction with the yield curve inversion flashing ‘recession alert’ second half of last year. No surprise the most indebted country on earth (China and HK) is where this virus originated; the most financially unstable European country (Italy) the second worst effected and Iran an economic basket case already.

The fact is, if you go back til the Middle Ages it is surprising how common it has been to blame our economic problems on sickness and disease just as the economies went into free fall. Coincidence? I think not. More human nature.

It’s in all our leaders interests to blame something else for our ‘ills’ (excuse the pun). Why would Central Bankers want to admit it was their lose monetary policy that caused this current recession and likely depression? Why would government want to admit it was their poor oversight and failed polices which have destroyed our economy?

No, much easier to just blame the virus. And let’s be fair, we all saw it coming. We all instinctively knew the good times couldn’t continue for ever. We just hoped the good times would last a little longer and we would be smarter than everyone else and escape just in time.

Don’t focus on the virus. It’s not the real problem. Focus on the massive debt bomb. It’s about to explode if not already. Neither look to the Central Bankers and government to save us. They caused this problem and are sure not going to fix it.