You actually are smart enough, silly Anomalous Sources. You put the link in the Source box, which automatically linked it to the headline. Congratulations!
#4
You actually are smart enough, silly Anomalous Sources. You put the link in the Source box, which automatically linked it to the headline. Congratulations!
[Townhall] It's Kurt Here are some people who are useless, especially now: Performance artists, diversity consultants, magic crystal healers, sociology TAs, members of the mainstream media, and gender-unspecified entities who brew kale kombucha.
Here are some people who matter, especially now: Soldiers, nurses, truckers, cops, the guy who stocks the shelves at Ralphs, farmers, and that dude rebuilding your roof.
The Chinese Bat Soup Flu has certainly clarified some of the blurred lines between what is important and what is frivolous garbage. Yet, in a time when millions of Americans are at risk of dying as a direct result of ChiCom conspiracies and the bizarre need of its serfs to eat any weird thing that crawls or slithers within reach of their chopsticks, our useless elite is fixated on making sure we don’t hurt the feelz of the very people who stuck us in this predicament.
Our elite is full of self-important morons who contribute nothing but more dumb in a time when the only thing we have a surplus of is dumb. The real hero is the guy who trucks in a load of whole wheat bread, ribeyes, and low-priced cabernet to the Trader Joe’s, not the Prius-piloting sissy with a Maddow fetish who shops there. The people our elite laughed at, scoffed at, poked at, are the very people who are going to rescue us from the mess that same elite helped make.
This is when the basics count. Can you build something? Can you do something? And, as our idiot urban overlords insist on releasing criminals because THE FLU!, can you defend something?
[American Thinker] The media are piling on President Trump for not instilling confidence during the COVID-19 crisis: "There is no new Trump." "Don't be fooled." "The new Trump is the same as the old Trump." "He's incapable of leading us out of it." "Trump shrugs off responsibility." "He's putting the blame on the Chinese." "Trump is fundamentally unfit ‐ intellectually, morally, temperamentally and psychologically." The media could not be more wrong.
As explained in my book, Psychologically Sound: The Mind of Donald J. Trump, his personality ‐ replete with intelligence, imagination, consistency, charisma, organization, and optimism ‐ is well designed for modern America. But I did not think Trump's personality would evolve in the Oval Office. I was wrong, deeply wrong. He has changed, profoundly, and for the better.
During the March 17 Tuesday White House coronavirus press conference, a reporter asked if President Trump's mood was more somber on Monday's briefing. With great seriousness, Trump outlined how he had been solemn from the get-go ‐ in January, restricting travel with China. Although he may genuinely believe that self-description, what he has progressively revealed of himself in this crisis is different.
h/t Instapundit
[USA Today] - ... Americans are selling securities and buying toilet paper as Donald Trump urges us all to socially distance ourselves at least six feet from each other and limit gatherings to no more than 10. Local stores have announced that oldsters like me will be allowed to shop their empty shelves for one hour before regular opening time.
There is a deep economic lesson hidden in this rush to stock up on ordinary consumer goods, coordinated spontaneously by common fears of supply shortages and stock-outs. Explanation of supply & demand, and why price controls can't work
...I believe the economy today lives in suspense, not free-fall. The pandemic will pass; public health institutions have been a model of forthright dissemination of information on the spread of this disease and sanitary procedures to minimize its impact. It’s the citizenry that has been unruly for a time. Supply chains will refill and stabilize quickly, as the pandemic passes, securities markets will recover, and growth will continue to reduce poverty everywhere. Homes are more valuable than ever as a haven of safe and secure living. Provided that we continue to buy them with some of our own money, homes will be part of a secure future.
#1
In North Texas and Central Illinois, the real estate markets are off to a good start Sanitize after your house tour, of course. I suppose people restricted from travel and work have plenty of time to shop for a new house.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/23/2020 16:04 Comments ||
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#2
I have wondered how much economic activity goes away vs simply getting redirected in different directions. Obviously Amazon and Costco are doing well. Restaurants will have trouble, but surely some portion of our dining out budget will get spent on other things like video streaming, games and toilet paper.
When an entire continent is in the midst of a highly contagious virus epidemic, solidarity becomes a more complex issue. Every state inevitably considers whether it can afford to send facemasks and protective equipment that might be needed for its own citizens. In other words, every state considers its own national interest first. In the case of Italy's appeal for help, EU member states made their own interests their highest priority. This is classic state behavior and would not have caused any outrage prior to the establishment of the European Union.
While such revelations may not spell the immediate end of the European Union, they certainly raise questions about the point of an organization that pledges solidarity as a founding principle, but abandons that principle the moment it is most called for.
The current crisis on the Greek-Turkish border has shown the EU not only as unhelpful, but an actual liability: The EU has left an already overwhelmed Greece to deal with the migrant crisis -- manufactured by Turkish President Erdogan for political gain -- on its own... On top of Europe's attempts to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, ordered that Greece must allow the migrants that Erdogan transported to the border to apply for asylum.
If the EU were to approve visa-free travel for Turks ‐ or anyone who had the means to buy a Turkish passport ‐ millions of Turks would be able to enter the EU legally and potentially "disappear" there. Already at breaking point, the EU would arguably become a very different kind of "European" Union with Turkey, a country of 80 million people, literally invited to enter Europe.
All Erdogan needs to do now it sit back and wait for the EU, with Merkel at the helm, to meet his demands.
[LI] As I write this, Italy has 47,021 active cases of the Wuhan Coronavirus.
5,129 have recovered. 4,032 have died. That’s 800 more than China (assuming their numbers are correct), and the number is certain to grow.
The situation has become so dire that there are reports healthcare workers in Lombardy, one of the hardest hit areas, have simply stopped counting the bodies.
There were 627 recorded deaths Friday, their biggest day-to-day rise since the outbreak started.
These are very sobering statistics, especially when you consider a little over a month ago, videos were being circulated on social media of Italians going about their daily lives, of the tourist circuit bustling, of markets being full of shoppers, and the like.
This was all happening even as the Wuhan Coronavirus was known to be spreading, because Italy had not yet called for social distancing or any other type of related measures at the time that might have helped stopped the spread.
Those on the outside looking in and who had read reports about the outbreak watched in disbelief as local officials like Florence Mayor Dario Nardella were telling Italians to "hug a Chinese." It was a patronizing virtue signal to show Italy’s Asian population support, and to prove to the world that Italy wasn’t "racist" after reports of alleged "xenophobic incidents" against Chinese people in Italy as a result of their China travel ban:
#1
Last year 120 people died in the small city of Nembro (pop. 12,000), near Bergamo in Lombardy, ten per month. Now, 70 people have died in just 12 days.
Very interesting to read up on this. Most likely the virus started to hit in early January already, maybe even at Christmas. The number of people suffering (and dying) from severe pneumonia shot up, but nobody knew about the virus. On February 20th, all Italy had only 4 confirmed cases.
This explains the exploding numbers now. The virus had more time to spread undetected, and only severe cases were tested in February.
I'm convinced that the virus started spreading earlier in China than reported.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/23/2020 8:58 Comments ||
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Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/23/2020 14:41 Comments ||
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#4
in a 2008 trip to Italy, my duaghter sought out a leather shop in Rome we had read about in the Chicago Tribune. A 3rd gen granddaughter had apprenticed and took over the family shop of leather goods they made themselves. I bought a belt from her that she made in front of me, from measure to completion, for around $40 USD. I knew it was "made in Italy" because I watched it being made.
In 2015, in a hoity toity marketplace in Sorrento, I pulled a belt off the rack that said "Made in Italy" that cost about $18..."A great buy!" I declared to my kids. I now understand the price difference.
[AmericanThinker] Two differences: in 2009 the feds had warehouses full of supplies stored by President Bush that they handed out to the medical facilities hardest hit, and considerably fewer doctors had retired. But after H1N1 President Obama ignored advice to replenish stocks... and an awful lot of doctors decided dealing with Obamacare was not worth fighting — so they retired.
#1
Note to mods: just curious - why combine into one thread these three distinct articles on three different topics, written by three different authors from very different backgrounds?
thx,
L
#3
This way the different aspects of the discussion can be corralled in one place, instead of people becoming frustrated because they to repeat arguments in three separate comment threads.
When the new daily edition rolls out early in the morning hours it is of a decent size and concise. However by 8am central time it has morfed into a huge mass of links that on my lap top requires 3 scrolls to get from the top kubj ti the final link.
Sensory overload!
I have been hoping for an opportunity to say something about how I see it. Many of those links are important but can be consolidated into titles that readers can click and drill down to various related stories, something TW is very good at organizing.
It is good house keeping and renders the site more attractive than a huge mas of spaghetti, of many, many links at the top level.
Posted by: Marilyn Uloling5420 ||
03/23/2020 2:33 Comments ||
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#5
We have enough data - we see what happens in Italy & Spain.
#6
All responses are not created equal, and it's impossible not to note that the majority of those who are so determined to inflict economic damage are also the least likely to feel the after effects, not their skin in the game.
#7
Meanwhile, Switzerland is about to catch up with South Korea, Iran is closing in on Germany, and the U.S. is just over half the cases of Italy. I look forward to understanding that data.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/23/2020 8:45 Comments ||
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#8
You know Cesare, this argument could be turned around. However, there's no need. Just ask yourself how much economy will Italy have when it all plays over?
p.s. Shutdown doesn't bankrupt businesses - competition with other businesses bankrupts businesses.
#9
From the second link: Patients who have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 are disproportionately those with severe symptoms and bad outcomes.
Last week, my daughter's mother-in-law was refused testing for a cough and fever because her fever wasn't high enough*. She's 70. If we had more testing, we'd have more data on which to base decisions.
*I believe she caught something from our grandson, who made 3-4 trips to the doctor the previous week, and was finally diagnosed with bronchitis.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/23/2020 8:55 Comments ||
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#10
Let us note: just for the sake of perspective that all the measures ushered in by Trump's admin in USA are practiced in other places in the world. In fact, places that initially refused to use such measures (like Italy) are now on the brink of martial law. Mark my words, it's just a matter of time until soldiers in Italy and Spain will begin shooting people who break quarantine.
Not every f*cking thing in the World is due to responses to your MSN!!!
Italy had 4 confirmed cases a month ago. I (almost) give them a pass because they might not have realized what was coming.
But now we know. Germany's response wasn't stellar either. In Munich, 2 weeks ago, we had a football match with 70,000 spectators. The club managers of Bayern Munich pushed this through.
I phoned them the next day, called them f*** morons and cancelled my membership.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/23/2020 9:21 Comments ||
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#12
Fair enough, but I would think that the same logic should apply to the opposite argument-- which is less of a proper argument based on careful study of the empirical evidence than a hodgepodge of anecdotes whose intent seems in the main seems to be to reinforce the general sense of panic.
#13
as opposed to commenting the same thing in 48 96 different threads, Lex?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/23/2020 9:37 Comments ||
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#14
^Exactly! It's not a uniquely American problem! Just look around, for G*d sake, Americans! See what happens to countries who cared for "protecting businesses" ubber alles like Italy with tourism! Ask yourself, you Friedrich Hayeks, what will happen to restaurant business USA wide when somebody's corona infection is traced back to a restaurant!
Ask yourself what will happen on GM assembly line when one of the workers collapsed with corona!
No, instead, you accuse the other side of "having no skin in the game" (just so you know, my main businesses of writing term papers for students and math tutoring are dead right now)/end rant
#16
Trump actually did the right thing (yes I said this) with his early China ban. Unfortunately it was poorly implemented because American citizens returning from China were not forced into quarantine.
But pretty much the same happened in Europe. The problem for politicians is: Drastic measures must be understood. Try explaining a shutdown when you have 50 cases in the country. It doesn't work.
People now (mostly) understand. If you have many millions of infected people and 15% are seriously ill, not 1% will die but 10% or more because they can't be properly treated.
Overreaction is only for people who don't understand exponential curves.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/23/2020 9:57 Comments ||
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#17
Overreaction is only for people who don't understand exponential curves.
There also should be density dependence in the the death rate in the standard equations.
#18
Shutdown doesn't bankrupt businesses - competition with other businesses bankrupts businesses.
I really don't want to respond to you but this is just too much. The above statement is a prime example of the extreme foolishness that is so annoying to so many of us here who understand how firms in market economies work.
As anyone who has run a business or worked in finance or accounting knows, a firm's cash flow is its oxygen.
In a market economy the cash flow cycle depends heavily on many actors working in concert: consumers trading cash for the firm's goods or services; banks lending cash to firms so they can buy supplies from other firms and produce inventories in advance of purchases by consumers; employees who receive cash weekly or bimonthly and then use that cash to purchase necessary goods; etc
When you kill off consumer demand -- not reduce it, as in a typical contraction, but shut it down altogether, as we are now on the brink of doing, for MONTHS -- when you do this, you starve these firms of oxygen.
Without cash flow from one or another source -- no consumers, no floating of the notes owed to their banks, and all their suppliers experiencing the same cash-starvation -- without cash flow, firms in a market economy DIE. And the effect cascades throughout the economy, which will not recover FOR YEARS.
A little more than half of the US workforce is employed in small businesses, many of which are "mom and pop" businesses with 1 or 2 proprietors.
These are not owners of football clubs or stadium owners. These are tiny businesses which don't have million-dollar credit lines from banks. They don't have large cash reserves. And they are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN to die if these mass lockdowns - no going out for a pizza or a haircut or visiting shops - if this absurd overreaction continues, as we are told it will, for months. you will surely plunge at minimum 60 million Americans into bankruptcy and despair. Minimum.
Sorry to be so pedantic about such an obvious issue but this is why those of us who are deeply into the business world see a calamity coming that is far, far greater than the inevitable 20,000 or 30,000 additional deaths.
The suicides alone from bankrupting millions of mom and pop and other small business owners will top that figure.
This is what's at stake. So please stop insulting people here with ignorant remarks about a fantasy world in which a months-long "shutdown doesn't bankrupt businesses."
Please respect logic and respect other Rantburgers. No one is attacking you. We all simply want what's best for our families, and I'm sure most of us have family who are at heightened risk from both this virus, because of old age and/or lung or other preconditions, AND from the (in my view far far greater) coming economic calamity that is being visited upon us by our leaders' decisions.
We all understand why elders and people with pre-existing conditions need to be subject to extra precautions. Travel bans for a minutes time, fine. But killing the backbone of ordinary local social interaction with small shopkeepers is not wise.
Sorry to go on at such length but we just need to stop this habit of rubbing salt in others' wounds by means of mindless pronouncements like the one above.
#20
Ever heard the expression "can't see the forest for the trees", Lex? If you actually stopped and thought about what I said ... Unfortunately, economists don't understand economics - as demonstrated by Nobel laureate Krugman.
IMO, the first thing USA should do to restore it's economy is to send most MBAs to work in fruit picking.
#25
Its really stupid to compare Italy to the United States. We knew so much more by the time the virus came here, and our demographics are entirely different.
Gotta keep the heat on, the air circulating, taxes, insurance, the normal wear and tear of critical components breaking, you have good employees there should be a retainer program, cost of goods sold increasing. These are all expenses before you even unlock the door and turn the lights on.
#30
You don't have all these expenses in shutdown, SW. All the businesses that compete with you are shut down as well. Look at the forest, not the trees. And, your business will be shutdown anyway: Detroit Car Makers to Temporarily Close U.S. Plants Over Virus Concerns. Nobody is forcing them to close. That's what happens when you have a plague. Fact of life. Saying "USA is not Italy" is for missing links.
#33
Ultimately, isn't this what the question is about?
The problem with y'alls back and forth is both sides are right. But to say businesses enter some sort of stasis like pausing a video game is as wrong as saying anyone over the age of whatever should be written off.
So yeah, as I'm sitting here writing checks for bills for services I used, gas electric trash employees building and auto insurance plus property tax and accrued sales tax, expenses. Plus, every day which goes by is one day closer to a hole in the roof, the AC going out, an out building collapsing, a vermin infestation, or some punk siphoning the gasoline out of a vehicle.
On the flip side, there is always competition. Always. Big box stores, see they are also grocery stores and pharmacies. Even larger than that is the internet. I can spend five minutes right now and have two gallons of gumbo on my doorstep in two days in time for dinner. It is history's largest market and it is always open. And a close second is the black market.
In business, if you aren't making money you are losing money.
Argue your sides, but don't poo poo the sacrifices these business owners are going through.
#34
That escalated quickly. Personally, I was not taking a side of do nothing and hope for the best. For the most part I do not endorse an either/or approach to most things. Assuming a realistic and clearly stated time component I would also very much agree that shut downs ought not lead to bankruptcies.
Getting back to my point about bureaucratic skin in the game, they seem to increasingly view the population...you know the ones who do most of the living and dying, making and transporting as some kind of inconvenience. A problem to be tolerated, so no, I don't have but so much confidence in their conclusions. Let's not forget everybody's favorite 'special agents', the covert mastermind Sztrok and his main squeeze Page. You think they're some kind of rare bureaucratic anomaly in an ocean of sober competence?
Further, this is uncharted territory economically. Again personally, I tend to believe there will be a fairly robust if spiky recovery, no doubt with the odd setback.
Sorry to hear about the business, g(r)omgoru, I've had a couple of pretty big months. Hope it lightens up for you. Mrs Cesare is a teacher and reacted with pity and amusement when I asked her if she thought she'd back after Spring Break. She has taken a different tone of late as it increasingly appears spring break may well last until August.
#36
To be fair, it will be the older folks who can guide us through this, the farmers, ranchers, miners, smokers who have seen the shit, everyone right in the envelope. The farmer whose left pinky has more experience than 20 man bun soccer coaches, the systems analyst of 3 decades, the grandmother who remembers her mother's stories of living through the dirty thirties, the holy men who know their flock so well he can tell by the way someone is walking if something is wrong. The financial advisors and bankers who can guide a business through a rough spot. We should be doing everything we can to protect them.
#37
I said it yesterday and I'll take this opportunity to say it again:
Whether or not the current shutdown is justified, we cannot do this every time some new bug gets loose in China. Changes need to be made. IMHO, we need to quarantine that whole country until they start behaving like civilized human beings.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/23/2020 13:01 Comments ||
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#38
#33 Argue your sides, but don't poo poo the sacrifices these business owners are going through.
I'm sorry to hear about your business problem, SW. But, isn't the basic idea of business is that you take responsibility AND the risks? Nobody promises you success AND nobody OWES you success.
And don't tell me I don't know that I'm talking about because my father run his own business. And, I myself, had to chose between being an employee (lab tech) with all the social rights or to try for an academic position (which is a lot like running a franchise) some years ago. Made the same choice as you - don't regret it even now.
#34 Sorry, but you know who got my goat with "not Italy", "exponential - smeksponential".
Think of shutdown this way.
When I was a wee lad, and an apple in the eye of my platoon sergeant (a horse apple, but that's just details), I was was taught that when you shot at - you first take cover, THEN identify the source of fire and decide that to do (depends on the distance).
So that's what all the (responsible) governments are doing. They are taking cover. They can't tell you how long the shutdown will last because they still evaluating and working on plans of action (yea, I'm stretching the metaphor).
By the way, did you notice that in Israel (article I posted yesterday) the lockdown is approved for a week and will have to be renewed?
#39
In the interests of moving forward, here are two many leaders leaders - elected officials, top medical and public health experts, economists, business leaders - who in the last 72 hours have publicly pushed the strategy that I'm recommending.
That's to do two things at once: get more care and direct more resources to the truly vulnerable part of the population - the elderly - and ALSO - both, 'and,' got it? - also relax this lockdown ASAP and get healthy people under 65 back working again, with reasonable precautions about washing hands etc.
Governor Cuomo - reported at 1pm ET today - "We have to have a plan to 'pivot back to economic functionality'" - key quote: "There has to be a balance, or parallel tracks ... At some pint you have to open the valve ... because that is oxygen for the economy and this is not sustainable"
Dr. David Katz, Founder and director of the Yale Preventive Medicine Center, editorial, "Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease? There may be more targeted ways to beat the pandemic" - key quote: "If we were to focus on the especially vulnerable, there would be resources to keep them at home, provide them with needed services and coronavirus testing, and direct our medical system to their early care. I would favor proactive rather than reactive testing in this group, and early use of the most promising anti-viral drugs. This cannot be done under current policies, as we spread our relatively few test kits across the expanse of a whole population, made all the more anxious because society has shut down"
Trump is voicing support for this dual track approach now, so is Mnuchin, so are Senators speaking right now on the floor of Congress, as are more and more business leaders.
Both. And.
Please cease with nasty attacks on fellow Rantburgers. We're just trying to take care of our families.
#40
The Israeli approach is much more along the lines of what I'd like to see in this country. Plainly at this point in time most of what is known is the exponential aspect. Mortality rates, severity and such remain opaque so, by all means take cover...always been a big believer myself, btw. I don't mind big even draconian steps as long as they leave the option open to change course when more is known; go ahead and allocate $8 Billion but with the proviso that you're only going to spend maybe a quarter of that for now and see how it all develops.
#42
"after H1N1 President Obama ignored advice to replenish stocks." Trump has been President for 3 years. Unless the person in charge of this is a hold-over from the Obama years Trumps team owns some of the blame.
That’s what the Coronaplague Roundup is intended to do, Lex. Until I fall asleep after the midnight rollover I continue to move short articles into it, but by the time I am functional in the morning a lot of the subsequently posted articles have appeared and been commented on. It will relieve you to know that I saw the following at the Jerusalem Post:
President Donald Trump on Sunday said the United States will make a decision at the end of a 15-day period on "which way we want to go," to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
"We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself," he said in a tweet.
Trump issued new guidelines on March 16 aimed at slowing the spread of the disease over the following 15 days.
No doubt more detailed articles are being published as I type.
Also, that emergency bill the Democrats have stopped up in the Senate reportedly includes measures to provide stopgap funding for businesses as well as laid off workers, so the situation will perhaps not be nearly so dire tomorrow as it appears today.
One hopes that in future both businesses and individuals will build up larger reserves against the next emergency, because there will indeed be something else coming down the pike. Still, at least shortly the world will have a great many more ventilators than it does today, and probably countries like Italy will revise their spending priorities to be able to reopen some of the hospitals they previously closed as a cost-saving measure.
#45
Fortunately what sets the US apart is we have a business man in the Oval Office who was never a politician, a rare event. Unfortunately, Congress is a different story.
Business men settle their disputes in court, and Trump has stacked the courts in his favor, while Congress dims have stacked MSM. We will see who wins for the people.
Posted by: Marilyn Uloling5420 ||
03/23/2020 14:36 Comments ||
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#46
Thanks for your insights Lex and everyone else. A dynamic population here.
Posted by: Marilyn Uloling5420 ||
03/23/2020 14:38 Comments ||
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#47
Thank you for your kind words, Marilyn Uloling5420. My mind is not terribly organized, unlike many here, so I try to physically organize information to offset that.
Surely not a business owner. The only expense you have not been floating is your payroll. Which is the ONLY thing you have control over....by firing everyone.
#50
bbrewer126,
Property tax doesn't go away, rent if you don't own doesn't go away. Mortgage, utilities, contracted services, truck/auto/bus payments, employee insurance, just to name a few don't stop. What does stop is income, the ability to cover non payroll expenses. Some of us will pay an extra two week wages (or more) for laid off staff. They are like family to us small businesses. I know their spouse, kids, parents. I have shared meals with these people who Governor Dewine thinks they can live on unemployment. Small business are more than just a name on a google page, they are real people with lives, family, responsibilities.
#51
Real people.
Real destruction.
Real calamities if this lockdown continues much longer. Ten times greater, in terms of real damage and destruction, than the loss - as terrible as it will be - attributable to the spread of this virus.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Townhall] 
