Feb 092020
 
 February 9, 2020  Posted by at 10:24 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Dorothea Lange Play street for children. Sixth Street and Avenue C, NYC June 1936

 

Authorities Order Foxconn To Keep Chinese Facilities Closed (AI)
China To Stagger Back To Work As Coronavirus Deaths Surpass SARS (R.)
In-Hospital Infection Blamed In Wuhan Hospital (NHK)
Coronavirus Outbreak Has Affected 4 Different Cruise Ships (H.)
Still No Port For Cruise Ship Westerdam (NHK)
Five Britons Contract Coronavirus In French Ski Resort (R.)
Coronavirus Brings China’s Surveillance State Out Of The Shadows (R.)
Coronavirus Threatens The Chinese Communist Party’s Grip On Power (SCMP)
Yesterday’s Gone: Iowa Was Waterloo for Democrats (Taibbi)
The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President (Atl.)
A Stock Market Boom Is Not The Basis Of Shared Prosperity (Palley)
Argentina Won’t Repay IMF Debt Till Recession Over – VP Kirchner (R.)

 

 

Late last night in my present timezone, CET, initial new coronavirus numbers came out and everyone said they meant the virus has now killed more people (805-806) than SARS. Everyone except for SCMP which cited a WHO number of 813 SARS deaths (they still haven’t figured that out after 17 years). And then, wouldn’t you know, when I got up in the morning, SCMP had revised their new deaths number to … exactly 813. If I weren’t born so wonderfully gullible I would ask myself something.

Global death toll for new coronavirus hits 805, exceeding that of SARS

The global death toll from the new coronavirus is now at 805, higher than that of SARS. Hubei province reported Sunday morning that there were 81 additional deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities in the mainland to 803 so far. The global death toll for the new coronavirus currently stands at 805, including one death in the Philippines and another in Hong Kong. That compares to the SARS outbreak which killed at least 774 people and infected 8,096 people worldwide in 2002 and 2003, according to data from the World Health Organization.

NOTE: SARS deaths took 9 months. This epidemic is just 1-2 months old.

China’s Hubei reports 81 deaths, global total just short of WHO’s SARS figure

China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus epidemic, reported 81 new deaths from the disease on Saturday, bringing the province’s total fatalities from the outbreak to 780. Total deaths globally stood at 805, just short of the 813 total fatalities attributed to the deadly Sars epidemic of 2002-2003 by the World Health Organisation. The provincial health authorities also reported 2,147 newly confirmed cases of the disease in the past 24 hours. This brings the total cases in Hubei to 27,100. These figures compared to the reported deaths and newly confirmed cases of 81 and 2,841, respectively, on Friday.

 

 

• 813 deaths, up from 724 yesterday. 89 new deaths is a new record again.

• Confirmed new cases rose to 37,198, an increase of 2,652 overnight

• 3,916 suspected new cases, bringing the total to 28,942 suspected cases.

 

And this little map looks promising, but I do have questions about it:

 

 

Questions like: what are the effects of the ever wider and ever more stringent lockdowns on this? Do fewer people get infected if they’re all locked up in their homes? Or are infected people also harder to find when they’re behind closed doors? Would families volunteer to deliver potentially infected family members to authorities, or would they wait until they’re as good as dead?

I found this interesting as well: “Wuhan has 49 crematoriums, which can each burn 5 bodies every two hours. They’ve been working 24 hours a day for 17 days now. 49 x 17 x 24 x 5/2 = 49,980 bodies.”

 

Still, as I said yesterday, it’s really all about Monday morning, when the economy is supposed to start “working” again. On Friday, Tesla said its Shanghai plant would re-open tomorrow morning. But then today, the government ordered Foxconn’s Shenzhen factories to remain closed. Will Tesla really open?

As I also said somewhere yesterday, “restarting” the economy where 100s of millions are under some form of lockdown now, means shoving all those millions into planes, trains and subways to bring them to plants where they spend 8-10-12 hours in close proximity to potential virus carriers. Thousands more petri dishes.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

 

 

Well, that’s my question: “No-one wants to bear the responsibility for restarting work at this critical moment.”

Authorities Order Foxconn To Keep Chinese Facilities Closed (AI)

As authorities attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus in China, Foxconn did its part to help on Friday by telling staff not to return to work on February 10, following the Lunar New Year. Rather than resuming operations on the originally anticipated return date, the assembly partner told its tens of thousands of employees to stay away from the Shenzhen plant. A report by Nikkei claims the calling off of production has been further halted by the Chinese authorities, who have told Foxconn not to reopen. People familiar with the matter advised the factory was subject to on-site inspections by public health officials, which found there were “high risks of coronavirus infection” if it did reopen.

One internal memo about the inspection and government-ordered closure mentioned “Violation of epidemic prevention and control could potentially face the death penalty.” Part of the problem is the production facilities use central air condition and have a high density of workers, conditions ripe for viral transference. “The local governments do not want to risk the potential virus spreading in such a labor-intensive working environment,” a source told the report. “No-one wants to bear the responsibility for restarting work at this critical moment.” On Friday, Foxconn took the extra step of canceling flight bookings for employees from Taiwan returning from their home country to China between February 7 and February 14.


The measure was allegedly announced by Chairman Young Liu in a video conference that morning, who also confirmed the company’s Zhengzhou complex would need to be evaluated by the local government before it could be reopened. Foxconn has previously confirmed the coronavirus will affect production, and it is allegedly affecting Apple’s AirPods along with other products it makes, such as iPhones.

Read more …

What will stocks do?

China To Stagger Back To Work As Coronavirus Deaths Surpass SARS (R.)

China raised the death toll from the coronavirus epidemic to 811 on Sunday, passing the number killed globally by the SARS epidemic in 2002/2003 and raising anxiety among people preparing to return to work after an extended Lunar New Year break. Struggling to contain the spread of the disease, authorities had told businesses to tack up to 10 extra days onto holidays that had been due to finish at the end of January as the rising numbers of dead and infected cast a pall over the country. Many of China’s usually teeming cities have almost become ghost towns during the past two weeks, as the Communist Party rulers ordered virtual lockdowns, cancelled flights, closed factories and kept schools shut.


The sight of an economy regarded as a workshop to the world laid so low has also taken a toll on international financial markets, as shares slumped and investors switched into safe-havens like gold, bonds and the Japanese yen. Even on Monday, a large number of workplaces will remain closed and many white-collar workers will continue to work from home. The new deaths on Saturday reached another daily record at 89, data from the National Health Commission showed, pushing the total well over the 774 who died from SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Read more …

“..around 40 percent of the patients with the new coronavirus they have treated may have contracted the illness at their hospital.”

In-Hospital Infection Blamed In Wuhan Hospital (NHK)

A team of medical professionals at a hospital in Wuhan says that around 40 percent of the patients with the new coronavirus they have treated may have contracted the illness at their hospital. The team works at a Wuhan University hospital in the Chinese city at the heart of the outbreak. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Friday. The study says 138 cases were confirmed at the hospital between January 1 and 28. Of those, 41 percent, or 57 people, were medical staff or patients who were initially hospitalized for other reasons.


The study found that one patient in the surgical department may have infected more than 10 members of hospital staff. It says that while patients had symptoms such as high fever and sense of fatigue, researchers revealed that 10 percent either had atypical symptoms such as diarrhea, or complained of nausea. It concludes that it was difficult to screen patients with symptoms not previously associated with the virus. The team says that an important feature of the new coronavirus is the rapid human-to-human transmission among people in close contact.

Read more …

I think the ship off Hong Kong was freed today. The Yokohama one with 61 infected won’t be so lucky.

Coronavirus Outbreak Has Affected 4 Different Cruise Ships (H.)

Cruises are, for the most part, meant to elicit feelings of relaxation—literally floating away from your landlocked responsibilities for a few days. But, for thousands of passengers aboard at least four different cruise ships, their vacations quickly turned into nightmare scenarios. As of Friday, four major vessels—the Diamond Princess, Westerdam, World Dream, and Royal Caribbean’s The Anthem of the Seas cruise ships—have been impacted by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), aka the Wuhan coronavirus. Most affected by the outbreak is the Diamond Princess cruise ship, currently quarantined off the coast of Yokohama, near Tokyo.

The ship was docked Tuesday after a former passenger tested positive for the coronavirus. Since then, 61 passengers of the 3,700 people on board have tested positive for the virus, reports CNN. The ship’s quarantine is expected to last until at least February 19. The two other ships—the Westerdam, currently in search of a port in the East China Sea; and the World Dream, docked in Hong Kong—have also come to a halt due to fears of coronavirus, per CNN. No current or former passengers on the Westerdam have been reported as having the coronavirus, nor have any current passengers on the World Dream, though eight former passengers of the cruise ship have been confirmed as having the illness.


And most recently, on Friday, the Royal Caribbean’s The Anthem of the Seas was docked near New York City, at a port in Bayonne, New Jersey, where 27 passengers were screened for the coronavirus, according to CNN. Four of those passengers were sent to the hospital for further investigation, while the other 23 were cleared. In a statement, per CNN, Royal Caribbean confirmed that, like airlines, they too are working to help limit the spread of the coronavirus. “We continue to work in close consultation with the CDC, the WHO, and local health authorities to align with their guidance and ensure the health and wellbeing of our guests and crew.”

Read more …

Sailed on Feb 1. Now it’s like the original Flying Dutchman ship.

Still No Port For Cruise Ship Westerdam (NHK)

The operator of the cruise ship Westerdam is searching for a port to call at after being rejected by destinations including Japan amid fears of the spreading coronavirus. The US-based Holland America Line said in a statement on Friday that the ship is “currently sailing on a southwesterly course off the coast of Taiwan.” The firm says it is positioning the ship “for access to potential port locations.” The Westerdam departed Hong Kong on February 1 with more than 2,200 passengers and crew onboard. Taiwan denied it permission to call, citing a suspicion of coronavirus infection among the passengers. Japanese authorities followed suit, preventing it from entering a port in the southwestern prefecture of Okinawa. Holland America Line said in the statement that “The ship is not in quarantine” and there is “no reason to believe there are any cases of coronavirus on board.” It added the ship has sufficient fuel and food, and passengers are provided with free internet and phone access.

Read more …

Is this the first cluster than doesn’t involve Chinese people? Note that the original infection came from Singapore, not China.

Five Britons Contract Coronavirus In French Ski Resort (R.)

Five British nationals including a child have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus at a French mountain village, and health officials said they were checking who else might have been exposed, including at local schools. In total, 11 people, including the five who tested positive, have been hospitalized in southeastern France and were being examined, the French health ministry said on Saturday, adding that none were in serious condition. The group of Britons included holidaymakers and a family currently residing in the Alpine village and ski resort, Les Contamines-Montjoie. They shared neighboring apartments in a chalet and temporarily hosted a British man believed to have contracted the virus at a business congress in Singapore before his short visit to France in late January, the ministry added.


Two schools would be shut next week for checks, regional health official Jean-Yves Grall said, after it emerged that the nine-year-old who tested positive had attended lessons and French classes in different establishments. Two other children were also part of the group of 11 now in hospital in the cities of Lyon, Saint-Etienne and Grenoble, and they had been schooled in the area too, according to Etienne Jacquet, mayor of Les Contamines-Montjoie. Some parents in the village, nestled in the mountains close to the Mont Blanc peak and the Swiss city of Geneva, said on Saturday they had received little information so far and were being cautious.

Read more …

Thermal cameras, cameras that see through face-masks, a good crisis to step up state control.

Coronavirus Brings China’s Surveillance State Out Of The Shadows (R.)

When the man from Hangzhou returned home from a business trip, the local police got in touch. They had tracked his car by his license plate in nearby Wenzhou, which has had a spate of coronavirus cases despite being far from the epicenter of the outbreak. Stay indoors for two weeks, they requested. After around 12 days, he was bored and went out early. This time, not only did the police contact him, so did his boss. He had been spotted near Hangzhou’s West Lake by a camera with facial recognition technology, and the authorities had alerted his company as a warning.

“I was a bit shocked by the ability and efficiency of the mass surveillance network. They can basically trace our movements with the AI technology and big data at any time and any place,” said the man, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions. Chinese have long been aware that they are tracked by the world’s most sophisticated system of electronic surveillance. The coronavirus emergency has brought some of that technology out of the shadows, providing the authorities with a justification for sweeping methods of high tech social control. Artificial intelligence and security camera companies boast that their systems can scan the streets for people with even low-grade fevers, recognize their faces even if they are wearing masks and report them to the authorities.

If a coronavirus patient boards a train, the railway’s “real name” system can provide a list of people sitting nearby. Mobile phone apps can tell users if they have been on a flight or a train with a known coronavirus carrier, and maps can show them locations of buildings where infected patients live. Although there has been some anonymous grumbling on social media, for now Chinese citizens seem to be accepting the extra intrusion, or even embracing it, as a means to combat the health emergency. “In the circumstances, individuals are likely to consider this to be reasonable even if they are not specifically informed about it,” said Carolyn Bigg, partner at law firm DLA Piper in Hong Kong.

[..] Facial recognition firm Megvii said on Tuesday it had developed a new way to spot and identify people with fevers, with support from the industry and science ministries. Its new “AI temperature measurement system”, which detects temperature with thermal cameras and uses body and facial data to identify individuals, is already being tested in a Beijing district. SenseTime, another leading AI firm, said it has built a similar system to be used at building entrances, which can identify people wearing masks, overcoming a weakness of earlier technology. Surveillance camera firm Zhejiang Dahua says it can detect fevers with infrared cameras to an accuracy within 0.3ºC.

Read more …

Wishful thinking?

Coronavirus Threatens The Chinese Communist Party’s Grip On Power (SCMP)

China missed the best opportunity to contain the spread of the virus because officials at first delayed – or possibly covered up – the release of information and were slow in taking precautionary actions. The first patient who experienced symptoms was found on December 1, 2019, suggesting the origin of the disease was even earlier. And there has been some evidence of human-to-human transmissions since late December, with more emerging in early January when several medical workers were infected. These vital bits of information were not released to the public in time. Nor was any decisive action taken between early December and January 23, the day Beijing told the world about the severity of the epidemic and declared war on it just two days before the Lunar New Year on January 25.

Lives continued as normal in Wuhan in the week before then. On January 18, the Wuhan government hosted a banquet attended by more than 40,000 families in a bid to set a Guinness world record. On January 20, the municipal government said it was distributing 200,000 free tickets to residents for festive new year activities. Videos show few people wearing face masks in Wuhan before mid-January. Compare that to Hong Kong, where since early January the government has been updating people on the situation daily and holding frequent news briefings.


In terms of human-to-human transmissions, the alarm wasn’t raised until the prominent epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan spoke out on January 20 – nearly 50 days after the first patient was found and three weeks after it was established that human-to-human infections were taking place. Instead of acting against the virus, the government focused on controlling the information. In an effort to underscore the CCP’s determination to crack down on unsanctioned information, the broadcaster CCTV reported on January 2 that Wuhan police had interrogated and warned eight whistle-blowers, frontline doctors, for “rumourmongering” about the epidemic. It seemed all too familiar to 2003, when military doctor Jiang Yanyong defied government rules and risked his own life to break the news about the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) to the international media.

Read more …

“Perhaps all the Democrats need to win the presidency is a Rust Belt millennial who’s gay and speaks Norwegian.”

Yesterday’s Gone: Iowa Was Waterloo for Democrats (Taibbi)

Democratic campaign events have long been more pep rally than discussion, more about the terribleness of Republicans than substance. “They’re so used to events where everyone is rooting for them,” says Redd. “It’s like, ‘No, we’re actually here to challenge you on issues that matter.’” Biden performed surprisingly well all year in polls, but he headed into Iowa like a passenger jet trying to land with one burning engine, hitting trees, cows, cars, sides of mountains, everything. The poking incidents were bad, but then one of his chief surrogates, John Kerry, was overheard by NBC talking about the possibility of jumping in to keep Bernie from “taking down” the party.

“Maybe I’m fucking deluding myself here,” Kerry reportedly said — mainstream Democrats may not have changed their policies or strategies much since Trump, but they sure are swearing more — then noted he would have to raise a “couple of million” from people like venture capitalist Doug Hickey. Kerry later said he was enumerating the reasons he wouldn’t run, though those notably did not include humility about his own reputation as a comical national electoral failure, or because there’s already a candidate in the race (Biden) he’d been crisscrossing Iowa urging people to vote for, but instead because he’d have to step down from the board of Bank of America and give up paid speeches. French aristocrats who shouted “Vive le Roi!” on the way to the razor did a better job advertising themselves.

With days, hours left before the caucuses, there were signs everywhere that the party establishment was scrambling to find someone among the remaining cast members to stop what Kerry called the “reality of Bernie.” But who? Yang said smart things about inequality, so he was out. Tulsi Gabbard was Russian Bernie spawn. Tom Steyer was Dennis Kucinich with money. Voters had already rejected potential Trump WWE opponents like the “progressive prosecutor” (Kamala Harris), the “pragmatic progressive” (John Delaney), “the next Bobby Kennedy” (Beto O’Rourke), “Courageous Empathy” (Cory Booker), Medicare for All can bite me (John Hickenlooper), and over a dozen others.

Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg seemed perfect, a man who defended the principle of wine-based fundraisers with military effrontery. New York magazine made his case in a cover story the magazine’s Twitter account summarized as: “Perhaps all the Democrats need to win the presidency is a Rust Belt millennial who’s gay and speaks Norwegian.”

Read more …

The Trump people meddle in conspiracy theories. The “others” don’t. This is how and why you will lose the election.

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President (Atl.)

One day last fall, I sat down to create a new Facebook account. I picked a forgettable name, snapped a profile pic with my face obscured, and clicked “Like” on the official pages of Donald Trump and his reelection campaign. Facebook’s algorithm prodded me to follow Ann Coulter, Fox Business, and a variety of fan pages with names like “In Trump We Trust.” I complied. I also gave my cellphone number to the Trump campaign, and joined a handful of private Facebook groups for MAGA diehards, one of which required an application that seemed designed to screen out interlopers. The president’s reelection campaign was then in the midst of a multimillion-dollar ad blitz aimed at shaping Americans’ understanding of the recently launched impeachment proceedings.

Thousands of micro-targeted ads had flooded the internet, portraying Trump as a heroic reformer cracking down on foreign corruption while Democrats plotted a coup. That this narrative bore little resemblance to reality seemed only to accelerate its spread. Right-wing websites amplified every claim. Pro-Trump forums teemed with conspiracy theories. An alternate information ecosystem was taking shape around the biggest news story in the country, and I wanted to see it from the inside. The story that unfurled in my Facebook feed over the next several weeks was, at times, disorienting. There were days when I would watch, live on TV, an impeachment hearing filled with damning testimony about the president’s conduct, only to look at my phone later and find a slickly edited video—served up by the Trump campaign—that used out-of-context clips to recast the same testimony as an exoneration. Wait, I caught myself wondering more than once, is that what happened today?

[..] Every presidential campaign sees its share of spin and misdirection, but this year’s contest promises to be different. In conversations with political strategists and other experts, a dystopian picture of the general election comes into view—one shaped by coordinated bot attacks, Potemkin local-news sites, micro-targeted fearmongering, and anonymous mass texting. Both parties will have these tools at their disposal. But in the hands of a president who lies constantly, who traffics in conspiracy theories, and who readily manipulates the levers of government for his own gain, their potential to wreak havoc is enormous.

The Trump campaign is planning to spend more than $1 billion, and it will be aided by a vast coalition of partisan media, outside political groups, and enterprising freelance operatives. These pro-Trump forces are poised to wage what could be the most extensive disinformation campaign in U.S. history. Whether or not it succeeds in reelecting the president, the wreckage it leaves behind could be irreparable.

Read more …

How you tie your impression of Trump as a con-man in with the topic is unclear. Today’s bubbles started with Greenspan and Bill Clinton, not Trump.

A Stock Market Boom Is Not The Basis Of Shared Prosperity (Palley)

The United States is currently enjoying another stock market boom. If history is any guide, it may well end in a bust. In the meantime, the boom is having a politically toxic effect. Donald Trump uses it to make the case for his reelection in the fall. But his argument, at a minimum, requires a big leap of faith. Trump’s assertion — that a stock market boom is the basis for shared prosperity — is just that, an assertion. It certainly hasn’t led to any broad-based prosperity. The beneficiaries are the happy few at the top of the U.S. economic pyramid. Anyone who ever read John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Great Crash 1929, his 1954 classic, has run across Galbraith’s idea of the “bezzle.” In addition to Ponzi schemes, Galbraith’s bezzle also captures the dynamic of speculative bubbles.

Those bubbles are a form of fraud we collectively inflict on ourselves. Investors buy in believing they will be able to sell at a higher price, and their purchases drive up prices and attract new investors who hope to jump on the price appreciation band wagon. The bubble continues until belief in ever higher prices is punctured, whereupon buyers evaporate and the bubble implodes. Once again, all feel richer along the way. Today’s stock market increasingly has the smell and feel of another bezzle. That smell is metaphorically rather perfectly reflected in President Trump who has all the integrity of a con man. Better yet, Trump’s business history, in addition to reliance on funding from suspect sources, is marked by serial bankruptcies.


Trump has also managed to use the presidential bully pulpit to cajole the U.S. Federal Reserve into further inflating asset prices by enjoining it to lower interest rates. In addition to directly impacting asset pricing, the Federal Reserve has given a green flag for speculative buying. In that process, it has strengthened beliefs that it stands ready to guarantee stock prices, via the so-called “Powell put.” That put is an amplification of the prior “Bernanke put,” which was in turn an amplification of the “Greenspan put” which launched the Federal Reserve’s commitment to stock prices. To be honest, it did not take much cajoling from Trump as the Federal Reserve has evidently learned little from the past 35 years of serial asset price bubbles.

Read more …

A lesson for Greece.

Argentina Won’t Repay IMF Debt Till Recession Over – VP Kirchner (R.)

Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said on Saturday that the government will not pay “even half a cent” of its debt back to the International Monetary Fund before the country has exited recession. “The first thing we have to do in order to be able to pay is to exit the recession,” Fernandez de Kirchner said at a presentation of her book “Sinceramente” (Sincerely) at Havana’s international book fair. “If there is a recession no-one will pay even half a cent and the way you exit recession is through a lot of state investment.” Argentina needs to restructure $100 billion in sovereign debt with creditors, including part of a $57 billion credit facility that the IMF extended the country in 2018.


Dealings with the IMF are key as Argentina hopes to avoid a default amid a currency crash, steep inflation and a contracting economy. An IMF technical mission is expected in Buenos Aires next week to discuss obligations owed to the fund. Fernandez de Kirchner said Argentina should get a “substantial haircut” on its IMF debt. A leftist and militant Peronist, she has traveled frequently to Communist-run Cuba over the past year to visit her daughter Florencia Kirchner who is undergoing medical treatment there.

Read more …

 

Just one of those timelines where Dean Koontz wrote a book about a Chinese super virus called Wuhan that escaped a secret lab.

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle February 9 2020

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 43 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #53715

    Dorothea Lange Play street for children. Sixth Street and Avenue C, NYC June 1936   • Authorities Order Foxconn To Keep Chinese Facilities Closed
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 9 2020]

    #53716
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Dorothea Lange Play street for children. Sixth Street and Avenue C, NYC June 1936

    Play street closed.
    Photographic irony?

    #53717
    Dr. D
    Participant

    They’re still at it — they claim to have shut down half a billion people for the deaths of just 800.

    Please tell me if this makes the slightest sense to anyone.

    (Was going to edit this out of yesterday, but ‘edit’ is missing.)

    Btw, the idea of re-defining it as some sort of pneumonia is great. That’s what lawyers and bureaucrats (and weasels, but I repeat myself) do: if you have a problem, re-name and re-define it. Everyone dies all the harder, but you’ve directed the blame! #Winning. …Oh you mean we were supposed to CARE if anyone died or the underlying issue? Does not compute. What was the question again? Hold on, I’m busy renaming BlackWater to Academie, and Mansanto to Bayer to dodge our previous felonies and war crimes.

    as shares slumped and investors switched into safe-havens”

    Slumped where? The Dow can’t stop rising. More epidemics the better! If only we had started one earlier and all got rich! …Really, there is a “safe haven” and “core currency” effect that I said would happen before the end.

    Yesterday’s Gone: Iowa Was Waterloo for Democrats (Taibbi)”

    Ouch, that’s rough. And from another life-long Democrat, as per Kunstler. But what can you say?

    The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President (Atl.)

    He’s really describing the two data sets and two realities. The only way to pick one, to support one, is to compare what what happens after. Which was more accurate. Which predicted better. Which had results. Unfortunately for supporting his case, the Atlantic has been dead wrong for 4 years. Time for a re-think, then? Never: double-down. I told you all these things would happen beforehand, and they did, and I’m still the clueless idiot. Bannon is politely going on national TV, telling the Democrats exactly how to win: they say he’s a evil, stupid, wrong, then lose again.

    What did he say his first day? They are going to do more than anyone to help blacks and steal that vote from the DNC for a generation? And black support has doubled, doing exactly that? But because they can’t get past their own echochamber of RacistRacistRacist, they never saw it coming, don’t see it now, and don’t know what to do. AND HE’S TELLING YOU ON NATIONAL TV, WITH HIS MOUTH. How indoctrinated do you need to be that direct communication that “I am going to run the Quarterback sneak play” then running it, is met with, “No you’re not, you’re a liar. I know you’re running.” Then repeat 1,000 game-days in a row. “We are doing this.” “No you’re not.” “We are doing that.” “No you’re not.” “Your problem is this to win voters.” “No it isn’t.” “The people are not behind you, not going to turn out.” “Yes they are.” Sigh. Okay, I mean the side that has the #Logos, the accurate view, will strategically prevail, but I don’t like it. #ComeBack.

    That’s what I think of The Atlantic. Which side has had accurate predictions and descriptions? Which model was useful, supported, and therefore, more ‘right’?

    another stock market boom. If history is any guide, it may well end in a bust.

    I’d feel better about this if they had provided the same warning under Clinton and Obama. (As thousands of us bloggers did, furiously, saying stop printing money, audit the fed, and housing bust) But at this point, they don’t have any credibility. Will it crash? Sure, who doesn’t know that? Certainly the base-right still talks about financial bubbles, mismanagement and misallocation every day. They just think it’s an end-game play BECAUSE it’s all going down, before we swap into a new model and new currency. I mean, if Post-Keynesian Palley wants to become an Austrian now, he should already know “”There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion.” So? Then clearly there is no longer any point in stopping the boom, just directing the boom back into local manufacturing and such to help with the inevitable collapse YOU, Keynes, created. Like we don’t know this? I wouldn’t say all the Right does, but at least half, practically the only half that ever cared, tried to stop it, told everyone, and was told they were crazy, “shut up with your stupid “budget deficits”, “income disparity” and “sound money” I’m trying to mainline financial heroin here”? Okay, man, we’re the dummies. We’re the guys who didn’t see it coming as far back as the 90’s when you were playing Super Mario in Berkeley. Yeah, no kidding there’s going to be a bust. Mises told you in 1949, Rand in 1951. They said everything that was going to happen the whole time, unlike “Permanent plateau”, Subprime is contained”, “No recession”, “Bear Sterns is fine”, “BuyBuyBuy.”

    But they’re the ones who don’t understand it. Gotcha.

    More helpfully, since they know, have known, plan, have planned, then where do you think they’re going from here? “On the Road to the Golden Age” Giving banks no interest, thus no purpose. Arranging the Fed to be discredited then rolled into Treasury. Putting a sound-money, gold-thinker into the Fed. Turning gold from Tier 2 to Tier 1 assets. Thoughts, anyone? Nope, although they wrote about it in 1979, was published on The Economist in 1987, we predicted it for decades, when it all happens it will be another strange accident indicating nothing that nobody saw coming and nobody planned, nobody pushed and nobody capitalized on.

    #53718

    The play street is not closed. The street is closed so children can play there. Robbing children of the space close to their homes to play in is borderline criminal, but not even something we think about anymore. Cars are more important than kids.

    #53719
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The play street is not closed. The street is closed so children can play there. Robbing children of the space close to their homes to play in is borderline criminal, but not even something we think about anymore.

    Yep, I thought of that also; looked at a number of corners…
    Went with what I posted.

    Robbing children of the space close to their homes to play in is borderline criminal, but not even something we think about anymore.

    True that…
    I have no solution for our twisted reality; except, possibly, leaving…
    I did and it turned out just fine…
    Children play in our streets all the time; and a welcome sight they are…

    #53720
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    While out with friends enjoying some music last evening, someone said, “We shouldn’t be worried about Coronavirus because the flu kills many, many more!”

    I didn’t have a good response, so I didn’t reply. In hindsight – and I’m asking here – is “guess” that the 2019nCoV has both a higher mortality rate and possibly affects the body differently. ? Thoughts??

    (But if we were to name it the Blue Sky & Clean Water Virus and create a derivative the financial markets could trade, all would be good)

    With regard to “children playing”. Living in Racine, WI years ago I remember a nearby church playground, wonderful “jungle gyms” and manicured lawns. Fenced. And a sign prominently posted saying, “In honor of the Lord’s day, please refrain from using this playground on Sundays”.

    A twisted, sick mentality in my opinion. Wish I had a picture of that sign…

    #53721

    Frogman, it doesn’t look particularly smart to compare them as though all viruses are the same. It’s like comparing all mammals, or, to narrow it down, all mammals on four legs.

    The core of the seasonal flu obviously goes back forever, and though it mutates every year, the flu shot for a given year takes mere weeks to develop (they do get it wrong at times, because for the shot to be effective, it must work as the first patients are there, so there’s guesswork, anticipation, involved).

    This is a whole new virus. It will take a year+ to develop a vaccine. Big difference. Maybe a good example is that the Chinese whistleblower doctor would never have died from “normal” flu, but nobody thinks it’s strange he died from the coronavirus.

    #53722
    Dave Note
    Participant

    Chris Martenson mentioned days ago how it struck him as very odd the world map had zero nCov cases in South America and most of Africa.

    Well, zerohedge has a headline: Coronavirus – The African Connection

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/coronavirus-african-connection

    Seems no one bothered getting test kits to Africa until quite recently. Oops, must have slipped WHO’s attention span.

    Bole International Airport in Ethiopia is the major entry point into Africa from various Chinese cities. Until very recently there was no travel ban from China into this Africa distribution destination.

    Approx 1500 per day on average (meaning in ‘normal times’ which these are not) through Bole international from China alone. With no screening and no test kits to test with.

    Do you really think Africa countries have the where-with-all to get a grip on this? The Chinese at least have an impressive totalitarian command and control centralized police state, and even they blew it in the initial stages, what possible chance do some of the barely functioning, semi-failed states of the African continent?

    As to South America, well, just wait until illegals crossing the Mexican border into the US test out positive for nCoV.

    We have not yet seen a REAL national debate on the merits of Borders/NO Borders.

    How you gonna get a grip on a disease vector in an invisible population that enters the country with delayed symptoms???

    The Sanctuary Cities hiding the infected can bare the full force of this?

    Your skin on your body is a border against the outside world entering your insides without permission.

    We will find out shortly if that metaphor resonates with the dumbed down US public and it’s disease political zeitgeist.

    Invasion

    #53723
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    This video from the CDC is not confidence inspiring. A coughing woman at the airport. Minimal precautions taken by staff.

    Public Health Screenings at U.S. Airports for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
    January 23, 2020
    Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – International Terminal – CDC Quarantine Station – CDC Enhanced Health Screening to identify sick travelers and limit the spread of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

    https://www.cdc.gov/media/video/b-roll/314659_Broll%20Package_ver3.mp4

    (No audio, video is in public domain and meant for TV news to overdub.)

    #53724
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    At 1:55 in that video, the coughing woman answers Yes to the question “Have you been in Wuhan, China, in the past two (2) weeks?”

    #53725
    zerosum
    Participant

    2152 recovered

    Everyone here has read about the locked down numbers, the sick numbers, the intensive care numbers, the hospitalized numbers, and the social and economic costs.

    Did you also note that the coronavirus can survive where other previous virus could not.
    On surfaces.
    That’s why you seen pictures of machines “fogging” the empty streets. That’s why you seen pictures of people getting “sprayed”. That’s why you have seen people cleaning surfaces with disinfectants.

    Did you note that the origin of coronavirus was suppose to be from a food source.
    Did you note that the coronavirus has the capability of “mutating”/changing/multiplying/infecting as it moves from one source to an other.
    Did you note that the coronavirus can invade a new host, multiply and not be detected for days maybe weeks before the new host shows symptoms of distress, (fever, coughing, fluids on the lungs).
    Did you note that there are reports that the coronavirus is present in fecal matter.

    Did you note that the coronavirus has no cure and no immunity from getting it multiple times.

    I want to know more about 2152 recovered patients.

    Are those 2152 recovered patients/survivors only from intensive care?
    Can those 2152 recovered patients transmit the coronavirus or immunity to others?

    ———
    Bole International Airport in Ethiopia is the major entry point into Africa from various Chinese cities.

    Therefore, is Canada in trouble

    https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/02/07/pm-trudeau-lands-in-ethiopia-where-he-will-head-to-the-african-union.html

    Trudeau arrived in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Friday night, where he will attend a weekend session of the African Union. It’s a chance for Trudeau to meet directly with several of the 54 African leaders, whose votes at the June vote at the UN will be critical to Canada’s success.
    He is travelling with three of his cabinet ministers but the celebrity element goes to Toronto Raptors President Masai Ujiri, who Trudeau invited to join the delegation.

    #53726
    Dave Note
    Participant

    If “Have you been in Wuhan, China, in the past two (2) weeks?” was asked of a Democrat, chances are they would shriek, “how dare you ask such a racist thing!!!”

    If “Have you been in Wuhan, China, in the past two (2) weeks?” was asked by a white man to any Democrat woman, “how dare you ask such a misogynist, patronizing privileged question!!! ”

    I wonder about the survival odds are for the Blue Demos vs the Red RePugs in the coming pandemic?

    #53727
    zerosum
    Participant

    edit: Who will be spreading the coronavirus?
    Trudeau is spending three days in Ethiopia, and will travel to Senegal and Munich, Germany before returning to Canada next week.

    #53728
    Dave Note
    Participant

    So is nCoV going to crush highly dense urban globalist enclaves or decimate the sparsely settled rural countryside?

    The political divide in the US at least is ‘country vs city’, sort of like the Yugoslav war, the country rednecks against the city cosmopolitan culture.

    Clinton archipeligo vs Trumpistan

    The Demo islands of support vs the Repug vast landscape

    I can’t even conceive of the US cities implementing any kind of lock downs like the CCP has put on the Chinese population.

    US cities can’t even get a grip on crime and murder, poverty and homelessness.

    The COUNTRYSIDE:
    70 percent of US counties, accounting for 20 percent of the U.S. population,
    had no more than one murder in 2014, with 54 percent of counties experiencing zero murders.

    The CITIES:
    5 percent of the counties, which made up nearly 50% of the US population, accounted for more than two-thirds of murders in the country, with the highest numbers concentrated in areas around major cities like Chicago and Baltimore

    Hmm, looks like the Clinton/Demo Archipelago accounts for a wildly higher crime rate, at least murders, than the vast majority of the Trumpland countryside.

    #53729
    Dave Note
    Participant

    What happens when you run out of masks and googles

    Necessity is the Mother of Invention

    Necessity is the Mother of Invention

    People will make do come Hell or high water

    https://www.bing.com/th?id=OIP.zBRbYkHRkqw4hvO0cnknowHaHW&pid=Api&rs=1

    #53731

    Who needs bunkers when a vaccine will do-
    When given to the chosen, but not to you?

    It probably won’t be a vaccine as we know it, because this virus seems to be as slippery as the common cold, and much more rugged. If there were a little gene insertion, though, that conveyed immunity, then this tiny monster could be with us until the last susceptible person expired.

    I’m new to posting here, though I have been a reader (and contributor) for quite a while.

    #53732
    zerosum
    Participant

    What happens when you run out of masks and googles and test kits

    Send everyone home to die.

    #53733
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    I am not quite sure I understand the almost joy in trying to show the virus is far worse than reported. Even if the figures are false it does not change reality. How bad can it be to need to hide the true figures. If you take the ‘deaths’ versus ‘recovered’ shown then the mortality rate would be about 27%. Over 2 billion deaths globally.

    Hopefully it is not that bad – no more than 10%, which the world could survive, especially if it mainly affected the sick and the elderly. One article did suggest it would be a good thing if all the baby boomers were wiped out! [Helps reduce the pensions problem and healthcare costs, etc.]

    It does seem to be a global issue and not just China. The British holiday makers in France catching the virus from someone returning from Singapore! It shows that blockading China is not enough, all travel would need to be suspended to slow down the spread.

    It is interesting that the British were in a ski resort, which is cold. Most colds and flu are spread in Winter and I wondered if this virus could be affected by that. What happened with the Australians who were affected? Did they infect anyone else in Australia? Also, apparently no cases in Africa or South America. Travellers may not actually have been tested, but nor are there reports of secondary infections.

    As a Baby Boomer with health issues I have a keen interest in this topic!

    #53734
    lasttwo
    Participant

    off topic New Hampshire Libertarians please take notice

    #53735
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I’m tired of microbes. What about bugs?

    Leaping Locusts!

    Another Baltic Black Hole

    Wild Weather

    Shale Fail

    #53736
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    I am another one who is following the virus story closely and have noticed that the numbers don’t seem to match the extreme measures taken by the CCP. Neither do they correlate with the non-official reports escaping censorship here and there via social media. Don’t 800 people choke on their eggrolls each month? 400 Million quarantined, the world economy put at risk for a few hundred? I don’t believe it. What pikers those Chinese, we in the US lose 40,000 to opiates each year without batting an eye.

    What’s worse are the charts and graphs seen on so many sites using the official data from China. “Oh, notice how the graph is starting to flatten, this shows how the quarantine is taking effect.” “Everyone should be back to work soon.” Blah, blah, blah. It’s painful to watch all the wasted time and energy put into their analysis. All based on numbers having no reality content. Made up out of thin air, like the Iowa Caucus delegate counts.

    #53737
    Dr D Rich
    Participant
    #53738

    UVc lamps explode viruses, spores, and bacteria. There’s a new version out called far UVc, which is 207 to 222 nm, that supposedly won’t give you skin cancer or cataracts.
    I see gloves coming back in style. Yea!

    #53739
    zerosum
    Participant

    Here is an other point of view

    https://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-most-convenient-virus.html
    the Chinese government has treated the epidemic as an act of war, deploying all the means at its disposal, including the military, in order to contain its spread, building several large new hospitals, putting entire huge cities under quarantine and extending the national holidays. The response as been far beyond what this virus seems to warrant, with its low mortality rate.
    Without saying so, the Chinese government has treated this epidemic as an act of biological warfare—perhaps as a dry run for a more lethal epidemic that may come in the future. At any rate, the Chinese government is seeing to it that nobody can blame it for not taking the problem sufficiently seriously, or not doing enough about it.

    #53740
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    197 nm safely abates the cornea without causing cancer

    #53741
    WES
    Participant

    I see the quarantined ship in Japan as the only realistic window we have on the coronavirus. This situation provides the only creditable numbers we have.

    My guess is we will see secondary waves of infections soon.

    As for Africa count on the Chinese there to hide any outbreaks.

    Having lived and worked in Africa (4 countries) I can assure you there very few medical services available!

    The best medical personnel are non-African! And I don’t mean non-existant Europeans! Some of the best doctors are from India!

    I can tell you most native Africans do not trust their own native Africans doctors!

    #53742
    Dave Note
    Participant

    Wuhan SO2 levels

    Data from satellite shows a massive release of sulfur dioxide gas from the outskirts of Wuhan, commonly associated with the burning of organic matters. Levels are elevated, even compared with the rest of China.

    Wuhan Elevated SO2 from orbit

    #53743
    Dave Note
    Participant

    There’s no commercial or industrial activity to explain these levels,
    all factories and commercial entities and people are on lock down.

    Another view

    SO@ levels Wuhan area

    The big picture

    Wide shot SO2 asia map

    #53744
    WES
    Participant

    My Parents Said Know / Dr. D. Rich :.

    I suspect one probably should wear proper eye protection around UV C lights?

    I wear google’s for my UV B light treatments for 305 – 315 nm wavelengths which supposedly burn the least in the UV B wavelength 280 – 315 nm range.

    #53745
    WES
    Participant

    Dave Note:. This is just more growing circumstancial evidence that the CCP is lying about the impact of the coronavirus!

    This supports the 25,000 to 50,000 numbers of actual deaths.

    By lying the CCP is ensuring this spreads gobally!

    #53746
    aspnaz
    Participant

    President Xi Jinping and his cadre of politburo elite have only one overriding priority: to maintain their grip on power. The China Communist Party is very unlikely to be brought down by a virus, despite having no mandate from the people to rule, because the military is firmly bonded with the CCP. That however does not guarantee the survival of President Xi as other factions within the CCP will use any opportunity to overthrow him.
    The apparently excessive response to the virus is not about saving lives – after all, the CCP killed millions just to get their grip on power – but is about Xi being seen to maintain control. Consider the case if Xi had simply allowed people to get ill then go to their local hospitals: the hospitals would soon be overflowing and the ill people would be protesting and demanding protection from the government. Such an outcome would be seen as weakness. Instead, President Xi is quanratining cities, extracting people from their houses and putting them in quarantine camps, not so that they can be given medical treatment, but so that they are under his control and cannot stir up social unrest.
    As for the figures coming out of the CCP: the CCP has a consistent track record of lying in situations such as this and there is absolutely no reason to believe that they have changed their ways and are now being honest. What the real numbers are is anybody’s guess.
    China is not the well oiled machine that people think it is, as we can all see they maintain their reputation by censoring their own citizens and by pressuring media abroad. The “no news is good news” idiom is used by many in the West to build an image of China as some sort of classical chinese cultural nirvana where Marxism has finally won the day and lives in some sort of symbiotic relationship with Chinas ancient civilisation: this despite Mao’s cultural revolution. That image is a long way from the truth and I suspect that chaos reigns in most of the handling of this emergency so accurate figures will be difficult to come by.
    All we know for sure is that Xi is sufficiently spooked to call out the big guns.

    #53747
    Dave Note
    Participant

    Who would have thought to check satellite gas feeds for signs of earthly trouble.

    In a slightly off topic side bar, the pictures from orbit for methane gas discharges shows astronomical levels coming from U.S. fracking sites. They have so much excess methane coming up from fracking drill sites and no pipelines or gas liquification equipment that the thousands of fracking sites are flaring the methane directly to the atmosphere.

    NASA methane from fracking

    NASA Methane from fracking leak

    #53748
    Dave Note
    Participant
    #53749
    Dave Note
    Participant

    We need some comic relief at this point in the program:

    A Joe Biden Moment

    What’s the first thing a Democratic presidential candidate should do after suffering a monumental defeat in the first caucus of the season?

    After a New Hampshire voter asks @JoeBiden why they should trust he can turn his campaign around, he asks if she’s ever been to a caucus before; when she says yes, Biden snaps:

    “No you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.”

    hahahaha

    Creepy Uncle Joe hits one out of the senile ball park!

    Your hair smells like hot dog water

    #53750
    zerosum
    Participant

    …. ism is a weapon
    taking side, even emotionally, is a loosing proposition, you are being used, you will be the loser and the sacrifice of the elites.
    sit back enjoy the show be glad that you do not need to make the decisions.

    #53751
    zerosum
    Participant

    More info
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nine-members-hong-kong-family-infected-coronavirus-after-sharing-meal

    https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3532272
    More Than Pneumonia, The Potential Occurrence of Multiple Organ Failure in 2019 Novel Coronavirus Infection

    4 Pages Posted: 5 Feb 2020
    Ming Yang
    Department of Ophthalmology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
    Jinming Zhao
    Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University
    Zheng Zhang
    Department of Cardiology, PLA Rocket Force Characteristic Medical Center
    Date Written: February 5, 2020
    Abstract
    Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in the lung has been recognized as the key receptor of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as people may get infected through the respiratory tract. However, the clinical features of other systems have not been addressed yet. More than the respiratory system, ACE2 also extensively expressed in the vascular endothelial cells of the heart, kidney, liver, intestine, and testis, etc. In other words, the new coronavirus may probably intrude on any tissues or organs as long as the needed number of ACE2 is available. Therefore, once exposed to the coronavirus (e.g. through the blood or other body fluid), these organs may also get affected especially for those the receptor has the direct-acting control. This paper aims to analyze the possibility of the association between 2019-nCoV infection and the multiple organ failure (MOF) other than pneumonia.

    #53752
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    …. ism is a weapon

    Indeed…and a belief system, short circuiting critical thinking…

    #53753
    zerosum
    Participant

    I already linked to his report. Good interview. Go read it.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/health/death-rate-5-harrowing-admission-wuhan-doctor

    “The Death Rate Is Up To 5%”: The Harrowing Admission Of A Wuhan Doctor

    I just wrote a thesis. I drew on data from 138 cases that South Central Hospital had from Jan 7 to Jan 28 and attempted to summarise some patterns of the novel coronavirus.

    #53754
    John Day
    Participant

    I’ve been working on my vegetable garden defense perimeters, am looking at comments before bed, and they are a lot likethe stuff we all commonly found on the internet today.
    What will you do for 2-3 months of enforced home quarantine? We will all be in police-state world.
    What’s it like to be a US citizen quarantined at Lackland AFB in San Antonio? Nope, I don’t know, either…

    #53755
    zerosum
    Participant

    Unbelievable!

    Novel coronavirus: Beijing officially declares lockdown


    Novel coronavirus: Beijing officially declares lockdown
    By GM35 -2020-02-09
    “closed management” by putting 80 cities under lockdown. Today, Beijing authorities also issued a “Strict Closed Management of Residential Communities” in an epidemic prevention and control announcement. It is an official declaration that Beijing, the country’s capital city of China, is now under lockdown.
    In addition, all public places in the Beijing community that are not essential for people’s living are closed.

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