May 172020
 
Lethal or Contagious

Gerry Cranham They all fall in the round I call 1963   There was this comment at the Automatic Earth yesterday that got me thinking. It was sort of wrapped in a bit of -more- innuendo about health officials not getting the results they were looking for in COVID19 numbers, as if the whole virus event is some goal-seeked conspiracy. You’ll be familiar with it by now. I said back in the day that measures like lockdowns can’t last long,

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May 062020
 
Weaponizing the Dollar

Saul Leiter Phone call c1957   Don’t worry, we’re still talking virus, just from a slightly different angle. I was going to do something completely different, but then I saw an article at the South China Morning Post (SCMP) today that made me think “I don’t think that’s true”, realizing that at the same time many people would think it is. Foreign holdings of US Treasuries are a misty environment for perhaps not just many, but most people. What triggered

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May 042020
 
Why Lockdowns Work

Steve Schapiro Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) with mini gloves, Louisville, KY 1963     There was another comment at the Automatic Earth yesterday questioning the function and wisdom of various lockdowns. I thought I’d explain this in more detail.   Ilargi if you or anyone else could explain what the exit strategy is from a lockdown I’d be interested in hearing it. As it is, this lockdown I repeat is no different than financial QE – everyone comes out weaker

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May 012020
 
Backwards into the Future

Joseph-Désiré Court Le Masque 1843   No, I’m still not over the fact that they all initially missed the virus when they should have seen it most of all. The reasons why must be evaluated in every single location, in governments, CDC equivalents and obviously the WHO. A main reason is that they were all focusing on their economy, not the virus, -at least somewhat- ironically damaging their economies in the process. I’m just afraid that you’re not going to

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Apr 212020
 
The Peak

Gordon Parks Muhammad Ali in training 1966   There are times when you think: now things must be easy to comprehend, but as it turns out, they are still not. Let me try once more. See, I was thinking it must have become much easier to gauge the impact in the US of COVID19 when I published the graph below from TheNewAtlantis.com a few days ago. That the stories about seasonal flu etc. at least should be dead and buried,

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Apr 152020
 
The Only Man Who Has A Clue

Henri Cartier-Bresson A visitor to the Forbidden City, Beijing 1948   Today, I’m going to try to show you how and why we know that in the case of a pandemic like the one we’re in, surrounded by doubts and uncertainties, there are still a series of measures that we can and, more importantly, must take. But also, how these measures are hardly ever taken, and if they are, not in the correct fashion. This has to date led us

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Apr 022020
 
Little Managers

Steve Schapiro Muhammad Ali, Monopoly, Louisville, KY 1963   It’s funny how things go sometimes, how times roll -not just the good ones-. I said last week that all the world’s “leaders” had failed terribly, and I’m not taking that back. They all failed to a horrific extent at their no. 1 task when it comes to Disasters, Pandemics, whatever their respective governments file these events under: Prevention. But now we’re in a whole new world. Now these failed leaders

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Mar 302020
 
Dr. Fauci: 200 Million Americans Will Be Infected

Hasui Kawase Mimhae Pavilion, Kyongju, Korea 1940   Earlier today in the March 30 Automatic Earth Debt Rattle aggregator I promised to come back to this. I wrote: Dr. Fauci, Trump’s main medical/epidemic advisor, said yesterday that 200,000 Americans could die from COVID19. The same Fauci, as I quoted two days ago, recently changed his case fatality rate prediction from 1% to 0.1%. I had to let that sink in for a while, because if those 200,000 people represent that

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Mar 292020
 
Anti-American

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Fifth Plague of Egypt 1800   Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m under the impression that President Trump yesterday wanted to quarantine New York City but let himself get talked out of that by, among others, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo went as far as calling such a measure not merely “un-American”, he said it would be “preposterous” and “anti-American”. Obviously, Cuomo is not just of the belief, like most Americans, that a country

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Feb 112020
 
Corona Cartoon Numbers

René Magritte La belle captive 1946     Today I took a few things out of my daily Debt Rattle news aggregator because I think they shouldn’t get lost in there. It’s interesting, for instance, that the coronavirus incubation period is now thought to be 24, not 14 days. It’s also interesting that the Chinese government tells local officials not to be too strict on companies wanting to re-open plants: “We will strictly stop restricting the production resumption in an

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