Nigel , not sure your quibble on what exactly a victim died from is valid , if they test positive for the virus and die .... they are just as dead , even if an underlying health issue was final cause , assuming issue was being managed before the virus .... that is
Not to minimize this at all, but in some ways it's an overblown media event. For many, it's not even as bad as a cold. For us old folks, the death rate is a lot higher than the flu, but for most of the workforce it's not very dangerous.
1 Oct 2019 to 14 Mar 2020 flu is estimated to be 38-54 million cases with 23-59 thousands deaths. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
As of a few minutes ago, there have been 282395 reported cases of the corona virus:
https://www.bing.com/search?q=coronavirus+outbreak+map&filters=dtbk:"MTQwNTU5MzE1IW91dGJyZWFrIW91dGJyZWFr"&FORM=SNAPST
The infect rate is tiny compared to the flu.
The death rate seems to be related to medical care or something I'm not understanding.
Italy 8.6% France 3.6% USA 1.4% Germany 0.3%
I'm assuming that this is a very big story in Italy and taken in stride in Germany - is that true? In the Washington DC area, it's the only news.
My point is only that the ‘mortality rate’ percentage is currently being bumped up, perhaps by a lot, due to only counting confirmed cases as the ‘total infected’ and counting all who die (some of which would have died anyway). Bumping one figure down and the other figure up gives a false ratio.
Not to go into the weeds here but the Federal Reserve (which is neither Federal or a Reserve) is busy printing money out of nothing. There is no backing for US currency but the US reputation since we were take off the gold standard. I will get off my soap box now.
Back from shopping, wife normally decides where we shop (her job) so Walmart it is. First impression was where do people store all the stuff they buy? The shelfs in many places are empty and not just toilet paper, can goods, crackers, soda, frozen goods and many other food items. Plenty of water, beer, milk and Easter candy though. Some people wearing masks and others wearing gloves some people wearing both, store has plenty of a spray people were using on the cart handles and hand sanitizer as you entered. Seemed like there were fewer people than normal but people didn't seemed stressed out that I could see. But I did talk to a gentleman before leaving that said a guy at that very store came in and filled his cart full of food and just left without paying, when he was confronted he pulled a gun. This is in Cortez, Colorado. WTF?
.22 LR - I see it as potential money, not so much ammunition.
Cheap insurance, inflation hedge, why not? Wont lose its value, a permanent fungible store of value.
If all the “stimulus” they’re talking about actually happens, then there will be inflation. In six months or so we could be looking at worldwide hyperinflation. All fiat currencies eventually fail. Another race to the bottom? I know these ideas are extreme; still, they are worth considering. Maybe buy some small gold or silver coins? Or ammo, .22 LR?
Do eventually fail.
“Hoarding” was FDR BS; he wanted to buy votes with money he didn’t have; the Fed could not create new currency so long as money was defined as gold. The “gold clause,” which was found in EVERY contract for any good or service, said that payment could be made in currency but at the payee’s option had to be made in gold. THAT is why FDR confiscated all gold and why he, by executive order, invalidated every single gold clause in every single contract. Without the gold clause he and the Fed were free to inflate., free to dilute all the currency. Free to “water the stock.”
Gold could indeed back the dollar - just integrate a thread, or threads, of it into every bill. That would stop the Keynesian dilutors/inflators in two seconds.
If we do suffer an inflation, a dilution, it’s more likely to result from political subsidies and crony supports , coupled with the Fed going nuts, than whatever China might do. Larry Kudlow said 1/3 of GDP today. THAT is risky.
Most of what Trump has said about China turned out to be prescient or on target. I’ve changed my mind about him, and about tariffs and so called “free trade.” He was correct in his tariff policies. I was wrong. Wall Street and the OSHA/EPA regulatory “clean industry” statists cooperated in a take down of our unionized industrial heartland. Big Democrats and Big Republicans - the Uniparty - cheered it on.
Jim, I never said, or even implied, that FDR took the US off of the gold standard.