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The First Two Of The Seven Stages Of Grief

A report from CNBC. “Just last week, Zach Jacobs and his wife had 95% of their Tampa, Florida, Airbnb’s dates booked for the next three months. By Sunday, that number had dwindled down to 5% as the coronavirus outbreak began to spread throughout the U.S. ‘We went from a fantastic outlook for the next three months, to absolutely devastating — every single reservation disappeared,’ said Jacobs, who estimates he and his wife have lost more than $5,000 in cancellations. ‘We will have to get very creative on paying the bills and keeping the mortgage paid.'”

“Airbnb hosts like Jacobs are beginning to feel the impact of the coronavirus pandemic following a change by the company to its cancellation policy that has allowed guests traveling over the next month to receive full refunds on their bookings, overriding existing policies put in place by hosts to protect themselves in such situations. That change has already cost Airbnb hosts in California, Florida, Kansas, Utah, Michigan and the state of Washington to lose thousands of dollars in reservations, numerous hosts told CNBC.”

“‘We definitely empathize with guests and know this is out of anyone’s control,’ said Christa Sprague, who rents four apartments in Detroit with her husband. ‘But for us, our business and our livelihood just got canceled.'”

“Airbnb has built goodwill with hosts since its launch in 2008, but if the company doesn’t do something to help out its hosts, it risks alienating many of them, said Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. ‘If that happens in enough cities and enough places, obviously Airbnb starts to lose properties, they start to lose availability and their overall utility declines,’ Harteveldt said. ‘It could create a downward spiral.'”

From Forbes. “In the final quarter of 2019, luxury real estate in the U.S. rallied both in sale volume and price. Then, the coronavirus gripped the world. In Chicago, while affordable luxury residences in the $750,000 price range are performing well, ‘in the luxury market, we’re not getting any showings on anything,’ says Matt Laricy, managing broker of The Matt Laricy Group. In Houston, Texas, ‘currently, most of the market is in a state of shock or denial, the first two of the seven stages of grief,’ says Paige Martin, Keller Williams broker.”

“If demand starts to slack, Alec Traub, agent and Los Angeles team manager with Redfin, says he expects sellers, especially developers, to lower prices and be more flexible. ‘[Developers] need to sell because their money is tied up or they have hard money loans that they need to pay off,’ he says. ‘They don’t necessarily have the luxury of time, especially if they have the sense that in the short term, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.'”

“Last week, Traub helped a buyer put a $5.3 million offer on a property asking $5.9 million. Over the weekend, though, he had to revise the offer down to $4.8 million. ‘[The buyer] called me and said, ‘I’m still interested in the property, but I don’t want to offer $5.3 million anymore,’ says Traub. ‘He said, ‘Look, with everything that’s going and just with the stock market alone, I’m worth less now. I can’t pay $5.3 million anymore.'”

“In New York City, Barbara Fox of Fox Residential echos Traub’s observations. ‘This is a really, really bad thing,’ says Fox. ‘We need to have our deals closed. We need them for our sellers and for our buyers. Brokers need their deals to close because we need to make some money too.'”

The South China Morning Post on New York. “Luxury homeowners and developers in New York are putting multimillion-dollar abodes on sale, confident that deep-pocketed investors will pay top dollar for exclusive property, even as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to push the US economy into a recession. But some market observers doubt such property will find buyers amid a glut in supply of high-end condominiums and a recent downturn in US stock markets.”

“‘The New York market is experiencing oversupply right now, and this is in part because of the tremendous amount of development that took place after the financial crisis in 2008,’ said Ilyse Dolgenas, special counsel at law firm Withers’ New York real estate team.”

The Real Deal on Florida. “A troubled Hollywood Beach condo-hotel may be heading to auction, where its lender could acquire the property for $43 million. The Costa Hollywood Beach Resort filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, five months after its lender, Madison Realty Capital, sought to foreclose on the property. The development group, led by Moses Bensusan, is now seeking court approval to liquidate the 326-unit property at 777 North Ocean Drive in an auction.”

“New York-based Madison Realty loaned the development group $70 million in 2016. In April, the lender filed a foreclosure suit against the development group and its principal Bensusan, alleging the group was in default of $41 million. The property’s assets are valued at $50.5 million, according to the liquidation plan. Madison Realty claims that it owns 52 unsold units along with the condo association, according to the liquidation filing last week. The lender could end up owning the building, since it has a secured claim of $47 million on the property, according to the liquidation plan.”

“Construction at the condo-hotel started in 2013, and the developer began marketing the condos to investors in South America and Argentina. It opened in October 2018. The auction would come as the hotel sector is reeling from the impacts of coronavirus and people are canceling hotel reservations. Condo-hotels, which allow investors to own individual hotel units, are growing out of favor with investors. Some planned condo-hotels, such as the Palm House and the 550 Seabreeze Hotel project in Fort Lauderdale Beach, have run into trouble.”

“The foreclosure filing could signal growing indicators of distress in South Florida’s real estate market. Such indicators include an increase in residential home foreclosures and in vulture funds raising money.”

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “James Gaines, chief economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said the key to housing markets’ health will be job and income recovery after the worst of the pandemic is over. ‘I can’t see us avoiding another wave of foreclosures, but I’m not at all certain about the extent,’ he said. ‘Government is going to bend over backwards on forbearance.'”

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This Post Has 204 Comments

  1. ‘In the final quarter of 2019, luxury real estate in the U.S. rallied both in sale volume and price’

    See what we have to put up with? Luxury shacks and airboxes have been sinking like a turd in a well – all over the planet – for years.

  2. ‘‘[Developers] need to sell because their money is tied up or they have hard money loans that they need to pay off,’ he says. ‘They don’t necessarily have the luxury of time, especially if they have the sense that in the short term, it’s going to get worse before it gets better’

    I’ll take ‘stamp your little feet’ Alec.

  3. ‘But for us, our business and our livelihood just got canceled.’

    Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip
    Sha na na na, sha na na na na
    Sha na na na, sha na na na na
    Sha na na na, sha na na na na
    Sha na na na, sha na na na na
    Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip
    Mum mum mum mum mum mum
    Get a job, sha na na na, sha na na na na

    1. A friend who has 6 VRBO homes in Palm Springs, CA which were booked solid for Coachella, Stage Coach, White Party are all vacant.
      I often wondered what the true value of the homes would be without the VRBO rental inflation.
      I thought the rental income added 1/3 to the price.
      I guess we’re about to find out

      1. Everybody thought the good times would never end. They’re still in denial blaming this all on a virus. It has little to do with the virus.

        1. “It has little to do with the virus.”

          “This is not a liquidity crisis. This is a debt crisis!” —Nouriel Roubini

    2. “overriding existing policies put in place by hosts to protect themselves in such situations. That change has already cost Airbnb hosts… to lose thousands of dollars”

      You mean the website that malevolently encourages “hosts” to ignore regulations and screw up neighborhoods might screw over their own hosts too? Who could have seen that coming?

      It’s actually completely insane that these “hosts” take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt (or more) to operate an illegal business that relies on small chunks of, say, $100 a day in order to stay afloat.

      1. It’s actually completely insane that these “hosts” take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt (or more) to operate an illegal business that relies on small chunks of, say, $100 a day in order to stay afloat.

        You forgot the sweet appreciation.

  5. oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith: The Global Repricing of Assets Can’t Be Stopped
    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-global-repricing-of-assets-cant-be.html

    (a very large snip)

    bubbles pop, period.
    The financial elites are pushing a narrative that asset prices, sales and profits will all return to January 2020 levels as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic fades. Get real, baby. Nothing is going back to January 2020 levels. Rather than the “V-shaped recovery” expected by Goldman Sachs et al., the crash in asset prices will eventually gather momentum.
    Why? It’s simple: for 20 years we’ve over-invested in speculative bubbles and squandered borrowed money on consumption and under-invested in productivity-increasing assets. To understand why the market value of assets will relentlessly reprice lower–a process sure to be interrupted with manic rallies and false dawns of hope that a return to speculative good times is just around the corner–let’s start with the basics: the only sustainable way to increase broad-based wealth is to boost productivity across the entire economy.
    That means producing more goods and services with less capital, less labor and fewer inputs such as energy.
    Rather than boost productivity, we’ve lowered productivity via mal-investment and by propping up unproductive sectors with immense sums of borrowed money–money that accrues interest.
    The poster child for this dynamic is higher education: rather than being pushed to innovate as costs skyrocketed, the higher education cartel passed its inefficiencies and bloated cost structure onto students, who have paid for the bloat with $1. 6 trillion in student loans few can afford. (See chart below.)
    As for Corporate America squandering $4.5 trillion on stock buybacks (Wolf Richter)– the effective gains on productivity from this stupendous sum is not just zero–it’s negative, as the resulting speculative bubble suckered in institutions and individuals who’d been stripped of safe returns by the Federal Reserve’s low-interest-rates-forever policy.
    What could that $4.5 trillion have purchased in terms of increasing the productivity of the entire economy? Considerably more than the zero productivity generated by stock buybacks.
    The net result of uneven gains in productivity and the asymmetric distribution of whatever gains have been made is stagnant wages for the bottom 90% and rising costs for everyone. Those of us who are self-employed or owners of small businesses know that healthcare insurance costs have been ratcheting higher by 10% or more annually for years.
    Whatever gains in health that have been purchased with the additional trillions of dollars poured into the healthcare cartels have been offset with declining life spans, soaring addictions to opioids and numerous broad-based declines in overall health.
    The widespread addiction to smartphones and social media have deranged and distracted millions, crushing productivity while greatly increasing loneliness, insecurity and a host of social ills.
    Two dynamics define the economy in the 21st century:
    1. We have substituted debt-driven speculation for productive investment
    2. We have substituted debt for earnings
    This is why the repricing of speculative-bubble assets can’t be stopped: debt-driven speculation is not a sustainable substitute for investing in increasing productivity, and debt-fueled consumption masquerading as “investment” is not a sustainable substitute for limiting consumption to what we earn and save.
    All bubbles pop, period. Once Corporate America’s credit lines are pulled and its revenues and profits plummet, the financial manipulation of stock buybacks will end. That spells the end of the 12-year bull market in stocks.
    As the tide of speculative mania ebbs and confidence wanes, the world’s housing bubbles will all pop, and the $1.4 million bungalows will drift back down to their Bubble #1 highs around $400,000, and perhaps even drop from there.
    As for collectibles and other play-things of the super-wealthy: the bids will soon vanish and yachts will be set adrift to avoid paying the dock fees.

    1. The financial elites are pushing a narrative that asset prices, sales and profits will all return to January 2020 levels as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic fades.

      It’s not just the elites. I’m hearing as much from my friend the speculator. It’s wishful thinking. Less than a month ago we were at all-time highs in the market, so it’s way too soon for sentiment to have changed. But after a year of this, things will be vastly different.

      1. “…so it’s way too soon for sentiment to have changed.”

        You don’t think the prospect of unlimited bailouts might quickly repair sentiment?

      2. It’s definitely not the elites. A month ago I was saying the same thing — DOE back up at 30,000 at the time of the Dem convention. I was counting on the summer to save us from COVID. Based on what we’re seeing in the summer countries, that’s not looking likely.

        I’d better eat that baby crow now before it grows up.

        The other day Trump was touting the potential hydroxyquinoline treatment. I wonder if he was doing that to calm the markets. It’s entirely conceivable that a combination of money printing and a treatment can bridge the uncertainty. One thing is certain, they are not going to be able to pull off 18 months of social distancing.

        1. “One thing is certain, they are not going to be able to pull off 18 months of social distancing.“

          If this becomes a 18 month It would be quite a challenge and utterly destroy many parts of our economy to an extent we have never seen. I think a intrusive version of martial law would have to be implemented which would either work, if citizens conformed or create civil unrest. Lets hope for a shorter timeline 🙂

    3. The DOW is already back over 20K. Perhaps Charles is overly pessimistic in his assessment?

        1. I’d say a combination of BTFD and that he keeps talking about getting into the cheap(er) ventilator business to solve that medical problem associated with the virus.

          1. Preci$ely! … “Te$la.Medical”, RoBot$ with $olar charged lithium.pack$ & no 😷 ma$ks. … Geniu$!

  6. I just saw the latest gimmick from Chrysler to try to unload their bursting inventory: “No payments for 90 days”. Not sure that’s going to do it. Lower prices would….

  7. Strategic Partnership With China Lies at Root of Iran’s Coronavirus Outbreak

    Pathogen spread rapidly from Qom, where Chinese-backed projects helped prop up nation’s sanctions-hit economy

    ‘Once the pathogen was loose in Qom, a city of roughly one million people, it spread rapidly, taxing a sanctions-stretched health-care system, amplifying economic woes and fueling an anti-Chinese backlash.’

    “We were unhappy with all these crappy Chinese goods everywhere,” said a housewife who asked to be quoted by her last name, Ms. Ashtari. “Now they brought us this crappy virus, too.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-strategic-partnership-with-china-lies-at-root-of-its-coronavirus-outbreak-11583940683

    1. And all of those college students of Chinese origin returning to the US spread it far, wide and deep.

      1. Good thing no US touri$t’$ or $tudent$ or “bidne$$per$on$” returned to the USA from Italy. Dodged some “China.death.germ$.bullet$” by [.] that much!

          1. I read that Australia has some 200K Chinese students, out of a mere 24M in population. As a result the Oz govt said they would not do anything to expel them. Oz may be fooked – they’re also going into winter in a few months.

  8. “Airbnb has built goodwill with hosts since its launch in 2008, but if the company doesn’t do something to help out its hosts, it risks alienating many of them, said Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. ‘If that happens in enough cities and enough places, obviously Airbnb starts to lose properties, they start to lose availability and their overall utility declines,’ Harteveldt said. ‘It could create a downward spiral.’”

    They may lose homeowners but they’ll pick up a lot of VRBO’s customers who just got $crewed out of their vacation $ by not refunding.

      1. 1) When investors dump long-term Treasurys and MBS to raise cash, prices fall and yields (aka interest rates) rise.

        2) Announcement of massive stimulus measures raises the prospect of sovereign future debt issuance to fund it. Greater debt supply drives down prices, which means interest rates go up.

        3) Mortgage rates are roughly 99% correlated with long-term Treasury yields.

      3. The Financial Times
        Markets volatility
        Asset managers rocked by record bond fund outflows
        Money fled risky and safe investments alike, causing forced selling

        A surgical mask is placed on The “Fearless Girl” statue outside the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in New York. Stocks are swinging between gains and losses in early trading on Wall Street Thursday, but the moves are more subdued than the wild jabs that have dominated recent weeks.
        (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)
        Richard Henderson in New York and Robin Wigglesworth in Oslo
        3 hours ago

        Record amounts of money have been pulled from the world’s investment funds in the current market turmoil, putting global asset managers in the eye of the storm and challenging an industry struggling to navigate the end of a record-breaking bull run.

        Mutual funds and exchange traded funds that invest in bonds suffered $109bn in outflows for the week ending Wednesday, a new record that also included the highest-ever weekly outflows for specialist junk bond and investment-grade corporate bond funds. Equity funds shed $20bn, the second-highest sum this year, on top of the record outflow of $23bn in the first week of March, according to the data from EPFR Global.

        While investors often ditch riskier assets in moments of turbulence, such as equities and junk bonds, the exodus even from investment-grade corporate debt and sovereign bond funds underscores the extent of a rush toward cash that has been blamed for some of the biggest market moves of recent days.

        Money market funds, which invest largely in short-term government debt and are used by investors as a proxy for cash, soaked up $95bn of inflows in the past week, extending last week’s record $136bn haul, EPFR said.

        The sell-off is “fear-inducing for investors”, said Liz Young, director of market strategy for BNY Mellon Investment Management. “People don’t want to own anything except cash and that means selling across the board.”
        …

  10. I just want to make a couple of points.

    For decades now the USA had been hammered by foreign flues , no doubt in part due to Globalism and faulty vetting.

    On any given year you had 20 to 90 thousand high risk people dying. On any given year if you had done mass testing ,, as they propose to do now, you would of gotten high numbers in the general population that resolve with minor symptoms.

    The Medical Cartel wasn’t designed for mass testing for starters.

    My next point is that I find it hard to believe that Big Pharma didn’t know that the cheap generic drug for Malaria ,that’s been around for 70 years with few side effects, wasn’t effective against flu. Big Pharma likes using their newer drugs that carry a big price tag, and might not be as effective as some old cheap drugs.

    While C19 could of been curtailed had China been honest, the medical Cartel and Big Pharma hasn’t been anything but profit motive for decades now.

    I don’t think we should shut down for more than two weeks because so far C19 doesn’t look to be the big killer to the general population as the Spanish flue was.

    I think it’s great that people are washing their hands, and high risk people are being more careful, but unless C19 evolves into a Spanish flu of 1918 type death rate people need to get back to work.

    Also cruise ships and airplanes should deal with more effective ways to reduce the fact that they are hotbeds for transferring any virus. Maybe in the future people will get tested before they are allowed to be confined with a bunch of people, who knows.

    But, Black Swan events tend to bring out the true colors of power structures that were not operating in anything but a amoral way.

    What other corruption is going to get exposed, as it needs to be.?

    1. “But, Black $wan event$ tend to bring out the true color$ of power structure$ that were not operating in anything but a amoral way.”

      Well, the i$$use might$ bee free migrating Black & White $wan$ doing yearly u-turn$ & resting in land$ containing 1.86 Billion$ of soon to be devoured hog$. …yearly.

    2. “My next point is that I find it hard to believe that Big Pharma didn’t know that the cheap generic drug for Malaria ,that’s been around for 70 years with few side effects, wasn’t effective against flu.”

      I think there’s an extra negative in there somewhere. Could you restate?

      1. Restate for oxide :

        Big Pharma would rather use a overpriced new drug than a more effective cheap old drug because they are evil. I hope you like that sentence better.

        1. That’s what I figured. I think it was supposed to be “was effective.”

          And they’ve been pulling that stunt with PPIs for decades.

        2. Condensed version:

          “Gin-n-tonnix fer everyone!”
          (I make tonic water smoothies with lime sherbert and Tanqueray in the summer–bliss in a blender)

    3. The Medical Cartel wasn’t designed for mass testing for starters.

      No, but we are ramping up to mass testing now. I’ve expressed this concern a few times lately, that these sorts of tests are maybe only 80 or 90% correct. That means if you test a million people who are not infected, 100,000 or more will test positive! Worse, if they are infected to some extent, thousands of carriers will be left go freely to spread the germ. Ignoring this error and subsequent lack of real knowledge is going to lead to some very bad decisions, maybe, based on maths.

      1. We’re no longer talking about WHO or CDC test kits. Roche, Thermo Fisher, LabCorp and Quest are on this now. These are the big guys in diagnostics.

    2. How can you compare the economics of 1917 with 2020? In 1917 there was a world war going on. Marketwatch is just spouting crap to get stocks back up so their buddies can raise a little more cash to cover their shorts.

      1. That’s true. A few other differences:

        – A four-year old Fed
        – No computers
        – No phones
        – Limited electrification
        – No electronic printing presses
        – No quantitative easing
        – No coordinated interventions by members of the global central banking cartel

        But it seems a bit late to avoid cascading defaults to a bear market, given that we are already in a bear market.

  13. Since my 12 grade student/son has no $chool.$tructure to sit.in, eye’ve assigned him 2hrs of RFD.tv & 2hrs of x1 Bid.ne$$.channel of his choice.

    Quizze$ to follow.

    1. no $chool.$tructure to sit.in

      My nursing school daughter is now on video classes. She took the class yesterday sitting in bed and fell asleep.

    2. They have updated the stats again today. 14,250 confirmed, and 205 dead in the US. That’s an increase of 4,905 cases, and 55 deaths in a single day.

      1. From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there were 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (range: 195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus.

        At today’s death rate in the US from COVID-19, there would be more than 20,000 deaths by this date next year.

        https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html

  16. A troubled Hollywood Beach condo-hotel may be heading to auction
    If I recall the condo hotel scam started up in the early 2000’s It was a scam than as they are now they all should die.

  17. Oh No! “All six, 100 percent, tested negative at day six.”

    Researchers Look To Old Drugs For A Possible Coronavirus Treatment

    Mary Beth Pfeiffer
    Mar 18, 2020, 4:33pm EDT

    While unpublished yet, the first patient trial of Plaquenil for COVID-19, conducted in Marseilles, France, has reported encouraging early results. The trial, announced in a video on Monday, was led by Didier Raoult, a physician-scientist who has published on microbes for several decades.

    According to a draft article by Raoult’s team and obtained by me, 36 patients were enrolled in the trial, including 16 infected controls and 20 treated patients. The test group was given 600 mg daily of Plaquenil, which is on the WHO’s List of Essential Medicines and has been used for malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

    At day three, the study reported, 50 percent of the treated group turned from positive to negative for the COVID-19 virus. By day six, 70 percent tested negative.

    As intriguing, of the 20 test patients, six who were treated with both Plaquenil and the antibiotic azithromycin did even better, the team reported. Five of the six, or 83 percent, tested negative at day three. All six, 100 percent, tested negative at day six.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethpfeiffer/2020/03/18/science-works-to-use-old-cheap-drugs-to-attack-coronavirus–it-might-just-work/

    2. The Chinese knew this too. I wonder if azithromycin would have some effect by itself. They could probably pump patients full of that without waiting for the FDA.

  18. When the USA use to have common sense we use to vet people from foreign Countries that wanted in.

    Now if you want to be protective, as a Country should be, thats being labeled as racism.

    The Globalist don’t want their gravy train of excessive profits by Globalism exposed.

    As I have said before, you have to major forces trying to control everything today being the Globalist and the Commies. Red China is included in the group.

    The American people just need to take out these forces in Politics until they are crushed.

    Really, if Americans don’t start seeing the truth and do something about it , we will lose what the USA should be.

    2. I have a dear friend in his 70s. 40+ years ago he immigrated to the US from a country that is on VERY good terms with the US. He already had near-fluent English, a post-graduate degree in a hard science, and a post-doc job lined up. They ran him through the ringer to immigrate, including interviews in English. As you can imagine, he is virulently against today’s immigration policies.

    1. Or let them do their thing and then mandatory quarantine them before they can go home…army style :-).

  20. “the first patient trial of Plaquenil for COVID-19, conducted in Marseilles, France”

    Well, Navarro’$ got idea$ about knot wanting to accept any help from froggie$, or … ba$ically any foreigner.critter$ with cottie$.

    (Check out the title of that “Executive Order$) Wow$ers!

    Trump’s China Hawk Is Trying to Commandeer the Coronavirus Stimulus and Others in the White House Are Alarmed

    Navarro’s executive order, titled:
    “Combat Public Health Emergencie$ and $trengthen the National Defen$e by En$uring Made in America E$$ential Medicine$ and Medical Countermea$ure$,”

    is designed to lure companies to the U.S. and to incentivize more domestic production in the long term. One section allows for any executive agency or department to procure essential medicines and other supplies from “any sources during the COVID-19 outbreak.”
    But in the next several lines, the order says officials have to “take all possible measures” to “maximize domestic procurement of essential medicines” over the long term.

    The draft executive order goes on to lay out U.S. policy as it relates to the supply chain of medical supplies, stating that the U.S. should “ensure sufficient, stable and reliable long term demand for essential medicines and medical countermeasures through domestic procurement policies.”

    FEMA officials said they did not have insight into global inputs to the supply chains. Officials on the call seemed to be confused about which agency was in charge of tracking that information. Part of the disorganization in conversations about the supply chain was related to the lack of communication with the White House and the task force, those sources said.

    Asked for comment, a spokesperson for FEMA said that it was the Department of Health and Human Services that was responsible for “planning and assessing needs for personal protective equipment.”

    The NSC did not respond to a request for comment.

    Inconceivable!:

    “We love yer idea$ Didier, but why don’t you & yearns, all go take.a.hike in yer own hinterlands” … we can still be friends & hold.hands & skip.a.roo when you visit!

  21. Got 🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋’$? … make lemon.aid! … ea$y!

    (Eye’s thoughts that they impound ve$$el$ that are involved in a homicide crime scene?)

    Carnival offer$ u$e of its crui$e ship$ as temporary COVID-19-care hospital$

    MarketWatch / Published: March 19, 2020 / By Tomi Kilgore

    Carnival Corp. said Thursday it will offer the use of some of its cruise ships as temporary hospitals, to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care systems. The cruise ship operator said it would only ask intere$ted partie$ to cover the e$$ential cost$ of the ship’$ operation$ while in port.

  22. I’m not a fan of airbnb, vrbo vacation rentals. Drives up rents and house prices; drives down quality of life in resi neighborhoods. Also causes shortages of affordable rental and owner housing. Too many negatives. People, these houses/units aren’t zoned for hotel/short-term rentals. Who wants a party at 2:00 a.m. next door?

    It’s kind of a moral hazard issue to me. These people took on the risk of being able to s-t rent out their properties in perpetuity. Even before the virus, many cities were clamping down on s-t rentals due to pressure from homeowners. (Duh!)

    The virus is popping a lot of bubbles now that were going to pop anyway. These were all contributing to the fake economy. Gee, maybe someone other than me will actually have to work for a living…

    Just like for Boeing (BA), no bailouts. Take the risk; accept the risk. Moral hazard has been a way of life in the U.S. for too long. End it now.

    1. Same thing for student loans if we discharged them in BK think of that moral hazard and cost. Thats why i have said for years return your degree cancel it….and any job that requires you to have that paper you cannot apply for or keep your job. Like throwing in the towel , i give up i will never use this again…..to me that is a fair trade off.

  23. So a horrible virus originated in the live animal markets in China. They were doing what they have always done — keep their animal protein alive until they are ready to eat it, so it is fresh. Perhaps they shouldn’t do it anymore.

    Meanwhile there in the U.S.A., in order to have cheap meat and high meat producer profits, we continue to routinely provide livestock with high doses of antibiotics, even if they are not sick. Possibly breeding super-bacteria that, like the coronavirus, might jump to humans and which antibiotics won’t cure. Like that pig disease the went around the world last year.

    Everyone is blasting the Chinese. Maybe we ought to think a little about what we are doing too.

    1. There have been attempts

      The European parliament has approved a suite of restrictions on the use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals in a bid to halt the spread of “superbugs” resistant to medical treatment.

      Europe’s animals consume more antibiotics than humans on average, often via livestock feeds on factory farms, where farmers routinely use them as a prophylactic against the occurrence or spread of disease.

      But with at least 25,000 people dying across Europe every year from antimicrobial-resistant infections, scientists have warned that without reform, routine medical interventions could soon become impossible.

      The new legislation, which will become law by 2022, bans the use of human reserve antibiotics in veterinary medicine and the use of unprescribed animal antimicrobials.

      https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/25/european-parliament-approves-curbs-on-use-of-antibiotics-on-farm-animals

      The farmers were less than happy.

    2. You’re making it sound like nobody’s thought of the overuse of antibiotics yet. But tons of meat producers are already limiting antibiotics only to what’s necessary, and of course there’s the organics, the grass-feds, and the Amish.

  24. My local builder amongst many other felt they had to mail me about coronavirus

    Hello,

    During the current times of uncertainty, we wanted to keep you up to date and reassure you of the measures we have taken at Taylor Wimpey to help limit the spread of coronavirus.

    The health and safety of our customers and colleagues is our number one priority and we are doing all that we can to assist in containing the spread of the disease.

    As is the case with many businesses, due to the evolving situation and the need for some people to self-isolate or look after their family, we may need to reduce our opening hours on some of our developments. If you are planning a visit to one of our sales offices, please check the current opening hours on the website.

    If you have symptoms such as a cough or a temperature, or are self-isolating because of a family member infection, we hope you understand that in line with Government guidelines we would prefer not to meet face-to-face with you at this time. However, we’d like to reassure you that we are still on hand to help you through your home buying journey either over the phone or by email.

    We are following Government guidance and have taken proactive action to implement measures to protect the health and wellbeing of everyone visiting and working at our developments. You can read more about these actions here.

    We are doing our very best to continue to provide a high level of service to our customers. We aim to keep our website up to date with the latest development opening times or contact details in the event of site closure.

    We are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to take all necessary measures to protect our colleagues’ and our customers’ health and safety.

    We’d like to thank you for your support and understanding and we look forward to seeing you at our developments and online.

      1. It’s getting really annoying, especially since it’s a transparent attempt to use an epidemic to pimp their products and services.

        1. I swear they’re just dusting off their emails from after 9/11: “In these uncertain times, you must be soooo distressed, we want you to know that we care about you” OH SHUT THE EFF UP

          However, please give some props to Roto-Rooter. Their email was actually pretty useful:

          1. Please stay safe at home, but…
          2. Lots of people cooped up at home could strain your plumbing.
          3. We are an essential business so we are ready to work.
          4. We are taking lots of precautions
          5. We know there’s a run on TP. Do NOT flush napkins or paper towels. Those don’t break up and may clog your pipes.
          6. If you absolutely have to, you can flush Kleenex if you use a small piece and you flush often.

  25. A plaintive pleas ( amonst a storm of emails about coronavirus) from a local builder

    Hello,

    During the current times of uncertainty, we wanted to keep you up to date and reassure you of the measures we have taken at Taylor Wimpey to help limit the spread of coronavirus.

    The health and safety of our customers and colleagues is our number one priority and we are doing all that we can to assist in containing the spread of the disease.

    As is the case with many businesses, due to the evolving situation and the need for some people to self-isolate or look after their family, we may need to reduce our opening hours on some of our developments. If you are planning a visit to one of our sales offices, please check the current opening hours on the website.

    If you have symptoms such as a cough or a temperature, or are self-isolating because of a family member infection, we hope you understand that in line with Government guidelines we would prefer not to meet face-to-face with you at this time. However, we’d like to reassure you that we are still on hand to help you through your home buying journey either over the phone or by email.

    We are following Government guidance and have taken proactive action to implement measures to protect the health and wellbeing of everyone visiting and working at our developments. You can read more about these actions here.

    We are doing our very best to continue to provide a high level of service to our customers. We aim to keep our website up to date with the latest development opening times or contact details in the event of site closure.

    We are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to take all necessary measures to protect our colleagues’ and our customers’ health and safety.

    We’d like to thank you for your support and understanding and we look forward to seeing you at our developments and online.

  26. Apologies for the double post, what can I say I really shouldn’t be let near a computer, they puzzle me (be better off with a slate and a bit of chalk).

    1. “Trump was reportedly saved from tweeting Tom Hanks had died”

      reportedly? about Trump from the MSM?

      NYT Reporters Just Can’t Stop Lying

      by Matt Palumbo
      Posted: March 16, 2020

      The New York Times’ reporters are on a mission to prove that their paper contains all the fake news that’s fit to print.

      Times reporter Julie Bosman tweeted out a quote from a new article of theirs, claiming that President Trump told the nation’s governors during a conference call “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment – try getting it yourselves” – attempting to portray Trump as saying that he told the governors that they’ll be fighting the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic alone.

      Of course, that’s not the full quote. Only when the quote is cut the exact way Bosman did do you get the impression Trump told governors they’re on their own. What he actually said (which is quoted correctly in the article) was just the opposite: “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment – try getting it yourselves. We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better, much more direct if you can get it yourself.”

      Or in other words, Trump said he would absolutely he helping the states – but they could take initiative to expedite the process if they so wish.

      https://bongino.com/nyt-reporters-just-cant-stop-lying

      1. This makes even more sense when you consider the government red tape. This is like the example of the $700 hammer. If you need a hammer, you can either get your contractor to procure it, and incur $700 in costs just with paperwork and overhead. Or you can go get one at Home Despot for about $50 ($20 for the hammer and $30 for an hour of salaried travel time). It’s likely cheaper for a state to direct buy their own PPE than wade through fedgov contracting.

      2. It is difficult to imagine the editorial board of the New York Times acting like a laundromat Tabloid. WTF?

          1. I subscribe to The Economist and the Wall Street Journal, and typically ignore the New York Times and Washington Post unless there is something catchy like a photo of a airplane crash or a pretty woman. So, yes, I wasn’t aware of the slander against a sitting president.

        2. NYT’s current CEO, Mark Thompson, covered for Jimmy Savile while he was Director-General of the BBC. 🐇 🕳

    2. “It turns out that the President nearly exaggerated Tom Hanks’ death,” a source told the paper.”

      How can you re-post this garbage?

      1. I was pointing out the folly of the TDS afflicted news sites. Settle down, Jeff, you’re seeing a bogeyman at every turn.

  29. “In the final quarter of 2019, luxury real estate in the U.S. rallied both in sale volume and price. Then, the coronavirus gripped the world. In Chicago, while affordable luxury residences in the $750,000 price range are performing well, ‘in the luxury market, we’re not getting any showings on anything,’ says Matt Laricy, managing broker of The Matt Laricy Group. In Houston, Texas, ‘currently, most of the market is in a state of shock or denial, the first two of the seven stages of grief,’ says Paige Martin, Keller Williams broker.”

    Somebody is lion

  30. The times they are getting desperate as traders try to unload stock

    Panic on the streets of Soho

    During the last big market plunge in 2008, the credit crunch didn’t just hit traders in the City and suits in Canary Wharf. Media types took such a walloping that Soho cocaine dealers had to start selling by the half gram.

    Things seem to be a little bit different this time around though. The rumoured threat of an imminent London lockdown has seen dealers instituting a 2 – and in some cases 3 – gram minimum to their customers.

    Source popbitch, a journal of record (well not really but what is).

  31. Lessons From Italy’s Hospital Meltdown. ‘Every Day You Lose, the Contagion Gets Worse.’
    The coronavirus is pushing a wealthy region with high-tech health care toward a humanitarian disaster
    A man walking past a mural by artist Franco Rivolli Art at the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, Italy. piero cruciatti/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
    By Marcus Walker and Mark Maremont
    March 17, 2020 10:31 am ET

    BERGAMO, Italy—Ambulances here have stopped using sirens. The frequent blaring only adds to local fears. Besides, there are few other vehicles on the road in Italy’s national lockdown.

    Most are headed to the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital, a large, modern medical facility in a prosperous Italian city that has been overwhelmed by the coronavirus disease. There aren’t enough ventilators to intubate all patients with Covid-19 who have severe breathing trouble. The intensive-care unit is taking almost no patients older than 70, doctors said.

    A normally disused section of the hospital is filled with the critically ill and the hissing sound of oxygen. Patients lie quietly, with worried or exhausted faces, visible to others in the series of half-open rooms. Each focuses on the struggle to breathe. There are patients with airtight oxygen helmets over their heads, like transparent buckets taped at the neck.

    “Some of them would have needed intubation in intensive care,” anesthesiologist Pietro Brambillasca said. The rest ought to be better isolated, he said, where they can’t contaminate anyone.

    That is no longer possible. The number of ill has outstripped the hospital’s capacity to provide the best care for all.

    The coronavirus is devastating Bergamo and pushing a wealthy region with high-tech health care toward a humanitarian disaster, a warning for the U.S. and other developed countries. The city’s experience shows how even advanced economies and state-of-the-art hospitals must change social behaviors and prepare defenses ahead of a pandemic that is upending the rules.
    …

      1. Not sure, but they might have other conditions/medications that might be a bad combination with the anti malarials. I’ve read the side effects can be pretty rough, with some claiming they’d (jokingly) prefer malaria.

        Curious if its hitting Rome hard.

  32. The Financial Times
    Opinion US Treasury bonds
    Toilet rolls and Treasury bonds tell the same panicked story
    Bond fund investors are running for the exits amid ‘rising illiquidity’
    Gillian Tett
    Very different types of paper that are in high demand during the coronavirus crisis
    Gillian Tett 5 hours ago

    The phrases “toilet paper” and “Treasury bonds” are not often uttered in the same breath. Right now, however, they should be.

    As panic about the coronavirus outbreak has spread, western households have scrambled to buy toilet rolls, sometimes in irrational ways. Meanwhile investors are giving in to equivalent impulses, albeit in a less photogenic manner. Each example raises a similar public policy challenge: somehow, anyhow, governments must stop this stampede to prevent a self-reinforcing panic.

    To understand this, consider Treasuries. Normally, the price of these bonds rally during a crisis — pushing yields down — because US government debt is deemed a risk-free asset. And when Covid-19 fears exploded earlier this month, the yield on 10-year Treasuries did indeed tumble to 0.4 per cent. So far, so logical, given that the Fed has slashed interest rates and the S&P 500 has fallen by more than a quarter, amid recession fears.

    But this week, prices turned funky: the 10-year yield jumped above 1.2 per cent, even as equities slumped. The yield on the 30-year bond surged to 1.77 per cent, even as the yield on ultra-short term Treasury yields turned negative.

    Why? One possible explanation is that this week’s White House pledge of a $1tn coronavirus-fighting stimulus package is sparking fears that investors will choke on all the US debt that will have to be issued to pay for it. However, this explanation is hard to square with the US Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy vast volumes of Treasuries itself.

    A better way to understand the moves is to think about toilet paper panics: just as shoppers stock up on essentials, investors grab cash however they can. Treasuries are easier to sell than other securities. So they are the assets being sold, never mind their safe haven status.

    The dash for cash partly reflects generalised uncertainty. But it is also being driven by fund redemption requests, and leveraged traders who have to post cash to meet margin calls.
    …

    1. Eye’$ thought$ that thee $mart.monie$.$uit$ $tated $anctimoniou$ly:

      “Ca$h.i$.Tra$h!”

    2. Another way to look at it is all the people who sold high and stashed into treasuries are now selling treasuries to the Fed, and buying into firesale stock prices, while the dumb money sells for a loss and goes into cash.

      2. I’d give this another 5K before calling it a fire sale. Wait until the virus tests do their job.

        2. I’d give this another 5K before calling it a fire sale.

          That’s what I was going to say, too. Right now everyone is still assuming that BTFD is a good strategy. Prices will be much lower if/when they give up on that.

          1. They’re conditioned to think that the market is going to rocket back up. Once the market’s flat for 10 years, or down, that sentiment will be long extinguished.

          2. They’re still waiting in Japan. I believe their stock market is still about 56% below the late-1980s peak, 30 years later.

            But not to worry…this is America!

      3. “…dumb money desperately broke debt donkey sells for a loss and goes into cash.”

        I realize that I am saying about the same thing as the original version…

  33. I sincerely hope these maths are wrong. If not, we’re screwed

    Coronavirus
    Governor Projects 56% of Californians May Be Infected With Coronavirus in 8 Weeks
    Newsom predicts that 56% of California’s population – roughly 25.5 million residents – could be infected with the novel coronavirus over an eight-week period.
    By Andrew Johnson and Christina Bravo
    • Published 52 mins ago
    • Updated 43 mins ago
    In an extreme estimate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said more than half of California’s population could be infected with the new virus that causes COVID-19 over the next eight weeks – totaling more than 25 million people.

    In an attempt to secure federal resources for his state, Newsom penned a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump Thursday, explaining that “California has been disproportionality impacted by the repatriation efforts over the last few months.”

    The governor later wrote that, “In some parts of our state, our case rate is doubling every four days. Moreover, we have community acquired transmission in 23 counties with an increase of 44 community acquired infections in 24 hours.”
    …

    1. Sacramento County is locking everyone down to “shelter in place” starting at midnight tonight.

      1. It’s in all 50 states, and New York appears to face similar problems to California’s.

        1. New York

          Our governor a couple of days ago gave a short speech. At the beginning he said New Yorkers can do anything! A couple of minutes later he said we couldn’t do without FedGov help.

          1. Sounds like the New York case count is growing explosively.

            Coronavirus Outbreak
            NYC Hospitals ‘Weeks Away’ From Running Out of Supplies, Mayor Urges Feds Help
            De Blasio continues to warn people should be prepared to shelter in place, even as Cuomo says — again and again — it won’t happen
            Published March 19, 2020 • Updated 2 hours ago

            COVID-19 threatened to spiral out of control in New York on Thursday, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced nearly 2,000 new cases overnight, and then New York City’s case count went up another 50 percent within a matter of hours.

            The governor had warned ahead of his news briefing that the day-over-day jump in numbers would be astronomical. He said more than 7,500 tests were conducted overnight, nearly a quarter of what the CDC website says it has done nationally to date. Increased testing capacity leads to more positive tests by default.

            The boom in numbers prompted Cuomo to make an adjustment to an executive order he issued a day earlier: On Wednesday, the governor said businesses were legally required to keep 50 percent of their work forces home. On Thursday, he increased the percentage to 75 percent. This is a data-driven response, Cuomo said, and he is adjusting statewide mandates and issuing new ones as needed. The governor also announced a 90-day mortgage relief plan as part of his efforts to mitigate the financial impact on New Yorkers and their families.

            The situation is being assessed daily, hourly, by the minute at times — but as New Yorkers grow increasingly concerned about protecting themselves and their loved ones, Cuomo made one thing extremely clear: “I am not going to do martial law in the state of New York. That is not going to happen.”

            Situation Grows Dire

            To date, more than 6,500 people in the tri-state area have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 48 have died. New York state has more than 5,000 cases alone. But city and state officials have said it’s hard to ever have a firm grasp on the numbers because they change for the worse by the minute.

            That happened Thursday. New York City, which had more than 2,400 cases as of Cuomo’s morning briefing, had reached 3,954 by 9 p.m., with 26 deaths, the mayor’s office said. At 5 p.m., the mayor’s office had released numbers showing Brooklyn is the most hard-hit borough (1,030), followed by Queens (980), Manhattan (976), the Bronx (436) and Staten Island (165).
            …

          2. 20 years ago I spent a weekend with a friend in NYC. It’s nearly impossible to put by, say, a month of canned food. You don’t have room in your apartment to store it, you don’t have a car to carry it, the little delis don’t sell it, and even if they do, you don’t have the money to afford it. New Yorkers eat out ALL the time, which is why there’s such a huge restaurant scene.

            It’s a great place to live if you’re an asymptomatic virus.

      1. Apparently not.

        And at least I show my data and formulas when do maths here.

        “The governor did not clarify how his officials had calculated that figure, which would amount to nearly 22.5 million infected people.

        But his spokesman acknowledged the estimate did not take into account the mitigation measures being implemented state-wide.”

  34. Vancouver, WA Housing Prices Crater 19% YOY As Vancouver, BC And Seattle Housing Markets Meltdown Under Weight Of Toxic Mortgages

    https://www.zillow.com/vancouver-wa-98684/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    As a noted economist stated so eloquently, “A house is a rapidly depreciating asset that empties your wallet it every day you own it.”

  35. 😷😊😐😷😷😟😋😷😏😷😷😷😀😒😷😏😊😷😷

    Which one’$ is the bank robber$?

  36. Just got a call from the property manager. He’s persuaded his owners to reduce our rents for next month, with upcoming months tbd. For us, it’s $500 off our $1,750 rent. I thanked him profusely and asked that he convey our gratitude to the landlord.

    I think the cure (lockdown) will surely kill Las Vegas, especially if it runs past 30 days. I think we had better odds with the flu. Both husband and daughter are MGM employees (she got laid off, he was kept.)

    On the bright side, the great TP shortage seems to be over here.

    1. That was quick. Not sure how that materialized so quickly. They must be pitting their shants, thinking people are going to pick up stakes and move on.

      1. people are going to pick up stakes
        He said that was the concern. He sounded a little “shook”.

    2. “I think the cure (lockdown) will surely kill Las Vegas, especially if it runs past 30 days.”

      You got that right. It will kill a lot of places. I will find out in the morning if we can work on Palm Beach, if not some people will miss checks.

      Talking to a couple of my neighbors earlier this evening, one is a fisherman, the restaurants aren’t open to buy his fish. The other is a contractor but his wife works at her families (you guessed it) restaurant.

      Funny thing listening to these two about 30 year old guys without knowing their political views and without any prodding from me was they thought the blame for this rested with China and the Democrats trying to take the economy down.

      Anyway Tarara, I’m glad you got a $500 discount this month, that’s about the only good I know that has come out of this.

      1. Thanks, jeff. It was a nice surprise.

        On the last night Mandalay Bay was open my husband was sad to see how sad the young workers were. He said a lot of them looked stunned. My daughter works in the corporate offices. The two weeks severance is nice, and she’s filed for unemployment. They’re keeping everyone on the health insurance through June 30. I hope it ends as quickly as possible.

        1. I’ve heard that a lot of companies aren’t promising to hire the same workers back, almost like they’re using it as an excuse to get rid of the ones they don’t want.

          1. Ah, they’ve learned from tech. After a layoff only the most valuable get hired back. And normally the managers are able to protect them from being caught up in the layoff in the first place.

          2. Ah, they’ve learned from tech

            Trust me, this was a well worn maneuver before “tech” meant something to do with computers.

    3. “I think the cure (lockdown) will surely kill Las Vegas,”

      Might bee a good lonely “road.trip” through the National.Mojave.Preseve … no traffic on I-40 or I-15, kinda like 1971 in my VW van, listening to Jackson Browne’s “Saturated”.

    1. The debt bubble must be about to burst. They are doing everything in their power to scare people into believing that 100 trillions dollars bailout to banks/corps is such a swell idea.

    2. He just hammered the last nail into the coffin of the red-hot spring home sales season.

      1. They haven’t really said yet. My daughter keeps talking about a rumor she heard about National Guard troops, but I have no independent confirmation.

        At any rate, our economic situation just went from heart attack to flatline EKG.

        1. Geez Professor, it only effect$ 40 million$ CA & U$ taxpayer$ … (quit frightening the kid$!)

          2. Don’t forget that a large share of the workers in the state’s $3 trillion economy are not going to be able to work over the quarantine period.

          3. The Financial Times
            Coronavirus
            California goes into lockdown in battle with coronavirus
            Governor orders 40m people and world’s fifth-largest economy to stay behind doors
            Patrick McGee in San Francisco 2 hours ago

            California ordered its 40m residents to stay at home unless required to make essential trips, becoming the first US state to implement such extreme measures in a bid to contain the rapidly expanding coronavirus outbreak.

            “It’s difficult to be the bearer of these messages, I can assure you,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in an online briefing on Thursday evening. “Home isolation is not my preferred choice. I know it’s not yours. But it’s a necessary one.”

            The order comes just days after multiple counties in the Bay Area of northern California and Los Angeles issued similar “shelter at home” mandates, with exemptions provided for buying food, going to pharmacies and getting petrol.

            The statewide mandate forced all non-essential businesses to close. Residents have also been told to avoid all non-essential social contact, with groups of more than 10 people prohibited.

            The mandate does not have a specific timeframe. “I don’t expect this will be many, many months but for the time being, we are recognising eight weeks,” Mr Newsom said.

            California’s population is smaller than that of Italy, Spain or France respectively — countries that have implemented even stricter lockdowns — but it has a larger economy than any of them. The home to Silicon Valley has a gross domestic product of $2.94tn, ranking it ahead of the UK and behind only the US, China, Germany and Japan, and making it the world’s fifth-largest economy.
            …

        2. What my daughter tells me usually proves to have at least some basis in fact.

          March 19, 2020 – 12:54 PM EDT
          National Guard head: ‘Tens of thousands’ of Guardsmen could be used to help with coronavirus
          By Ellen Mitchell

          Tens of thousands of National Guard troops could be activated in states across the country in the next several weeks to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the head of the National Guard said Thursday.

          “It’s hard to tell what the exact requirement will be, but I’m expecting tens of thousands to be used inside the states as this grows,” National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Joseph Lengyel told reporters at the Pentagon.

          “I think that this could quickly blossom in the next couple of weeks as governors and states determine their needs and ways to use their National Guards.”

          All 54 states, territories and the District of Columbia have declared a state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

          As of Thursday, governors in 27 states have activated a total 2,050 Guardsmen.

          Lengyel said the bureau anticipates that number will go up “relatively quickly, in fact, doubling by this weekend.”

          Asked if the White House could federalize the Guard to respond to the illness, Lengyel said that President Trump could do so if desired but that such a move “would not make sense in this situation.”

          “Every state has a different way to deal with disasters. If you were to federalize [the Guard], you would lose that ability.”

          He added: “There’s no plans that I’m aware of to take the National Guards in the states and put them in a federal status. They’re much better used in a state status under the command and control of the governors.”

          Lengyel likened the coronavirus pandemic to dealing with “54 separate hurricanes in every state, territory and the District of Columbia … unlike a hurricane we don’t know when this is going to dissipate or move out to sea.”

          Currently the Guard is providing medical testing and assessments, facilities, ground transportation and logistics and planning, among other services across the states.

          The Tennessee National Guard, for example, on Wednesday helped deliver 500,000 coronavirus testing swabs brought to the United States from Italy earlier this week.

          Lengyel said there are six Guardsmen who have tested positive for coronavirus. In the active-duty force there are 51 confirmed cases, as of Thursday morning.
          …

          1. My guess is that Washington and New York are next. That’s going to put most of the banks and all of the FAANGs on lockdown. If you thought the market was on a dive last week, wait until Monday/Tuesday.

            The homeless population is going to be decimated, if not from coronavirus, then from lack of meths and opioids. I can’t imagine the dealers will be able to conduct business in such an environment.

          3. What a puff piece. Any Toyota or Honda holds its value more that those cars, even in the UK.

  38. This should be required reading for kids on springbreak.

    Nearly 40% of those hospitalized with coronavirus are younger than 54: CDC
    There are at least 141 coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S.
    By William Mansell and Anne Flaherty
    March 19, 2020, 6:41 AM
    5 min read
    Coronavirus daily update: March 19, 2020

    As many spring breakers are still seen ignoring social distancing on the beaches of Florida, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is saying more younger people than initially thought are getting seriously ill due to the novel coronavirus.

    Data released Wednesday night by the CDC shows that of the 508 patients known to have been hospitalized in the U.S. for COVID-19, about 20% of those were ages 20 to 44 and another 18% were between the ages of 45 and 54.

    However, COVID-19 is still significantly more dangerous in older patients, as 80% of deaths associated with coronavirus are adults over the age of 65.
    …

    1. I was reading a report of all Chinese deaths from COVID-19, and there were plenty of 20, 30 and 40 somethings in there. I think there is still a lot we don’t know about this. What seems clear is the olds die quickly, and the younger ones fight for a long time before succumbing. There’s a 40 year old doctor in Seattle in critical condition.

    2. “This should be required reading for kids on springbreak.”

      Look at all those young ladies…no gap! I’m glad I’m not a young man right now as I’m not sure I could carry my sweetheart through the front door of our new house unless I lifted her in a “fireman’s carry.”

  39. There truly is no shortage of scary coronavirus stories.

    A New York neurosurgeon has coronavirus. This is what he wants people to know.
    Georgie Silvarole | New York State Team
    Updated 4 hours ago

    BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y. – A little more than a week ago, Ezriel Kornel caught a cold.

    He woke up with a little bit of congestion and some minor discomfort on Monday, March 9.

    No fever, no cough.

    So Kornel, 66, went to work. He’s a neurosurgeon who works both in Westchester County and in the New York City area, and he’d been consistently watching the news and talking with colleagues about the novel coronavirus.

    He knew the symptoms – fever, fatigue, cough, shortness of breath. And he had none of them.

    “To me, it’s important that people understand that they don’t have to start with a fever,” Kornel said. “Because it was so mild, there was no reason for me to think that I had anything other than a cold.”

    By the evening of Wednesday, March 11, Kornel said his condition deteriorated. He developed a fever, body aches, chills. It felt like the flu.

    He called the emergency room, went in the following morning and got tested for coronavirus and other viral illnesses.

    He got the results back two days later: positive for COVID-19.

    “To me, it’s important that people understand they don’t have to start with a fever. That’s misleading,” Kornel said, speaking via Skype from his home in Bedford Hills, Westchester County.

    “What I think is so critical for people to know is that if they get symptoms that are even those of a mild cold, they should assume until proven otherwise that they have COVID-19 right now, and isolate themselves.”
    …

  40. California’s near-shutdown can only further darken this picture.

    Capitol Report
    Echoes of the Great Depression? U.S. economy could post biggest contraction ever
    Published: March 19, 2020 at 3:49 p.m. ET
    By Jeffry Bartash
    Second-quarter GDP could shrink by a record 10%-plus or more
    The front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper published on the day of the initial Wall Street Crash of ‘Black Thursday’, 24th October 1929. Getty

    The deepening coronavirus crisis is increasingly likely to hit the U.S. economy harder than at any time since the early stages of the Great Depression some 90 year ago.

    With many industries partly or even completely shutting down, the U.S. could post the biggest economic contraction since the government began keeping quarterly records shortly after World War Two.

    The devastation could even rival some of the worst stretches in the early 1930s, when the whole world entered a prolonged slump. The U.S. economy shrank by an astonishing 13% in 1932 (the U.S. has annual GDP estimates for the 1930s).
    …

  41. Aren’t the rich white guys normally the first into the lifeboats?

    Former federal prosecutor among those questioning if Republican lawmakers misled on coronavirus then sold stock
    Published: March 19, 2020 at 11:15 p.m. ET
    By Rachel Koning Beals
    Media reports allege stock sales by Sens. Burr, Loeffler were timed close to a coronavirus briefing, but illegality is not clear
    Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina. Getty Images

    A former federal prosecutor and other attorneys weighed in Thursday as media reports questioned recent stock selling by prominent lawmakers who were reportedly privy to early, frequent warnings about the risks of coronavirus, and in at least one case publicly downplayed such risks, while unloading their investments.

    Recent stock selling by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., were in the spotlight as worries about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and its crippling effect on the global economy has wiped out roughly 30% from the stock market since late January. Stocks (SPX, +0.47%, DJIA, +0.94%) were higher Thursday as central banks took more unprecedented action to shore up financial markets.
    …

    1. I heard the first whiff of the virus around January 6-13(?), from a nurse at church. The Johns Hopkins virus tracker was up and public on January 20. Sometime that week I heard “asymptomatic transmission” and went into panic mode. I made my first prepper food purchase on January 28.

      “Loeffler, the Georgia Republican, reported the first sale of stock jointly owned by her and her husband on Jan. 24,”

      The screeching libs have NO case here.

    2. “Aren’t the rich white guys normally the first into the lifeboats?”

      I thought it was their wives and/or mistresses, first.

  43. With unlimited bailouts on the way, this is nothing to worry over.

    Market Extra
    How bad is the corporate bond carnage? Highly rated U.S. companies are having their worst month on record
    Published: March 19, 2020 at 3:51 p.m. ET
    By Joy Wiltermuth
    About 86.5% of high-yield energy bonds now trade at distressed levels

    It’s hard not to wince at the sharp U.S. stock market selloff, but this month is on pace to be the ugliest on record for the largest part of the corporate bond market as the coronavirus pandemic sends investors heading for cover.

    Airlines, automakers, cruiselines, restaurant chains, retailers, and even the New York Stock Exchange are among a wave of businesses that either severely cut back their services or shuttered entirely in an effort to staunch the spread of the coronavirus.

    How bad are things from a credit standpoint? It’s too early to tell how many companies might end up defaulting on a record pile of corporate debt as American life sits in a holding pattern. But here’s a list of industries that could get a coronavirus bailout.

    And while market players nervously await more clarity from Washington on the scope of its aid, the benchmark that tracks the most creditworthy part of the $9 trillion U.S. corporate bond market, the ICE Bank of America U.S. IG Corporate index, is having its worst month yet.

    The index’s excess returns over U.S. Treasurys were negative 11.4% for March through Wednesday’s close, putting it on pace for the worse monthly performance ever, or at least since 1973, when the index data began being tracked, according to Marty Fridson, chief investment officer at Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors.
    …

  44. Trading
    ‘Close the markets,’ says City as lockdown fears grip home-hobbled traders
    While a move to shutter markets would not be without precedent, the Covid-19 pandemic has triggered global unease of a magnitude not seen in decades
    By Trista Kelley,
    Paul Clarke,
    Shruti Chopra and
    David Ricketts
    March 19, 2020 5:41 pm GMT

    City traders who buy and sell equities — either at home or in bank offices — are joining a growing number of industry participants who want stock markets temporarily closed, amid rumours of a lockdown on movement in the UK capital.

    The debate is yet to convince exchanges and central bankers, but an equity trader at one London brokerage said the idea has “growing support” among their company’s desks and its peers.
    …

  45. So many yield-chasing risk asset categories are going straight to Hell.

    The Financial Times
    Structured Investment Products
    Huge losses on exotic investments hit Asian pensioners
    Coronavirus spurs rout in structured products betting on treasuries, stocks and oil
    Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong and Edward White in Seoul yesterday

    Complex products popular with private investors across Asia have been ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak, imposing billions of dollars of losses as the pandemic rips through markets.

    So-called structured products have flown off the shelves in recent years, led by a South Korean market valued at more than $80bn, as pensioners and other individual investors have sought out risky bets offering high returns.

    But these instruments, which are tied to everything from US government bonds to European stock benchmarks, can come back to bite investors when volatility spikes.

    Mr Lee, an office worker in Seoul, has already seen some of his investments linked to oil prices take large falls in value, and is now worried that other equity-linked products will crumple.

    “No one knows when the coronavirus pandemic will end,” he said. “Many people are constantly checking stock markets overseas and are panicking about the current situation.”
    …

  46. The Financial Times
    Hedge funds
    Hedge fund bets hammered as industry retrenches amid cash dash
    Long positions underperform broader market while shorts outperform
    NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 03: A board on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 03, 2020 in New York City. Following a strong market surge yesterday, stocks one again fell on Wall Street as global concerns over the financial impact from the Coronavirus drive investments down. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
    After mostly outperforming the US stock market since the coronavirus started rattling investors in mid-February, a Goldman Sachs index of popular hedge fund holdings has underperformed the S&P every day this week
    © Getty
    Robin Wigglesworth in Oslo yesterday

    Popular hedge fund bets have been hammered this week, with long positions underperforming the broader market and shorts outperforming — a sign of industry retrenchment amid a dash for cash.

    After mostly outperforming the US stock market since the coronavirus started rattling investors in mid-February, a Goldman Sachs index of popular hedge fund holdings has underperformed the S&P every day this week, and is now down almost 29 per cent for the year.

    At the same time, the US bank’s index of popular short positions — when hedge funds bet on a stock declining — has been more resilient than the US stock market over the same period, declining only 13 per cent this year. The five-day outperformance of the hedge fund shorts index versus the hedge fund longs index is the most extreme seen since Goldman Sachs started collecting the data in 2001.
    …

    1. They mu$ta exhau$ted their credit draw$ … maybee they can apply fer $ome + increa$es!

  47. What did they know?
    When did they know?
    What did they do afterward$?

    (A$king for a friend, really, …okay, her name is Martha, she’$ $orta curiou$)

    Senator$ Loeffler And Burr Caught Dumping Their $tocks After Private Meeting On Coronaviru$ Impact

    Daily caller/ By Anders Hagstrom / WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT / March 19, 2020

    Burr’s remarks at the meeting were saved to an audio recording which NPR obtained. On it, he can be heard warning the attendees that the virus was much more serious than was being widely reported at the time.

    “There’s one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history,” he said, according to a secret recording of the remarks obtained by NPR. “It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”

      2. I recall insider trading being legal in Congress for a long time. But now it’s reported that it was made illegal in 2012 or so. I’m having a hard time remembering that change…

    2. “Senator$ Loeffler And Burr Caught Dumping Their $tocks After Private Meeting On Coronaviru$ Impact”

      Nancy Pelosi sits on the security council, so she’s known well in advance of what was going-down inside China, and it’s no secret that she actively trades her own portfolio shares based on legislation that she approves or declines. Like PB says, Congress critters have that perk.

    1. Are these things too big to fail?

      CORONAVIRUS
      In Letter to Mnuchin, Warren Airs Concerns About Leveraged Loans Amid Pandemic
      A boom in risky corporate debt could cause a domino effect amid coronavirus pandemic, experts say
      Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) attends a hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Nov. 27, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Warren sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking questions about leveraged loans amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
      By Claire Williams
      March 20, 2020 at 2:00 pm ET

      Financial policy experts, and at least one prominent lawmaker, are sounding the alarm on a pile of risky corporate debt as the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic grows.

      Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and provided to Morning Consult, highlighted the lack of data available on the issue and asked him to show how the Financial Stability Oversight Council is monitoring the risk of so-called leveraged loans. She also reiterated previous critiques over the lack of regulation around leveraged lending and the products that these loans are often packaged into, called collateralized loan obligations.

      “Similar to the subprime mortgage market prior to 2008, the securitization of these loans and the growth of CLOs has allowed the exposure and risks associated with this lending to spread throughout the economy to multiple investors and industries,” Warren wrote. “Now, as we are on the verge of another, potentially deeper, economic crisis, regulators still have not taken meaningful action to mitigate these risks.”
      …

  51. U.S. jobless claims may reach 2.25 million, Goldman Sachs economist estimates
    Published: March 20, 2020 at 9:42 a.m. ET
    By Steve Goldstein
    Layoffs are coming.
    Getty Images

    The first real bad U.S. economic data from the coronavirus outbreak was released on Thursday, as initial jobless claims surged 70,000 to 281,000, the highest level in 2.5 years.

    But that is not anything compared with what is in store.

    David Choi, an economist from Goldman Sachs, says initial claims for the week ending March 21 may jump to a seasonally adjusted 2.25 million. His analysis is based on recent anecdotes from press reports as well as company announcements. Over 30 states have provided preliminary data.
    …

        1. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine appear to interfere with cellular uptake of the virus.

          Azithromycin is for vulnerable patients prone to secondary infections.

          2. gin and tonic

            My dad was on quinine to treat the maria he picked up on the islands in WWII. When I got muscle cramps on a hunting trip he told me to drink tonic water as the quinine would help. It did, and pretty fast.

          4. that gin and tonic is good for treating the virus

            Why not get ahead of the curve. 🙂

          10. the musical

            No, I meant the islands where the Marines battled the Japanese, wave after wave of humanity hurled upon the beach.

      2. “any medical evidence”

        Maybe this was a rhetorical question but not so fast, according to Fauci. Hasn’t had a clinical trial. Evidence is “anecdotal.” Not that it shouldn’t be investigated, just not an imminent solution. His body language was telling today, IMO.

        1. Anything to convince the Wall Street bovine herd that a cure lies just around the corner will do to lift share prices.

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