GG

Of course it matters because you always want to investigate the root causes, so that you can be better prepared for the next one. As I said before, it's far worse for Italy if the German tourist is patient zero. In that instance, a man with no symptoms and no disease infects a 38-yr old who gets treated in a hospital, and then the hospital's improper hygiene proceeds to shut down an entire country? That is not good news at all. For your country's sake, you hope that this is not the prime case.

The op-ed is full of crap. The ultimate market is determined by the underlying value, but the daily swings are motivated by momentum and big traders' spur-of-the-moment actions that amplify volatility. That's the only rational explanation for the markets' gyrations in the last week. Yesterday was a prime example and I watched it unfold in real time during a liquid lunch. Moments within Fed's QE announcement, the markets rallied to pare the big morning losses and were likely to erase the losses by the end of the day. Then within minutes, in prime lunch hour in NY, news started hitting of the canceled NCAA conference tournaments, topped by the stupidity of canceling the Big East tournament at HALFTIME of a game. That stopped the rally in its tracks, which was followed by NHL, March Madness and MLB news, and the selloff resumed.

The Chinese factories and timing of Fashion Week is more plausible than a conspiracy.

It's a timing issue. The longer this lasts, the higher the probability of a downturn.

No, just remarking on the oddity of the Italian jump and the rapid escalation.

The response doesn't address the theories of how the virus made the odd hop to Italy and why it spread so quickly, if the only accounts are that the first case was a 38-yr old who never traveled to China. If he is patient zero, then Italy has far bigger problems, because one mistreated patient essentially locked down a country of 62 million. Reality is that there's still no patient zero, and a Lombardy doctor said that he noticed a spike in odd pneumonia cases before the 38-yr old was admitted.

Do you have a better theory?

That explains the oddity of the hop, combined with a 14-day incubation period and the timing of the Milan fashion week.

Only if you're not Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib.

This is more appropriate

This needs to be reinforced over and over. The upper end is not going to feel the pain as much as everyone else. This panic is going to be painful, and many people don't understand what they've just unleashed.

Up or down.

Figures the pandemic would get you out of the fox hole. What's up at CDC? Pence making this statement ... on the heels of the Brazilian official announcement ... Buckle up.

Can we call it the Chinese Biological Weapon virus?

What are you talking about? The 25% market drop is the reflection of the expected earnings hit that the planned sequestrations and quarantines will have on economic activity. You can't have it both ways. If you are going to implement severe travel and work restrictions to prevent contagion, the economy will take a massive beating.

That's basically where I am. Murphy's fate will be decided in the first week of FA

I thought you were a Murphy backer?

Yeah, because German laws are the same as US laws?

In order for him to do that within the confines of the speech, he would have to declare martial law and usurp local and state government control.

You mean that people who trade securities for a living crunched the underlying numbers behind his words?

I'm guessing that at this point all available resources are going to stop the rapid spread of the virus. On the economic front, the no free lunch truism always applies. Beware of the unintended consequences of the total population lockdowns. The "cure" may be worse than the disease.

You have the cause & effect backwards. Delaware changed its laws eons ago that favored establishing corporations there. Hence the bankruptcy filings are there or NY, where most of legal documents are domiciled.

Technically it's a 5 county jail, since NYC spans 5 counties

You should hide your enthusiasm.

I didn't mean that Edmunds would sit.