Americans, I recommend you panic about the coronavirus. I recommend you panic about the coronavirus to compensate for the nonchalance of everyone else around you. On 26 February, I published a video titled Why the West is Underestimating the Coronavirus (Threat), in which I spoke about how Americans and other Westerners were not only underestimating the health threat of coronavirus but the economic threat it would trigger in Western financial markets as well. Since the outbreak I’ve been to two different countries in Asia so I’ve traveled through international airport hubs and have witnessed how people are dealing with it in nations much closer to ground zero, and often being on the ground somewhere near the epicenter of a crisis grants you a completely different perspective than just listening to talking heads in the media debate a topic based purely on conjecture and very little fact. In fact if you go to my IG stories, which will be up for the next 20 hours or so, you can watch some short videos I posted from on the ground that display massive differences in areas in which crowds normally gather and are lively from just two weeks ago and yesterday, at which point they were completely dark and abandoned.
It’s with great irony, that on the above referenced YouTube video, the World Health Organization (WHO) is cited by Google as the authoritative source on coronavirus information, because though I referenced the coronavirus as a global pandemic in the video, the WHO doctors refused to do so for weeks, thereby facilitating its spread around the world by not encouraging those in yet non-infected nations like the United States to refrain from taking appropriate action. In fact, not until 11 March, a full 15-days later after I had already called it a pandemic, the WHO doctors finally officially released a statement, calling the coronavirus a worldwide pandemic. Though there are far more credible sources of accurate information about the coronavirus than the WHO, including independent media journalist Simone Gao, YouTube and Google still cite on every video about coronavirus the WHO as the authoritative source about the virus. Though this is pure speculation on my end, it appears that the WHO’s reluctance to admit inevitable future outbreaks of the coronavirus infections in other nations outside of China was motivated by outside pressures from various Heads of State, including possibly Donald Trump, not to disseminate truth in order to delay panic in financial markets.
I’m nearly 100% certain now, that specifically due to the WHO’s reluctance to rightfully address the coronavirus threat as a global pandemic, that we are going to see the same type of rapid viral outbreak in cities like New York that we earlier witnessed in Deagu, South Korea, in which the number of infected doubled every 24 to 48 hours. In Daegu, no one was concerned when the doubling numbers were 5, then 10, then 20 and then 40, but obviously when the numbers reach the hundreds and they double from 200 to 400 to 800 to the thousands very quickly, the harm in the delay in ascribing importance to this situation has already been done. And that will happen in NY, and unfortunately, if various politicians and health organization officials had put human life first and corporate profits second, this would not have happened.
More than two and half months ago, I even blogged about how the severity of this pandemic was being underestimated and wrote that coronavirus would pop the Bubble of Everything and cause a US stock market crash. In this article, I was very clear to state that coronavirus would not be responsible for the US stock market crashing, as it was only the trigger and that clearly foolish Central Banker monetary policy responsible for reflating various market asset bubbles after the 2008 global financial crisis would be the main reason behind the Bubble of Everything deflation. But I was relentless in trying to spread the message to the West, from my home base in the East, of the severity of the coronavirus effects I was witnessing that I was certain would spread to America.
In fact, I even forecast that US Central Bankers easily predictable reaction to the popping of the Bubble of Everything of slashing interest rates would initially fail, by publishing an article on 17 February titled, “Central Bankers’ Belief that Cutting Interest Rates is the Panacea for All Crises Will Eventually Fail, Sparking Higher Gold and Silver Prices.” And indeed, after a brief dead cat bounce after executing an emergency 50 basis point cut on 3 March, the US stock markets resumed their crash as I had predicted. Over a month ago, I also published a series of articles in which I specifically discussed 14 stocks would crash once my predictions about the coronavirus threat triggering a stock market sell-off and the failure of the first Central Bank interest rut cut to save the US stock markets both came true. Thirteen of those stocks I specifically named lost a significant amount of share value, with most losing from 20% to 37% in the four weeks after I wrote those articles. Ironically the only one of the fourteen specific stocks I predicted would crash, that didn’t crash was a Chinese airline, which I imagine has yet to crash in share price because it is probably is being artificially propped up for now by intervention from the Chinese Government and the PBOC.
Furthermore, though I didn’t name specific companies in another sector that I stated would crash more than month ago, I wrote that any company that depended upon large events and crowds for revenues would suffer. Today, the NCAA basketball commission just stated that the US college basketball tournament known as March Madness will take place with zero people in attendance due to the coronavirus threat. And the NBA soon followed suit, and indefinitely suspended all games after Utah Jazz center and NBA All Star Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus. And even in this suspension announcement, I still see proper handling of the threat being miserably fumbled and mishandled. Reportedly, the NBA informed any player that played against the Utah Jazz in the past 10 days to get tested and self-quarantine. Unfortunately, since the facts on the ground at Ground Zero was that a patient was asymptomatic for 27 days before testing positive for coronavirus infection, we know that at a minimum, people can be asymptomatic for up to 27 days. This means that the NBA should have advised any player that came into contact with Rudy Gobert in the last 27 days, not 10 days, to get tested and to self-quarantine. This is not fear mongering, as some people claim, but an intellectual conclusion based upon facts.
So Americans you should panic about the coronavirus threat, and I say this not because of the economic impact. I’m saying this because of the potential health impact and only because no one I know that lives in America is taking it seriously, at least maybe not until this week. I’ve heard new Yorkers interviewed and stating that they were not going to change any of their habits and behavior and that they were not going to let the coronavirus threat ruin their daily life. This is not about ruining anyone’s life. This is about acting like an adult, and altering behavior to minimize Making small concessions and sacrifices like avoiding really crowded areas including hubs of international travelers like airports, and taking taxis instead of crowded subways are not going to ruin anyone’s life and would be loads more effective than making a run on toilet paper at your local COSTCO. And this isn’t fearmongering. Taking necessary precautions and adjusting your habits to protect yourself based upon facts about viral transmission is completely different than living in fear. Of course, when I stated, “Americans, I advise you to panic”, I issued this statement somewhat sarcastically as I never advise anyone to panic, as panic will always lessen your chances of survival over remaining calm and making rational decisions. However, for some Americans, if panic is the only emotion that will move you to action from a state of inertia, than I advise you panic, not only for your own good, but also for the good of everyone with whom you may come in contact over the next few months.
Finally, later this week, for those that sign up to my free newsletter, which you can find the sign up screen at my news site at maalamalama.com/wordpress, I will inform you of why US president Trump really held an emergency meeting with bankers at the White House on 11 March. On the surface, it was to discuss policy moves to stop the US stock markets from bleeding, but in the shadows, there was a near nuclear event in the financial markets that happened this week that would have triggered more massive destruction of capital market asset prices. And this nuclear event came within a hairline of triggering. If you want to find out what this triggering event is, so you can keep an eye on it in future days and weeks, subscribe to my newsletter today, because I will discuss it only in my newsletter, and perhaps as early as Issue #58 to be delivered tomorrow. If I don’t discuss the near miss of this nuclear trigger in Issue #58, then I will discuss it by Issue #59 or Issue #60 for sure.
In the meantime, for the most accurate information about the coronavirus threat, I highly recommend seeking out independent media journalists based in Asia, including the one I’ve posted above. To watch the bulk of this information in video format, please click the image below:
