Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, March 23, 2020
Coronavirus Clarifies Priorities / Politics / Pandemic
By: Patrick_Watson
Bought any groceries lately? You probably weren’t alone. Nor were you surrounded by crazy people. The store mobs are perfectly rational, given recent events.
We can’t stop the novel coronavirus from spreading. We can slow it down, though, and that may prove critically important. So whether governments order it or not (and they already have in many place), people are staying home as much as possible.
People stuck at home still need to eat. When everyone’s homemade food requirements suddenly and simultaneously increase, grocery stores get busy. That’s math, not panic.
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Monday, March 23, 2020
Could the Coronavirus Cause the Next ‘Arab Spring’? / Politics / Pandemic
By: Richard_Mills
The rich are getting richer, inequality is on the rise, and the middle class, the backbone of the US economy since the 1950s, is shrinking.
In 2018 the three highest-paid chief executives in the United States earned more than the output of several countries. Tesla’s Elon Musk, Brendan Kennedy, the CEO of pot success story Tilray, and Bob Eger, the boss of Walt Disney Co., made a combined $914 million, more than each of 11 countries that rank among the poorest in the world.
Celebrities are also raking it in like never before. In 2018 Taylor Swift earned $185 million, Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi scored $127 million including $35M in endorsements, Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez earned $94 million, and Swiss tennis star Roger Federer pocketed a cool $93.4 million.
Star athletes, Hollywood elites, politicians, the rich, all can get tested for coronavirus before the rest of us (and get back tests in a very timely manner). We working class peasants get sent home, no test done, told to ‘self isolate.’ President Trump, when asked about this said ‘That’s life.’ Indeed it is.
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Sunday, March 22, 2020
UK Supermarkets Coronavirus Panic Buying, Empty Tesco Shelves, Stock Piling, Hoarding Preppers / Politics / Pandemic
By: N_Walayat
Here's what it's like to shop at a big supermarket such as Tesco during the coronavirus pandemic panic of 2020 after the shelves have been cleared by selfish stock piling and hoarding. What are people going to do with trolleys stuffed full of toilet rolls? Are they going to sell them on ? or into toilet paper art?
We tried to shop at our local Tesco store in Sheffield. First issue was that the shelves were 70% empty. Second issue was of the crap that's left you could only buy 2 or 3 items. Third issue was the checkout staff did not follow their own rules i.e. customers were supposed to be allowed to buy 2 packs, but they kept one of the 2 rolls we took Fourth issue is the Tesco Clubcard Big shops are worthless as you can't be £200 worth of stock anymore to get your maximum 10% off.
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Saturday, March 21, 2020
US Coronavirus Infections and Deaths Going Ballistic as Government Start to Ramp Up Testing / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The penny finally appears to have dropped in the US! Where even uber skeptic President Trump has finally had someone read the writing on the wall to him, with the US appearing to start to swing firmly in the right direction, though as the following graph illustrates the damage is likely already done, so the US WILL pay a heavy price for Presidential & Congressional Governmental and CDC NEGLIGENCE that borders on CRIMINAL. Where the US wasted THE WHOLE OF FEBRUARY! The US could have nipped this in the bud as I repeatedly suggested was possible during February, but instead supreme arrogance in monitoring and capability reigned supreme until the stock market started discounting the trend trajectories that were starting to unfold. Remember that the stock market DISCOUNTS the future, it's not going to wait for 100,000 deaths before it nose dives as we have witness take place these past 2 weeks.
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Saturday, March 21, 2020
CORONA HOAX: This Is Almost Completely Contrived and Here’s Proof / Politics / Pandemic
By: Jeff_Berwick
It seems like not a day passes by now without some new development in this over-sensationalized corona hoax.
The fact that it’s being so played up is obvious when you look at the numbers. As you can see in the supposedly accurate statistics below, the virus has caused just under 9,000 deaths.
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Friday, March 20, 2020
UK Coronavirus Infections Trend Trajectory Worse than Italy - Government PANICs! Sterling Crashes! / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Finally Britain's schools are going to close on Friday the 20th of March, a good 2 weeks later than they should have and 1 week later than I forecast they would do over a month ago! As the government had been following the mad scientist doctrine of wanting to spread the virus via those most able to withstand and survive infection i.e. children who thankfully are being spared by the coronavirus. Who were expected to go on to infect their parents and thus eventually approximately 60% of the UK population would reach herd immunity and bring the outbreak to an end.
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Friday, March 20, 2020
UK Critical Care Nurse Cries at Empty SuperMarket Shelves, Coronavirus Panic Buying Stockpiling / Politics / Pandemic
By: N_Walayat
An Exhausted critical care nurse after a 48-hour hospital shift, found her local super market shelves empty and asks ‘how am I supposed to keep healthy?’
As UK panic buying see's shoppers strip shelves, buying for beyond their needs as was the case in Tesco Sheffield today and virtually every other UK super market.
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Friday, March 20, 2020
Coronavirus Is Not an Emergency. It’s a War / Politics / Pandemic
By: John_Mauldin
I was critical of the Federal Reserve for its emergency moves last Sunday. But I now assume they weren’t panicking. Rather, they were trying to get ahead of the situation, going where we know we need to go and doing it now. Good on them. I apologize for my criticism.Without radical action (some of which is already happening, some places, but not enough), this pandemic could cost many lives and potentially launch an economic depression. I am not exaggerating when I say this. I really mean it.
That doesn’t have to happen. We can solve this. That is what we as Americans or British or Italian or Chinese do. That is what we as humans do. We come together in a crisis.
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Thursday, March 19, 2020
UK Coronavirus Infections Trend Trajectory Worse than Italy Government PANICs! Sterling Collapses! / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Finally Britain's schools are going to close on Friday the 20th of March, a good 2 weeks later than they should have and 1 week later than I forecast they would do over a month ago! As the government had been following the mad scientist doctrine of wanting to spread the virus via those most able to withstand and survive infection i.e. children who thankfully are being spared by the coronavirus. Who were expected to go on to infect their parents and thus eventually approximately 60% of the UK population would reach herd immunity and bring the outbreak to an end.
A protocol that I for several weeks have been warning was a recipe for disaster that would result in anywhere from 400,000 deaths to 1.4 million UK deaths, far beyond anything any other nation has experienced as illustrated by my following video -
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Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Nowhere To Run, Nowhere To Hide – Cash Is King, Not Gold / Politics / Pandemic
By: Kelsey_Williams
Amidst the fallout of stock markets crashing worldwide, gold (silver, too) and oil imploding, and the scare of coronavirus, the dollar itself stands tall. That is not what some were expecting. Nevertheless, unrealistic expectations abound today, so let’s see what we can learn from this.
When investors sell en masse, they generally turn to cash as a resting place for their money. Cash for most people today still means US dollars. This implies an increase in demand for US dollars. Gold investors and their advisors seem to have been expecting just the opposite.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Coronavirus - Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself / Politics / Pandemic
By: James_Quinn
“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.”- Franklin D. Roosevelt – March 4, 1933
Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke these words during his first inauguration at the depths of the Great Depression in 1933. The narrative taught in government schools is how FDR’s words invigorated the nation and inspired the people to show courage in the face of adversity. His terminology was that of a general leading his troops into battle.
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Tuesday, March 17, 2020
US and UK Coronavirus Containment Incompetence Resulting Catastrophic Trend Trajectories / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The answer as to why the stock market is delivering 10% blood baths virtually every other trading day since the western world were awoken to the full spectrum horrific consequences of the Coronavirus early March, after having ignored what took place first in China and then large chunks of Asia, likely due to a false sense of superiority. Whilst I have often voiced since early February that we won't find the answers to which way stocks are likely to trend by looking at the price charts. After all back in early Feb the stock market initially shrugged off Coronavirus China news and duly marched to new all time highs! And then continued to remain largely suspended in a state of denial until the cookie started to crumble early March and true panic set in far beyond anything anyone could have imagined at the time.
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Monday, March 16, 2020
UK Entering Coronavirus Mass Deaths Stage, Schools Remain Open to Spread Herd Immunity / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
In terms of the daily change in the number of infected, the UK appears to have pulled off a minor miracle as today's increase in the number of infected was substantially lower than yesterdays, only recording 152 new cases at 9am this morning against a rise of 330 yesterday. So has the UK pulled of a Coronavirus miracle? I'm afraid not because last Thursday the Government announced that it would STOP TESTING ALL THOSE INFECTED who were told to self quarantine at home and now would only be testing those who actually end up ill in hospital, which would estimate to be between 12% to 20% of those who are infected. This is AGAINST WHO recommendations of how to fight the pandemic, a message of TEST, TEST, TEST!
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Monday, March 16, 2020
Containing the Coronavirus: Chinese lessons / Politics / Pandemic
By: Dan_Steinbock
Despite containment in China, international response against the coronavirus has been lagging. So, what can be learned from the Chinese experience?As the novel coronavirus is globalizing, the very nature of the outbreak – which the World Health Organization (WHO) has now declared a global pandemic – is changing.
As the early imported cases are now being augmented with local transmissions, the novel coronavirus outbreak has moved into a new, more serious phase. That’s why March will be the critical month worldwide.
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Monday, March 16, 2020
Coronavirus HERD IMMUNITY, UK Schools NOT CLOSED as Government Follows Mad Scientist Advice / Politics / Pandemic
By: N_Walayat
The UK Governments Chief Scientific Advisor let slip the Boris Johnson Governments cunning plan to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. Apparently the plan is not to follow what every other nation is doing in attempting to contain outbreaks but instead the scientists have convinced Boris Johnson to adopt the "HERD IMMUNITY" Protocol. Which is that once at least 60% of the population has become INFECTED with the virus then they would develop an immunity and thus no longer spread the virus onto the remaining 40% or so of the population.
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Saturday, March 14, 2020
US Coronavirus Infections Going Parabolic Trend Forecast Update - Video / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
So President Trump has finally stopped referring to the Coronavirus as being fake new. This week saw the US go into full blown Coronavirus panic mode, not just in response to the series of daily stock market crashes as the markets scrambled to discount a trend that I have been warning the probability of since early February. But that the US tally of infections and deaths has now started to go parabolic, which is not because of newly infected but rather that the US programme for Coronavirus has been abysmally poor that has sown the seeds for the catastrophe that is about it take place which will manifest in a Case Fatality rate far in excess of the South Korea's 0.7% , to probably nearer to 3%.
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Saturday, March 14, 2020
UK Government Implements Coronavirus Herd Immunity Protocol, Plans for 1.4 Million Covid-19 Deaths / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The UK Governments Chief Scientific Advisor let slip the Boris Johnson Governments cunning plan to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. Apparently the plan is not to follow what every other nation is doing in attempting to contain outbreaks but instead the scientists have convinced Boris Johnson to adopt the "HERD IMMUNITY" Protocol. Which is that once at least 60% of the population has become INFECTED with the virus then they would develop an immunity and thus no longer spread the virus onto the remaining 40% or so of the population.
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Friday, March 13, 2020
UK Government Adopts "Herd Immunity" Protocol, Targeting 60% Infected and Upto 2 million Deaths / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The UK Governments Chief Scientific Advisor let slip the Boris Johnson Governments cunning plan to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. Apparently the plan is not to follow what every other nation is doing in attempting to contain outbreaks but instead the scientists have convinced Boris Johnson to adopt the "HERD IMMUNITY" Protocol. Which is that once at least 60% of the population has become INFECTED with the virus then they would develop an immunity and thus no longer spread the virus onto the remaining 40% or so of the population.
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Friday, March 13, 2020
UK Coronavirus Infected Numbers Going Parabolic - 13th March 2020 / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
"The Coronavirus is a like a bomb that just keeps exploding" says an Italian Doctor who warns if you don't get a grip early you soon lose control.
The UK government is finally starting to take the Coronavirus seriously adopting a series of panic response such as a £30 billion Coronavirus combating spending spree, trying to inflate an economy that is teetering on the brink of Coronavirus recession as global trade and consumer activity slows sharply.
The total number of infections recorded in the UK has now started to go parabolic, exceeding my trend trajectory by 173% due to increasing community spread.
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Friday, March 13, 2020
US Coronavirus Infections Going Parabolic Trend Forecast - 13th March 2020 / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
"The Coronavirus is a like a bomb that just keeps exploding" says an Italian Doctor who warns if you don't get a grip early you soon lose control.
My US trend forecast is for 13,000 infected by the end of March resulting in about 180 deaths. Though I have often warned that the actual number will turn out to be significantly higher because of lack of US action to take the Coronavirus seriously enough, where many are still shrugging it off as being not that much worse than the flu such as President Trump. Instead at best it is at least 15 times as deadly as the flu, and depending on quality of healthcare response could be 100 times as deadly.
The latest infections data has the number of infected literally going parabolic, soaring by 351 to 1,680 to well above my trend forecast.
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