CORONAVIRUS.....WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO ?

UPDATE:  Just to keep the coronavirus in some perspective, 10% of the US population (25 million) gets the flu each year and 36,000 die from it on average    


NOTHING          NADA          ZIP          ZILCH          RIEN     

It has been less than two months since this new virus has become a house-hold word and yet during this relatively short time 'The Experts' & 'The Politicians' have gone all the way from saying "nothing to see here...move along"  to Henny Penny's famous running about proclaiming "the sky is falling".

And all the while entire cities have hunkered down indoors leaving streets abandoned while the world's commercial network has virtually come to a stand-still.

So what began and still is a health matter has morphed into a social and economic catastrophe.

So how did we get where we currently are?

In the beginning the danger of this virus was sorely downplayed while today is it grossly overblown.

The Experts are calling for hospitals to "stock-up with medications" while the Politicians are telling us to "stock up basic supplies" such as food and water.

Exactly what 'medications' hospital would stock-up on is a mystery to me since no medications exist yet for this new virus.

It is all over-kill and only serves to spread panic throughout the world which they have been very successful in doing.

Which leads me back to today's solution - We Should Do Nothing.

The virus is less serious than the flu which we have contended with since the early 1700s and every year sees outbreaks of this old virus all over the world.  And yet we do not shut down whole cities and discontinue international commerce in its wake.  Granted, vaccinations exist for the flu but the same will apply soon in the case of the coronavirus virus.

Fatalities are less than they are with the flu - something around 2% and then mostly affects the elderly - which though bad enough - if the numbers were reversed...if the survival rate was 2% and the death rate 98%  then I could understand the need for panic.  But it is not.

So here we have a medical issue but you and I are needlessly turning it into social isolation and economic decline.  We are shooting ourselves in the proverbial foot.   It is like going into a hospital with and earache and asking for castes to be placed on your hands and legs.  How to make it a bad situation much, much worse.  Have we become so soft in the 21st Century that we are willing to stop living just because we might come down with flu like symptoms?

During World War Two - Londoners went underground as their City was bombarded - buildings obliterated, citizens killed and wounded.  And yet come the morning sun, they dusted themselves, stayed calm and carried on.

We, indeed the World, have been given the rare chance to emulate their courage...are we up-to-it?

As I See It...

K.D. Bell

ARE WE IN FOR ANOTHER BIG ONE ?

As in Recession ....or even  Great Recession?  Or how about a Depression or even another Great Depression?

Can't happen you might say.  But maybe, just maybe...

Yesterday, the DOW was down over a thousand points and today it again came too close to that significant number - so nearly 2,000 points down in but 2 days.  What will tomorrow or the day after bring?

It has been but 10 years since the world experienced the Great Recession - 2007/08 and some 90 years since the Great Depression and folks I can tell you things on the ground today - as we head into a new decade - look similarly bleak.

The immediate cause for this week's down-draft is the spreading of the Coronavirus.  Whole countries are shutting down and with them - economic activity is coming to a halt.  It just shows how vulnerable commerce is to outside influences in this modern, mobile age.

But there are other perhaps less serious causes for the economic retraction but all still substantial - take Donald Trump's irresponsible policies of trade war and devastating tariffs.  They hurt the USA as much as they hurt other countries.  Even the 'White House' came out recently to say that its President had been mistaken in these regards.

And then you have the Climate disasters that abound through-out the world - forest fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and twisters.  They do not just damage infrastructure - they destroy it for years on end.  Revelations makes good suggested reading.

Add to this - war and strife that too inundates world affairs.  The economy takes second-fiddle to trying to protect life and limb.

Finally, to insult to injury is the progressives' move to everything Green.  It is expensive, inefficient and takes away from serious economic activity.  Our Prime Minister - Justin Trudeau is a prophet when it comes to this nonsense and if you do not have the misfortune of living under his delusional leadership - you are indeed most fortunate.   But many other countries have also drunk the kool-aid.

And thanks to our flakey Prime Minister, we in Canada have the unique problem of our natives deliberately trying to bring our commerce to a halt - via rail, road and bridge stoppages.  All that our natives want is for the 'white man' to turn over the lands they stole... back to the Indian.  Simple as that and - dear reader - the natives have an ally in Justin.

So the question becomes not Why Are The World Economies Faltering - but, Why Did It Take So Long? ... When the World is going to Hell in a Hand-basket.

As I See It...

K.D. Bell

THE WEEK THAT WASN'T...

This week was supposed to be the week when our Federal Government ruled on whether or not Teck Resources' Frontier Project would be allowed to proceed in the Province of Alberta.

Earlier today though, the CEO of Teck came out to say his company was cancelling the project - a project that would have created 7,000 good paying jobs and would have injected over $40 Billion into Alberta's stalled economy.

Now if I was the cynical type - I would say from the above that we the taxpayer had been had.  After 10 years of fighting tooth and nail for this project - its owners come out at the 12th hour to announce that it has lost interest in it.  Pshaw !!

And I later learned that my suspicions were validated.

Some intrepid reporter found out that or Progressive overly Green Government had recently approached Teck to say that although it would approve the project later this week - it would do so with a number of conditions that would keep the project on ice for a further 10 years or more.

To understand what happened here - is to understand that had the Government imposed more restrictive conditions at this late stage - Albertans would have gone ballistic.  Fuel would have been added to the ever-growing separatist feelings.

By having Teck do its dirty work - it at least dulled the impact and at the same time - keeps its stranglehold on their progressive, tree-hugging followers.

But now we know the rest of the story - my apologizes to the late Paul Harvey.  Teck was tipped off and knew full well their project - after 10 years was dead on arrival.

Or do we know the rest of the story...Perhaps only part.

Again call me a cynic - but what would you do if you were the head of Teck and Young Trudeau's thugs came to you to tell you a decision would be forthcoming but with a number of conditions that could not be possibly met?

If you are anything like me - you would not issue a last minute statement to say your company was pulling up stakes.   Why - you's let the Federal Government render its divisive statement and then you would announce your pull-out.

Teck says that it has lost over a billion dollars on this futile project ....I wonder how much of that the Feds will cover-off?  Nothing else makes sense.

Our Government makes Trump and an company look like amateurs.

As I See It...

K.D. Bell