The Democrats should immediately take a page out if Trump’s playbook and turn it around on him. If they don’t want to flat out hold him accountable for the virus itself (a move of the sort he’d make on them and already has), they can and should hold him accountable for failure to respond to a crisis and making it far worse under his watch. Make it rhetorically powerful. Say, “Trump has created this disaster.” The Dems should all be on this in unison, right now. Blame him directly for the cratering stock market too. He certainly took credit for its rise. Now make him take the fall. Go after him, relentlessly.
7
We, man, know what we know but it's what we don't know that gets us in trouble….Could this be one more example?…...
Maybe man has "messed with Mother Nature" once too often……AND
She has decided that enough is enough………...
3
The American people have suffered through 4 years of lies, criminality and destruction of our country. And they are about to suffer more now through incompetence, stupidity and neglect.
But there is the hope of a silver lining. A few, in fact.
First, the oligarchs who own the republican senators and give them their marching orders (back trump!) have no allegiance to this or any country. Just their money. As the stock market falls - and I hope it crashes through the floor - and *their* wallets are affected, they may very well decide to cut their losses by dumping trump and installing pence. He takes orders even better than trump and is at least marginally more sane.
Second, as those in the Kult are most affected by layoffs, loss of jobs, and are hit harder by the virus because of untreated medical conditions, some of those several millions of former Obama voters may return to the fold.
Third, as hundreds of thousands of Americans sicken, but do not seek help because they either have no insurance or can't afford to use the insurance they have due to very high deductibles and co-pays - M4A will seem a lot less like socialism and a lot more like common sense.
3
What is most troubling is that covid-19 is actually not as deadly as people fear and yet it is already causing massive economic disruptions.
Imagine if a far deadlier virus comes along. The global economy would collapse within days, not months.
We’re not ready for something like this, but perhaps this is our opportunity to learn and make changes, before an even bigger threat appears.
5
It’s looking pretty good to me!
1
Sorry. I don't have enough money to worry about the "Market".
I hope they all (meaning, the top 10%) choke on it.
3
They say – ”buy on rumors, sell in news"
In case of Wuhan–it is ”sell on rumors, but on news –may be, if you survive the irrational plunge.”
Of course, the markers will react but as often is the case – they overreact, which seems to be the case here.
Folks below –making comments on POTUS alone – hopefully, will give him a break –when in less than 3 weeks –the markets will break another record.
I have said this before –where is UN when we really need to have a global response – and more importantly, ask China to explain these periodic outbreaks every decade or so.
First, the H1N1, then SARS in early 2000's and now Wuhan.
I think the Security Council should hold an emergency meeting as this epidemic could be as bad as any global threats of wars.
I think the Council should pass a resolution holding China responsible and demand a road map to curtail what appears to be a breeding ground of these viruses – illegal markets of wild animals for human consumption.
A Council resolution even if vetoed by China will have a force that the world is speaking in one voice and is holding China responsible.
The H1N1 was first detected in the United States.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html
3
They say – ”buy on rumors, sell in news"
In case of Wuhan–it is ”sell on rumors, but on news –may be, if you survive the irrational plunge.”
Of course, the markers will react but as often is the case – they overreact, which seems to be the case here.
Folks below –making comments on POTUS alone – hopefully, will give him a break –when in less than 3 weeks –the markets will break another record.
I have said this before –where is UN when we really need to have a global response – and more importantly, ask China to explain these periodic outbreaks every decade or so.
First, the H1N1, then SARS in early 2000's and now Wuhan.
I think the Security Council should hold an emergency meeting as this epidemic could be as bad as any global threats of wars.
I think the Council should pass a resolution holding China responsible and demand a road map to curtail what appears to be a breeding ground of these viruses – illegal markets of wild animals for human consumption.
A Council resolution even if vetoed by China will have a force that the world is speaking in one voice and is holding China responsible.
As Pence would say, "Corona Beer Virus is God's message to the evil doers. And now that I'm in charge of science, I put it in His hands."
Trump replies, "No, no, no, no, how about the stock market and my ratings?"
3
They say – ”buy on rumors, sell in news"
In case of Wuhan–it is ”sell on rumors, but on news –may be, if you survive the irrational plunge.”
Of course, the markers will react but as often is the case – they overreact, which seems to be the case here.
Folks below –making comments on POTUS alone – hopefully, will give him a break –when in less than 3 weeks –the markets will break another record.
I have said this before –where is UN when we really need to have a global response – and more importantly, ask China to explain these periodic outbreaks every decade or so.
First, the H1N1, then SARS in early 2000's and now Wuhan.
I think the Security Council should hold an emergency meeting as this epidemic could be as bad as any global threats of wars.
I think the Council should pass a resolution holding China responsible and demand a road map to curtail what appears to be a breeding ground of these viruses – illegal markets of wild animals for human consumption.
A Council resolution even if vetoed by China will have a force that the world is speaking in one voice and is holding China responsible.
I guess this is Obama's fault as well because the bucks always stops with him.
1
Oh, grow up! The stock market has been overinflated for years. I've commented on it here before. It's got nothing to do with coronavirus, which is just a poor excuse. Hopefully, the bubble will deflate back to a normal level and those who drove it up will not foul the air with their weeping
The losers are not those corporate yellers, but the little guys who got driven into this mess. As usual.
3
We're nearing a crisis situation. The reality show actor playing president needs to exit the stage, so a real president (Obama) can take over and manage the situation. Please, for all our sakes.
3
Let’s be real about what’s happening here:
Donald Trump and his enablers are willing to perpetuate his fraudulent presidency at the cost of American lives. No death count is too high.
4
Trump said he lifted the markets to their glorious heights. Guess what, Trump brought them down as well!!!
5
First, if you have a long term investment strategy, stick with it. The shares you acquire in the next few weeks will be had at a discount.
Second, this proves the utter silliness of the Great Man theory of the economy. How easy would it be to pull up a quote of Trump bragging in the past two months about how he has handled the economy? And now he says (lies) that he has a plan to handle the virus.
He's a riverboat gambler...brag about the economy until something goes wrong. Then brag about his response in hopes that the problem straightens itself out. If so, "I told you so!!!" If not, "The losers in the Deep State are trying to sabotage me!!!"
Really, the most galling thing about Trump is his laziness.
6
Muzzling the doctors and scientists is to go full-on ministry of propaganda.
5
No worries, Pence is in full control and Trump knows the virus will fade away soon....
3
Just confirmed on our 6pm news that New Zealand has its first case of corona virus. A 60 year old returning from Iran.
3
So people are getting rich more slowly because of this virus. Well boo hoo. Some of us will never qualify for a mortgage anyway. I’ll go back to eating my Cheerios.
1
Two countries in wars - one commercial with China the second real with Iran - with this administration, suddenly got the virus first. What a coincidence (?)
Trump just lost his major talking point.
5
Now Trump is shown for the Charlatan he is...He thinks he can control the Markets...well he is wrong. The appointment of Pence will only make it worse. People who invest are not stupid and they know that we need Scientists involved, and not a cover-up, but the truth. Until this Administration is gone we will all be lied to repeatedly or controlled. Which do you prefer?
53
You must tend to the garden as spring arrives with deadly new weeds. A smaller garden will still produce enough to carry you through to the new season.
The President lied to us about the spread of the virus. The Wall Street plunge is just a preview of a Trump second term.
2
DJ Trump, like the little boy who cried wolf, seems to have exposed his lack of credibility. I wonder if his own support is fracturing.
4
I really wonder if germaphobe Trump playing down the Coronavirus has anything to do with the fact that he owns a bunch of golf clubs and hotels and doesn't want to risk losing any income....
6
Finally we reap the fruits of the idiotocracy.
3
Will Donald Trump be blubbering at funerals or sending Jared and Ivanka dressed in b.ack? How much will that show cost?
If this election is based on portfolios, and we are sure for many, that is exactly true, we are worse off more than imaginable.
Isn’t “the love of money the root of all evil”?
3
I believe that this is partly a rethink of our global supply system that requires trade to happen smoothly and without interruptions. The immediate cause is the corona virus but if it had not been that it would eventually have been something else. With China having become the maker of so many things any disruptions there are bound to disrupt the entire system.
Of course having a clueless, lying grifter who thinks only of himself in the White House puts the US in an even worse position, but that horse has already bolted. There was a reason that we formerly valued honesty and competence in our leaders and it is unfortunate that no longer seems to apply.
5
Jim Dickinson
The other problem with outsourcing everything to countries like China is that almost all our our country’s response equipment comes from outside our borders: PPE (N-95 masks, gowns, etc) medications, and viral testing kits or their components. It was an issue of concern when H1N1 was a threat, but nothing has been done about it. When there are pandemics or other international emergencies (could be weather or whatever, use your imagination) countries stop producing these vital materials or they hold on to them for their own use. We are extremely vulnerable because we make very little of what is needed in our own country.
2
I would like to thank Nancy Pelosi for sounding the alarm and pointing out that more funds would be needed for the immediate emergency, especially since Trump is always gutting our fact-based and safety infrastructure. I also think that if our economy had a better safety net and the wealthy were paying taxes our pensions might be less vulnerable to the roller coaster speculation of Wall Street. Our economy is more than Wall Street. Crises like this one are bound to happen. What can we do besides buy stuff we don't need to keep the economy going? How well prepared are we to help our people or other countries during this health crisis? The Trump administration is not trustworthy in a crisis. To put it mildly.
4
Dr. Conde
Yes, I agree. And that ONE TRILLION dollar deficit makes us even more vulnerable, unable to respond to national emergencies, let alone address our infrastructure, education and healthcare issues.
2
Our would-be king may yet be humbled... by a virus wearing a crown.
5
And uh, what is the price of a human life on the stock exchange? Trump seems to care about Wall Street more than main streets.
4
How about tightening the circuit breakers ?
How about suspending program trading for a while....this is very destructive to the US economy.
2
Trump has been mortgaging the country's future with his trillion dollar deficits and now it looks like the bill is going to come due early as a result of the coronavirus. At least this will eliminate him and his ilk from our political process.
5
As usual, countless people will comment about the need for change, how much the GOP has destroyed the country, what a mess the Trump White House has been, the utter and stupendous incompetence and ignorance of Donald Trump and on and on about the need for systemic change. Along comes Bernie offering suggestions for systemic change. Obvious suggestions that nearly everyone supports but the the GOP yells "socialism" and like Manchurian Candidates, everyone starts bashing the person with the message of change - Bernie. Bernie is, was and always will be America's best hope at this precarious intersection. Bash him and vote for one of the other losers or the biggest loser, Trump, at your own peril. But the truly unfortunate part is it is at my peril too.
4
President Trump: Just what do you think is an acceptable number of American deaths, when you have no bench strength of scientists, when you have dismantled the American public health system, when you don’t believe scientists but go with your weird instincts instead – so just what will you be saying in your alternative universe next week? The wall?
5
How about everyone do a refi of their mortgage ?
Negative interest rates, welcome to America
1
The market is NOT the economy. Life goes on for the working stiffs.. and frankly it is past high time for a correction which has not even really happened.
The FED which has propped up Wall Street for years with the super low interest rates... should raise interest rates... finally....
Speculation is NOY good for the soul and right now TESLA self driving cars are not good for the body.
Finally, we need a market fall... and frankly, I don't care do you?
Go earn your money honestly not by going short or long or all around town. And stop ordering via Amazon. There are alternatives.
2
The economy was weak in the first, this will kill it. Without a repeal of the last tax cut and an infusion of more money than the administration is willing to give will end in a disaster.
4
At this time, It's a terrible feeling to have a willfully clueless leader spouting nonsensical predictions. The energy spent on window dressing, silencing whistle-blowers* and promoting half-baked theories is insane and dangerous. We are under threat of an epidemic that scientists and disease experts are still working to deconstruct. Transparency and facts are desperately needed.
* (It is mind-blowing how the Trump administration exposed an untold number of people to the coronavirus and then tried to cover it up by silencing the messenger.)
6
So the money gusher has slowed down a bit and the greedy have to wait a bit longer for their get rich schemes to cash out. Meanwhile in the everyday world people keep eating Cheerios.
2
For years, we have wondered when the viruses would get "angry" about the behavior of the Homosapien species...? Maybe this hint will get our attention. There many more of them than there are of us.
1
Well. We knew he'd bankrupt the country sooner or later. If he'd just stop lying, people wouldn't panic so much. He didn't cause the virus, he just causes all the angst.
3
Trump has been the luckiest person for almost four years. It seems the law of averages has caught up with him. Since Trump has hollowed our all of the government replacing them with toadies and family members, we are all in for a rocky ride. No one revels in a disaster hitting the US and the rest of the world but here we are and Trump will not save anyone including himself.
4
Will somebody please do a story explaining what the loss of the White House pandemic experts and others throughout the federal bureaucracy means to us? What work to mitigate such a health disaster is not being done? What holes are not being filled, and what expertise was lost. What do foreign health officials say about this loss? Maybe then we will all know the deadly peril of Trump’s hubris.
5
@Concerned Veteran
Reporters HAVE done stories on exactly what you're asking about. Here's just one:
Trump Has Sabotaged America’s Coronavirus Response
As it improvises its way through a public health crisis, the United States has never been less prepared for a pandemic.
By Laurie Garrett | January 31, 2020
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/31/coronavirus-china-trump-united-states-public-health-emergency-response/
4
It brings me no schadenfreude because the market tanking's not good for me either, but they bought the government they wanted. Sorry no refunds.
1
If this is what it takes for the world to reduce its consumption of resources, so be it.
2
Why does it seem like the market is looking for an excuse to collapse? Why was it going up for so long - and why fall now when there are so many other disturbing trends? Not least of which is the increasing paranoia and desperation of Trump as reality catches up with him. Can he finish destroying America before his own failings take him down?
1
Taking what's left of my winnings tonight and going home before I end with less than I started with. Will wait for a bottom. March and October are historically bad months for stocks. Trump's response to this situation is horrific.
3
That Trump’s driven to advance himself by any words or actions necessary, has emphatically convinced, even his most loyal followers that he dishonest and self-serving. Now, when Trump desperately needs credibility to calm fears about the Coronavirus, he isn’t believed. And worse, his ongoing pattern of doubling down on false information is only adding jet fuel to feed the flames of panic.
3
In a few weeks or months we will probably learn that some "rogue" trader gambled billions on the stock market continuing its rise, and lost.
1
Trump 2020 is a reprise of Bush 2008. The corona virus is a detail. The main event is debt-fueled so-called "growth" comprised of stuffing money into the pockets of crooked investment bankers on the one hand, and the 1% on the other. It will be a blessing if these chickens actually do come home to roost at the doorstep of Mr. Trump and his enablers. I remain skeptical that they will pay the price they truly deserve. Losing elections is the least of it, but that would be a good start.
3
This economic drop reflects more than the coronavirus threat. it is the stark realization that Donald Trump's economic and trade policies; his isolationist, predatory lapse into the past, are not positive change for the world economy. The economies of the world are responding to him, not a simple virus.
3
Patrick Stevens
Well said.
Isn't this always what happens when the Republicans are allowed to dominate the management of the economy for too long?
They always create a boom through irresponsible tax cuts for their donors and when the inevitable bust follows the Democrats regain control of the government long enough to bail out Wall Street by going further into debt or boost the economy the way Roosevelt did in the 1930s, which was a better solution.
If it wasn't the coronavirus it would be something else. Overpriced stocks and foolish speculation always ends in the same result.
Its called the boom and bust cycle.
4
Robert Skull
It is similar to the housing and financial meltdown that Obama inherited from the Republicans in 2008. The Republicans deregulated so much that protected those sectors. The banks were gambling with house money and taking great risks. We were in financial free fall - people were losing their homes and banks were failing. The Trumpsters forget all of this. Obama brought our country back from the brink. And he did it without creating a ONE TRILLION dollar deficit. With that deficit, our country is extremely vulnerable to national disasters and emergencies, above and beyond being unable to address infrastructure, educational, and healthcare needs.
2
How much computer software is responsible for the stock market dive? Not that individuals are not concerned, but cascades like this can be precipitated or prolonged by software, no?
Hope the media doesn't send folks into a tizzy. I remember when the Dow broke 2000. (I'm not that old, even though I did actually used the word "tizzy".)
It's all relative. A 1000 point drop back then would have been 50% and "It's 1929 all over again!". Now the Dow loss is at 3-4%. It could be worse.
It is hard to convince Trump supporters of facts, but this is yet one more clear indication that Mr. Trump has little influence over stock-market prices. Nothing in the economy has changed; the week's decline seems to be merely a psychological reaction to the Corona-virus epidemic. Likewise, the last three-plus years of rising stock prices simply parallel and continue the rise during the Obama years, in spite of huge presidential-policy differences. Mr. Trump's economic policies have little to do with this; if anything his trade 'wars' make things worse for US consumers: import taxes ultimately raise prices of consumer goods. I conclude that there is no factual reason to believe the economy has been seriously affected by Trump policies.
The catastrophic results of Tump's foreign policy, as well as his persistent authoritarian, childish and non-presidential behavior, seem to me to make it necessary to put an end to his presidency. Unfortunately this cannot occur before November 2020.
2
@David
I agree with much of what you have said, but I don’t think the market’s reaction is purely psychological.
The disruption in supply chains is real, and, even if the virus is contained quickly, those disruptions will ripple through the global economy.
I think the market is also realizing how fragile some supply chains really are. Trump is the worst President in modern history and his trade “policy” is haphazard and reckless, but our dependence on manufactured goods from a country controlled by an authoritarian regime is problematic at best.
4
I guess that Markets weren't listening to Trump's Press Conference when he assured us that THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION has everything under control. No wait.....the Markets were listening but understood that Trump is more interested in spin than reality.
3
Maybe the virus initiated the precipitous stock market fall, but now it’s falling on its own momentum, almost like a chemical reaction feeds on its own heat of reaction. Both are difficult to contain.
2
Having a fragmented for profit health system is this country will now rear its ugly head. In all likelihood insurance rates will skyrocket out of sight. There will very likely be other outbreaks such as the one we are experiencing now, in the future, which makes an excellent case for a national health system. One to actually fight the bug and second to coordinate the research and studies needed and third to keep an event such as this from "breaking the bank". Just a thought.
12
Look for at least a 40% drop from the top. I have been telling everyone since January first to buy the SPXS up about 20% so far this year. It is a way to hedge.
NYC real estate will crash.
3
A month ago, the World Health Organization stated that:
- all countries should be prepared for containment, including active surveillance, early detection, isolation and case management, and prevention of onward spread of the virus.
-Countries should place particular emphasis on reducing human infection, prevention of secondary transmission and international spread and contributing to the international response though multi-sectoral communication and collaboration and active participation in increasing knowledge on the virus and the disease, as well as advancing research.
-Of confirmed cases, 25% are severe.
Yet in early February, Trump's proposed FY-2021 budget cut the CDC's discretionary budget authority by $1.3 billion compared with fiscal 2020 -- a 19% cut -- including $25 million from public health preparedness and response outlays.
Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, particularly decried the proposed cuts to public health agencies, noting that "The spread of the coronavirus is evidence that we need a strong permanent defense system to stop threats before they start and contain them when they do."
Instead of focusing on the virus, getting scientists together to solve this global pandemic, Trump held 7 campaign stops after WHO issued its warning.
Bottom line:
With Trump at the helm, the U.S. is and will be woefully unprepared for containment and prevention of onward spread of this infectious disease.
29
How does NAFTA and the global outsourcing in the name of greed look now as the need for real stuff we need manufactured for managing this pandemic is all manufactured overseas or in China?
9
If it was due to NAFTA, as you claim, couldn’t we get the manufactured goods we need from Mexico? I shouldn’t have even engaged, but I can’t help noticing when people aren’t even self-consistent when it comes to logic.
1
One of the lessons large manufacturing businesses will hopefully learn from the coronavirus epidemic is to diversify their supply chains. We are excessively dependent on Chinese manufacturing sites. With tight supply times, a week of downtime can affect the whole manufacturing system for many companies.
14
Strangely, it feels as if it wasn't all that long ago that interest rates were double-digits high, while stock prices were at the bottom of the barrel. I've heard someone say: time flies when you're having fun!
3
Interest rates have not been double digit since the 1980s. Not sure what you are talking about.
@Andy Hain - As one frog said to another frog - Time’s fun when you’re having flies.
The American public will never blame a stock market crash, recession or economic depression on the economic policies of "Trumpublicans". After all, everything was going fine until Corona showed up. Therefore, Corona gets the blame and the people will buy that.
This maybe the luckiest break that Trump and Republicans could have expected. And if the economy does crater, how much would you like to bet that Trumpublicans will again use it to demand more tax breaks for corporations and the rich, and more spending cuts that benefit the middle class?
8
So there are over 7.6 billion people in the world. If 40 to 70 percent of them get the virus, as some health experts have suggested, and 2 percent of those die, then that's a potential 60+ million to 100+ million deaths.
That more death than World War II, the deadliest war in human history.
No wonder governments are locking down entire cities. And no wonder stocks are selling off. This is likely just the beginning.
There's a lot of information suppression going on in China and the United States. People need to know the truth about this.
15
Be prepared for the worst. But don’t assume the worst. We have contained every potential pandemic outbreak in recent history and hopefully we will do the same now.
9
Mr. Trump: Where is that 6% GDP growth? Is it in the mail, along with Mexico's check for the wall? Is this how your tax cut pays for itself?
24
Why does Matt Phillips say that coronavirus cases in Italy "rose to 14"?! It's been in the hundreds. And coronavirus as a class is not novel, just this particular variant.
4
Of course, this coronavirus is not intentional, but it has become a simulation of a biological weapon, as a result. We are learning a horrible lesson.
2
Coronavirus a shock to the global financial system. President Trump claims nothing to worry about with VP Mike Pence in charge of pest control. Trump only concerned with the US stock markets and his hotel empire full of empty rooms. Now he can stop worrying about Sanders or meeting any real people.
14
Folks really need to remember that China would have a much higher rate of infection and mortality than we do.
Their air is extremely polluted and many are smokers—-not filtered cigarettes either. So the average Chinese set of lungs is probably more deteriorated than the average us citizen. Their is also no real,public health care system. Medical services are only available to those with the ability to,pay so many probably went without. Then we have to recognize how aggressively we treat our patients versus the rest of the world in first class medical settings with every aid at the ready——even as simple as rehydration of the patients with dimple IV fluids.
5
Are you taking into account the number of Americans without health insurance and no ability to cover even a $500 unexpected bill. So these people are going to get that first class healthcare the second they feel ill? Not a chance, the market is finally realistically factoring in the cost of treating a potential outbreak on our economy. I have told people since January that you can have an economy or health. To effectively control the spread you have to sacrifice your economy but you can’t have both.
5
Unhappy JD
Our health care system and public health care system is extremely vulnerable. Who knows how much surge capacity there is left in the system with so many cuts to funding, including the CDC (our primary epidemiology and outbreak experts) and the downsizing of our emergency medical systems due to profit driven cuts by Big Pharma and the Healthcare Insurance Juggernaut.
2
This will continue until a vaccine for the corona virus is invented. And they've said that will take a year. A lot can happen to the economy in a year. Air New Zealand has offered giveaway tickets to fly from NZ to Australia because everyone is staying put and not travelling. Travel bans are affecting airlines, tourism and has a domino effect on the economy. Same for exports. Maybe people are getting out of shares and putting their money into gold or property. It's speculating for capital gains as people can see no increase in share prices until a vaccine is invented, as companies annual profits will be down because of the coronavirus.
6
I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But there have been no successful coronavirus vaccines produced. Hence why we have no cure for the common cold. A realistic estimate would be closer 18 month to 2 years and that’s if they are able to over come that lack of immunity as shown in other trials for SARS
8
It probably won’t be a vaccine which ends the spread of coronavirus, but containment strategies. Much like SARS.
4
Travel should be ban by all members of the US government. Since traveling to foreign countries is a perk of the job, on the public ticket and possess a major threat and it could visit the White House very quickly. The markets were very much overpriced and the likelihood of some event to bring about a "correction" was there. I thought it would be something political, which it is, but with a deadly virus out there, it really amps up the downturn..
2
I don’t really understand stocks at the scale being talked about here. I think they are a rigged game designed to benefit the biggest investors. It seems to me that it is a lot better to invest in a small business that you personally know and believe in. I did that two years ago and my investment is now worth at least four times what I paid for it. I don’t trust businesses I don’t know to handle my money.
12
So you are saying we should not diversify and invest in a single business.
@Ben Bad on you to accept a paltry 200% annual increase in your investment. You need to get into the game with the big boys if you want to make some serious money.
When the president sends out Larry Kudlow to opine on medical matters, you know where his priorities lie. Trump is fixated on the stock market, and even that only because his real fixation is re-election. We've known for a long time that everything is all about Mr. Trump, no matter the damage to every other institution, national security, or, now, national health. He is not a leader, but a politician of the worst kind, obsessed with self-interest over public service.
33
I'm not trying to make trouble, but practically writing, if your pension savings were invested in the market, then sent to overseas countries where you can't get them back, and the market is never rational being human driven, and if there was a run, the markets would automatically stop selling, leaving you at the mercy of the markets that might continue a collapse leaving you nothing at all, why would you invest in the markets? The term "Globalization" duped you all.
2
I like people who use their computers and cellphones to complain about globalization.
1
The fires in Australia since September and the disease COVID-19 have been bad enough for us over here. Unfortunately we humans can only digest 1 or 2 variables at a time; imagine a third lot of bad news landing in our laps now. It doesn't really bare thinking about. Think I will go and wash my hands like the good doctors recommended.
10
I heard that you guys in Western Australia didn’t have bad fires because you invested a lot more into preventing them. Any truth to that?
I am so proud, as I am sure they are too, that the US and International investor class has suddenly taken to the idea of selling and unloading their money into Treasury Bonds. It means the bond yield is rapidly declining. It also means that each increment of decline is further diminishing the opportunities for regular people to obtain reasonable mortgage rates for home purchases. And with home mortgages being a primary economic indicator, the investor class also is being so thoughtful about our economic health during this pandemic. (all scarcasm)
5
The markets have been full of hot air for some time now. The drop is overdue and may still go further. It will not hurt the life of the moguls who are in power but may bring hardship to the middle class and the poorest of us. We have a growing deficit that is far out of scale with our GDP, held up by Fed policies of virtually free money.
Higher costs for health care will be the greatest impact of the corona virus with its absurd system of financing, one of waste and profit, seen as an industry not as a service for all citizens.
Our government is led by a would be tyrant who decide on the basis of his gut feelings and scorns any analysis and facts that are contrary to its rumblings.
Trump will be be elected regardless of any problems because he has a strong hold on the minority that rules us and the support of religious groups who seek power over women, minorities and those seeking to live the truth of who they are.
Let's hope the two term limit will help us recover from the damage that is being wrought upon our democracy and the future of our planet
15
@Al Manzano The two term limit cuts both ways. Though it limits the damage someone like a Trump can do to the system, it also limits the best long term interests of the nation. America is yet to have a truly coherent and forward looking energy policy other than what the big energy companies have subsidized with their influence peddling.
The political process, that is American, is best summarized by one step forward, two steps back.
5
Some reports say low mortality rates prove low risk. But would you get on a 16 hour flight to Asia right now?
7
I would. Maybe, if I’m lucky, there will be a cheap rate to Japan. I’ve always wanted to go there.
4
no mortality is not suffering treatment needs etc. you might be luckyvand have a good immune system but bigger chance not.
Perhaps the markets would be less jittery if the US didn’t have a self-absorbed carnival barker as president.
49
If you can get a 4-5% dividend on the stocks of solid companies, while the 10-year Treasury is paying 1.25%, I can guarantee you that the market will not stay down for long. Sure, the virus is bad, but you can get used to anything, just as long as you think you have a clear understanding of what's going on.
There is a lot of capital running around loose, looking for something to invest in. In the markets of today, it can move with lightning speed.
7
@Jonathan So right I saw that Boeing stock was a real bargain and they will be to big to fail. Guess what the market is not coming back that quick. Be greedy and then don't whine when you lose it all. Have a friend it all in 08 his financial adviser got him to get in and now figures lost a good bit again. Said to him if you want to be stupid. I am 74 so spare me about the great market it crashes big time every nine to ten years. Seems half he jobs must be financial adviser, Brokerage, banks they have billions of shares and they make their money bu unloading worthless paper on everyone. You seem to forget how 08 came about. The virus is the excuse the US fundamentals are not good. Hey, but listen to the King only bankrupt four times or tv commentator Kudlow this government hires fakes from tv. I am sure Kudlow is dumping away hey he will sell you some stock. Also most of the companies shares are way over overpriced, but that is what they did with the tax cut buy back so it drives their compensation up. I may not make alot, but I don't lose my shirt.Jim Trautman
I’m confused. Didn’t the latest Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Rush Limbaugh, say that the Coronavirus is really just the common cold? Perhaps Trump should have let Pence sleep in and put Limbaugh in charge of the Coronavirus response instead.
51
@Julio Wong One indisputable fact is that lies will not make problems, including cancer, go away.
Limbaugh should put that on his tombstone.
I’ve been reading the up-to-date medical literature on Coronavirus from reputable sources. Right now, the mortality rate is considered to be somewhere between 1.5 to 3 percent. That sounds high, but early on in health epidemics there is something called the “tip of the iceberg” phenomenon where the worst cases are focused on and mild and asymptomatic cases are ignored. That makes sense, when you consider that most people with no symptoms don’t have any reason to report it, and people with mild symptoms often think they just have a cold or flu. But, as a result of this, the data is skewed and the mortality rate is calculated to be much higher than it actually is. In contrast, we now believe SARS to have had a mortality rate of about 10 percent. Much, much higher than the actual mortality of Coronavirus is likely to be. Yet there is more hysteria about Coronavirus than I remember there being about SARS. Perhaps the pernicious influence of hysteria-generating social media is to blame?
9
@Ben That reporting behavior is already factored into the mortality rate.
5
@zorba: How? We have no way of knowing what percentage of cases are severe at this point, as we have no idea what the total number of cases is. According to the Harvard Medical Review, the Chinese cases suggest a mortality rate of up to 3 percent. But they deliberately caution that number hasn’t taken into account the tip of the iceberg effect. It will end up being higher than the flu, I assume, which is about a tenth of one percent. But still a lot less than SARS, even if the numbers hold, which they probably won’t. The experts are already suggesting that most people have mild or no symptoms. Which can be a blessing and a curse, as it makes it harder to control the spread of outbreaks.
3
@Ben The coronavirus is more transmissible and spreading much faster and wider than SARS. Thus the concern, even if SARS had a lower mortality rate.
8
how about a simple description of what symptoms a healthy adult can expect if they get infected?
3
Fever, dry cough, and trouble breathing are the most common symptoms. In the most dangerous cases pneumonia can develop. Some people have reported gastrointestinal flu-like symptoms before the respiratory symptoms begin, but Coronavirus is primarily a respiratory virus. Dry cough is common this time of year, so don’t get too scared if that’s your only symptom. If you have a fever, it’s a good idea to go to the doctor regardless. The virus has an incubation period of up to two weeks, but most people show symptoms within five days. Whether or not people who are asymptomatic are contagious isn’t fully known yet.
12
@Ben
Imagine a televised Trump rally where suddenly a few loyal Trump fans begin hacking, coughing and sneezing right behind our germaphobic Commander in Chief? How fast would he exit? Do you think Trump would avoid rallies as the Coronavirus spreads?
There is a pandemic. Thousands have died. There is an economic crisis. And the stock market is in free fall. But the main subject of discussion is Trump. What a sorry state of things.
14
If we had a competent president, people wouldn’t be worried about the presidential response. That’s on Trump.
32
Trump owns this and the CDC mismanagement train wreck that has resulted from his gutting eh organization last year. Its as if Trump wants a big outbreak to occur. Perhaps the Russians have provided him with modeled numbers showing more loss of life in urban Dem areas than in rural GOP areas?
14
That would not surprise me at all!
Those who live by the Dow die by the Dow.
Thnx "The Donald"
Putting VP Pence in charge of a task force on the Corona Virus was like putting Fred Flinstsone in charge of nuclear research.
Trump cut the CDC and NIH and the central coordinating organization in the White House that was installed before Trump took office. Those federal resources and brain power were in place for exactly what we are experiencing right now.
Time for new leadership. Overdue time for new leadership.
46
There is financial capital. And human capital. And gold loves tragedy.
13
Although few of us have personal investments, we're all invested in the market working well. Good government has a role. Especially in times of crisis.
We're confronting an equal opportunity pathogen wreaking havoc across the world. We have government employees with expertise to mitigate its effects, but they are hobbled by a thoroughly dysfunctional and corrupt administration, under the leadership of a willfully ignorant and foolish man.
The Trump administration serves solely to enforce the president's worst impulses. It is treating this crisis as a public relations problem, to be solved by restricting the flow of information. Exactly the opposite of what is needed. The situation also puts the GOP's disastrously misplaced priorities center stage. We can limp along and hopefully we'll get lucky. But maybe this is the reality check we need to say Never Trump, and really mean it.
I think, Elizabeth Warren is the president we need right now. Her experience as a regulator and a legislator. Her intelligence and knowledge. And most importantly, her relentlessly fact driven engagement. We know she'd have a plan for emergency preparation and response. Ahead of time.
27
Hey you all....what else should we be doing right now. Need to figure this out before we start pointing fingers.
Warren is an ideologue who turns off many people who has no real life experience except as an ivory tower elitist law professor and litigator.
@Unhappy JD
Warren's personal history of financial insecurity was her impetus to get educated and her experience in the legal profession was her impetus to become an activist. She has been on the front lines of fighting against the abuses of the finance industry.
I think the myth of the 'ivory tower vs the real world' is perpetuated by people who would rather keep you in the dark. Like Trump saying 'I love the uneducated' and then bragging on the schools he went to.
Knowing stuff is good. It takes both common sense and education.
And by the way, a big shout-out to the Republican senators who made all of this necessary.
32
@jr, Yes, and let's give a big hand to Devin Nunes in the poorest part of California where the people are drinking tainted water, choking on pollution, and to Mitch down in Kentucky. I'm sure his constituents feel great, knowing he's all in for DJT and his genius public health efforts. They'll be fine in KY if the virus hits them, but it doesn't look good for the poor folks in the San Joaquin.
The virus is spreading in airplanes, the people must use face mask while traveling
1
@Joseph
Face masks won’t stop viruses but a face mask could keep a contagious person from sneezing and coughing from spreading viruses to others.
Trump’s base never had money to gamble in the stock market, they only suffer from coronavirus.
6
This of course has one sole and unique culprit: Donald John Trump. He is responsible also for the alignment or lack thereof of unknown large quantities of celestial bodies all over the visible and invisible universe(s).
5
He claimed credit daily at his rallies for an economic boom that started 7 years before he took office. But somehow magically a bust that happens well into his term in office is not his fault. Very convenient.
27
Tomorrow watch Rachel Maddows online to see her program from today. At least, she tells the truth about this virus (and this site do too)
10
@Christine
Democracy Now from 2/27 has excellent coverage.
3
@Christine I love Rachel. She was always on the money regarding Russian meddling and time will prove her right.
lol. Trump wants to edit all the news regarding the virus before it goes to press. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are a novelty to him. Give the man a sharpie and he can even change the weather. God help us all.
10
I can't wait to see who Trump pushes under the bus? Looks like Pence, another stable genius will take the Corona fall.
9
Mike Pence is in charge of the crisis not because he's a doctor. But he's now the spin doctor.
8
Everyone I’ve ever known, have always been wrong about everything they have ever predicted about the Stock Market..from Nobel Laureates to the common financial advisers ..you might as read tea leaves!
4
Ever see Darren Aronofsky’s first movie, the low budget cult film “Pi?” It was about a genius mathematician who went insane trying to come up with the equation(s) that govern the stock market. Great movie. Great theme.
1
What if?......
This is at least (in part) a serious correction coupled with the beginning of a long overdue recession..and of course stoked by this Coronavirus..and again being disguised by this virus. Asking for a friend.
4
This is now the Trump Economy! It took a while for the GOP tax scam of 2017 to do its damage but it’s happening right now! 2019 saw more household credit card debt than ever, 2019 was a record for farm bankruptcies, 2019 had a record number of car loan defaults and student loan defaults.
The tax scam of 2017 was the socialist Republican Party giving away money to the 1% and corporations, growth was going to keep our economy robust but corporations bought back their own stock, never invested in infrastructure or their employees and the growth isn’t going to happen. Speaking of infrastructure.....we have no money for it because we gave it all to corporations. We may not be putting a man on Mars but the GOP deficit is skyrocketing way past it to another universe. Trumps failed trade wars caused the socialist Republicans to take our hard earned tax dollars and give farmers free money! Farmers are actually calling it “Trump Dollars”.
The GOP wants to cut healthcare, wants to cut social security, 45% of baby boomers have zero dollars saved for retirement. The “unemployment” numbers are skewed because lots of people just gave up looking for work and/or are underemployed.
The markets were going to tank, the powder was in the keg, corona virus was just some extra gasoline to get it burning quicker. The GOP has done it again!!!!!
25
During the financial crsis in 2008 we all learned who the traders were part of the problem betting against the economy. I am sure that the hedge,futures managers are doing the same thing. They are putting money in their own pockets while the 401k is beign destroyed.
Fool us on a regularly basis and even a dense person with limited understanding of Wall street realizes that there are winners and looser. It is always the public who are looser..
So once again Wall Street is doing in the people who need their 401k's
That is why we need Warren or Bernie. Bernie talks about taxing people who speculate on stock, this is a perfect example of managers who are speculating and making money.
The American people are not stupid so NYT get these sad sack stock pictures off of the front pages. Put a retiree who needs their small 401k to survive, they are the people we should be concerned about not these overpaid traders.
13
Sorry, Bernie puts a tax on every financial transaction....not just the rich traders.
Even us poor slobs with 401k and education plans for the kids will be affected. He wants the money to,push his agenda...while hiding under the ruse of getting the rich traders. His plan is on his website. Read it.
This outbreak has done temporary but real damage to the economies of most countries. It will end as SARS did and the economies will recover. The more panic reactions there are, the worse the whole situation can become.
Time to remember these words:
“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”
FDR's First Inaugural Address.
1
@Si Seulemente Voltaire
Trump might make you change your mind on that statement. Who knows what Trump’s bungling incompetence and willful ignorance might unleash.
40% of listed companies lost money in the last quarter. The S&P has been in a profit recession for two quarters. Yet, the indices continued to go higher, driven by narrow gains in just a few heavyweight tech names. The bond market has been warning about a recession since last year with yield curve inversion, reversion and most recently inversion again. This is what happens when sentiment changes after reaching a bullish extreme. The epidemic might have triggered the change in sentiment, but if it were not for the virus, something else would have. It always flips when it reaches an extreme.
16
I lost $10k since Monday. My retirement savings. Great. Trump is doing zip to help the sick or calm the markets.
8
I used to be a semipro poker player. I never gambled anything I wasn’t prepared to lose. Stocks aren’t savings.
18
I expressed here at least twice last year, and I still believe, that the stock market will give up ALL gains since Trump's election.
We are already 1/3 of the way there.
In 2008 it was about immediately bailing out the credit markets. Under loose monetary policy of the FED, cheaper money, at the direct expense of responsible savers, found it's way directly into the hands of the Elite to drive up asset prices, and consequently the cost of living, yet that money remained tight for nearly everyone else, never directed towards relieving the enormous and increasing overhead and revolving debt of working families; it has been mostly about bailing out underfunded pension liabilities via a rising stock market and creating the illusion that the economy is doing better.
8
CNBC saying "the speed of the decline is unprecedented" is inaccurate...the speed of collapse is an element of every economic collapse going back centuries.
at the time of the 'fiction writing as business plan" in 1999 and then again in 2007 on the cusp of the most recent great depression I read "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds"
it's details of economic collapses over the centuries had a common element—contemporaneous observers were all struck by the speed of collapse.
5
The market has been running on cheap credit and irrational exuberance for several years. Thoughtful analysts have been predicting a pullback for some time. The coronavirus, with its implications for travel and supply chain disruption, has just given the market the push over the edge.
Ever since things began to overheat following the run-up to the tax bill, I have sacrificed current yield for safety of principle.
13
The market is not correcting because of the Corona virus. It's correcting because it has been buoyed by ceaseless optimism and was totally overvalued. All it took was a little match. But the present correction is also a healthy sign that the algorithms haven't taken over completely yet, as irrational exuberance is replaced by irrational fear.
All current indications are that it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, relatively speaking, so buckle up.
11
@RM - The market is correcting and the little match is the Corona virus.
2
Wrong, the algos actually have taken over.That is why the market moves are on turbo.
2
I came here to say the same. Buckle your seatbelts, everyone. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
I completely rebalanced my investments last fall, when I turned 60. Very thankful now.
I can just imagine Trump saying: "Don't worry. I'm going to build a beautiful wall to stop the coronavirus."
13
As long as POTUS blames the falling/failing economy on the Democrats (or Obama or Hillary or the Democratic debates), his supporters will be believe him. Sad.
22
Can I just say -- I love trade with China. I love trade with the world. I love openness with the world. Closing the people of the world off from one another and shutting borders and erecting walls and tariff structures kills trade and jobs and narrows minds and is self-defeating hooey. Coronavirus shows what happens when all that globalism goes away. I'm a proud American *globalist*. Go globalism! Go trade deals! Yay corporations too! Hear me roar, and deal with it!
11
I have lost a lot of money over the last several days but I'm willing to take a financial hit if it means we can dump trump. He is more dangerous than the coronavirus and I am certainly also exposed to the latter as an asthmatic.
52
C'mon Trump. Convince us that the stock market free-fall is really the fault of Hillary or Obama or the deep state or Comey.
37
I find it kind of pathetic that there's so much worry about a temporary dip in the market when a virus of unknown transmission and lethality is spreading into the U.S. The market will recover, as it always seems to, but the victims may not.
14
@Umberto
Agreed. If people are freaking out about a downturn in the stock market they may just have less risk tolerance than they thought. Nobody forced you to put money in the market. Everyone is a genius when the market is going up.
7
Trump can now truthfully say that he has presided over a larger stock market drop than Obama.
53
I say: Woo-hoo! Bring it on!
I don't mind watching the Rich 1% lose value in their 401k's. Boo hoo. They got a big tax-break from Turmp; they deserve this as payback.
Sure, some middle-class people will be hurt too. But many of those are suburban swing voters, who likely swung from Obama to Trump. They deserve to take a hit for being the cause of Trump's presidency.
What about The Deplorables, i.e. the blue-collar folks who live in Red states? They're the ones who hate to pay taxes, but gladly accept the welfare taken from Blue state taxes and given to Red states. They're the ones who hate us elitist coastal liberals for no reason other than their primitive tribalistic impulses. They're the ones who don't care whether guns, water pollution, or climate change will kills us, as along as LGBT people don't get to have civil rights.
Of course, some blue-collar Dems might be hurt as well. however, we understand that sometimes we all need to sacrifice to create a better world for everyone. We're willing to take a hit if that's what it takes to get rid of Trump. We'll tighten our belts in exchange for getting our country back to the rule of law, to restoring the power of truth over lies, to stop hatred, and to restore civility in our country.
So, bring it on! Let the stock market collapse! Trump owns it!
26
Poor people, particularly children and the elderly, are the most likely to face serious or lethal symptoms. You should rethink your callousness.
@Ben
I'm only talking about the stock market, not the virus.
1 straight week of decline. This isn't going anywhere but down
7
While he's at it, Pence may want to mention that our bee population is disappearing and it will severely affect our food supply. We should all be planting flowers that bee's and butterflies love. Can't say I didn't warn them.
16
Lincoln once said that you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. The charlatan--the masterful scam artist--will in time become undone. Maybe that is the silver lining in this dark cloud that has enveloped our country. The lack of preparation for and the clumsy handling of the coronavirus threat have revealed Trump to be an emperor without clothes. The market is collapsing and the roll call of the sick is unfortunately growing. Blaming the Tuesday night Democratic debate for market collapse on Monday and early Tuesday is ludicrous. The only consolation for this tragic situation might be that Trump has been revealed in all his shortcomings.
16
If the markets rise is Trump's from policies, is the market's fall is too? He may skate from this because many people will believe the market drop is an Act of God.
But it's been in a bubble due to his deregulation, his harassing the Fed, and his unfunded tax cut.
He set it up so that any black swan could knock it over with a feather.
9
Why does every republican tank the stock market? Happens every time. Epic fail.
35
@Eric - Deregulate ... boom then bust every time. It’s almost like when shares get to expensive they want it to crash so they can buy back in at the bottom for cheap with cash that only rich folks have available after a crash.
11
I promise you that the majority of American women are very very unhappy, and scared, and angry.
They are coming for trump and trumpism and his incompetent gang of thieves.
I hope they wave a moderate flag for Biden. He can win the electoral college swing states, and restore sanity to this country.
17
Are we perhaps going over the top on this flu/virus?
3
Perfect Karma on predatory billionaires... they threw brer rabbit (Bernie Sanders) into the brier patch and now they want to blame the coronavirus on their attempt to throw their shares and hide because the Democratic Socialist is coming for real justice.
2
Funny, in a way, that the thing that more than anything in the world controls the decisions and planning by our politicians are based on studies on the market index and the market index is ruled by fear and hope. In essence, our future is in the "hands" of hyper-nervous stockbrokers that change their minds every third second.
3
Or better yet.... in the hands of algorithms.
1
...and, this is why Trump put Pence in charge. The last thing he wants is to be the one directly blamed for a bad market just before election time.
8
We're not survivalists but we take seriously the threats of natural disasters in our region, so we are ready for that part of the coming challenge. Last week I refilled my prescription medication and scoured the net for my post-chemo supplements (finally found them only on ebay) which are made from herbs grown in China. There won't be anymore of those for a while.
This week I stocked the pantry with non-perishables that will be useful if we can't get to the store, or the shelves are bare, or we're sick and can't shop for ourselves. I also ordered antiseptic wipes capable of killing Covid-19. We already had a supply of n95 masks from the smoke generated by last year's fires in Northern California. We'll keep the cars gassed up and sufficient cash in smaller bills to pay for a few week's groceries.
If all else fails, we have our earthquake kits and backpacks and 50 gallon water barrel which should see us through another two to three weeks.
We were already largely out of the stock market since the day of reckoning for this president had to come sooner or later. If there is any saving grace at all to this catastrophe, it is the end of the Trump presidency, and with any luck at all, the GOP.
19
Antiseptic wipes that can kill covid 19?
Hope you got a flamethrower also.
You can’t kill a virus with wipes,
just bacteria.(And the bacteria is catching up).
In a full on pandemic, your survival may depend on engaging with other people, not running in the opposite direction.
2
A few years ago when a hurricane hit Puerto Rico, the US mainland medical facilities experiences critical shortages of the most simple medications, most notably, sterile saline for intravenous use. Yes, over 75 percent of the bags of sterile salt water used in medical treatments was made off the mainland, in one place, vulnerable to destruction by weather. Here we go again. Why isn't " national security" considered having multiple safe from disaster and disruption factories on our mainland for essential needs such as medications ?
11
In this crisis of trust, Trump should appoint as czar the one person we all trust who has our best interests in mind: President Obama.
26
So to be clear. Goldman Sachs predicts doom and gloom to further tank the market so that they can swoop in and buy cheap. I've seen this so many times before. Now is the time to be rock steady and buy quality stocks for a discount. Don't panic sell.
12
CNBC says the speed of the decline is unprecedented! Nobody has a handle on this plague, and China makes so many essential supples that we need, to include medical.
“The $5 billion dollars for the Border Security barriers would have been tax money well spent over the past 3 years, it now appears!”
1
Umm, Not!
Border walls don’t keep out people or viruses.
How about $5 billion for emergency response?
7
Mr. Trump’s altercation with the National Weather Service over Hurricane Dorian comes to mind. I’m thinking investors were able to chuckle that one off (and others) because it didn’t affect them. We can see now they don’t trust him any more than we do, they just never cared before.
6
Microsoft was down 7 percent ....because of a "disruption to its supply chain". Really - In the age of the internet .. who buys hard copies of anything. No - this is an excuse.
6
In the past week, at least ten people have tried to shake my hand. I'd like to suggest that we do away with handshakes until the flu season and Coronavirus epidemic have ended. Maybe we could greet each other with an elbow bump or a little pat on the back.
18
And while the financial markets are tanking and health officials are committing criminal negligence that could endanger many lives, according to another source our president found time for this today:
"The conservative actors and writers behind a dramatized reading of texts between then-FBI special agent Peter Strzok and then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page met with President Trump in the Oval Office for nearly an hour."
At times like this it's hard to know what to do with the rage. There is no bottom.
34
So trump gave a speech to reassure markets, and the very next day those same markets had the biggest losses in their history.
Nice work donald.
40
I imagine investors watched Trump’s press conference, noted his complete ignorance of the state and consequences of this emerging pandemic, and got off the fence and started dumping stocks. This is likely to continue for rather obvious reasons.
16
Stable Genius must take credit for this drop. It is only fair!!
17
Another Teflon moment for Trump. If you read posts on Fox, none of his supporters believe he mishandled it, the media is overreacting, it’s another attempt by Dem’s to take him down. Nothing sticks.
9
@linda - Fortunately, Russian bots can't vote. Many Republicans will be staying away from their polling places.
Finally, Trump faces a problem money cannot solve and his confidence vaporizes. Even wall street is no longer trusting in vacuous statements like..."we are only few days away from the best trade deal like you have never seen"....
12
Big question: Will we reach a Level One on the DJIA tomorrow? (Seven per cent decline.)
3
Oh, the joy of those 2.1% CDs.
15
Wow! I thought with Pence and Kudlow on the Coronavirus case the markets would be reassured. Huh.
19
I don't understand why investors are worried, after all Trump just put Pence in charge . . .
16
Wait! Do not sell! It will be much harder to regain if you do.
9
Know why Jared Kushner's not Coronavirus Czar, and Pence is?
Because even Jared knows being in charge of the Coronavirus response, given Trumpian imbicility and unpreparedness, is a no-win responsibility, that will politically taint those responsible forever.
Jared couldn't be happier that Pence is the fall guy on this one.
10
I thought President Midas could control the market at will. Why has he forsaken us?
11
The Pope has come down with some illness after blessing and meeting some corona virus sufferers. I wonder if the share market would slump even more if Trump came down with the illness.
6
@CK:
The market would go up, not down, if POTUS comes down with the coronavirus (aka: coronavirus).
4
Kudlow sighs and chops another rail.
5
This will be far more weaponized by Trump and company than those of us who are hesitantly glad that a bandage has been ripped off this “perfect economy”. People will suffer in either case, if there is a recession or if Trump’s reign continues.
Things are a mess.
4
Somehow, Trump will find a way to blame Obama for the downturn.
13
One thing in which trump excels is appointing inept people hence pence. If people don’t get out and vote blue no matter who to stop this unbelievable infestation of hitlerism our country will be destroyed.
14
“We’ll see what happens. No one really knows.” — Donald J. Trump
The most intelligent and most handsome man to ever walk the earth has spoken.
Add to that, he appointed Pence, the Evangelical Christian who believes it is his divine duty to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to head the fight against this virus.
See? Aren’t we reassured already?
14
No president has been treated more unfairly by a global pandemic virus.
33
The biggest crisis in Trump's presidency so far and he passes the buck to Mike Pence?
14
And with 30 million uninsured and unable to access healthcare - watch who is coughing in that elevator, folks!
12
But...but...the Democratic debates spooked investors!!!
I so wish someone could directly counter Trump with the facts that (1) the market started the freefall several days before the most recent debate and (2) European and Asian markets have also declined. Trump's willingness to avert the reality of this pandemic for the sake of his re-election prospects is disgusting and ironically counterproductive. I think it's possible that if he had actually done the right thing in the first place -- installing an actual health professional as the Coronavirus lead rather than Pence, acknowledging the seriousness of this threat -- then maybe the markets would not have plunged quite as badly because there may have been a little more confidence in the handling of this situation.
375
@BN
A lot of the decline in the markets is related to the fact that most large companies have operations all around the world. Regardless of what happens in the US, the virus is already having a major disruptive effect on operations in Asia and parts of Europe and that, in turn, is having a significant negative impact on revenue.
37
@BN It also might have been helpful to have not dissolved the pandemic response team at the CDC.
17
@BN Trump is speaking to his base not your or me. He knows they accept what he says without doing any research. Unfortunately for him if this economic down slide continues that might not be enough to carry him through the elections by telling lies only his base accepts.
10
Trump gambled with America by pushing the Fed to prop up the markets with interest rate cuts we usually reserve for recession-fighting. Then he compounded it by cutting corporate tax rates and taking on $1 trillion a year in debt that went directly into corporate overseas accounts and cash stockpiles. Add in his war on every regulation that helps workers in this country, and the ice we were skating on got very, very thin. But Trump didn't care as long as he could sell his snake oil to enough voters through November 3rd
And then the coronavirus came along. But there would have been something else to crack our fragile hold eventually - probably not long after the next election. Perhaps it's better this way.
336
@J Anders The party had to end sometime, and the hangover will be monumental. Better now than later, so blame can be apportioned in the right place.
10
Leaders with foresight generally don't end up in bankruptcy court 6 times.
39
I don't have any stocks and never have. I've been poor for a while now, so this "crisis" hardly matters to me. I guess I feel for those with portfolios that have gone down, but it's not real money anyway, is it? Stock gains and losses are just numbers on paper. These dips in the stock market just don't matter to a large number of Americans who have been living day to day for years. I guess if you're rich, you're worried, but for lots of us it's just another day of being poor. Our future has been pretty settled for a while now. Nothing much can hurt us. Like the saying goes, when you got nothin,' you got nothin' to lose.
19
Since when does Trump hand the microphone to anyone who might get an iota of credit when things are going well?
When The Donald starts delegating, you can bet the other shoe is about to drop.
26
"The best stock market ever!"
Friendly reminder that the stock market is but ONE market indicator, and a volatile one at that. It also goes to show that a country putting all its eggs in one basket - especially a basket controlled by a foreign country, in this case China - isn't the best idea.
10
“Markets are voting and saying they think the U.S. is on its way to recession,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “And frankly at this stage after the coronavirus-related slowdown in travel plans that has busted the global supply chain apart, it will be a miracle if we avoid a recession.”
Trump's response? "ALL IS WELL!"
(Does this remind anyone else of the final scene in "Animal House"?)
16
Big question: Will we reach a Level One on the DJIA tomorrow? (A seven percent decline.)
5
Yes, at least. Im predicting that trading gets halted tomorrow.
5
Amazing that one debate in the democratic primaries can override all of Trump’s very strong actions that had led to a rising stock market. It took him 3 years to engineer the rise in stock values, yet that can all be undone in a 90 minute debate. Who knew debates could overpower the efforts of a sitting president.
26
The stock market will re bounce and Trump will be re-elected in a landslide. The panic about corona virus spread is overrated. Mortality is between 0.4-2% dependent on the age group and mainly effects risk groups with other compromising health issues. Bottom line coronavirus infection though novel is not much worse than a bad flu. Caution is warrant but public Hysteria due to media coverage is uncalled for. Finally, I am disgusted by how many journalists and readers blame Trump for the situation or mention him in articles responses related to the disease. He did a fantastic job in a balance sober presentation with Pence the CDC and the NIH on Wednesday.
3
@lieberma
The mortality rate of seasonal flu is around 0.1% in America. The coronavirus has been running 2%-3% in countries with universal healthcare and paid time off so their workers can quarantine themselves.
That is 20x to 30x the mortality rate of the flu. And given that Trump cut 80% of the CDC's infectious disease budge in 2018 AND fired their entire panel of infectious disease specialists, this is a blatant case of logical chickens coming home to roost.
62
If you think about who owns most of the stocks and wealth in this country, and what has been going on in the markets, it’s them who are dumping stocks and causing the plunge in share values. And I don’t think it’s based on news media. Who’s smarter? All of them, or Trump suggesting that all will be ok?
I would not put my money on Trump (and I’m not referring back to his disastrous mismanagement of casinos).
15
@J Anders
No. The mortality rate will be closer to the flu, as the denominator doesn't yet include all the cases that go undetected (per Dr. Anthony Fauci).
2
The GOP has been decimating the American public health system since Reagan.
The 1969 Hong Kong flu epidemic would have hit our economy a lot harder if the GOP had gotten started on their deconstruction project 11 years earlier.
16
Since Trump claims that the market’s growth is due to him, is he going to accept responsibility for the markets going down? Asking for a friend...
28
@Barry Blue
No. All world markets are affected. It is due to the virus.
1
@Jose Pieste It is truly amazing how Trump supporters never lose their fealty for a man who NEVER tells the truth.
If it had to happen in the U.S., in California, at least in Davis, the ill are at the site of a fine medical center. My heart goes out
to them and, above all, to the sequestered Chinese.
5
I believe the crisis in China would benefit from Trumps expertise? Hands on. In China.
9
An administration that does not believe in science is now caught out there. The fear of the virus should cut across all lines and to the life of me I can't see how the response of the Right makes sense. The Right can keep its head in the sand at its own peril.
19
Given Trump country’s confusion about facts, they’re likely to be hit hardest by the virus outbreaks. Sad.
5
Thoughts and prayers people, that’s what’s need here. Thoughts and prayers will clear this up pronto!
30
I guess this is all part of Trump’s grand plan to make America great again. Good work, The Donald!
18
The markets are still very high. Long way to go before you hit bottom . s&p 2000, DJ 20000 would be more like it.
4
These are excellent news: A global recession is exactly what is needed to mitigate climate change.
The coronavirus might actually turn out to be our way to salvation... if we can learn.
12
@jw
Just stop burning hydrocarbons and walk away from our way of life. No problem.
You see we cannot just stop doing what we are doing that is contributing to global warming, we need to replace what we are doing while we are doing it, else the results will be a total collapse of how we are able to live from day to day across our modern world.
A recession will delay our ability to change from the existing system.
5
It will affect the USA moreso than NZ as we don't rely on having our medical expenses and retirement pensions invested in the stock market. Even though our government has our universal National Superannuation fund invested in shares, it won't affect the fund as our government only invests in ethical shares and guns aint one of them.
15
@CK But China just shut down. And that is your second largest purchaser, with Australia being the first. Guess who is the largest purchaser for Australia-i.e. China. Not looking good on the Western Pacific Rim without the American defense shield.
1
Maybe the silver lining of all this will be that Trump will not be able to make the case of a good economy and will lose the election. IT may be worth the recession.
29
Another story were the stressed out stock broker on Wall Street is the featured picture. It feels like deja vu. Was that the same picture used when stocks were crashing last year due to the trade war with China? Or was it recycled from the financial crisis? The fact is that - for various reasons too numerous to name - the S&P 500, the Dow, the NASDAQ, go down, sometimes painfully hard. That's the risk in SHORT TERM investing. But the indisputable facts are that staying put with stocks, even during the last massive, cataclysmic financial crisis, even during the Great Depression, worked out much better for investors compared to those that sold. For the average investors like me reading this comment, please think before you sell into this pessimism. Think hard about what history says about the long-term trend of the stock market. What has Warren Buffet said? If you do, you may find yourself a buyer, not a seller.
4
You’re not factoring in the most of the market is held by those over age 60, and many of those assets are legally required to be sold as one ages. A huge number of positions over the next ten years will see a forced sale due to the aging population. More sellers than buyers always drives prices down.
Im not convinced its going to bounce back anytime soon.
3
@RS Interesting point and it’s worth noting that the Dems and Republicans passed a measure in the December budget bill, which ends the stretch IRA, compelling people who inherit IRAs to sell off within ten years. There will be even more selling as this bill takes effect at the end of this year for anyone inheriting. The bill was supported by Republicans, because it provided some revenue to offset Trump’s ridiculous tax breaks to rich. It was supported by Democrats, because it operates as a stealth inheritance tax. Turns out they can agree on something.
all the share markets around the world have slumped. probably could tip USA into a recession. They've predicted it will be like this for a year until a vaccine for the corona virus is found.
6
Ignore Trump ... if anything good happens it will be because the professionals in the "deep state" made it happen DESPITE Trump and his merry band of self-serving incompetents.
56
We are fortunate to have Trump in charge of the situation. With his genius at solving problems he will not let the Corona virus get out of control here in the US. If he thought it was a serious problem he would handle it himself. His assigning the role to Pence is a strong indication that the problem is only of minor importance.
Anyone with any money available would be wise to put it into the stock market. With Trump in charge it can't be but a few weeks, if not days, before it will be setting new highs again.
22
@Richard Phelps
Best laugh I've had all day. Thanks!
71
@Richard Phelps:
There certainly is a lot of satire on the boards today.
49
Richard Phelps, was that taken from The Onion?
40
Unfortunately, Trump's 'brilliant business planning mind' has struck again. We've already had low interest rates and an enormous tax package - medicine that should be administered to an economy in distress; but used instead in an effort to set an economy that was already in the midst of steady growth into overdrive, to give Trump bragging rights.
With GDP growth in 2019 still hovering around 2% - just as it has been for nearly a decade now - the ill-timed, ill-advised tax cut/stimulus had the predictable effect of inflating asset values, fueling speculative investment and stock buybacks, further enriching the wealthy and causing a bloated federal deficit.
The afterburners already have been burned - there's nothing left in reserve now that we need it. And with a deficit already in nosebleed territory - over $1 trillion and counting - another tax cut is a very risky gambit at best. "The tax cuts will pay for themselves" was, is and forever will be a flagrant lie.
Trump's long record of profligacy continues. This time we're not just talking the massive failure of a ridiculously ostentatious, debt-ridden casino like the Taj Mahal - we're talking the fate of the largest economy on the planet and a nation of over 330 million people.
Sad.
23
You know, Trump will blame Obama for this. It will be Obama's fault that Wall St is in George W. Bush territory.
20
@Juliet Lima Victor
I have literally seen Trump supporters claiming Bernie's people are bringing coronavirus into the U.S. deliberately to prove the need for national health insurance, thus winning the election for Sanders.
I suppose Hillary will be delivering pizzas to the pox parties....
17
It's February 1637 all over again, darn tulips.
13
Ring leader Trump and his sidekick Pence.
Elect a clown, expect a circus.
27
Somehow it’s Obama’s fault. Or democrats in general.
11
You you what is the best thing about all this? That there is no mention on trump on the first page of NYT!!! That's enough to make me feel good although our portfolio is down quite a bit, but I really don't care...
13
A market correction was due and the virus is the trigger.
12
God help us all when a real disaster occurs on the order of the plague and everyone plays politics with it, pointing fingers and placing incompetents in charge.
Trump and his minions have zero knowledge of science.
Nature doesn't care a hoot about politics or the stock market.
15
Between gutting government agencies and being a nuclear-grade buffoon with no skills, curiosity or common sense, Trump and his gang of ghoulish sycophants now have a real problem on their hands. They can blame it all on Obama and Hillary, but when people start getting sick and dropping dead by the scores, and the economy tanks, the Democrats might not seem like so much of a joke anymore.
With the horrid Mike Pence and Larry Kudlow in charge, this ain't gonna be good.
23
For all those folks who think Trump is to blame for the virus, and thus the stocks tumbling (and which are still sky high considering what they were before he was elected) think again. The Chinese are responsible. The virus got loose from the lab somehow. No one knows. The big question is why would a lab create a NEW virus strain? Another question is whether or not the lab is connected with the Chinese military? Try to be rationale in your thought process.
As for Pence being put in charge, nothing wrong there. Obama put a lawyer in charge as a Sars Czar.
Lastly, maybe this virus will die out quickly. Maybe the CDC's estimate of a vaccine in 1 1/2 years will be shortened considerably. Maybe this virus will fulfill one of the prophesies in the Book of Revelation in which case nothing can be done. No one knows. But it is no more Trump's fault than it it is Sander's or JFK!
2
@old sarge
If you don't think the GOP's drastic cuts to science and public health matter, keep watching.
14
Is the drop due to COVID-19 or because Mike Pence is going to lead the US effort to control something he doesn't believe in?
21
Pence, whose religion based medical expertise led Indiana into an HIV epidemic, is heading up the medical response. Limbaugh, who pooh poohed the risk of Hurricane Irma for two days before evacuating on the third, is heading up the charge of "nothing to see here" deniers, and the rest of us are discussing a potential pandemic in political and financial terms.
Wake up and realize that the government administration that could not competently build a wall, secure a border or keep track of small children removed from their parents by force, is holding your lives in their hands.
Think YOYO (your on you own) and if you still believe that this is a overblown conspiracy, please do nothing. The rest of us will appreciate it.
14
Larry Kudlow had a front row seat at yesterday’s Trump talks session.
Where was the surgeon general*? You know, the person in charge of the Public Health Service. The website doesn’t mention coronavirus. Perhaps Trump is right and he’s got it under control. HA!
The surgeon general’s absence and Kudlow’s presence speaks volumes of Trump’s primary concern of the impact of the coronavirus. It’s not Health but wealth.
Kudos to Dr. Fauci for stepping to the podium and telling the truth about vaccine development timeline. Trump did not look pleased with Fauci’s truthiness.
Fauci is one of the only credible person in this government even if he pronounces toilet as “terlet”. At 79 and speaking truth to power expect Trump to take him out soon.
*Surgeon General Priority: Emerging Public Health Threats
As the Nation’s Doctor, the Surgeon General is responsible for communicating the best available science to the American people. The Surgeon General provides the facts on emerging public health threats, such as Ebola and Zika, gives an update on the government response, and lists steps individuals can take to protect themselves and their families.
10
I’m waiting for Mike Pence to ask Commissioner of Baseball Robert Manfred for some tips on damage control.
7
A sincere plea to Mike Pence:
Next time you're in front of the press talking about corona virus, please use a hankie, not your fingers, to wipe your nose. Especially if you have to shake hands afterwards. Be a good role model for reducing transmission. PLEASE.
18
@Patricia Germs? What germs. He doesn't believe in science. Nuff said.
5
@Patricia I don't think you understand. There are people walking around that do not have the skill set to sneeze or cough into their elbow and use a tissue when necessary. They have not been socialized properly and do not read scientific or health related articles and papers.
5
@Patricia
Pence doesn't believe in evolution. Leading to an utter lack of understand of how this virus came to exist.
2
Message to Donald Trump: The plunge of the stock market has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with the coronavirus. Do your best to deal with the crisis. Don't worry about how it may affect your political fortunes. You did not cause this.
@C.L.S.
Of course he didn't cause it. It is his ignorant responses so far that are being criticized, and rightly so. Putting Mike "pray away the gay" Pence in charge was an especially stupid move.
5
The stock market was overdue and looking for an excuse for a correction.
5
Difficult the be sympathetic- the public and Senate did nothing to halt the decimation of science, medical research, overseas health aid, and the appointment of unqualified lobbyists and hedge fund mangers to critical roles. All people cared about was their 401Ks - how quickly they forgot the result of the mortgage crisis - the one that Trump profited from. History seems to be repeating itself. Greed greed greed.
5
Strong effective leadership demands integrity, intelligence and competence. Unfortunately for Americans, Donald Trump and his political appointees lack all three of these essential attributes. Donald Trump’s dishonesty, ignorance and incompetence have made America and its residents less safe. Now with the very really likelihood that the Corona virus will become widespread in the United States, Trump’s lack leadership will put American lives at risk.
The recent sell-off in the stock market reflects a recognition that the Corona virus has already disrupted manufacturing supply chains and global product sales with no prospects for any sudden improvement. The fact that the stock market failed to respond and in fact dropped further after Trump’s recent press conference clearly demonstrates that investors have no confidence Trump’s ability to lead this country.
We should at least be grateful that the so-called “deep state” government Trump and his sycophants so abhor still has institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health which have the scientific expertise that will ultimately lead us to overcome this threat to our national health.
8
Why should I care. It‘s not like the stock market has done anything positive lately to the lives of working Americans.
6
Note to Donald Trump; If you want to calm the markets, remain silent and let someone else do the talking. Savvy investors know you have lied over 16,000 times since taking office. They are familiar with your trait of saying something one day and then declaring the reverse just days later. They know you shove competent professionals out the door.
In other words, Wall Street is just like the rest of us. It knows the one characteristic you don't have is credibility.
12
The current science on COVID-19 (the coronavirus) suggests a death rate of 2.3%.
The population of the United States in 2018 was 327,200,000 people.
Let's say that only 10% of the population contracts COVID-19. That means that 752,560 would die. Seattle, Washington, has a population of 744,955.
Approximately 30% of the US population became sick from the 1918 Spanish Flu. If 30% of our current population contracts the coronavirus, that means that 2,257,680 would die. Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in the US, has a population of 2,325,502. Phoenix, Arizona, the fifth largest city, has a population of 1,660,272.
I wonder if and when all of those red-hatted, faux-patriots who continue to fawn over Trump will begin to realize just how deadly wrong they have been to vote for him and all of those House and Senate Republicans who continue to allow him to demolish our nation, its laws, and its people?
13
A correction ? ,we used to call it a slide or downturn, correction implies something was wrong ,no?
1
And another win for the Trump team. Unfortunately the rest of America is winning too.
People are getting more accurate information about the virus from morning network news shows than from their own government. Attack dog that he is, Trump can't reassure anyone about anything positive that doesn't line his pockets or caress his brittle ego. Having gleefully let go hundreds of scientific experts who could now give him cover, not to mention realistic guidance to an anxious public, this could be his Katrina moment. The Emperor has no clothes.
12
I hope the (my) stocks go to ZERO. Seriously.
2
It’s outrageous that Pence, who everyone knows has a bad track record that actually helped the spread of HIV by defunding Planned Parenthood in Indiana, and who is a climate and evolution denier, and who is Trump’s biggest yes-man is in charge of our national health pandemic crisis along with Alex Azar, an attorney (who worked at Kirkland & Ellis with Barr, Rosen, Philbin, Starr, Kavanaugh, Murray, Acosta, Engel, Benczkowski ,Cippollone, Wall, Acosta, Williams, and Bolton, all Trump’s allies) and was a pharmaceutical lobbyist, and former drug company executive with no experience in the health field itself, and who is another Trump yes-man. Neither one of them are qualified. This is unacceptable that Pence is gagging the career scientists who are in charge.
13
This entire run up in equity markets in last 12 years has been fueled by Central Banks round the world pumping massive liquidity (free money) into risk assets... Quite similar to a Ponzi scheme. It's helped fuel the "recovery" and the biggest bubble in the stock markets since... 1929, 2000, 2007/08 ?
It's irresponsible... but wait... more free money to be tossed in the pyre in coming days in an attempt to keep the house of cards from collapsing on its crumbling foundation.
5
Poor President Trump. He travels to India, takes a bunch of great photos with Modi, receives rousing cheers and applause from Indians, and has the makings of great image building which presents him being Presidential.
He comes back and a virus has center stage and the stock markets are looking really bad, and he needs to find a way to restore confidence.Instead of a great foreign visit to display, he's got to deal with this crisis.
So he convinces Pence to manage the message being publicized. Gaining control of the information presented to the public. But most of us are wary of Trump, he does not tell the truth unless it makes him look really great.
7
Likely mentioned by others already, but it deserves repeating if so. Trump could very well use the extreme fear produced by the Coronavirus pandemic to seize even more dictatorial powers.
People do strange things when they are afraid. I’m old enough to remember the polio scares. I remember hearing a bit of fear in Mom’s voice when explaining why I couldn’t go out to play.
Even a casual reader of history can pick dozens of previous pandemics and browse the narratives of how people behaved. It’s not a encouraging read.
Trump will use that consummate fear to grab as much power as he can, dare I say declaring martial law. Sound outrageous? What else can you expect of someone who directs hurricanes with the swirl of his sharpie.
No, Coronavirus is not Yersinia pestis (plague), but human fear response behaviors are really not much different than that of the unfortunate Europeans in 1348. The shock of their pain and loss lives with us still and we teach it to our children saying “ring around the rosy, a pocket full...”
9
Trump has been mortgaging the future in effort to keep the markets afloat for some time now. All it took was something like the coronavirus to burst the bubble. The recession is very likely on. At least we'll get rid of trump.
12
How many people die of hunger every day? The FAO estimates that as many as 25,000 people lose their lives every day as a result of hunger. That adds up to roughly 9.1 million people who die of starvation each year.
4
The author is not giving much comfort for those of us not far from retirement and elderly. Our long term horizon is not that long.
Tell me I should be more diversified. You are right but nonetheless, if the downslide continues, it won't be pretty!
3
"Pence takes control of national health messaging."
Please, those of you who are in the government and have information that you are certain needs to be shared with the general public, we beg you. Don't wait for Mike Pence to tell you it's OK to tell us. Just tell us. You will be doing your future self a huge favor.
16
Let's get this straight. The money didn't disappear from the economy. People simply sold their shares to cash in and put it somewhere else.
I bought a few and hope to make a bundle 5 years from now. ;)
6
In the last several days, my wife and I have "lost" (not really because we haven't sold anything - but still...) about 10 percent of our investment portfolio. We're not millionaires, but it's a big chunk. So while it ain't great, I am looking at it as hopefully a major personal political "contribution" that will hasten the political demise of the "stable genius". Fingers crossed.
37
This could get a lot uglier really soon.
The financial wildebeest on the economic Serengeti are stampeding in a frenzy of animal spirits, and they are right to be panicked.
For a long time the markets were considered to be overpriced, if only for lack of alternative investment options. The sustained optimism has been remarkable, but it has always been expected that a crisis such as the threat of a global pandemic could invoke the black swan response, and here we are.
Consider now that supply chains will be disrupted, transportation links will be compromised. Shortages will trigger inflation, and interest rates will have to rise while the economy contracts. Stagflation and a liquidity crisis.
While the billionaires are cocooned from misery, the masses of less fortunate will get restless and rebellious. And then things could get even uglier.
But, from the investment standpoint, all the financial technocrats are really worried about for the time being is the dawning realization that their expected tax cuts will not be forthcoming. The money will have to be spent on people, not firms. What a waste, they will surmise. And thus they are selling off.
10
The outcome of this on all fronts (in terms of health; the economy; and the elections in November) are collectively anybody's guess; but let's fast-forward to some point in time, to where historians will look back and muse, that it took a virus to bring down the presidency of Donald Trump.
13
Why can't Trump just say we have a pandemic on our hands, we will do everything we can to help you, and don't worry about the stock market because it always comes back. And maybe make free monitoring for those who have no insurance. Use that 8 billion for something useful for the people. uggh. And then don't let him talk about it ever again.
14
Appointing the quintessential “yes man” who doesn’t believe in evolution would be a remarkable course for any other democracy in the world.
No one here is shocked, or even particularly surprised.
Meanwhile, I’m getting together with a couple other retired and working nurses to plan how identify and safely support neighbors who may contract Covid-19 if government resources are overwhelmed.
17
The moment I heard that Mike Pence was leading the coronavirus response I hit sell, and judging by the huge sell off at market open, most investors felt the same way. What a stable genius we have running the country.
37
@M
Exactly. The futures started coming down again whole Trump was speaking last night and they kept coming down all day. Wall Street saw the speech to.
12
Trump, the President, appointed a person who leaves science out, as the person to deal with this crisis. No wonder the stocks dropped even further.
35
at a noon press conference today the California governor said he had only 200 CDC test kits in the state but was getting more. Once more test kits get out there, people will learn this is much bigger than reported. I would expect the markets to slide further.
17
I don’t suppose it’s occured that a) we can’t test absolutely everybody, and that b) the proper inference to draw from limited testing is that WE DO NOT KNOW, not, “it’s worse than They are tellng us.”
3
@Robert
No, we can't test all 40 million Californians right now. But we should be able to do better than 200 . . . *months* after the onset of this disease in China.
And based on the case in California with no known transmission vector, the proper inference is that there are many people with the disease in our communities now. The only way to prevent our medical systems from being overloaded is to figure out who they are and limit exposure.
10
I'm living in the same city where the first known patient was diagnosed with it and the origin wasn't known. She was in the Medical Center for a week, on a respirator, before the doctors could get the ok from the CDC to test her. The point is, if doctors think a patient has it, they should be able to order the test.
23
It's never easy to predict the day-to-day gyrations of the market but a best guess is tomorrow's close will also be ugly. Why? Investors will prefer to be out of the market over the weekend, while more medical news is breaking from around the world.
19
The Trump administration owns the expanding health crisis in this country. I have often thought, how bad do things have to get before Trump's tactics fail him in marching to another tragic presidency. And as always, it happens to the detriment of our country. Except now, many more politicians and people are getting it and hopefully, more than a handful of Republicans will bail on Trump.
16
@AGoldstein
The GOP won’t bail, not even a few.
In Huckleberry Finn, Twain tells how the King and the Duke scammed a town with The Royal Nonesuch.
The first night’s audience knew they had been swindled, but rather than warn their fellow townspeople, they chose to keep quiet so the others would get swindled, too.
They reasoned they couldn’t be ridiculed if the whole town was fooled.
Today’s family-values GOPers have the same guttersnipe morals.
9
When a soldier goes into combat to protect you and I , It would be my wish that everyone of us is profoundly grateful for those sacrifices.
That is exactly how I feel about individuals who are taken loses in these chaotic markets.
I am sorry for your distress.My family shares your burden.
If America can wake up to the incompetence of the trump regime, might it not have been worth it ?
13
@King Philip, His majesty
The sickness, suffering, and death will NOT be worth the getting rid of this horrid administration.
1
Looks like the Trump Virus is driving stocks rapidly lower. There goes his reelection....
15
Trump conducts a news conference, saying Coronavirus concerns are baloney. Minutes after Trump and his servile shadow, Pence, end the charade, it's revealed somone in California has the virus, unrelated to visiting China, Italy. etc. Coincidence? Or was the California news flash suppressed until after Trump's dog and pony show?
9
The information came out last evening. The patient arrived in Sacramento on Feb 19. Doctors feared she had COVID-19 but she wasn't showing all the signs for CDC to allow the test so she wasn't tested for a week. I'm watching the news closely because I live here.
6
Corona Virus here and all the top public health leaders’ positions purged by Donald Trump.
We’re winning again, eh Mr. President?
21
Will someone advise Trump to cancel the South Carolina rally Saturday, to avoid having large crowds while it is not clear how the virus spreads? Or he will defy it as he did with the Sun during the eclipse? I expect to see a headline photo with him holding his hand at the mouth in lieu of a mask.
9
@Euxinus No let him go. He should be around as much of the general population as possible. If anything he should be advised to shake as many hands as possible.
8
Was hoping to get through Trump's only term without him having to face anything serious due to his complete and total incompetence as well as all of those around him. Throw in zero credibility, pathological lying and inability to face facts and we get to today.
World and domestic stock markets react accordingly. It's not just Coronavirus, it's the fact that the entire world knows the USA has an incompetent idiot at the wheel just when they needed us most. It was never a question of if but when.
Now we know. You think this week was bad on all fronts? Stay tuned.
37
@Lou Good exactly
3
The current resident of the White House is not responsible for the outbreak, I guess, but he and his syndicate are responsible for the destruction of the federal agencies that should be leading the charge to protect the People.
The soviet-style disinformation attacks on our nation, constitution, and federal agencies by the right has been a success. Democracy is now only a word in a dictionary.
All hail the orange king.
18
Thank you, President Trump. You gave a totally incompetent presentation yesterday. You inferred that coronavirus is a media plot, and implied that it is almost contained. You contradicted trained health experts when they spoke. You gratuitously announced that your chief religious sycophant, Mike Pence, a science denier, will head up the team to combat COVID-19 while he prays for our survival.
In response to your ongoing Kabuki theatrics, the world financial markets, in reaction to your nonsense, sank the most ever. You are the most profoundly ignorant human ever to become a world leader.
101
I would give back the extra money I made over the last three years if it meant trump wouldn’t have been elected, I would do it in a New York minute. Besides I don’t believe trump actually has anything to do with the market when it’s high or low. Believing that is for suckers
14
@Here in Jersey
Trump and Larry Kudlow have zero influence on the market. When Kudlow was with CNBC he never made a correct market call.
9
@Les
Exactly,if you listened to Kudlow in 2008 at the start of the depression youwould have lost money.
4
@Les yup, I did well doing the opposite of Kudlow.
2
Wall Street LOVED Trump whether he lies or not as long as he delivered free money to speculate. They are now running for the exits because the lies finally have consequences for their money.
I’m waiting for full on panic before I take their shares cheap. That could take a while.
7
If a Democrat is elected due to an economic collapse, there is no way in the world any Congress would approve tax hikes.
1
True, the White House has announced that only Trump, Pence, and a newly appointed MD spokesperson will be authorized to make announcements on the progress of the virus task force. Someone on the internets has devised a name for the White House reporting bureau: Physicians Reporting Agency for Virus Discussion and Announcement, PRAVDA for short. More seriously the front line workers combating the outbreaks in the US will be the state and local county medical personnel. I trust that these people will not be bound by any restrictions of the Trump administration. We will be depending with our lives on them for the truth.
10
@ReallyAFrancophile
Thankfully, I can rely on the CA Dep. of Public Health to report honestly. I would suggest all state governments, red or blue, handle this on their own. This administration’s lies could have deadly consequences.
18
Hopefully this does not end bad .. USA has elected Trump who gutted CDC and DHS and others . May be there is some payback for our foolish decisions! Trump always boasted he can run the administration.. I guess we forgot the Trump bankruptcy,..
Now the stock market is forcing the same on us the investors.. Imagine the people hoping for retirement last week.
Awesome in Democracy too for every action has equal or "or more" reaction! there is always !
4
I'm starting to feel like I did in 2008 when Bush had no idea what to do. Not good at all.
25
Nature joins the battle against climate change. Humans beware.
3
Does anyone else agree that putting Mike Pence in charge of the coronavirus "clearing house" is like putting an executioner in charge of the clemency board?
16
When people are frightened get greedy. Let me give a double secret hint. But low. Sell high.
2
How’s about you tell us when the market is “low”?
1
Coronavirus seems to affect older men the worst. Hmmm...
5
@db2 And children seem to be largely unaffected.
1
The virus might prove to be a 'dud.' The economy would then roar back with a vengeance and Trump will be reelected by a landslide. Either way, Sanders will be crushed. If the Democrats cheat Sanders (again) the Democrats will be crushed! Four more years!
1
Ok, this is getting silly. Yeah we should be cautious and prepared and wash our hands like all the time but the stock market today is a prime example of overreaction.
This is not Armageddon or the Apocalypse or Doomsday. Basically, there's a particularly nasty flu season coming up and going to Disney World is a bad idea.
4
@Margrethe It's actually not like a nasty flu season at all. The flu has a death rate of 0.1%. This new Coronavirus has a death rate of around 2%. Doesn't seem like a big difference until you figure in just how many people get the flu every year. The CDC estimates that around 56,000 people in the US die of the flu every year. If the coronavirus spreads around like the flu, the deaths will be in the hundreds of thousands to millions in just the US alone.
4
@Seth That quoted death rate of 2% is an average. "No deaths occurred in those aged 9 years and younger, but cases in those aged 70 to 79 years had an 8% fatality rate and those aged 80 years and older had a fatality rate of 14.8%, according to a study of Chinese coronavirus cases released this week." Also, "men had a fatality rate of 2.8% versus 1.7% for women" and finally " Outside of Wuhan, it is thought to be closer to 0.7%." Original source: The medical journal JAMA. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762130 . If you want a discussion in plain English, go here, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coronavirus-fatality-rates-vary-wildly-depending-on-age-gender-and-medical-history-some-patients-fare-much-worse-than-others-2020-02-26
Why the discrepancy? Probably underlying medical causes, the health of the lung tissue and the fact that more men smoke than women.
Enough of the overdone panic.
2
@Margrethe Not really an overreaction. Just the result of seeing the world's supply chains being deeply crippled and the certainty that it will get worse before it gets better. When factories shut down production it effects the businesses all over the world that depend on them. Quarantines shut down the billion dollar tourist industry, airlines, etc. Get it? Additionally this is much worse than the flu, it kills more people and is more contagious. What made it infinitely worse was the world seeing the president of the world's largest economy lying about the details of this pandemic and refusing to take it seriously enough to put a competent person in charge. Put it this way the Asian markets, which were open last night, tanked worse during Trump's press conference as the world got to see the boob we have in charge is in way over his head.
1
The market has been out of line with real growth for a year or 3. What were seeing now is people sprinting to the sidelines at the first sign that the party's over hoping to not be the last sucker out who has to then foot the bill.
What will be more interesting to see is whether the institutions that Trump has spent the last 3 years dismantling are still intact enough to deal with a crisis. I wouldn't bet on it.
12
The markets are reacting to the scary thought of an inevitable health crisis being over-seen by Trump.
Trump is only good at fear mongering. That may have worked to get him elected and to stoke his zombie followers at his rallies, but everybody (right, left or center) realizes we need a calm leader who can handle a crisis.
The market knows we do NOT have a leader who can lead us through this health crisis and his public speaking and tweets continue to to tank the market.
The best thing he could do for America is SHUT UP, but of course Trump will never shut up or stop rage tweeting.
Trump will continue to rage and fulminate and lay blame - on anybody but himself -and continue to tank the market.
How will he brag about his supposed wonderful economy now? It was all a puffed up fakery anyhow.
Now look at him destroy it willfully and destructively. This is what Trump does: he destroys everything he touches.
VOTE ANYBODY BUT TRUMP in 2020.
18
Perhaps now even the rich will understand that having a poorly functioning government will hurt them, financially and otherwise.
20
@pkbormes Except the rich will be able to weather this. The rich have ample resources to buy the dip. The rest of us will just watch our retirement savings get wiped out...again.
2
@Blackcat66
But the rich can't escape from sickness or death.
1
As someone who supports Bernie, and knows many Bernie supporters, I, and the others, do not want an economic disaster to be the reason for Trump's electoral defeat. The people hurt most by a recession will be the poor and middle class. The richie rich have the capital to ride out recessions, while the poor are more likely to sink into joblessness, homelessness, and despair. So please quit claiming, as did Rush Limbaugh, that we Dems want a recession - that is absurd! We want Trump defeated on his policy fundamentals, not on some economic catastrophe.
13
@Robert - I'm a Bernie guy and my fear right now is people losing their homes like in 2008. Folks in this country have a lot of credit card debt right now and already have a hard enough time making their mortgage payment. I don't want that. I don't want to see people lose their 401k either.
And unrelated but I don't want to see Rush Limbaugh die of cancer, either.
2
The downside of being a narcissist who takes total personal credit for a rising market is that you have to take the "credit" for market drops.
14
With Pence steering our fate against the coronavirus surely the best strategy is to fold hands and pray ... after washing them.
9
As US President Herbert Hoover said at the time of the 1929 market crash which set off the Great Depression:
“Any lack of confidence in the economic future of the United States is foolish.”
“The fundamental business of the country, that is production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.”
As Dwight Morrow (US Senator and foreign ambassador) commented on Hoover’s boisterous and inaccurate presidential announcements about the US economy and stock market:
“Any party which accepts credit for the rain must not be surprised if its opponents blame it for the drought.”
Any of this sound familiar?
5
Great time to shop for good stocks at bargain prices. All viruses are nano sized but Coronavirus is not as deadly as Ebola virus or Smallpox virus or even pandemic Influenza. Smallpox has been eradicated and so can Coronavirus be eradicated and governments can do as much as individual citizens to ward off any Corona infection. It is called robust acquired immunity.
To those blaming Trump for the Coronavirus let me tell you that it will make no difference whether Bernie was the president. That said Trump should act to stop all the panic and mass hysteria. Entry of all infected persons including US citizens from China, Iran and Italy into the USA should be stopped for 30 days. Every one entering the US should be properly tested and quarantined if positive or showing signs or symptoms of Corona virus not just fever. Why is California giving sanctuary to Corona virus by being negligent? California has enough brain power and capacity to test accurately for viral infection or exposure and should step up to the plate. It seems like it is just trying to hold out for a large share of the billions that congress has authorized for Corona now that Sanctuary cities have no legal right to prevent ICE from doing its job.
Elected politicians are to blame for the fiasco and they should be held accountable for hindering progress. Throw the bums out.
2
@Girish When is it Trump's turn to be held accountable?
2
Pointing out the obvious facts does NOT connote joy. It is sad for all, but that doesn’t change the facts. And calling people sick and perverse for calling out the truth is merely a red herring and an attempt to both change the subject and blame the messenger.
9
Hmmmm. It may turn out that an administration focused on aggrandizing its incompetent and wholly corrupt president - to the exclusion of everything else - is not the best team to handle a financial crisis and pandemic occurring simultaneously.
But, in all fairness, who could've predicted that?
Oh, right. Everyone.
33
Trump, with the backing of Congress, can solve this economic crisis by shoveling more money into the weapons and war industries. Since total profits seem to be all that count and building killing machines is no different from producing high-speed trains, the war economy will be one savior. The other will be greater tax breaks for the billionaires. These are how we handle the current economic crisis.
3
From the moment El Presidente was elected, it was clear to anyone who cared to think one moment beyond hype that the biggest risk associated with him was his handling of any crisis. History tells us that every President is tested by a major crisis. That's when "the Apprentice" optics and spin stop working and leadership qualities come through. Yesterday's press conference laid bare this problem.
Some more "rational" MAGA partisans always pleaded not to look at the man, but the results and invariably waived their 401ks around. Well, you live by 401k, you die by 401k. If you were willing to give him credit for the rise, you now have to accept the blame for the fall. He spooked the markets, plain and simple. Suddenly, everyone looked at the emperor and, (surprise !) realized that he had no clothes on.
47
@Yuri Vizitei - To be fair, Tim Cook spooked the markets when Apple announced they would not be making their goals this quarter and that iPhones may not flow to the shelves. That is when things started going down and they are now picking up after Japan closing schools, Italy quarantining cities, etc.
3
@tom harrison - I am not sure of the reason for your desire to twist the narrative, but I am certain it's not associated with objective assessment or facts.
"To be fair", Tim Cook simply exercised his fiduciary duty as the office of the company. And Trump exercised authoritarian judgement and populist rhetoric. Which brings us back to the core point of my post.
8
There's a simple and obvious solution to this problem. Just let the corporations take out trillions of dollars in interest-free loans to buy back shares. Stock prices will automatically rise and Trump will be re-elected. Voila! Problem solved!
3
@Big Text I think that was the first unpaid tax bill the republicans shoved through...
1
This would be a really great time to have a President and administration with even a shred of credibility. Instead, we've got the reality show. Hope everyone who supports Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress is enjoying the entertainment, because its cost is incalculably high.
23
This is the price that must be paid as conservatives drown the government in the bathtub. CDC and DSH funding has been slashed, programs have been contracted, and key positions have been filled with political loyalists. The Bush administration and his Republican allies set the stage for their own undoing by hobbling FEMA. Trump may have done the same. Except managing a hurricane is far easier than managing a pandemic, if it comes to that.
19
The big scare and the media loves it. Even the weather man nowadays talks about "impact days" and "millions affected" and every disturbance now has a name. Where would people like Cramer and Kudlow and Zandi be without turbulence in the financial markets? Maybe we should turn off the "news" and just live our lives without worrying like chicken little that the "sky is falling" every other week.
5
@R. Anderson Asian markets are down and factories are shut down. It’s more than just chicken little.
9
Take a trip to Wuhan if you think this isn’t a big deal. Let us know how you make out tough guy
13
Does anybody believe that this kind of market reaction would happen under a stable, well-run and informed administration? How do we cope with an emergency when we know that our president lies every day and then stoops to blaming everyone around him if his halo is diminished in even a tiny way?
21
@Merete Cunningham - Yes, I do. First, Apple announced they were going to miss the mark and the market lost around 400 points overnight. Then, Italy started shutting down cities. Then, Japan closed its schools after the cruise ship. There was nothing a U.S. president could have done about that.
I thought Trump was doing just fine considering until he put Pence in charge when at the very least he could have put Dr. Ben Carson in charge who has at least put on a surgical mask. But I never understood why he didn't put Carson in charge of the VA hospitals, either.
2
@tom harrison Tom, I am sorry but I thought that the USA was a leader when it comes to world problems. We have had that reputation for decades. So no, I don't think Apple stock created the stock crash. You MUST understand, {I am not a US citizen, but have lived here for 50 years} (and don't even go there) that
*The rest of the world has just lost its moral leader.
*The rest of the world has just lost its humanitarian leader.
*The rest of the world has just lost its military support system
*The rest of the world has just lost its protection from authoritarianism
*The rest of the world has lost the protections by the US from the most evil and most abusive dictatorships on the planet.
Why? Because our president glories in the idea that a strong leader needs to be that dictator that he so much needs to keep himself in office. He is willing to prostitute the Constitution and his oath of office for it.
2
I just read that all communications about the Coronavirus from Homeland Security, from HHS, from CDC, are now going through Mike Pence’s Office. This pretty much guarantees we won’t get any official accurate news of what’s happening and how severe it is. We’ve never needed our free press more.
69
@pkidd The Trump administration will make this more deadly by politicizing it. They will stifle accurate news of outbreaks which will then prevent resources and preparations from getting done. The republicans will stand by while more people suffer then ever had to. It's evil. It's what Russia and China do.
6
Wrong to connote it as a "correction"; although I did think stocks were over-valued. However, this market downturn is anticipatory of an economic one.
4
Good time to hold your equities for the long game. Buy more. It will come roaring back, once the pandemic peaks.
Americans love to panic. We are fragile.
10
Virtual wealth comes. Virtual wealth goes.
It's basically the same as alternative wealth, according to Smellyanne...
5
This administration has either fired or run off all the competent people, and replaced them with either staunch science deniers or empty chairs. What could possibly go wrong?
27
@Saints Fan - "Say again who caused this?"
Nixon.
2
@Saints Fan No every American over the last 40 years that gleefully went to Wal-Mart made this possible. We did it to ourselves. You can either have good paying manufacturing jobs or a lot of cheap stuff. Not both. Americans choose cheap stuff. Disposable goods, fast fashion and a shiny new iPhone every year.
6
That VP Pence wants all communication about the corona virus to be authorized by his office, even those from CDC and NIH, reduces the confidence in our government. Uncertainty and little confidence are things hated by the markets. Since dear leader Trump takes ownership of the stock market, he has to take responsibility for the steep drop as well, not just the increases. He can't blame others. I guess the markets just don't trust Trump/Pence. Nor do a majority of Americans.
37
@John
He's already blamed it on the Tues night Demd debates
4
Part of the financial crisis we are seeing would have occurred under any circumstances from the slow and inadequate response of China to the coronavirus and its failure to report truthfully to the rest of the world much earlier.
Part of the financial crisis is occurring because of steps taken by Donald Trump and others in his administration to make severe cuts in the CDC, NIH and other agencies over the past 2 ½ years, and among those who bear responsibility is former National Security Adviser, John Bolton.
Part of the market meltdown reflects the insistence of Trump in the past few months to ignore the urgency being communicated by career government virology and infectious disease experts and non-government experts.
Part of the roiling of the markets reflects that Donald Trump wasted time on punitive tariffs, gutting segments of our economy needed to weather this storm.
He bullied the Federal reserve to keep interest rates low, and now there is no room to cut the rates to spur the markets.
Part of the crisis is due to the fact that Trump’s daily lies on every subject have destroyed his credibility to the point that he cannot lead or protect the public, even if he wanted to.
34
For those who say that we should not be wishing a bad economy onto ourselves, we don't. But Trump and the Republicans have no one to blame but themselves for this. Trump cut funding to medical research. Then when a medical crisis occurred, to the surprise of no one, there weren't enough funds to handle it because so much of it went to Trump's border wall and his other pet projects. And his border wall can't keep out invaders that are 20 nanometers wide.
35
@Kristin Where are all the experts and scientists? Trump and his base hate people like that. Even more if Mr. Obama has pandemic infrastructure in place.
2
One of the worst bylines for the stock market collapse with the pending coronavirus pandemic—
Is the zero, and I do mean zero, credibility of Donald Trump.
He is known by everyone—and I do mean every one, including his enablers—to be a pathological liar.
And that is the individual to whom Mike Pence, unbelievably in charge of the coronavirus response, reports.
34
Trump Inc.'s responses to the markets and the virus' dangers are pathetic.
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’ stating that the virus being "good for the economy".
Limbaugh's coronavirus conspiracy nonsense is shameful (and repeated by Trump).
Compounding that by appointing Pence as Czar to oversee this is insulting.
To top it off, as all of this transpires, Trump goes campaigns blaming the Democrats for the market crash, all the while speaking to his supporters true concerns, that Trump thinks will help him be reelected.
So what are the big concerns of Trump's "conservatives"?
Judging from Trump's latest stump, they are restrictions on toilets, faucets and dishwashers.
Repeat that slowly.
Restrictions on toilets, faucets and dishwashers.
Toilets that need to be flushed "a dozen times", faucets that don't run with enough pressure, and dishwashers that take too long to complete their wash cycles.
This is a big part of the nonsense that Trump's supporters are voting for.
How in the world do Democrats compete with the insanity gripping the Republicans ?
40
Trump is focused on coordinating messaging on the corona virus outbreak with an eye on the stock market. If officials have to seek approval from the virus czar Mike Pence before speaking publicly about the epidemic we the public will not learn all facts about the crisis. Trump should talk to his friend Xi in China and learn that news control and censorship won’t address the real problem. He can’t tweet his way out of his first real challenge in 3+ years. Nor can he blame Obama or anyone else for this though he may try.
15
@nat
We know Trump doesn't really care about the actual health of the people. He only cares about how a pandemic and market crash will hurt him personally.
6
It seems that yesterday's press conference did not inspire much confidence in the markets. Maybe it's time for facts instead of bluster, expertise instead of kowtowing. People are going to die because our president just wants to save face and assign blame elsewhere. We need a plan to deal with this not just to shore up the confidence in our economy, but also to save people's lives.
10
A lack of reliable information in rough times is as good a reason as any for the markets to panic. While Trump is incapable of telling the truth, he is also very good at silencing and discrediting those who would be the truth-tellers. By putting Pence in charge and channeling information from the government scientists and doctors through him, we are likely to see only Sharpie-edited maps and charts. Wash your hands, people. And vote.
21
Do we really think Trump can lead us during this event after saying that head trauma from missile attacks aren't that bad?
18
@Dann Mann
and wind turbines cause cancer
and exercise depletes one's life force
5
The market was long over due for a major correction without corona. The deficit, economy too hot, debts too high, Fed too low, a range of socioeconomic factors and financial indicators.
Corona made that correction with like the Götterdämmerung.
Only made worse by Trump firing the entire pandemic admin in 2018. The Democrats have not weaponized it, it's the truth revealed both of the poor understanding of economics and the world community by everyone, especially the US administration.
11
The market was overheated and due for a correction. But this – the impact of the coronavirus on the world economy is real and no one should downplay its potential negative impacts on employment and possibly an extended recession. What concerns me is the incompetence of Trump and his administration: the trade tariffs, the irresponsible tax breaks, the ballooning national deficit, and his bullying of the Fed. China's economy is taking a real hit because of this pandemic. That will impact most nations. I don't think anyone should panic, caution is the right attitude. However, I do worry about Trump's incompetence and his administration's dishonesty. The rants will start, the blame game will commence, but the question is how will Trump troll officials with his conspiracy theories which could and has had deadly consequences.
7
@Twg
"The rants will start, the blame game will commence, but the question is how will Trump troll officials with his conspiracy theories which could and has had deadly consequences."
They are already hard at work blaming Democrats.
"Truth is not truth"
--Giuliani
3
The virus and economic hit inject a dose of reality into Trump's war on reality. Perhaps Trump voters will awake from their stupor. Perhaps too Democratic voters will decide that a vision for a more equal nation is superseded by the need for a manager in chief.
8
Trump bragging about market performance has hit a sudden stop. What happened?
9
Only the most perverse person could take joy in either the coronavirus outbreak or the stock market fall, but here we are. You need only read the majority of the comments made heretofore to see how malign the opposition to Donald Trump is. They are willing to sacrifice other humans' health and prosperity to their dream of winning an election. Sorry, this is just sick.
I do not see anyone taking joy in the virus, but a lot of us are calling out Trump for firing the people who know how to respond to this crisis.
9
@SinNombre You're confusing the ends for the means. Perhaps other readers agree with my sentiment. As much as I don't want an economic slowdown, and I don't, if that is what it takes to get rid of Trump and the corrupt Republicans, we will all be the better for it. Because this is what we have gotten from all the MAGA. Nothing, or even worse than nothing. No healthcare, no living wage, no family leave, no infrastructure improvements, and meanwhile POTUS is still doing rallies and vacations for himself every week and tweeting all day long.
5
This is in response to Trump and Trump appointing Pence to oversee the pandemic.
8
Trump didn’t reassure the markets?! Really?!
8
Heavens. How will the U.S. contain any pandemic if Sanders, Warren or Styer became president. All support no criminal penalties for illegal entry. Couple this with free healthcare for illegal entrants and you have the recipe for a disaster in the U.S.
Great! 45* is setting up Mike Pence to be the fall guy. One way to get rid of Pence.
10
The worst is yet to come, is my guess. Americans have not yet stopped going out or shopping but when they do businesses will lose money, lay off workers, and a recession will loom. But since the cause is an invisible germ, Trump's base may not hold him at all responsible, so we'll see what the fallout for him is. If he handles the crisis badly and keeps lying to us then yes, he could have a problem. If he handles it well, it may give him a boost, time will tell. The worst thing he did was to dismantle Obama's epidemic response structure in spite of warnings from scientists that a future pandemic was not a case of if, but when. I'm sure he did that because it was Obama's idea, not to save money. If he restores the response structure he will take full credit for the idea and say that his is better than Obama's ever was. It's all so tiresome.
14
American ingenuity and professional medical researchers will lead to an answer of protecting the world from this virus. Trump is just a pawn in the game. I wish he would just be quiet. Wishful thinking.
2
A market meltdown. Surging recession fears. And a sudden spotlight on America's health care system. Goldman Sachs is warning Wall Street that the coronavirus could cost Donald Trump the election and the potential political fallout from the coronavirus adds yet more uncertainty for investors trying to assess the impact of the fast-moving epidemic.
"If the coronavirus epidemic materially affects US economic growth it may increase the likelihood of Democratic victory in the 2020 election," Goldman Sachs analysts led by Ben Snider wrote in a report published Wednesday night.
That could be a negative for stocks because investors have been hoping for a continuation of the low-tax, light-regulation approach of the Trump administration. And Trump of course has been laser-focused on boosting his own stock prices.
5
It's not a reaction to what might be coming but to what has already occurred. At least a fifth of the world's economy has been shut down for two months. And it wasn't in great shape before that, despite the irrational exuberance of the Trump supporters. This is just our Wile E. Coyote moment.
9
Strange parallels with the 1929 stock market crash. Herbert Hoover never should have been president, he did not have the instinct, or experience for the job, by all rights Calvin Coolidge should have run for a second term, when he didn’t Hoover took up the standard of the Republican Party , Hoover was an entrepreneur and as radio personality , the economy was going full steam and the stock markets seemed to have no limits. If you would have polled the average American in the summer of 1929, Hoover would have been a shoe in for a second term, and then like a bolt of lightning out of the blue the stock market crashed, and to put it frankly Hoover’s response was to do nothing , things got worse and worse then finally they got out of hand with banks folding and people losing every cent they ever worked for, Hoover was outmatched , he had no solutions. But Franklin D Roosevelt the governor of New York had answers, including the government stepping in to help.
The moral of the story is that anyone can be President when times are good, but when a real crises hits the most intelligent men are then needed. History may be repeating itself with Trump in the role as Hoover and Bloomberg as the new FDR- the problem solver.
10
Bloomberg is no FDR.
2
Trump and Pence? The anti-Coronavirus Team? OMG: Where's Laurel and Hardy now that we desperately need them? Is Las Vegas taking proposition bets on how much longer the USA can stay afloat with this Republican Squad at the helm?
41
If the world spent less money on stupid wars and put all of it into research into real problems. There has been a full on war since 2001. That’s almost 20 years ago.
18
@🦠
Actually, that's what we tried to tell you.
Almost 20 years ago.
But you wouldn't listen to what the world was saying. You listened to a boy-man president with daddy issues and ended up wrecking Afghanistan, then destroying Iraq, and then destabilizing the entire Middle East (not that it was all that stable to begin with.)
Funny to read a comment lamenting these two decades of conflict when it was your national hubris and lack of forethought that has caused it.
Sorry if the truth offends you. As you follow your current president, not even mature enough to be considered a boy-man, just a man-child, you are creating more problems to lament in decades to come, domestically and globally.
Take responsibility for your country, and safeguard your democracy. It may be all you have left.
9
You act as if a majority of Americans weren't against endless wars already. We are and we were.
6
Either Pence or the Fed will take a Trump beating for this. Countdown, ten, nine....
17
So outside of China, 50 dead and the globe is rattled? Common flu kills much more....I am
yet to understand the panic...the more I read, it is concerning and you don't wish it (or any sickness on anyone), but not sure this is worth the panic. Ebola was scarier
8
This is more infectious than Ebola and is more several times more deadly than any strain of the flu in many decades. It's especially unnerving for people like me who are in a group at high risk for complications and death. I can't even find N95 rated masks as people from Asia have been buying them out and either shipping them overseas or reselling them at exorbitant prices. There are videos of Asian expats at places like Home Depot buying pallets filled with cases of masks.
3
No cure, no vaccine, long incubation period, and tons of unknowns.
6
@Marketing Manager Please go to the Trump rally Friday and hug every MAGA; come back in 6 weeks; if you are able
2
Pence better get that virus thing fixed fast otherwise Nikki Haley might replace him on the ticket!
13
Czar Pence's office has just announced that Steve Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow have been added to the coronavirus task force. Their immediate mission is to stop the blood-letting on Wall Street. Tomorrow all of Trump's cabinet will be added to the task force. At least Ben Carson has a medical degree.
14
What goes up often goes down...All things must pass...if you did not like the market you should have considered other.options(not stock optios)/
Tomorrow the sun will come up and our would be "leader" will continue to Make America Great Again, (but from a lower position now.) And we will be greeted with new lies and obfucations and falsehoods, and he will be sent packing come November to "write his memoirs", such as they may be.
13
This is Trump's Katrina, and the levees are leaking.
22
What’s that you say? Do I hear you begging for science to come to the rescue? You want, nay, expect that a vaccine is created forthwith.
Funny or ironic that this virus will preferentially take out the older obese type 2 diabetic smoker aka trump demographic. Smell like viral justice.
11
Somehow, Mr. Trump, I’m skeptical the markets are reacting to the possibility we’ll elect a Democratic President in November.
But traders are definitely expressing their well-founded concern that the White House has no clue how to respond to a crisis of this magnitude, other than to deny it exists; tweet and retweet the nonsense dispensed by know-nothings like Rush Limbaugh, who say it’s all a hoax and that coronavirus is just ‘the common cold’; dispense pablum like ‘the market is doing great’; and then hurl schoolyard taunts and insults at critics in a rambling incoherent, bellicose diatribe.
There always comes a time when it is painfully obvious that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothing. This is your time, Emperor Trump.
17
@chambolle
Yes. Like when the President says only 15 Americans are infected with covid-19 soon be zero and the CDC says 60 Americans are infected with covid-19 and it will spread and we should get prepared. Now CDC needs approval from Pence to say anything.
2
Coronavirus - the great trump correction
17
Interesting that the folks who lacked confidence in how Trump would react to a "real crisis" fell SO far short of how really incompetent he would be in dealing with it ... the fact that TWO crises would happen at the same time he has taken an axe to the structures others built to deal with them, was a total "failure of imagination" if there ever was one.
9
The economy tanks, but if it means an end of this administration, it will be the saving of the nation.
22
Isnt it amazing how some folks get all giddy with this market drop, but made no mention of the market on its way up?
The week Trump was acquitted, and gave his State of the union address, the Dow rose 1,000 points.
No mention of that anywhere.
But of course when it goes down - big headlines.
Exactly why you can not trust this media
1
It has been going up a long time before Trump. And we paid for the continuation with stock buybacks. That was news a while ago.
13
@SportsMedicine
I'm sorry; I don't understand. If there was "no mention of that anywhere," then how do you know about it?
14
With Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury and Mike Pence heading up the task force overseeing preparedness for the spread of the coronavirus with the CDC all but gutted, what could possibly go wrong?
"Fasten your seatbelts, its going to be a bumpy (ride)".
4
How is it determined that the market goes down due to the fear over Covid-19 and not some other cause?
Perhaps the markets are crashing due to how foolish the Democrats look, especially while media like the NY Times are printing front page stories about a brokered convention or how the DNC and Superdelegates are preparing to deny the nomination to Sanders, all seemingly intent on destroying any chance at beating Trump.
@Matthew Graham
What part of “global supply chain” is unclear?
5
What restrictive government criteria?
1
Well, let's cut the interest rate! Give another trillion in tax cuts!
Now, in reality, the daily markets are mostly speculative, and these days driven with millions of little computer-generated trades. There was a NYT article a few years ago about how these private firms were paying premiums to buy a space a bit closer to the market computers, since a millisecond here and a millisecond there meant a million here and a million there at the end of the year.
Of course Sean and Rush claim that is all driven by the liberal media.
Except best as I know markets in places like China and Europe really aren't "driven" by CNN or the NYT or WaPo.
9
Why do you think he held the news conference, to reassure us we’re safe, or to try to prop up the stock market? He’s a pathological liar, and with the pandemic coming, he’s lying even more heavily! Example: he implied that by next week it will be over, while the CDC doctors say it’s just starting.
11
It is days like today when I am so very glad to have the mind of a very stable genius in charge.
Coffeve, 2020
4
if President Trump isn't good for my 401k, then what is he good for? he certainly doesn't seem to have a very good grip on this virus.
4
How unfortunate for all who may be affected physically, financially or both, that possibly for the first time in his life, trump might actually be held accountable and made to suffer for a mess of his own creation, born of infinite hubris, ignorance and deceit.
MLK said the arc of the moral universe eventually bends toward justice. Let us hope. And hope that none of us become collateral damage along the way.
12
No need for the market to crash to elect Bernie.
I think you have it backward.
As a pro life woman, I value all life and feel everyone should be treated for the coronavirus regardless of cost to the public. This is a matter of life or death and life should be paramount. The government of course would pick up the tab but if those affected had the ability to pay they would be charged. The poor and working class should not be expected to pay and would be treated free of charge. If someone went to the emergency room and did not have sufficient funds they would receive these services for free. We are not a heartless nation unlike what the progressives and liberals would make us out to be. We are one of the most generous nations on the planet especially when it comes to an outbreak like this.
1
@KMW
It will be interesting to see your generosity when people have to stay home for 2 weeks. Will they be fired? That's the usual response when people call in sick and don't have benefits like sick days and most people don't have 2 weeks of sick days. Having infected people fill the emergency rooms will help spread the virus. But you may be right and we will see your famous compassionate conservatism at work.
8
@KMW Treated with what? There is no vaccine for at least another year.
4
You have it wrong.
So-called Liberals and Progressives believe we are NOT a heartless and soulless and discompassionate nation. That’s why we oppose Trump’s policies, initiatives, and proposed budget cuts.
3
TrumpMan will merely state what is obvious to him--the Democrats and President Obama are to blame. They scare real patriotic Americans like him and his obedient followers. He alone can fix our problems and he doesn't need any scientists (they're mainly liberal Democrats). After all, he knows more the scientists and has the largest and goodest vocabulary to support his claim of "stable genius." Isn't this comforting that Brave Leader will protect us from the approaching pandemic and the bad intentions of Democrats? A little more clearing of the rebellious employees of the deep state and we won't have to worry about any meddling in the markets or the pandemic by the enemies of Trump and trumpology.
9
@Nate Grey
Exactly what "science" should Trump be applying here that he hasnt already?
@SportsMedicine None, he is applying every "science" he can think of. Our Brave Leader alone is applying every solution necessary to keep loyal Americans safe. We should all be grateful that we live under the leadership of the greatest president in US history. Trump, the man sent by God, will protect loyal Americans from every form of harm, including those Commie viruses, and restore the markets to their former heights while assuring full employment and 4% growth month-after-month. Don't worry, be happy!
The global markets are absolutely terrified of Bernie Sanders being in charge, not only because he calls himself a democratic socialist but also because of Bernie's entire demeanor.
2
@David ~
WHAT does Bernie have to do with a market driven on speculative concerns. right now the coronavirus?
My guess is that Trump's yo-yo approach has been a lot worse.
17
@David The markets don't shift like this in February based on one party's possible nominee for an election in to be held in November. You should be more selective in how many of the things you believe that come out of Trump's mouth.
15
Now, that’s what I call going off the subject.
10
The virus crisis is the catalyst for this downturn, not the cause. The markets have been overdue for a step back for awhile now because of debt...individual and government.
10
More than likely the largest drop in the stock market of the week will be tomorrow. No one want to hold over the weekend
9
@R
So true.
Either that, and/or Monday could be a crusher. The over-the-weekend angst can really build up.
Will be interesting to see where bottom is, and its intersection with CoVid-19 containment ... or not.
2
Free government paid medical care didn’t stop the deplorable public health conditions that fanned Coronavirus is China. Socialist journalism and internet censorship masked the problem when it was controllable. Socialist government was more interested in protecting Chinese tourism and government controlled industries than in protecting the people. Another failure of Socialism.
2
@Rick:
Riiiiight. Which is why Trump just muzzled all the public healthcare experts. All info now has to go through Pence. Even Anthony Fauci can't speak unless Pence approves. But we're sooo much better than China (which, by the way, is communist, not socialist).
15
China is communist state.
8
Socialism is an economic system, not a political one. You’re referring to authoritarian political state. Man people seriously need to be educated on the difference!
11
This decline or "correction" isn't going to be solved, or at least more than temporarily, by any kind of political party gaining or losing power. I read a NYT article a few days ago that seemed to portray a more accurate picture of what is happening-- we have built a global, capitalist economy that is so very fragile. Our farmers aren't farming for the US; they're farming (and fishing) for exports. Our retail chains depend upon the basically disposable deplorable-condition produced goods to sell. Those barges aren't sailing and the cracks are forming. We've created an immense monster with an insatiable appetite and now it's lost its food source. This also mirrors what practices are best in agriculture-- monoculture kills. Globalism kills. Capitalism kills.
12
As Corona virus continues to spread into Spring/Summer which seems most probable, I have no doubt Sanders will get the nomination and Presidency. People will wise up very quickly and get someone serious and reassuring into the office. Sander's Medicare for all will come into fruition by necessity due to many private insurance companies facing existential crisis and seeking government bailouts.
6
The Republicans won’t want to bail out the health insurance companies any more than they wanted to bail out the auto industry in 2008.
They’ll blame it on Obama and the Affordable Care Act... or Benghazi.
1
Lisa Simeone,
As I mentioned in my previous comment, everyone would be treated. We cannot fiddle with something as serious as the coronavirus. Whether you could afford to pay or not, everyone would receive medical assistance. Your economic situation would not matter. This could be deadly if untreated and all life matters and is important. Rich and poor alike.
2
Too bad the Trump administration and his Republican toadies in Congress don’t agree with you. They would rather take away any semblance of health care for those that can’t afford it.
Don’t believe me? Look at all the bills they proposed to get rid of it and how many law suits they filed to ban it.
1
I'm sorry it took CoVid-19 to force a correction, but as to the correction itself, good.
I hope it continues for days and 1000s of points, and shakes out the majority of the overvaluation.
Long overdue to get a clear-eyed look at this economy.
8
While I was expecting a market correction, I didn't anticipate that it would be caused by disease. What mystifies me is the panic over a disease that so far has a 2-3% mortality rate. This isn't bubonic plague which killed 60 per cent of Europe's population.
1
@Maryland Chris 2-3% x 10% infection rate x 330 million = 660,000 to 990,000 deaths in the US.
The 10%is the infection rate for the flu which is similar to the infection rate for Covid-19.
4
@Maryland Chris ~
Not a very good comparison.
Indeed, it's not as fatal as other recent infections, but there is the FACT that China and a lot of Europe have social and economic shut-downs that are like dominoes in today's world.
Yes, manufacturing of car parts and phones will come back, although there will be a be a net loss in sales.
But billions of dollars in things like tourism and business airfare and ... are lost forever.
And stocks are driven by the speculation of what the next quarter's ROI will be.
2
@walkman What I think is important to note is that the death rate of people who do get infected by the coronavirus so far is 2%. The death rate of people who do get infected by the flu is .1%
So a population of 1000 people infected with the corona virus would most likely have 20 deaths. A population of 1000 people infected with the flu virus would most likely have 1 death.
4
"Asian markets closed the day largely down, though shares in China bucked the general trend, with Shanghai rising 0.1 percent."
From this, the apparent decline in the rate of infection in China means they expect production to resume shortly. This may be only a -0.1% GDP hit.
If it means cheaper airfares & vacation packages, who can argue? But choose your destination with care...
Current price of a Coronavirus test is $3000. And good luck getting your insurance company to pay for it.
8
@Don
For profit insurance companies, for profit health care. This country doesn't care if you die or not as long as someone is making money off of you.
Vote democrat in November
7
How would the government bear such a cost?
And good luck for getting your travel insurance company to cover a cancelled trip because of “fear” of acquiring a disease.
1
If the US has an outbreak like China will it be able to employ the extreme measures used to restrict the damage to 80,000 cases? Large cities closed, everyone quarantined in their houses, transport networks and air routes closed along with all the factory closures and workers quarantined away from their jobs and 13 new hospitals built in one city alone. A total of 750 million were affected. The share market is finally looking at the possibility of an outbreak in the US. The only way this can be prevented is extreme vigilance and rapid response because once it gets away the sharemarkets woes will seem trivial. Trump deleting the the officials who were preparing for pandemics under Obama and withdrawing funding for the CDC and then creating a politician heavy Coronavirus Committee is not an encouraging sign.
11
Too bad we don’t have competent people to lead us through all this. Also, too bad I didn’t have the foresight to go short on stocks a few days ago. At least I did have the foresight to get out of stocks and tell my wife to get out of stocks when Trump was elected. Unfortunately, she didn’t totally comply. Even I kept one stock that I like. But I own so little that it won’t faze me if it loses value. In any case, it’s a company that doesn’t rely on travel or foreign parts, as far as I know. That said, I hope everybody’s reasonably okay. Only a few more months to the next Democratic President.
3
Well this is a test. Let’s see how each country’s government responds. Should reveal weaknesses readily.
4
DR,
Anyone with the coronavirus would be offered medical assistance regardless of their ability to pay. No one would ever be turned away. This is very serious and everyone is at risk.
I would not want to ever develop this disease, but if I did come down with coronavirus I would rather contract this disease here than in China. I have far more faith and trust in American medical personnel than I do the Chinese. I am sure the majority of Americans would agree.
2
@KMW:
The millions of Americans without affordable health insurance wouldn't agree.
20
When the market corrected in 2018, I was wrong. I thought it was going to really crash, like in 2008. But I'm afraid this one is different. I keep thinking: before the Coronavirus outbreak, this Administration has had three years of really bad trade policy, including the tariffs that were costing us in the retail, farming, and manufacturing sectors, Boeing's safety woes, a huge corporate debt bubble, a near war with Iran (and heightened tensions), a global economy that was already tipping towards recession, a Brexit that is probably going to send Britain into recession, the all-out hostility this Administration has towards our normal trading partners and allies, a quickly growing national debt, and finally, an incredibly corrupt Administration that has throttled the IRS's ability to collect from high-net worth individuals while busily enriching itself... yeah, that was all before this outbreak. I'm afraid the Coronavirus is the tipping point of a global economy problem that is more fragile than we imagine. And I do hope I'm wrong again.
16
@Brannon Perkison : No, you are not wrong. The NYSE plunged to its all-time historic low here in NYC this afternoon. This could very well be a perfect storm of events that sends our economy spiraling downward to depths we have never seen.
5
"Correction" -- while correct in austere financial terms -- seems more like a nightmare to me. I usually get scared by nothing. But I feel scared now over this whole uncertain world mess.
6
After an extremely mild winter in Western New York, snow and biting winds are blowing today. Ah, some normalcy! It feels good.
Tanking markets may signal that the beginning of the end of Trumpism is nigh. If it takes a rout of equities to cure the political system of its moral decay and rot, then so be it. Normalcy will return. It will feel good.
19
Never mind Donald Trump - he will put the best "spin" on this just so long as he comes out unscathed and blaming everyone else. I will pay attention to CDC Directors: Robert R. Redfield, MD and Anne Schuchat, MD and expect Mike Pence to do his job and have live updates from either both doctors or one of them on a daily basis until this passes.
1
@kkm
Did you see the NYT update reporting that government doctors, health officials and scientists are to clear everything they say through Pence's office before they open their mouths in public earshot?
Yeah. Good luck with your wishful thinking.
6
@Cynical Cyndi : Thanks for that, I didn't see it but will look for it now. We will see if that actually plays out. They may choose to be non-compliant with such a directive.
4
Non-compliant? HA! Like most Trump administration officials were with the WH directive to disobey Congressional subpoenas?
1
If half of the federal budget is spent on national defense and security, why is the Trump administration so unprepared for this?
16
@Don Because national defense and security spending is just a socialist job's program. it's only tangentially related to security and defense.
It would be interesting to know who has been buying stocks this week in an effort to maintain some semblance of a market . . . my suspicion is that Directors of Corporations have instituted massive purchases of their own companies' stock (with borrowed money, of course) in an effort to protect their own holdings in the corporations and to please Trump; Hedge funds managers may well be doing the same thing.
10
When it comes to profits, hedge fund mangers look out for themselves first. If they are buying this week it’s only because they sold off everything last week!
1
Mr. Trump took office when the economy was in the smooth sailing and he has been all ready to take all credit for the upswing and rather ridiculing Mr. Obama at every instance. Mr. Obama when took office in 2009, the US economy was in the worst situation since 1930s depression. At present, we are no way near such a brink.
Yes, the COVID19 scare has rattled the Wall Street this week, but now the nation has to see that if the President Trump takes correct, and may be difficult steps, to ride this wave successfully or he will still play to his base for trying to get re-elected in November. Unfortunately, through his presidency, he has eliminated career professionals and replacing them with his loyalists. We have to see in the coming future, where does he take the world economic leader nation, and the world along with.
3
Some have known all along that the president does not control the economy. Maybe the rest will realize this now.
4
@Derek Martin ~
Trump never will ... the good is his, the bad someone else's.
3
In addition to the various lies and misleading information heard during his press conference last night, Trump also tried to blame the recent drop in the stock market on the Democratic candidates, called Nancy Pelosi incompetent, gloated about his approval ratings, mocked Chuck Schumer and mimicked his NY accent, kept trying to minimize the seriousness of COVID-19 by comparing it to the flu, repeatedly boasted about how frequently he washes his hands, lied about the mortality rate and disputed the 2% figure, implied (without evidence) that his Muslim travel ban has prevented the virus from spreading to the U.S., and could not give a coherent reason for appointing Mike Pence to coordinate the administration's response to this.
Maybe I should, but frankly, I don't care about the stock market. I care about whether our government is equipped to handle what might turn out to be a national crisis. Trump's press conference did not reassure me. Not in the least.
44
What stands out is just how important China is to the world's supply chain: everything from car parts, to lithium-ion batteries, to cheap stuff at Walmart. If U.S. businesses can't get their supplies, the economy will slow and job losses are inevitable.
More than anything, financial markets fear uncertainty. Trump's tone-deaf, politicizing rhetoric, plus putting Mike Pence in charge, have done nothing to calm the markets. Quite the contrary. In a tweet Trump even misspelled coronavirus.
If you saw the other piece in NYT today, Pence is acting as the Administration's message gatekeeper. Everyone, including CDC's Dr. Fauci, must clear any public statements with Pence first. That means we may not get the straight story, adding more uncertainty to the market downturn.
31
This is not a happy time but maybe it can be the change in direction that America needs.
Maybe 40 years after Reagan we can finally understand that truth matters.
"Beauty is truth,truth beauty,----that is all
Ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know."
Keats: Ode on a Grecian Urn
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn
10
Art has to be beautiful? Maybe in the 19th century.
A few months ago, I was shooting off my mouth, glibly offering to give up 10% of my so called "wealth" to rid ourselves of this fascists in suits administration. well, fast forward to today and we're halfway there, but I'm still in and I'm going for 20%, or whatever it takes. Vote blue!
27
The stock market will re bounce and Trump will be re-elected in a landslide. The panic about corona virus spread is overrated. Mortality is between 0.4-2% dependent on the age group and mainly effects risk groups with other compromising health issues. Bottom line coronavirus infection though novel is not much worse than a bad flu. Caution is warrant but public Hysteria due to media coverage is uncalled for. Finally, I am disgusted by how many journalists and readers blame Trump for the situation or mention him in articles responses related to the disease. He did a fantastic job in a balance sober presentation with Pence the CDC and the NIH on Wednesday.
3
@lieberma
You have been repeating this argument for days now.
Again, it is not the mortality rate. It is the disruption it can cause that has people worried about the economy. Why can't you understand this?
22
@Max Deitenbeck Because it is overblown...disruption will likely be 1 quarter and unlikely to be structural to the economy.....this is a serious virus, but as lieberma points out the mortality rate is not Ebola/SARS/MERS. Worse than flu. I bet the US Covid-19 infection rate is significantly higher than known, but mainly because for the majority of people, they only have a fever or dry cough, not enough to report to the doctor
1
@Max Deitenbeck
I understand completely. But the disruption is hyped by the media and leftists. If they stop to sound hysteric the economic panic and disruption which is much worse than the virus, may be avoided
The stock market is down to where it was this past July. Still way overpriced.
9
I disagree except for tech stocks. Especially snap inc which is obscenely overvalued
So the great trump-eter whose proclaimed his wonderful economy gets to learn the Dow giveth and the Dow taketh away!
13
This may turn out to be Trump's Katrina.
18
Now that Pence is in charge, maybe he can teach us the secret prayers he used for the HIV crisis in Indiana.
If he and his earthly Boss win in November, we will all need a divine intervention.
19
@Space Needle
Those prayers involve lots of hugging and kissing !
1
Remember “you’re doing a heck of a job Brownie” after Hurricane Katrina? Pretty soon Trump will proclaim “Mike you’re doing a very, very, amazing job stopping the virus” and we’ll know we and the stock market are all doomed.
12
My kingdom for a new president?
8
Did you know there are 11 million people in the two provinces of Northern Italy (Lombardy and Veneto) that were hit by the Corona V19 and 650 (all Italy) cases? Did you know that Italy has a good universal public health system so people regularly see a doctor and can get triaged and tested? Maybe that is why they have the most reported cases because people go to the doctor and don’t have to worry about paying for it. This is why you have universal health care.
How many people in the US will not see a doctor because they don’t have health insurance? They don’t have a doctor and they should not go to a clinic (in Italy we were all told to call our doctor if we had symptoms). That is going to be the challenge for the US.
Corona V19 is not lethal; not having access to health care is.
39
@Mary
There are millions of people in the US who see their doctors regularly and millions who have health insurance.
1
@Mary not lethal? Ask the more than two thousand dead in China from it!
@Robert M. Koretsky Of course you are right and we are always saddened about that. I meant that it does not have the same mortality rate as other much more dangerous plagues. I stand corrected. Thank you.
1
People are afraid because they do not know what is coming next with the coronavirus. They do not know how bad it may become. The unknown can be frightening.
This is in no way President Trump’s fault. The Trump haters would like to make it about him but they cannot. He is willing to spend any amount necessary and do whatever it takes to stop this dreaded virus. We have some of the world’s best medical facilities and will utilize their services to the maximum level. We are top rate in that field and have some of most brilliant medical professionals around the world. We are very fortunate to have them at our disposal. They will work diligently to find solutions to this pandemic.
1
@KMW - Good medical facilities aren't much help when people can't afford to go to them.
12
@KMW
Trump is "willing to spend any amount necessary and do whatever it takes to stop this dreaded virus"? Surely you jest. You say Trump is "innocent of fault": the CDC announced the first travel-related virus detection more than a month ago.Did he not get the memo?
The US isn't struggling harder to manage the pandemic only because deep budget cuts Trump proposed for CDC and NIH were denied by Congress.
In the face of an impending crisis, citizens of our once-great country should expect something more intelligent, reassuring, more leader-like from our POTUS than idiotic remarks that the virus will end when the weather warms, or that he's got it under control. Physicians standing next to him squirmed in embarrassment.
Coronavirus has been detected in 48 countries, including some in the torrid Middle East. Experts say there will be no predictable "season" for coronavirus. They don't know how it spreads, only that many infected are asymptomatic.
Choosing Mike Pence to head a massive healthcare campaign is like all of Trump's nominations to his cabinet and other important agencies: the fox in the henhouse, or the mad bull in the control room plan. Choose someone knowledgeable to destroy the agency, or a complete ignoramus to do the same. Pence caused an HIV epidemic in Ind when faith told him to ban needle exchanges. Which "sinners" will this hypocrite deem ineligible for coronavirus care?
Is there no world-renowned US epidemiologist to command this operation?????
5
I hope Mother pours Mikey Pence a big glass of milk. He's in for a wild ride, especially when Trump throws him under the bus on this one. I was born and raised in IN and he aided the spread of HIV during his tenure. He doesn't believe in science and it will be his and Trump's downfall.
39
Trump squandered the strong economy he inherited from Obama-- pumping up the market with lowered interest rates and handing out tax breaks to billionaires instead of paying down the debt that was created in the last financial crisis (created by Bush).
Now what?
Billionaires will be fine.
20
CEO's of American companies are smart people. So are most people that buy and sell stocks on the world exchanges. They understand the consequences to industries and consumers of a worldwide pandemic that is capable of causing 3% fatalities.
So when these owners and investors watch a profoundly ignorant US President give lip service to the coronavirus spread, who publicly contradicts health officials speaking at the same presentation, and names a totally unqualified science denier like Mike Pence to lead the US defense against COVID-19, they react, by dropping the stock market another 4.5%.
This is the most incompetent presidential administration in US history.
31
Leave it to readers here to essentially point blame (with glee I might add) to the president for a virus that was created in a filthy open market 12 time zones away. This is a black swan event that just like all black swans cannot be predicted in terms of time or manifestation. They are by definition low frequency high impact events. That being said it would be ironic if Trump is undone by an event that has nothing to do with the normal role of government as was the case when Bush's second term was done in by Katrina. Humans love to believe they can wall off or alter nature, but we are mere pawns in this regard. History may not repeat but it does often rhyme.
4
If your poor or a person of color and you ask the government for help, the oh-so-moralistic RIP politicians will drone on and on about individuals needing to face the consequences of their actions. That said, I don't expect any Grahams, McConnells, or even Murkowskis to be berating themselves to face the consequences of their actions. They didn't see a problem with their Reagan-style anarchism. They didn't see a problem with decimating the professional government bureaucracy. They didn't see a problem with alienating allies around the world. They only saw a monetary gain from government largesse and salivated. So far, they have refused to face the consequences of their actions at our expense. Maybe we are supposed to face their consequences for them.
7
Trump assumed his reassurances, backed by what remains of expertise, with a toady in charge, would turn the stock market around. Guess they didn't believe him! Wonder why? The lying chickens came home to roost... Nobody believes him anymore, and this stock market won't bother to win him an election.
16
I'm pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have in fact caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers. But as you can see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are opened, and people are having a wonderful time. Amity, as you know, means friendship.
13
Democrats need to go hard at Trump, like they’ve never done before — and not to politicize this, but rather to show yet again, that’s he’s unfit for office and uninterested in governing.
They should drown him in attacks around the clock until Election Day; spend billions if they can.
This is a perfect example of an issue everyone (except his evangelical base) could begin to comprehend why this man is so unfit for office.
7
Yes, it’s a good thing that Trump will be hurt by this. However, the virus is apolitical. It’s ironic that the price of getting rid of Trump could be death. More disturbing is that Trump’s response to this is purely political. I have zero confidence in an administration whose first priority is muzzling health care experts like Anthony Fauci while giving carte blanche to miscreant propagandists like Rush Limbaugh.
14
I'm reassured that Mike Pence is in charge of the Coronavirus Strike Force Effort. Planet of The Apes here we come!
8
@Bradford
As long as he brings his wife along on any travels so he will not be forced to dine alone with female medical experts.
2
I feel quite reassured by the fact that the president has told all of the scientists, researchers, and physicians involved to shut up and not say a word about the virus unless Mike Pence the theocrat and anti-science guy approves it. This is authoritarianism, folks. One-party rule by the Trumpists: shades of Xi Jinping.
22
@Allison, having muzzled all the experts, Pence can now express that maybe that individual from California got a false-positive from a faulty test kit and the US is still safe, or in other words, trump is in complete control of the virus situation .... (or of your television set if you believe in aliens.)
2
In regard to all communiques about COVID-19 going through Mike Pense's office; The US Executive branch has now become unbelievable and unreliable. trump cannot control the narrative, the narrative now controls him...
13
Let’s send our thoughts and prayers to Wall Street.
11
I'm amazed and appalled by the stunning lack of knowledge of basic global economics on this board. Yea, just keep on thinking that Trump is to blame. TDS.
2
Matt, I’ve been amazed and appalled about the stunning lack of global and domestic economic policy coming from the White House since January 20, 2017.
7
@SR
The only "derangement" is owned by anyone who actually thinks a failed casino pitchman and lifetime con artist like Donald Trump has the slightest idea what he's doing.
6
I really don’t know what everyone is worrying about. With Pence’s prayers, and the fact that trump is the “Chosen One,” the virus will be vanquished in America and the market will rebound.
7
Put politics aside for a moment. First off, there is no reason to panic. Second, this doesn’t look like a simple correction but instead appears to be a market that is behaving rationally. That is perfectly OK and can be planned around unless you panic. The world economy is faced with the potential for large scale quarantines, reduced air travel, and reduced manufacturing. All of which have economic impacts and all of which will occur regardless of how dangerous the disease is. Furthermore, the risk of all of that isn’t going away any time soon. The response to all of this is that economies will slow; stocks will go down. None of what is happening is due to the economy being “too hot” or because of someone’s political decisions. There is no reason to panic but at the same time be aware that what’s happening is not a fad and will drag on for as long as the potential is present. This entire situation is like a storm. The question is the extent of the damage once it passes and how fast the clean up will take. So, like a storm…don’t panic and act rationally.
Step 1: Get off the political band wagon and work the problem. Politics right now will only make it worse.
1
It’s actaully quite predictable, and even seems fitting, that the whole global economic system could be suddenly thrown into shambles by what comes down to cultural practices rooted in disregard of other living species, namely the illegal trafficking of wildlife in China. Human beings are going to pay a price for the horrific things we do, and this is only the beginning.
10
In the big rush to prop up the US economy with tax cuts, quantitative easing (printing money), and low prime rate (free money for banks), the Trump administration has managed to preemptively use the nukes before he tried the bullets.
Now what? Zero prime rate? Negative bond yields?
What significant economic interventions are left?
All that just to prop up Trump's re-election chances.
Everyone happy now?
15
Is the fact that stocks have tanked more in the U.S. than they have in Britain and Japan due to those countries having more faith in how their governments are handling the coronavirus crisis than we have in ours?
17
I wish I had spare money to buy up some bargain basement stocks, but alas, the economy under Trump is no different for me than it was under Obama.
4
Trump would have written "if the market drops 1000 points in one day, the president must be impeached".
Let's listen and do it again.
11
I wonder how Trump will try and spin this one.
The stock market isn’t something he can lie about or gaslight his supporters over, like virtually everything else.
And if he tries to, then maybe, just maybe, his base of supporters will start to fracture.
Hopefully before it’s too late.
Vote Blue like your life depends on it, because for most of us, and the planet, it does.
28
@Barbara Brundage Just read some of the comments on this thread from his supporters. Trump doesn't need to lie to them or gaslight them. They're doing it all by themselves while making ugly threats to everyone else.
2
I believe this part of making America great again. Pretty sure. Stephen King version.
9
A surprisingly honest assessment of the increasingly loud calls for yet more Federal Reserve rate cuts to address the plunging stock market. Former Dallas Fed President, Richard Fisher interviewed on CNBC today:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/27/richard-fisher-warns-against-fed-to-the-rescue-during-every-crisis.html
In short:
- Interest rates across the rate curve are down and companies have benefited greatly from this;
- Commodity prices are down and companies have benefited from this;
- Should the Fed always come to the rescue whenever the market gets nervous?
- The CNBC anchor asked, "How can you bail markets out everytime...and then not bail them out...when the markets may need it most?" Fisher's answer: "Need it most? Coming off all-time highs?"
- Fisher: "The Fed has created this dependency...there are an entire generation of managers who weren't around in '74, '87, the end of the '90s, even in 2007,2008, 2009...they've only seen a one-way street."
- Fisher: "Do you want to feed that hunger, keep applying the opioid of cheap and abundant money? Money's already cheap and abundant."
- CNBC anchor (disagreeing with Fisher): "If world is being starved because of supply chain cut-off in China..." Apparently, the anchor thinks that you address a potential supply disruption with a rate cut. Except that rate cuts only serve to increase demand not supply. Yep, CNBC - the folks who should actually understand this stuff. Sigh.
3
Will this crash turn into another worldwide recession, like 2008? Then the trigger was the massive leveraged debt in subpar mortgages, which all fell at once. Now it might be the Chinese financial house of cards, which is also based on massive debt in subpar real estate, plus the collapse of their manufacturing for export. Like the 2008 situation, the Chinese threat is mostly hidden from investors.
5
Trump only thinks of himself and re-election.
Trump set up Pence to fail. If there is a catastrophe, Trump will replace Pence with another loyalist and move on. Pence is just another buffer between Trump and actual responsibility and accountability.
19
@Matt Ah, not true. This has everything to do with trump. His tax cuts for corporations and the rich overheated the markets and his drastic gutting of federal infrastructure (including HHS) has gotten us to a point where we may have a pandemic and be totally unprepared for it. So yes, the whole thing has to do with trump just as he rode it on the way up, he'll have to ride it down.
5
@PJD
This has nothing to do with Trump. Give it a rest.
It’s not just Nestle that’s canceling travel. Sony pulled out of the game developers conference in San Francisco and PAX East in Boston this month. They have a huge hardware launch for the PlayStation 5 in November that they need to show off at trade shows as well as get production rolling in China
8
Among Trump's myriad problems is that he always thinks he's the smartest person in the room. He could go to graduation at MIT and still feel smarter than everyone there. Now we're confronted with a real crisis of science and morality, and Trump — ever the stable genius — can't concede that there are physicians, epidemiologists and medical experts vastly more intelligent than he is. Still, he feels superior and can't cede any ground to the learned men an women skilled in identifying and thwarting a looming pandemic. In short, under Trump's 'leadership,' we're doomed. Have a nice day!
22
@H. Clark He's a malignant narcissist. Which may not sound that bad but it's actually a dangerous mental illness. That's why thousands of mental health professionals were putting their reputation on the line to issue warnings about him. People like Trump leave nothing but wreckage behind and are almost pathologically unable tp take accountability. He's dangerous to this country.
6
This is going to hurt state government. Some states like California are dependent on taxes on capital gains, but instead people will be deducting capital losses. Other states like Illinois and New Jersey have underfunded pension plans so losing a large amount will lead to bankrupt pension plans.
5
Re: The plight of our poor fellow Americans:
Since when have the enormous rises financial markets been a positive for those workers who struggle month to month ?
Not all boats get lifted in a rising tide; Only the Yachts.
25
Down 1100 plus points today.
The fraudulence of the Trump Economy is exposed at last. The Market has been a bubble for months and months. The smart money has been looking to Take Profits for a long time but they were afraid of Trump. Coronavirus is just giving them the excuse they need.b
16
It's been a while since we've had a fire sale like this. The market will move past this, folks. In the meantime... BUY, BUY, BUY.
7
It’s still two thousand too high. Hold your fire. Bargain basement sale in next few months.
2
@Joe B
'BUY, BUY, BUY.'
Joe, are you good with catching knives?
1
Trump announces that Mike Pence is "czar" of COVID-19 response. Stock market drops another 1200 points. Can these two data points be unrelated?
32
I don’t think so because if people realized the significance of the mind boggling incompetence of this administration confronting a crisis it would have dropped 2000.
It may rise 300 tomorrow then plummet next week as the epidemic comes to our country. And we have no testing no treatment. Wash your hands, don’t touch your face etc. Meanwhile people by the tens of thousands who are asymptomatic will
spread the virus.
One has to hope and pray that a change of season as with the flu will give pause.
The life saving consequence of this virus is that the Dow will drop 20 percent and consequently Trump will lose the election.
The Dow trumps children in cages and the pollution of air and water.
2
Is this what Kudlow calls a dip?
20
Investors are already voting with their feet. They are fleeing the obvious incompetence of the Trump Gang to deal with the epidemic.
20
The second that Trump said that this was nothing to worry about, I knew that this was probably something worth worrying about.
73
Coronavirus Czar = Man who said smoking doesn't cause cancer.
37
The title should be "Press Articles Presenting Sensationalized Speculation (And Glaring Omissions Of Data) As Facts Drives Stocks Down For 6th Day".
It reminds me of Orson Wells' 1938 radio broadcast of "War of The Worlds" when some listeners thought Martians were landing in... oh forget it.
The scene from the Disney movie that depicted lemmings all running over the cliff was a bit of fiction for the sake of fun. Probably when they were making it the producers thought "who on earth would believe such nonsense?"
One more time, while many of you are hurrying towards the cliff:
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/14-12-2017-up-to-650-000-people-die-of-respiratory-diseases-linked-to-seasonal-flu-each-year
@Illuminati Reptilian Overlord #14. The seasonal flu leads to the death of about 0.1% of its hosts. COVID-19 has been killing at a rate of 2%. Yes, my chances of catching the flu are much higher, but I'd still rather not tempt the other.
I have no idea where that 0.1% comes from, I tried googling it and got nothing. Got a link? Even on the CDC site it says 2% mortality, but that's in the US alone where there's lots of vaccinated people.
Why is it that we all turn into chicken little over this.....markets have a response time of about four to six months unless it is 2008 again.....that may be coming but this is not it
And now all messaging needs to be cleared by the WH. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.... we're in the land of.... China?
13
Trump was showing leadership from India twitting at 3 am insults against the women he knows, Pelosi, Sotomayor and Ginsburg.
22
@Leon Makes you wonder about his relationship with his mother.
6
The one point Donny hid behind was the economy
That house of cards just fell
18
@c p It was never his economy anyway. It was 8 years of steady recovery under Obama from the Wall Street mortgage mortgage crisis crash.
Now, if the economy starts sinking he will of course blame it on Obama and his base will agree.
Just the other day he claimed that "Obama left me a terrible mess."
2
No one is happy about the stock market slide. Least of all Trump, who relies on the Dow to just show what a marvelous financial wizard he is. But think back to all the smaller drops that mirrored the trade crisis with trade with China. All he had to do to put his finger on the scale was announced that a trade settlement was imminent. Voila the market went right back up. Sort of the old "painting the tape" trick from the 1920's. Now were in crisis where he can't as easily manipulate things.
Trump didn't cause this crisis; he's just lacks any of the leadership skills to calm things. After years of lying, over a half of the country doesn't believe very much he says anymore.
23
Most people have few protections from everyday illness, let alone extraordinary outbreaks. They have little access to the essentials - food, shelter, health care - while laboring under punishing conditions. Their deaths rarely factor into fluctuations of the stock market, while their lives are certainly impacted by investment priorities.
It is coldly interesting to watch an equal opportunity virus make its way through all strata of society. We can judge the success or failure of emergency preparation and response - to the extent we can see for ourselves and within the parameters we are allowed.
Here in America, Pres.Trump has declared victory, while commanding VP Pence to control the flow of information; I doubt either can or cares to sort fact from fantasy. Business as usual for a Republican administration which sees everything in terms of public relations, presidential power - and profit. Which brings us back to the stock market.
While we are being told to take sensible precautions and stay calm, the titans of industry are panicking. One little virus and suddenly they are no longer willing to bet on GOP and Fox fictions. Lives have always been at stake. Facts and fairness have always mattered. Or ought to have
11
President Obama had created many new positions in our government in which the primary functions were inter agency communications and coordination. This was especially targeting our medical and heath agencies and departments (for example the National institute of health and the center for disease control, just to name two).
Of course Trump fired many of these individuals and dismantled these lines of communications. Why you ask....because President Obama created it.
As evidenced yesterday in his press briefing we as a country are seriously equipped to handle this potential pandemic. Then again why worry, "there are only 15 cases of covid-19 here and spring is coming soon."
9
Don't worry, Trumps in charge, he's got this! There will be a fierce bounce back just before the General Election. No one will be able to falsely claim that this was still the era of the Obama economy. I'm almost sick of winning.
3
The reason that corruption is bad for the economy is that it ALWAYS leads to a collapse, just as rot weakens a wooden bridge. The housing market was corrupted under Bush, and it collapsed. Everything is corrupt under Trump, primarily our Justice system, which is now his own personal Roy Cohn. Markets need credibility and predictability.
17
Markets hate uncertainity and there is plenty of that right now. Coronavirus, Sanders, Trump, misinformation and, yes, panic. The Dow just closed uner 26,000, off over 1100 points. The Fed can cut rates only so far, but, in the end, confidence in our government and a peak in Coronavirus cases will turn thing around.
Above all, Trump's constant tweeting does not help either. Hang on as we're in for worse.
7
I'm not concerned, Mike Pence is in charge. What could possibly go wrong?
10
The party is over at the White House. It's fun when the country runs itself reasonably well no matter how you behave and no matter what you neglect or abuse. Now it's time for a four letter word with which Mr. Trump is not well accustomed: Work.
24
This is why outsourcing everything and creating a global economy of near-monopoly, centralized industries and agriculture based on third-worlds and dictatorships has always been incredibly irresponsible. Greedy, short-sighted and irresponsible. Maybe if the world’s economies come crashing down, humanity will finally be disabuse of the notion that unchecked capitalism and greed is healthy or sustainable. Meanwhile, people die from preventable pandemics, the new gilded age takes root, the world burns, and water dries up...
10
Have no fear, Pence will make things better.
1
Health officials now must get clearance from White Office before releasing information?
Trump & Pence are running an authoritarian regime.
17
So, the market going down is Trumps fault. But when the market was going up, the stock market doesnt reflect the economy, say liberal folk.
Sorry, you cant twist this anyway you like it.
The stock market went straight up because of Trumps policies.
Unless you think Trump invented this virus, the market going down has nothing to do with Trumps policies.
Most folks with even just a bit common sense realize that.
2
Trump inherited the Obama Recovery. Unfortunately, now we’re all paying for a president who can never tell the truth. No one believed him yesterday. And once you lose the faith of the boys and girls on Wall Street it’s over.
5
Uh huh. According to Trump supporters who claim he created the economy and rising stock market even they know he fell down the stairs into.
Even if Americans suffer it will still be worth it if we can get rid of Trump and his criminal republican party. Nothing less than saving our democracy is at stake. This is a legitimate crisis and Trump can't lie his way through it. It's also the first crisis he didn't create.
8
A disinterested president in a time of crisis who also recently cut the budget at the CDC.
Rex Tillerson was right in his description of Trump.
14
-1190.95
Largest daily point loss ever.
Unchanged
Trump’s willingness to take the blame for anything.
The Trump administration’s willingness to take the blame for anything.
9
How long will it be before Trump says that Democrats are weaponizing the stock market (by selling off their assets) in order to tank the economy and evict Trump?
22
By blaming Democrats for pumping up the fear re the coronavirus and accusing them of weaponizing it politically, he’s already started.
9
@qisl
His cult is already saying it. No surprises there.
11
There isn't a free-market response to a pandemic. The country needs the government right now. Sadly, a government that's small enough to drown in a bathtub won't be of much use to us now.
35
One can only imagine the stock tumble on the arrival of the apocalypse. Traders won’t even notice it with their heads only in one place.
7
Maybe people will realize they put the equivalent of a fifth grader at the bottom of his class in the White House. He picked a cabinet full of third graders and a highly superstitious second grader to be his vice-president because he didn't want to be shown up. But problem is, even if it is generally recognized, so many US citizens found grade school an intellectual challenge they might not worry about it.
57
Best comment of the day
3
@LSB Thanks. I had to get it off my chest. It nags at me. Consider Rush Limbaugh getting the Medal of Freedom. For what? Unsurpassed inanity on radio?
Not a peep from the FOMC.
@OscarSnowden
What do you expect them to do about it? Are interest rates at 1.5% too penal? Their job isn’t to prop up the S&P no matter how much Trump says it is.
14
Buy the ticket, take the ride.
The inability to tell what reality is defines the Trumpian ticket. The fears about covid-19 are the ride.
The truth about either for the future will be eye-opening.
8
The impetus for this market behavior isn’t going away anytime soon. As that’s clearer, the fall may become even more precipitous. That may redound to Trump’s disadvantage, I hope it will, but decent people, families, and possibilities for our nation will certainly suffer profoundly. The question as to whether or how a democratic leadership can ameliorate that situation remains to be seen. There is no cause for celebration given the pain people will endure (perhaps you too, and it will be felt and real then). But we will have as always a chance to struggle for the best. So there’s hope.
4
I won't pretend to know exactly what made the Dow drop 1197 points today. I also can't predict what will happen tomorrow. But if Trump was hoping to calm the markets with his press conference last night, I'm pretty sure that didn't work.
56
@Derek Martin A global supply chain that appears to be shutting down, and a consumer market "staying home", instead of perpetually growing demand (as they're SUPPOSED to do) may have something to do with 1197.
10
Cases are soaring in Italy, and much of Europe is on red alert. Now a patient in Northern California has come down with it and there's no tracing its source. This is clearly an easily transmitted virus, and the sick and elderly will be most impacted by it. It's estimated that those 70 to 79 years have an 8% fatality rate. You do the math. This has the potential to kill hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Thus far, there has been no means of controlling its spread. The markets haven't even begun to reflect what were facing. Add to that the bumbling denials of the Trump administration, along with its cuts to disease prevention. Well? I have had pneumonia and had the flu last year and don't wish it upon anyone. We have to forget about the economy, and start taking measures to save humanity. This, folks, is not a drill.
20
This doesn’t look like a correction to me.
This looks like a rational, fact driven sell off.
The market will continue to head lower until it gets a sense that there’s an end to, or an effective policy in place to manage this outbreak.
Not every down move is a correction, sometimes a down move as rapid and sharp as this one could be signaling a trend reversal instead.
Buying into this move could be like trying to catch a falling sword.
18
A generation ago, roughly 40 percent of Americans had pension plans. That number has dwindled to less than 13 percent today.
I point this out because the middle and working classes now must not only figure out how to make ends meet but also worry about the effects of the ups and downs of the market on their 401ks - and thus their ability to retire.
The social contact is in dire need of repair.
46
So of course Trump learns the exact wrong lessons by copying China and Japan in trying to control the narrative for political reasons, instead of actually dealing with the crisis. As if this would force the virus to behave! Just like that hurricane that refused to go to Alabama...
We have reached a dictatorship.
I hope health care providers keep the public health as its primary objective and not Trump’s stock market , ie reelection, fears!
16
Is it really coronavirus or stock market finally catching up with Trump policies that is dragging it down.
8
@Mir It is a combination of both. The market has had a steady recovery and rise under Obama for 8 years and is due for a correction anyway.
The coronavirus crisis may be the shove the pushes an correction-due marker over the cliff.
Add to that the record deficits under Trump that the GOP cares nothing about unless it a Democratic president.
To add insult to injury the tax cut only benefited the 1%.
17
@ernieh1
As well, there are no monetary arrows in our quiver.
2
Thank goodness the effect this is having on the investor class is FINALLY being recognized.
I mean, after all, they're the ones really suffering.
All this talk of HUMAN suffering is getting rather tedious.
A few thousand deaths are insignificant compared to a decline in the stock market.
25
Michael Lewis's "The Fifth Risk" seems very prescient right now.
6
Obviously Donald Trump cannot be accused of having anything to do with this coronavirus-induced "correction". Perhaps The Donald thinks it's Obama's fault. Or maybe Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff are the ones responsible.
12
Oh for Americans to have a president who understands real economics!
16
Thank heavens we have such a genius in the White House. His sheer intellect will make the market rebound. No worries. Just keep calm and carry on.
8
Seems at other stock market drastic drops, NYT publishers number on front page
Yet, with Trump in office, S&P; much smaller number reigns.
Hmmm!
1
O for Americans to have a president who understands real economics!
1
As others have commented here, the irony of Trump the germaphobe, being laid low (maybe literally at some point in time) by this lowly virus is ironic. If God has a sense of humor I imagine this is his joke.
16
You're about to find out what your President is made of, and it ain't gonna pretty. Still his approval rating is climbing.... You are truly lost as a nation!
40
@Mark Eliasson
Can we emigrate to Sweden?
9
@Marie S
Yes, but we will do a background check on your voting record ;)!
6
Many of us know exactly what the Toddler-In-Chief is made of. I knew during the 1980s when I was a teenager. I wish everyone else had been as perceptive.
3
Trump gave the Corona Virus Coordination responsibility to Mike Pence, because" he had nothing better to do" (!?). What a complete joke this administration has become to the world.
29
No one seems to be upset over the fact this administration has essentially placed a gag order on the CDC.
32
According to the CDC about 80,000 Americans died from the flu in 2018. Tell me why everyone, especially the media, is freaking out. Put the virus in perspective. Yes, it is bad. But, it pales in comparison to one year of the flu in the US. Perspective is a terrible thing to ignore.
6
@dudley thompson
If the estimate of fatality for this virus is correct at ~2%, that's about 7 million American deaths. Also, if the estimates of infected people getting severe pneumonia at ~20% are correct that's about 70 million Americans in the hospital. That's on TOP of seasonal flu. Math.
19
@dudley thompson So one year of flu data is somehow equal to 2 months of ongoing caronavirus data?
Not hardly. We do know the flu is .1% fatal, vs, approx. 2% for the caronavirus. That's 20 times more fatal.
17
That’s only if you believe the official Chinese numbers & ignore watching what they’ve done. The Chinese would not have plunged nearly half their population into lockdown for 2000 deaths— that’s signal noise to such a big country. Moreover reputable reports from Wuhan that their crematoriums are going 24/7 & cannot keep up with the bodies continue. Way more than 2000 deaths.
Don’t listen to what they say — watch what they do. And the Chinese leadership postponed their big March meeting. So it’s ok for worker bees to get back to work & risk exposure but the head honchos ain’t traveling yet.
When this country and the world needs true leadership, we have Trump the worlds and histories greatest buffoon.
10
Though admittedly no expert, I feel that the coronavirus outbreak is what might have triggered a long-awaited downward adjustment in the markets, but not the root cause. If I understand correctly, indicators of a downturn (bond rate yield inversion, etc.) have been appearing over the past six months or more.
Before the 2008 crash the DOW Jones was sitting just under the 14,000. Until this week, the market was scraping the underside of the 30 thousand mark - but how much of that valuation was real worth and how much was wishful thinking and perhaps a market bubble and nothing more? Ask yourself this: what fundamentals of the market changed to warrant a doubling of the 2008 high (and four times more than the after-the-crash low of ~7500)? And how much of this new 'wealth' went to wage-earners? That's rhetorical, we all know the answer is precious little, if any.
I have sympathy for middle class workers forced to take 401ks instead of the (almost now defunct) traditional pension, but none for the multi-millionaire and billionaire class who are the main beneficiaries of an inflated stock market
13
" new patients in each country had no known connection to others with the illness, "
Obviously, there are multiple 'degrees of separation" between these patients, those they've been on contact with, etc., etc.
With an estimated gestation period of about 4 weeks, and very limited access to testing (U.S. test kits failed, when first issued), and information being confused and not forthcoming, this situation is understandable.
The "barn door" was left open too long for any real containment. Now we're in a similar situation as Earth, 1919 (Spanish flu).
7
On Monday I believe it was in the best interest in the country to sell everything and get out of the market. Few times are there an across the board issue that is so easy to intrepid.
Supply lines have been disrupted and best cast will take months to recover, not to mention only a fool would think Trump has enough people left to manage a major disaster correctly.
When I heard Pence was the front (fall) guy I knew I was doing the country a solid.
1
Who knew viruses couldn't be bullied?
13
With the White House announcing plans to carefully control the coronavirus outbreak narrative, it is likely that rumors and alternative sources of information will abound in the days ahead.
On that front, have heard just today that the Whitehouse has announced that in preparation for combating the U.S. corona virus outbreak, President Trump will personally be handing out rolls of paper towels to all Americans.
Please, for your country's sake, don’t forget to wipe.
7
Who wants to bet that a big-business "Coronavirus bail-out" will happen before universal health insurance?
16
Any chance the Chinese cough up refunds to investors for recent market losses? Fat chance. Don’t you want more of Bloomberg's wonderful Chinese business partners?
@Tim - Perhaps "cough up" isn't the best choice of words just now.
Nearing "a correction?" We've already had a correction, especially in the context of all of that previous upside.
My recommendation, if you don't own much stock, is to slowly start buying an index ETF or MSFT.
1
The word isn't Trump. The word is fear. Fear is driven by immediate headline coverage of any developments with corona virus regardless of significance. Meanwhile and largely ignored by the media are more than 15,000 deaths in US as of 2/1/20 from influenza, far exceeding the world total for corona virus. That includes deaths of over 100 children nationwide.
1
@blgreenie Only two things rule stocks: fear and greed.
2
The market sell-off may be the leading indicator of real economic damage to follow as workers are laid off and farmers and businesses face potential bankruptcy as the world economy enters a recession. Meanwhile, the nation cannot trust Donald Trump to be honest nor, for that matter, Vice President Mike Pence the newly appointed coronavirus czar, who had a truly horrific record in dealing with an HIV epidemic when he was governor of Indiana. Those who chose to deify Trump may soon see this a plague from God to topple a modern Pharaoh while others seek an exodus from his toxic tyranny and the virus, and are willing to pay what may be a high price for it. But, all should remember that while the Great Recession temporarily pushed Republicans from power it ushered in an era of economic growth under Barack Obama. #WaitingforMoses.
7
Yeah, a 10% correction to the market and Dems and ‘progressives’ can barely contain their excitement.
Looks like we need Bernie to kill the market entirely!
(Who knew the potential misery of a pandemic could excite people politically?)
3
Oh please the stock market tripled under Obama and he didn’t go around bragging about it
And the market has increased under Trump but it has not triple. Trump has wrongly implied that the stock market increases have been due to him.
And investors have been saying for a long time the market is do for a correction. people should have been planning for this correction and move their money accordingly.
Trump can now blame the downturn on the virus. But we know Detroit steel just eliminated 1500 jobs Ford is no longer making the focus or fusion car companies are laying people off.
And he put his Pence in charge -when he was the governor of Indiana he led a crisis HIV epidemic
13
“we’re very very ready for this.” The most terrifying words we can hear in a crisis.
14
@Robert Roth
"we’re very very ready for this.” - Donald Trump.
I am NO fan of Ronald Reagan, but there is a delicious irony that his statement that the most terrifying sentence one can hear is, "I'm from the government, and here to help" might be true after all.
However, Saint Ronnie meant this as a way to accuse Progressives and New Deal Democrats, but as is now evident, the most destructive "help from the government" is the product of the hapless Trumplicans/Conservatives.
1
Trump thinks he can intimidate the virus just like he does with the Republican Senate and House, the various Departments like Justice, the intelligence services, the Department of Defense, the White House divisions including NSC. He thinks he can create an alternate reality like it is Ukraine not Russia.
That is why he put Pence in change. He knows he does not have to put someone competent in change because if he says so the virus will just go away.
Because McConnell would not allow a trial with due process and Chief Justice Roberts did not call a mistrial as a result we are stuck with Trump. Therefore the public and private health services will have to fight the virus without leadership.
6
I suppose I am in the minority among NYT readers. I wouldn’t wish a recession on anyone. 2008 was brutal. I don’t hate Trump so much that I wish ill on all of us just to get my way.
3
The Dems are overjoyed with the "stock market meltdown." They hate prosperity and wealth so much. Strangley they can't ever get enough of taxing and spending it.
3
@Reader In Wash, DC This is absolutely not true. A downturn in investments hurts everyone, so in our town, no one is overjoyed. Markets react to information and I don't understand why Republicans are so adverse to scientific information and statistics.
And I don't know anyone that is thrilled with the current government spending, including the tariff bailouts for farmers, when small businesses suffer.
9
Any major Tweet storms from you-know-who yet? No? All quiet on the other side of the looking glass today? Amazing.
4
Looks like it wasn't as good for the economy as Wilbur Ross hoped.
7
This is -all- the Democrats fault! But don't worry - I put somebody else in charge... and we're now finally doing all the things we might have done earlier, if we'd paid attention. But it's not my fault! Its a conspiracy by Democrats, China, and the MSM to make me look bad, and to scare the markets.
Signed, President Trump
I watched the press dog-and-pony show yesterday... I am not reassured. Fumbling, bumbling, and too slow out the gate seems to be the reality. And what about the 16% *cut* in the CDC's 2021 budget funding? Couldn't see this coming a couple months ago... and thought -cutting- CDC funding (and HHS) was a Good Trump Idea?
Vote Them All Out!
10
Globalization, financial markets and other technoindustrial grid features are increasingly fragile and bound to fail.
They're also ecologically, economically and culturally ruinous.
When stock markets dominate the world, you know how far gone we are.
Whether from a virus or some other shock, the insanity of depending on a biosphere-destroying infrastructure of worldwide trade and population movement will result in collapse.
4
My and my wife's 401(k)'s have just lost all the gains we made over the last year, and even if we lose another 20%, if it means that on Nov. 4 we have a Democratic President, it will be worth every penny.
24
@Mark
Bless you. A true American husband and wife that values decency and democracy over money.
But not to worry - once a Democrat is back in the White House, your 401(k) will rebound and then some. Obama and the Democrats have proven that fact once and for all.
1
Selecting Pence is another way for Trump to silence the science community from giving the public the true information. Expect disinformation and outright lies as we battle the real security threat to the US. How about directing some of the funds that was illegally stolen for the wall to combat this crisis?
20
Make no mistake, the market downturn is a vote of no confidence in the president.
22
Finally!
A scenario that this president* cannot control. Although I wouldn’t put it past him to try to declare martial law before the November elections.
That is something he CAN control.
9
Gosh, our current president has said that we have nothing to worry about regarding COVID-19. So why isn't the market jumping back up? Could it be that people don't believe him? Don't trust him? Why would that be? Especially now that Vice President Mike Pence is in charge. Maybe Trump's followers believe him unless their own money and their own health are at stake.
14
The Trump tax breaks were supposed to take care of the markets, right?
All companies and 1%ers have to do is reinvest their $1 trillion tax windfall into the economy, like Trump promised they would do, so that everyone else can keep spending money and propping up those same companies and 1%ers.
A trickle-down economy requires the rich to play their part. Let's see if the rich will play by the same rules they forced through the Congress and White House they bought off.
7
@Alex Still waiting for my trickle from "we're doing all we can" Reagan.
5
Just FYI, here the best numbers I could find on CORVID-19 vs the seasonal flu: According to the World Health Org, so far, world-wide, there have been 82,539 confirmed cases of CORVID-19 and 2,812 death, which makes the chances of dying about 1 in 29. In Italy, there have been 650 confirmed cases and 17 deaths, which improves the odds to 1 in 38.
On the other hand, CDC estimates that in the US so far this season there have been at least 29 million flu illnesses, 280,000 hospitalizations and 16,000 deaths, which makes the chances of dying from the flu about 1 in 1,800.
CORVID-19 is very, very nasty.
I have to assume that Donald Trump is trying to play it down to keep his deficit-funded stock market rally going.
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@David Eike
It likely goes deeper than that. As a narcissist, he cannot abide anything going wrong on his watch. So, he's showing classic avoidance behavior.
3
@David Eike The correct designation for the Coronavirus is COVID-19. Apologies to all for my carelessness.
1
This reaction of the investors tells a lot about who they are.
2
The coronavirus will be looked at as the black swan that crashed markets in 2020. I expect another 7-10% drop from here. The uncertainty is just too much for businesses and traders to handle. Fear and pain are real and business which is very global now cannot plan anything. This selloff is very different from others since the GFC which were systemic malinvestment problems and greed run amok; this time the situation is not easily controllable. And unfortunately Trump does not inspire any confidence in his handling of the situation. Tweeting at Fed Chairman Powell will do no good, because lowering interest rates cannot stop the spread of the virus and keep businesses running. Now would be a good time for a giant infrastructure spending bill.
6
So, let me get this straight:
- When Pres Obama saved our country from Bush's Great Recession and turned the economy on the positive slope that we've had since then, he doesn't deserve any credit?
- But when Trump inherits Pres Obama's good economy and rides the wave (even though he's lowered the slope somewhat), Trump deserves all the credit?
- But when the economy begins to tank under Trump (regardless of whether or not it's caused by his policies or a pandemic virus), Trump doesn't deserve any blame (even though he's the one who has cut the resources we need to combat the virus)?
- And of course, this is all the Dem's fault (or the Media's fault, take your pick), because they have told the truth and have wanted to make our citizens aware and safe from the virus?
OK, this all makes total sense, right.
It would be satisfyingly ironic if a lowly virus is what finally topples our germophobic Leader's disastrous dictatorship!
I say: Let the stockmarket tank! It's worth sacrificing some of the retirement assets for the Rich 1% of this country in order to restore the rule of law, the primacy of truth, and basic human civility to our country.
Trump owns this!
64
Obama saved the oligarchs. His turnaround of the economy saw almost all of the wealth gains flow to the already rich, during his 2-term in office.
Working and middle classes are struggling as much in 2020 as they were in 2016, 2012, 2008 and 2004. That’s why anti-establishment candidates are beating establishment candidates in primary races.
5
@Paul-A The market tripled under Obama but he didn’t go around boasting about it
8
@Xoxarle Middle class were saved the most by Obama. He gave make work tax credit to people making less than $250,000 he also had the payroll tax reduction for the middle class only he also had the heart program so people underwater could refinance their homes
3
If Mr. Trump's goal was to reassure the nation, including people who do not worship him, he failed. Having Mike Pence in charge of what is allowed to be told to the public is not reassuring. Having Mr. Trump's history of firing anyone for saying anything that he feels diminishes him does not reassure me. Telling Mr. Fauci he needs to clear messages with the president before speaking does not reassure me.
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@John
What? You weren't encouraged by his "there's a good chance you won't die" remark?
4
@Jerseytime Not when it came from a man who bankrupted his own casino.
4
"Was the 2008 recession worth it since it got Obama elected?"
In a Capitalist economy, cyclical recessions are about as inevitable as Death and Taxes.
It is not a question of IF there will be a Recession; it is only a question of When.
With that in mind, prudent folks should diversify their investments, and not put all of their eggs in one basket.
Since cyclical recessions are bound to occur, it seems permissable to have preferences as to the timing: It is good if historical Justice is served. Thus, if a President, in collusion with a political party in power, implement greedy, short-sighted, ruinous, and corrupt economic policy, it is only fitting and proper that the President (Trump) and the Party (the Republicans) get held to historical account, and are give proper credit for the economic fiasco. Or perhaps you would prefer if a Democratic President gets left holding the bag? Reagan's "Voodoo Economics" has never worked, and yet those failures had no impact on his Legacy (Thanks, Mainstream Media!). George W. Bush was barely held accountable for a historically deep recession, and an avoidable Housing boom/bust. Trump has not been held accountable at all, blithely running up Trillion+ $$ Deficits, while the Middle and Working classes see scarcely any positive change in their family incomes.
9
Why are the Republicans allowing our country's traditions and reputation to be destroyed? They're the only ones who can put a stop to this. I don't blame Mr Trump for anything. It's very clear to me that he is not responsible for his actions. It's been even more clear recently. In fact it looks like he's stopped golfing altogether even though he's always going way to his golf clubs. I don't think he's very well. I excuse him from all the terrible things he has done. The GOP, not so much. Why are they letting this happen?
2
@kim A Mulligan is when you forgive someone for something they did that was obviously bad. Trump has had 10,000 mulligans. Trump is responsible. Read his Twitter feed; he spreads hate and lies many times daily. Stand back; ask yourself; Is Trump's actions/words good or bad?
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@kim
To create a power vacuum which the big corporations will fill.
Their end goal is corporate dominance of our government and society. With a heavy helping of conservative religion as an opiate for the masses.
1
Donald Trump has demanded that we give him full credit for performance of the stock market. I say we oblige him.
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I predict at the end of the day, the market will be pretty much where it started out today.
Except for the volatility.
Likely a downward spiral and volatility are with us for some time.
Relax and remember whatever you may own, the stocks are still there. Stay calm. They will eventually grow again.
8
I predict you will be wrong.
3
Clearly the stock market is unaware that Mike Pence is at the helm of this potential health crisis. While he's not altogether comfortable with science, a single prayer should do the trick.
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@CritterDoc
Instead of single payer, with Pence we get single prayer.
4
I think people might be interested in the Johns Hopkins report to which Trump referred in his press conference last night. He quoted only one tiny part and left out an important bit, where the U.S. ranks 19th in preparedness. Quote in context and link to report:
"The U.S. scored 83.5 and ranked No. 1 in five of six categories: prevention, early detection and reporting, rapid response and mitigation, sufficient and robust health system, and compliance with international norms. It ranks 19th in overall risk environment and vulnerability to biological threats, a category that assesses political and security risk, socioeconomic resilience, the adequacy of infrastructure, environmental risks, and public health vulnerabilities that may inhibit a country's ability to prevent or respond to an epidemic or pandemic."
https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/02/27/trump-johns-hopkins-study-pandemic-coronaviruscovid-19-649-em0-art1-dtd-health/
20
Anybody who knows anything about Market Fundamentals knows that the Market Indices are grossly overvalued, particularly with regards to historically sustainable Price/Earnings ratios, amongst other metrices. Much of the bloat is due to tax cuts for the affluent, who have to blow their free money somewhere. Trump's Trillion+ Dollar Annual Budget Deficits (this, in a supposedly healthy economy?!) Artificially sustain the Boom in Equities prices. There also seems to be collusion between the Donor Class and the GOP, who are desperate to jigger and fiddle the economy through the 2020 General Election, and gaming the system by the big banks and corporations, hoping to ingratiate themselves to the mercurial Trump Administration, in return for sweetheart deals, more deregulation, and other goodies that are in absolute opposition to the best interests of the country. The DJIA has increased over 10-Fold in the past 35 Year-- obviously much faster than the Economy as a whole has grown.
Most of that growth is just "on paper" with no underlying basis other than a sophisticated Confidence scheme which could finally burst at any moment. That is the Neo-Liberal Economy for you.
11
@Outerboro
I was with you all of the way until the last sentence. You should have said, "This is the Trump Conservative economy for you". My fear is that our next president will have a very difficult time getting us out of the disaster that Trump created with the support of 60 million voters.
4
I think you may be misunderstanding the definition of Neo-Liberal. It's a position that's actively steered our policy for decades.
When Bill Clinton took over, Regan era or even 1970's stagflation was just in recovery mode, Thanks to GH Bush He raised the Taxes and and economy boomed. Clinton also ride the 1998 China crisis and 2000 Internet buble crisis.
When GW Bush Took over He manage to 2001 economic crisis .
Obama managed mother of all 2008 Economic crisis. and left to Trump a booming economy.
Trump sunny days are over, Covid 19 and its economic crisi here ,
Let see how he manages the crisis? Performance time, test time, shine time
whatever it is Trump's time is up!
Let see what he does?
7
Interesting reasons behind the decisions to vote or not vote Trump .
Trump has nothing to do with the Coronavirus and the ensuing turmoil in market. But people are thinking of judging Trump on the basis of the effects of Corona .
Trump is not judged by the same votaries or antagonists of Trump on the basis of the foreign policies he has conducted in ME or on the records on his electoral promises of withdrawing from foreign wars .
Trump is also not questioned by anybody on his attempts to force Fed to engineer more QE or interest cuts . Market and economy are manipulated by both of the above which don’t benefit the employed and daily wage laborers ,enrich the bank and hedge funds, and effectively tax the rest of the world .
Interesting times and interesting citizen . We deserve Trump for4 more years .
1
@KAH - Trump has DEMANDED that we judge him based on stock market performance. I don’t see any reason why we should stop now. Either he is responsible for the economy or he doesn’t. And he says he is. So welcome to the Trump recession.
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@KAH "We deserve Trump for 4 more years"
Why? Were we evil in a previous life?
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@KAH
We're NOT judging him on the virus, but rather on his handling of a national emergency in the form of a coming
pandemic.
So far, he's not doing well.
1
I wonder what "Loyalty Pledge" Redfield signed before taking this position?
Now would a loyal Trump follower be willing to tell outright lies about the effects of the coronavirus?
The new CDC director was once accused of research misconduct
Robert Redfield also has no experience leading a public health agency. [VOX]
After a major shake-up at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with the resignation of its former director over her ownership of tobacco stocks, the Trump administration on Wednesday appointed Robert Redfield, a Baltimore-based virologist and physician, as the agency’s new leader.
Unlike previous CDC directors, the HIV researcher has no experience at the helm of a public health agency.
Just add this scenario to Pence being the Czar.
7
Watch out, Pence. When things get worse, and you haven't done anything to manage a crisis, your pal Trump has the perfect opportunity to drop you from the 2020 ticket. I's one thing when it's only about people dying and facing every manner of disruption of their lives, but it's another thing altogether when the stock market drops. Now things are serious!
13
I hope he doesn’t have to drive the bus out of the depot but I think I hear it warming up as we speak.
Somebody has to be left holding the bag and it isn’t going to be you know who.
2
Watch how quickly Trump will use this crisis to advance his dictatorial ambitions.
14
Factories in Asia are are at standstill. Only a matter of time for the virus to inch it’s way across the world. Instead of hand wringing, proactive crises measures should be in place. Right now....we only have Pence to make sure information that the Trump administration approves of gets out. Something that no president has ever done before. Who are they protecting? Trump and his markets, not us. Caution for money....always.
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My brethren who amongst thou are beset by the power of the devil: Let us pray for our prey! We shall undercome this diversity of malingered scientific and medical misspoke pronouncements by talking to ourselves.
Move along folks. No need to panic. Mike Pence is in charge.
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@Rich r
Appointing Pence to this task is like hiring a plumber to fly a jet plane.
2
And so continues the near perfect correlation between Republican presidents and economic underperformance. Easy there, Trumpies... I said it was merely a “correlation.”
5
Time for a president of integrity, who wants to strengthen our safety net programs, make comprehensive health care broadly available as it is in other developed countries, and respects science and the need to fund the CDC and other federal health entities.
That's Bernie Sanders, who would bring in a solid team of
expert personnel.
The coronavirus crisis should make us all reflect on the proper role of government in our lives.
Go Bernie!
5
To show the extreme melt-up that had occurred in the market over the last five months.....even after this so-called "correction" stocks have only retraced to the levels they hit in mid-December....a mere 2 1/2 months ago.
There is still a long way down until a fair-valued market is reached.
2
Matt Phillips: What is the evidence that the stock market drop was caused by the coronavirus, and was not just an overdue correction to high stock values (what was called profit-taking back in the day)?
My problem with the coronavirus hypothesis is that if it was the cause, it seems to me it would have taken hold a few weeks earlier.
1
Trump has little or no interest in the virus. He regards it as a variant of the common cold, which at worst might produce a few thousand more deaths in the U.S. this year in what remains of the flu season.
The deaths themselves would mean nothing to him.
What matters to him is the stock market because the survival of his Presidency virtually depends on it.
When Trump came along, businesses and many well-to-do people saw a con- artist who would give them lower taxes; was promising to spend lavishly on the military and the infrastructure; had no interest in controlling budget deficits and inflation; would cast a cold eye on the need for health and safety measures in the workplace; and would ignore the effects of climate change.
Well, the chickens have come home to roost; and what he and Americans foolish enough to believe in his methods have succeeded in producing are vastly overheated stock prices that -- to the surprise of no one familiar with the ups and downs of the stock market -- are now collapsing.
The coronavirus is guilty of nothing more than being a virus.
We will survive it.
Trump -- virtually single-handed -- has succeeded in collapsing the stock market and is clueless on the matter of how to revive
it.
This is why we find him up late at night, tweeting bile throughout
the country.
17
What is with all this doomsday nonsense? It's a less than 5% correction. Obviously this crisis is real for some but significantly manufactured in the U.S. with I think one or two possible infections in a country of 350 million. People are such babies.
2
@Jeffrey Gillespie
Did you miss the CDC's saying that its on its way, but not here yet?
The worst case scenario is bad enough for us to seriously prepare. What if we believe you and the worst case occurs?
1
Well according to our “dear leader” this is because of the democratic debate (eyes rolling). We’re living in Bizarro world.
2
It is certainly not incorrect to attribute the rapid downward spiral to the most obvious reasons: disruption of supply chains based in China, a severe decline in Chinese economic activity, and fears of a global recession caused by these factors. There is another strong factor at work as well.
The staggering decline in stock prices is an unequivocal vote of no confidence our government and its ability to respond to this crisis. The epidemic began in China, where the first response of the Chinese government was lies, deceit, and a cover up. Mr. Trump lavished praise on Xi Jinping for this. It seems Trump admires lies and cover ups as much as he admires horrendous dictators.
In response to a hurricane, Mr. Trump put on a pathetic display of buffoonery. Imaginary lines were drawn on a map, government experts silenced or ordered to lie on Trump’s behalf, and no one was allowed to even whisper, for a brief moment, that the Emperor has no clothes. Why would financial markets panic and issue a vote of no confidence in such a government? It is run by a man who obviously rejects science, disdains expert advice, lies incessantly, shuns globalism, and cherishes himself and his own image above all else.
Appointing Mike Pence as the guru in charge of a global medical crisis only inflicts further damage. His anti-science reputation is already well established, as is his position as the ultimate yes man.
No confidence.
18
How low will the stock market go?
Will it keep falling until the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control?
How long will that take?
Is Trump going to do a good job of getting the coronavirus under control as quickly as someone else (Obama, for instance) would?
I don't see this coronavirus being resolved any time soon.
I don't have any idea how long, but months, not weeks would seem more likely.
How far will the stock market fall? It's down 6% or so now.
20% more? 40% more?
Would seem likely in that range somewhere.
Donald J Trump meet Herbert H Hoover your new partner in history.
6
Scariest news of the day: "All Corona virus by experts news to be filtered by Mike Pence."
This is a lie machine masquerading as a government. Manchurian Candidate playing with your life... for politics, re-election, and the stock market.
15
All I have to say Great! I love a good stock market fall. PS: Another 18% drop would be perfect!
2
Not me. That's retirement money for me. I made 30 percent last year. So much for that.
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@I have had it
Stock market as retirement money? Maybe a portion if ok, but the rest is simply gambling.
5
Have IRA too. Cant live on pension and social security in this country.
3
I don't know how everyone in these comments can criticize Trump for cutting CDC and NIH funding and personnel, and for being totally unprepared to deal with this health crisis. Anyone with any sense knows it was Hillary's email server.
43
Wasn’t it the South Carolina democratic debate?
9
Pence can offer "thoughts and prayers" to those affected.
25
@Mike well there’s actually not much can be done for the affected except thoughts and prayers... there’s no cure or treatments for COVID19
1
The market is down to where it was 4 months ago; S&P 500 still up 9% over the past year. This isn't the corrected we're all expecting... yet.
5
So now Mike "adoring eyes" Pence--the man who questioned whether or not smoking is bad, the man who thinks evolution is a lie--is put in charge of the coronavirus effort and he's made himself the sole focal point for all outgoing information from the experts.
Gee. Why don't I feel good about this?
17
Good day to buy stocks.
8
Go for it. We’ll watch you.
1
@Jonathan
Sure. Because it can't possibly go lower, right?
1