I can’t say I’m surprised that states that had itchy trigger fingers to reopen (e.g. Texas, Arizona, Florida) are seeing a surge in new COVID-19 cases and a higher positivity rate among those tested. The following graph from the Wall Street Journal shows how the number of new cases is hitting a new peak after having come down.
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“We’re not thinking about raising rates —
we’re not even thinking about thinking about raising rates,”
Jerome Powell during 6/10/20 press conference
With interest rates at record lows, this is a time when many people are strongly considering locking in long-term,
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Ok, let’s get this out of the way first since this blog has a subliminal purpose of being a diary for major economic and financial milestones so this is one I can’t ignore.
Now to the subject at hand.
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Charlie Munger can be extremely loquacious as he is one who loves to pontificate and definitely has something to say. He also knows when to stay quiet. When he and Warren Buffett hold court at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting and a question is asked of Buffett and after answering it he turns to Charlie and asks him if he has anything to add.
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I’m not one to typically advocate following the herd but in the case of the coronavirus, I am having a hard time seeing an end game that doesn’t have herd immunity as the ultimate goal. And this could take a long time and lead to a lengthier economic contraction (to put it mildly) and even more massive federal intervention through government spending and Federal Reserve support of financial markets.
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Last week was a crazy week preparing for rent collections this week as well as going through in great detail the safety precautions we are taking to do our best to keep our employees and residents safe. That is why this blog is shorter than normal.
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Gary Carmell Posted in Economy, Interest Rates, Investing, News, People, Stock Market 1 Comment ↓ 
The title of this blog is from the Talking Heads song Life During Wartime. Maybe I should have called it Life During Quarantine instead but we are definitely on a wartime footing. If you don’t think so then maybe these charts might help convince you as financial markets are the most real-time indicator of investor sentiment and discounting the future to ascertain how investors react to key events.
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My international travels were scheduled to come to an end yesterday. I’m writing this prior to my arrival and assuming that there will be no delays in my return. It was a packed adventure that ended in Israel after visiting Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Zambia via Lusaka,
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Overnight, The Saudis decided to ignite a price war which was the catalyst for oil prices crashing, stock futures imploding, and bond yields going through the floor, as reported by Bloomberg, Sunday, March 8, 2020. This was on top of last weeks dramatic drop in interest rates as exemplified by the 10-year Treasury yield dropping below 0.5% for the first time and 30-day Libor collapsing to below 1%,
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2020 has started off with some geopolitical fireworks that have carried over to financial markets as the headline below attests.
This is another good example of why having a hedge with U.S. Treasuries (and maybe a little gold as well) can be helpful to provide a counterweight to risk assets that inevitably take a mild beating,
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