Note:
I have self-quarantined for 14 days. Currently, this is day 4 of my quarantine. I will be giving myself 10 more days before I am confident that I am not ill so as to not unintentionally get anyone else sick. Not that that matters anyway, when the “free press” is killing people through their negligence by spreading misinformation on how to best protect yourself against it. My guess is that once a good chunk of the population starts dying, they will begin to advise people to start wearing masks once they become available. Currently, it is “culturally unacceptable” to wear a mask in the US. Well I can give less of a shit honestly, if you tell me to take it off, I’ll tell you to go choke to death as I’ll take that advice as a threat to my life and the lives of the people I care about.
Since more people will die to this than in 9/11, they only really have their own malice to blame. Will they be tried for treason and second degree murder? Of course not, they will get rewarded for it. Welcome to Chernobyl. We’re all in this together, but you first.
Anyways, back to the subject of speculation:
We will see an unprecedented amount of wealth destruction. You will see many years of your hard work go down the drain, once you realize everything you have worked towards is not yours. Every generation learns this the hard way, in the end, there is no such thing as retirement, unless you were smart about it and you didn’t trust the news media/politicians from the very beginning. The confidence game only works when the elite are confident, and right now, they’re hiding in their bunkers like the cowards they are. Who knows, they probably already have blood serums/antibodies from those who have already recovered from the illness.
The recent “stimulus package” will make it easier for people to tap into their 401k’s without paying the withdrawal penalty. This will definitely cause another panic as Americans who live paycheck to paycheck will cash out as much as they can given that they saw a “red negative number”. I’m pretty sure congress is counting on this behavior and their friends at wall street could be going short.
Anyway, expect another huge percentage drop across the board as the late players (employees and salarymen) jump out of their 401k accounts as they destroy each others wealth as spreads widen further. I expect once this is over, that would be the last of the equity sellers. The subsequent interest rate spike (which will happen over a period of weeks/months) will be the final blow to the stock market. However, it does not end with equities, since the next wave will hit the bond market. But I suspect this will be more of a battle since bondholders are a very small yet wealthy minority.
The sane thing to be doing (or to have done 1 month ago if you paid any attention) was to be moving to Treasury bills (or the bond market) which are yielding almost no interest. You gain nothing, and you lose nothing. Gaining no money in this environment is a lot better than losing it on a coordinated, state orchestrated sell-off. But it is still not over, since the third phase always involves seeing the tail end of the yield curve jump, causing a cascade of defaults across the financial sector. That is, unless the treasury accepts having negative interest rates. I would wait for the S&P/DOW to rise a bit before moving to treasuries.
One month ago, the “experts” and “financial advisors” were saying to not look at your 401k ;-). Now they’re telling you to sell. And there are plenty of lemmings out there who will be broke because of this. And the people who never check will always be holding bags in the end.
Anyway, I’ll just sit here and watch while the wolves of wall street chase all the lemmings off a cliff. I will not be a wolf (complicit in causing wealth destruction) nor will I be a lemming (participate in wealth suicide). See you all on the elevator ride down. But I will name names and point at the culprits.