Coronavirus, how are you preparing for it and how it is affecting you so far?

[BC]

Yes but....how does the toilet paper phenomena fit into this scenario? I’m still struggling with the plot. I know BillyB, FP, Cal and GenM are so far the only ones that hoarded Vit C, yet didn’t really got involved with the toilet paper mode, so these dots didn’t connect.

People lose confidence.

There was a quick run on the stores here and photos of empty shelves posted a week ago here but the guv stepped in quickly guaranteed that stores will be stocked normally.  Folks stopped buying and saw that stores filled up again with a few exceptions like hand sanitizer which is still impossible and flour which can be spotty. Considering many make their own pasta maybe not so unusual.  Otherwise, no problems except that the fish market reported that warez will be scarce since a lot of fishermen are not fishing due to low demand (restaurants and open markets closed)  Plenty of frozen fish though.  I guess folks have confidence and trust what guv is saying and saw results.

Seems TP may be something like comfort food.  Nice to know you have it and is cheap so you can keep a lot of it.  I'd much rather folks hoard TP than some other stuff.  Fear is a powerful emotion that reeks of lack of confidence with goings-on.

[fathertime]

I live about 5 miles from where I work so drive in. A lockdown I don't think will affect that as I work in a fairly small town and not a big city. I will watch out to see if petrol might come under a shortage. Petrol prices are cheap at the moment and supply plentiful so it might be ok, but if it changes I will have to stock up a little. I might just get a big 20 litre can in advance just in case to prepare as I can always use it.

US is now planning on buying 77 million barrels of oil to put in reserve...yet the price continues to plummet. 

a lot of people have already bought storage containers and probably filled them by now in anticipation of a bad scenario.  I told my family to keep the gas tanks near full at all times. 

Fathertime! 

[GQBlues]

People lose confidence.

LMAO. Nutty people didn’t need a pandemic to hoard guns. I think some probably need it to guard their toilet papers.

[BC]

BC how are things with the lockdown in Italy?

Same as yesterday.  Package delivery guy said they are working half days now, not many folks are sending packages these days.  Waiting to see in a couple of hours if the number of new infections is starting to level off.

[Trenchcoat]

US is now planning on buying 77 million barrels of oil to put in reserve...yet the price continues to plummet. 

a lot of people have already bought storage containers and probably filled them by now in anticipation of a bad scenario.  I told my family to keep the gas tanks near full at all times. 

Fathertime!

Hilarious, should have guessed the gun nuts you have over there would be building an arsenal any banana republic Presidente would be envious off, LOL 

Yeah I'm trying to keep my tank near full but do a longish trip of about 80 each way per week at present. That will go if either a shortage in petrol, money or a lockdown occurs. At present we/I am fine for all. I think I'll still get a 20 litre can & fill it as if a rush occurs it can go quick, plus it's cheap at the moment.

[Trenchcoat]

Same as yesterday.  Package delivery guy said they are working half days now, not many folks are sending packages these days.  Waiting to see in a couple of hours if the number of new infections is starting to level off.

Ah, different here at least for me at present, been ordering a load of stuff in through Amazon to prepare for it. Will have to ease up soon as bank balance is taking a bit of a pounding.

[fathertime]

I think I'll still get a 20 litre can & fill it as if a rush occurs it can go quick, plus it's cheap at the moment.

Will have to ease up soon as bank balance is taking a bit of a pounding.

Don't be a penny pinching survivalist!  I say go great guns, buy all you can while your money still has value. 

Fathertime!   

[fathertime]

LMAO. Nutty people didn’t need a pandemic to hoard guns. I think some probably need it to guard their toilet papers.

Hilarious, should have guessed the gun nuts you have over there would be building an arsenal any banana republic Presidente would be envious off, LOL 

As GQ already mentioned, TP stockpiles are to be guarded  at the same level as nuclear silos. 

Fathertime! 

[BC]

Any others here with packrat mentality wives?  I've complained for years here that cabinets, fridge, freezers etc are so full of stuff one can't even find anything anymore much less put more inside.

We even bought the smallest car we could find and the whole family has to still go help unload with several loads each.. amazing how much fits in that thing.

Aside from cabinets throughout the house, two fridges, one full freezer and a commercial beverage fridge - all packed since far before this virus thing.

I'm quite happy to see some of that being used up before it expires and gets tossed.

I shoulda known when first went to future MIL's house and found a wall of potato sacks in the entryway LOL

[BillyB]

Italy's warning to the world. Don't be foolish or selfish. Change your behavior. Medical personal are crying having to make decisions who's lives get priority to save. Lots of stress and unnecessary deaths.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/13/opinion/coronavirus-cautionary-tale-italy-dont-do-what-we-did/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

I wonder if our Mobes is ok, he's normally arguing like an Oirishman here. I hope he hasn't come down with anything.

Moby is in panic mode. While Trump made travel restrictions in January, Moby criticized Trump and sent his wife on vacation to Thailand. All through February, Moby criticized Trump for doing too much or too little and talked about reuniting with his wife in February. He thought the sky was falling with Brexit. He was wrong. The sky is falling now but he was clueless while claiming Trump didn't know what he was doing. Now we are past the middle of March and his wife is still stuck in Thailand. He should've been a MAN and brought her home sooner but he failed to understand the seriousness of the virus and situation around him with airlines stopped flying planes and nations are closing borders. Moby has citizenship in the West and his wife has Russian citizenship. They need to find a country that they are both allowed to be in if they want to reunite. Of course the country they choose will probably lock one or both of them down before letting them see each other. In the past, Moby got his wife locked up in immigration jail trying to sneak in the back door of the UK. I say it's his turn to get locked up for 2+ weeks in quarantine.

Any others here with packrat mentality wives?  I've complained for years here that cabinets, fridge, freezers etc are so full of stuff one can't even find anything anymore much less put more inside.

My wife isn't  packrat. She complained I bought too much stuff in January and early February stocking the cabinets before the panic shopping happened. I've never done that before but after reading about the panic in China and characteristics of the virus, I knew it was a bad one and would come here. I didn't believe China when they said it wasn't so bad and they are managing the spread. What they had to do to their people locking them down, our governments would have to do too.

[GQBlues]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/13/opinion/coronavirus-cautionary-tale-italy-dont-do-what-we-did/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Excellent article!! I can't help but wonder how much arrogance played in the early days of this tragic reality by putting so much trust in a system to be superior over others.

Add up the tragedy in Europe as a region and you can't miss the fact their confirmed cases is hardly half of China, but their death count is almost as much. Their rate of recovery is twice as slow, too. Recovery rate to date China/Italy is mind numbing. China at 83%, Italy at 9%!!! How is this possible?

I'm really glad Trump banned travels from China when he did. In hindsight though, I wished he did it globally instead of just China.

As for the latest 'Americans' coming in from abroad, I would've preferred they were somehow quarantined temporarily in an established location and slowly and individually screened before being let out on their own.

[BillyB]

As governments give people bad news locking them down a flurry of good news articles pop up from media all over the world claiming labs in their country are close to finding a vaccine. Fake news but gives people hope.

[Trenchcoat]

Moby is in panic mode. While Trump made travel restrictions in January, Moby criticized Trump and sent his wife on vacation to Thailand. All through February, Moby criticized Trump for doing too much or too little and talked about reuniting with his wife in February. He thought the sky was falling with Brexit. He was wrong. The sky is falling now but he was clueless while claiming Trump didn't know what he was doing. Now we are past the middle of March and his wife is still stuck in Thailand. He should've been a MAN and brought her home sooner but he failed to understand the seriousness of the virus and situation around him with airlines stopped flying planes and nations are closing borders. Moby has citizenship in the West and his wife has Russian citizenship. They need to find a country that they are both allowed to be in if they want to reunite. Of course the country they choose will probably lock one or both of them down before letting them see each other. In the past, Moby got his wife locked up in immigration jail trying to sneak in the back door of the UK. I say it's his turn to get locked up for 2+ weeks in quarantine.

Man that guy is a laugh a minute Yeah, he's probably looking at the map of countries like a board/chess game, everywhere he tries a move he is blocked off. I think he got a bit cocky and underestimated the seriousness of this virus. He was certainly silly to leave his wife in Thailand while this all started kicking off. Odds are he could be blocked out of seeing her for months. Nothing but news reports of airlines cutting their routes and lockdowns/borders being shut. Maybe Syria can accommodate our Mobes, I think he's probably crazy enough to try.

[Trenchcoat]

Don't be a penny pinching survivalist!  I say go great guns, buy all you can while your money still has value. 

Fathertime!

Yeah, I thought of that too. I was thinking of shelling out majorly but decided to pace myself a little for now. There is still a reasonable chance that things will eventually come around and it retain its value, if it does I don't want to be looking a big credit card bill. If it looks like it could hyper-inflate then I'll spend. Maybe TP will become the new currency of worth, employers will pay so many sheets per hour!

[GQBlues]

S&P Just shed nearly $2 trillion from opening. The madness prompted another 'pause' in the trading. I'm not convinced the Feds dropping the interest rates was a good idea. WTF? Total global contraction!!

This is starting to feel like a fabricated chaos. Not saying it is, but so many unexplained 'reactions' caused by this current 'pandemic' that still has to measure up to ones in recent past.

[Trenchcoat]

S&P Just shed nearly $2 trillion from opening. The madness prompted another 'pause' in the trading. I'm not convinced the Feds dropping the interest rates was a good idea. WTF? Total global contraction!!

This is starting to feel like a fabricated chaos. Not saying it is, but so many unexplained 'reactions' caused by this current 'pandemic' that still has to measure up to ones in recent past.

Yeah, Carney dropped UK Bank of England interest rates by half a percent to 0.25 percent about a day before he finished in the post. That man was a menace all the time he was in the post, he had no clue and it was just lucky we've had a robust economy to withstand his previous unjustifiable interference. This time though it looks like he may have permanently screwed it up for us. The pound is down against the euro & the dollar big time. Now 1.10 Euro to the pound & 1.23 Dollars to the Pound. It would have been better to do nothing, he's only introduced fear into the markets by highlighting the situation that didn't need highlighting.

[BC]

S&P Just shed nearly $2 trillion from opening. The madness prompted another 'pause' in the trading. I'm not convinced the Feds dropping the interest rates was a good idea. WTF? Total global contraction!!

This is starting to feel like a fabricated chaos. Not saying it is, but so many unexplained 'reactions' caused by this current 'pandemic' that still has to measure up to ones in recent past.

No, it's just that there is already tons of liquidity already in the system.  The unexplained reaction has been all the attempts to prop up the markets in the past when the cashier tills were ringing long and loud.  QE is back.

Buying oil for reserves is again simply a way of trying to artificially increase demand and prices.  Bum deal as this is bound to fail as well.  Not very businesslike and totally contrary to administration policy which until now has been against the action taken in times of crisis by past administrations.

Doesn't look pretty, but if someone is interested in long term investments we may be nearing time to invest a bit as it seems the markets have already calculated and priced for a lot of risk.

[krimster2]

the slope of the covid infection curve is getting bigger!!!
so X / Y
couple days ago X was about 1/2
then it went to 1
now it’s at 2....
and I suspect “real soon now”, it’s gonna be 4

one day it might be X squared

see attached illustration that illustrates the curve that we’re all gonna get graded on


BTW

liquidity is so the banks can loan money to pretty much every single business in the USA...
where does the money come from?
it's not "borrowed"
the treasury can create credit
it can print money many different ways
like the Treasury can give a trillion dollars of credit to the 12 federal reserve banks to loan to other banks
by just typing a few keys on their Chinese made computer in Washing Tundy Sea



a tasty carrot to offer to keep vital businesses functioning...
I mean cuz otherwise, it would be socialism...
if you took the profit motive out of capitalism
and acted in the people's interests and not in capital's interests at the expense of the people

capitalism always gives people enough rope to hang themselves eventually
like NOW folks!

a socialist economy will not have spend trillions to prop up the stock market
while only spending billions to protect the people, but even that ONLY AFTER the stock market fell...

when geezers die out in the next couple of years
young people are overwhelmingly going  to want something more communistic....

seriously guys, few years from now, if any of us are still left alive
we would not be able to recognize the new world!!!!
things are gonna change THAT much!!!

doncha all see that yet?





 

[GQBlues]

No, it's just that there is already tons of liquidity already in the system.  The unexplained reaction has been all the attempts to prop up the markets in the past when the cashier tills were ringing long and loud.  QE is back.

Buying oil for reserves is again simply a way of trying to artificially increase demand and prices.  Bum deal as this is bound to fail as well.  Not very businesslike and totally contrary to administration policy which until now has been against the action taken in times of crisis by past administrations.

Doesn't look pretty, but if someone is interested in long term investments we may be nearing time to invest a bit as it seems the markets have already calculated and priced for a lot of risk.

Just not sure if this was a sound move by the CB since the current climate is not caused by a financial collapse.

I understand something needs to be done to avert any contraction, but the Q2 is already locked in. It's inevitable to contract. Dunno. Not sure what the 'long term' effect of all these once this current global condition changes back to normal. Hell, the Dow was pushing at 30, and is now back to 20...

Apparently China had been pushed back so much, they're at a level where they were 30 years ago.

[Gator]

Waiting to see in a couple of hours if the number of new infections is starting to level off.

I hope so, because the graphs say otherwise. 

The Italy graph is more disconcerting than the China graph.   The number of China infections  started to plateau (level off) a month ago.   Italy is not leveling off.  Worse the slope of Italy's graph is steeper than China 6 weeks ago before China started to level off.

To be even more disconcerting, the world outside China shows a faster growth rate of infection than China's rate 6 weeks ago.  This can be seen in the John Hopkins graph of COVID-19 cases.  Go to the chart in the lower right,  make into a full page, and expand. 

As of today, the number of cases reported outside of China exceeds the number reported inside China, and growing rapidly.     

 http://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

[krimster2]

it's VERY important to watch what happens in China now...

what happens when flu season comes
what happens when they loosen quarantine
watch for new strains

[calmissile]

We got our first Corona Virus case in San Bernardino county today.  It's amazing it took this long considering how large the county is.  Reported in Fontana at Kaiser Hospital.  It was a woman in her 50's that had just returned from the UK according to the news reports.

On the way home from work today I will check and see if Redlands stores have received any eggs today.  Every store was sold out yesterday.  How silly this hoarding is.  Stockpiling perishable goods just doesn't make any sense.

[msmob]

Yeah, Carney dropped UK Bank of England interest rates by half a percent to 0.25 percent about a day before he finished in the post. That man was a menace all the time he was in the post, he had no clue and it was just lucky we've had a robust economy to withstand his previous unjustifiable interference. This time though it looks like he may have permanently screwed it up for us. The pound is down against the euro & the dollar big time. Now 1.10 Euro to the pound & 1.23 Dollars to the Pound. It would have been better to do nothing, he's only introduced fear into the markets by highlighting the situation that didn't need highlighting.

Trench,

You are a total Muppet..

The Bank of England was SUPPOSED to be independent of govt, but they AGREED to the cut....tying in with the budget!

So, Trench....you are effectively saying our govt is made up of idiots....


YOU voted for them....

[Gator]

Krimster is not the odd fellow.  I went shopping today, and can sense a mood change.  There are many Krimsters.  So many that I predict panic unless we implement some form of martial law. 

Our local police do not have the forces to perform their current duties and assume the added responsibility of providing order for:

    -  the thousands of new testing modules now being established,   
    -  the hospitals in 3-4 weeks when serious cases test their capacity, 
    -  food stores if hoarding accelerates,
    -  toilet paper factories,
    -  etc.   

Therefore, I assign a  75% probability that we will soon see our military deployed on our streets.

I am serious.  Hopefully I am wrong and just influenced by the level of anxiety exhibited within my home (as if I am married to a female Krimster²).    

[Gator]

Krimster is not the odd fellow.  I went shopping today, and can sense a mood change.  Krimsters were all around me.  So many that I predict panic unless we implement some form of martial law. 

Our local police do not have the forces to perform their current duties and assume the added responsibility of providing order for:

    -  the thousands of new testing modules now being established,   
    -  the hospitals in 3-4 weeks when serious cases test their capacity, 
    -  food stores if hoarding accelerates,
    -  toilet paper factories,
    -  etc.   

Therefore, I assign a  75% probability that we will soon see our military deployed on our streets.

I am serious.  Hopefully I am wrong and just influenced by the level of anxiety exhibited within my home (as if I am married to a female Krimster²).