Busy morning, short post.The market has been moved by the flu before. Where the market is concerned flu panics are short term events with no lasting impact.
Wikinvest Wire
Monday, April 27, 2009
Swine Flu
Busy morning, short post.The market has been moved by the flu before. Where the market is concerned flu panics are short term events with no lasting impact.
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10 comments:
Surely just an excuse to sell of travel-related and buy health-related stocks. Not a particularly new event recently!
Big difference between a panic (which, from the US data available so far, this looks like) and a pandemic. If it turns out to be the latter, I can assure you, as one who works in a hospital, there is no surge capacity in the US hospital system.
I wouldn't want to be short the maker of Tamiflu right now!
Food for thought, an article on risk communication from a conference ("Preparing the Financial Industry for a Pandemic") in 2005 about the avian flu: http://tinyurl.com/cr6s8q
The speaker offers insight into the relationships between hazards, outrage and our perceptions. I'd be curious to know what he'd say about the current situation; i.e., are people and the gov't overreacting, underreacting, or juuuust right.
The one thing about this whole Obama Virus, or O-Bug, is that we're not being told what symptoms to look out for. How would I know who has it if I see that person on the street. And how should I respond if I see that person might have it?
um, its the flu. sniffles, fever chills might be a good place to start.
apparently flu kills 36000 americans per year. maybe this will become something but it is a little early to get too excited.
A radio station in Chicago had a few blurbs on the 1975 flu pandemic this morning. Apparently President Ford took the vaccine on national TV before they discovered that the vaccine could cause paralysis. Then the newsguy went to interview (original) Mayor Daley and found that he and his staff had already taken the vaccine too. Oops.
BTW, SARS only killed ~900 people total but brought down global GDP ~2% in a strong market.
No need to panic but no need to blow it off.
It has now spread to North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australisia.
BTW, there are only vacine for ~10 ppl in the USA. I just the people with H1Bs and Wall Street are second in line.
"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." This statement actually came from the lips of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November of 2008. Keep this in mind as you continue reading.
The pandemic threat of the swine flu that has broken out in Mexico, with cases that have appeared in the United States is serious and requires prompt reaction by individuals, businesses, charities, and the government. The pandemic of 1918 and the 1976 swine flu outbreak are distant memories for most; however, history will repeat itself at some unknown time in the near or distant future.
With the statement of Emanuel and the dramatic nationalization of many financial and manufacturing institutions having taken place, one item Americans should pay particular attention to during the unfolding events is:
Personal Freedom & Civil Liberties.
Events such as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, set in motion a wide range of knee jerk legislative initiatives and Executive Orders that gutted some of the most basic civil liberties our forefathers fought for. Using the words of the White House, a potential pandemic presents another opportunity to get things done that you couldn’t do before.
And what will that opportunity be?
Nationalization of health care and another step toward an ever growing and all powerful big brother government that has the ability to read your mail, listen to you phone calls, track you by GPS, control the access to your money in the bank, pensions, and insurance policies, tell your employer who to hire, what to pay, where you should work, and now, how, when, and where to treat you for injury and illness.
The threat of a swine flu pandemic is more than a health threat; it presents another opportunity for those who threaten the fundamental principles of our constitution. Our civil liberties of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are under attack as they were when internment camps were permitted in World War II,
As a nation, we would benefit from a history lesson about the Espionage Act of 1917. During World War I, President Wilson (D), the founder of the League of Nations, restricted publication of foreign language newspapers, censored communications, widely jailed anti-war protesters, deported legal alien residents, and arrested presidential candidate Eugene Debs. We would also benefit from recalling the history of President Franklin Roosevelt (D), who presided over the internment of countless Japanese Americans during World War II. Those who suffer from President Bush (R) derangement over the Iraq War and the loss of civil liberties through the Patriot Act, often and conveniently forget what others have done; which was as bad, if not worse, for personal freedom and civil liberty. Quite simply, take the political party affiliation of a president out of the equation, and the statement by the Chief of Staff of the current Administration ("Never let a serious crisis go to waste.") is a path that has been taken many times in the past.
By the way, for those who are unfamiliar with the League of Nations, President Wilson was the force behind this inter-governmental organization that came about as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 at the conclusion of World War I. The League of Nations was the forerunner of the United Nations, and sought to uphold and expand the rights of man, begin widespread disarmament, prevent war through collective security, settle disputes between countries through negotiation, diplomacy, world courts, and improve the overall global quality of life. You have to admit, it sure sounds familiar to the statement of the recent past and current Administrations.
Shortly after World War I, fascism took root in countries like Germany, Italy, and Spain, banks and manufacturing concerns were nationalized, and the Axis Powers sought a new world order and global domination. Peace through disarmament didn't work very well as little Adolph and his brown shirted friends began goose stepping the world to World War II.
And the last really big pandemic occurred in 1918.
Be darn careful of those who say: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste”. Watch what unfolds if the swine flu of 2009 isn’t quickly contained.
Think about it, and don’t react too late.
P.S. Today is the day that the 2009 fiscal year federal budget begins borrowing money, rather than using domestic tax revenue, to pay for all the things that the federal government does. This means that our elected representatives in Washington will borrow money from other nations and future generations to pay for the dramatic and never ending increase in federal spending and debt. Congress has a spending addiction that affects Republicans and Democrats. The duopoly must be broken.
Join the national Modern Whig Party and in Florida, register and join the Florida Whig Party and vote the Republicrats out of office.
ok
If you type in "REPUBLICRAT" in Microsoft Word, it will ask you if you mean "REPUBLIC RAT". Of course that is what you mean. A REPUBLIC RAT is someone who is indifferent to the REPUBLIC. (Our government is a constitutional republic as you know-although it looks like it less and less every day). In future elections, it should be simple to determine who the REPUBLICRATS are and simply vote them out of office. By the way, Republicrats or REPUBLIC RATS should become a household term.
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