In Search of the Perfect Investment

Lousy day on Nasdaq today. Semi lousy elsewhere. Reason (as if you need one):

From CNBC.com:

This is a chart Dr. David Ho showed on the Rachel Maddow Show back in April.

The right chart assumed uniform sheltering in place nationally. A national policy. Short time to flatten the curve.

That didn’t happen. We got the mess we’re in today — Every state and city do their own thing.

Bingo, we got far more cases, far more deaths. Just like the chart predicted.

The culprit? In one word — mobility.

Yesterday, a friend drove up from North Carolina to mid-state New York with his truck’s tailgate open — hoping the New York cops wouldn’t see his license plate and stop him. No one did. Did he bring us the virus? Who knows? He looks healthy — for what that’s worth.

Fauci talked to the New York Times. Here’s part of the interview:

NYTimes: Let’s get to the news. Our numbers are surging. And you’ve just told The Atlantic that we’ve got to do a reset, which, of course, makes perfect sense. But given the reluctance of some governors, businesses and citizens to abide by the basic rules of social distancing and mask wearing, is it possible to get this pandemic under control without a federal response?

It would be better if things were a little more uniform. It just seems that unfortunately, in some sectors, there’s this feeling that there’s opening the country on one end of the spectrum, and public health measures that suppress things and lock them down on the other.

They should not be opposing forces. The guidelines that we put out a couple of months ago, those should be followed and appreciated as the vehicle to open the country, as opposed to the obstacle to opening the country.

You said it would be nicer if some things were more uniform. Like what?

The fundamentals. Wear a mask. Avoid crowds. Close the bars. Bars are the hot spots — —

But Americans have already been told this, right? And we still don’t do those things. If you were an executive for the day, what lever would you pull?

But Jennifer, would you want me to say something that’s directly contrary to what the president is doing? That’s not helpful. Then all of a sudden you don’t hear from me for a while.

I definitely don’t want anyone weaponizing anything you’re saying.

I’ve just been doing this for so long, and I’m trying to do my best to get the message across without being overtly at odds, OK? The only thing I can do is to get out there with whatever notoriety or recognition I have and say, these are the four or five things. Please pay attention to them. And if we do that, I feel confident that we’ll turn this around.