First the Syrian Civil War. Started because of a drought. The central government wouldn’t help. In desperation, the farmers moved to cities, held some peaceful demonstrations… Assad is a monster. And now we have the largest Post-World War II refugee crisis. Nearly four million of them already in Turkey and more coming.<\/p>\n
The EU said, “You hold them. We’ll pay.”\u00a0 But that deal is falling apart. Russia is a major cause of the Syrian problem, as it bombs Syria back to the stone age, and the refugees run.<\/p>\n
Add in the coronavirus, which has arrested world economic activity and dampened oil prices.\u00a0 Factor in OPEC which is designed to hold oil prices up by cutting production.<\/p>\n
Wait … there’s the nutcase running Saudi Arabia who won’t cut oil prices because he’s annoyed at Russia for Syria or whatever. MBS\u00a0is positively dangerous. His stupidity and power has no bounds. It’s frightening.<\/p>\n
Add in Putin, who gets all his money from oil and gas, sees low oil prices as a way to put America’s oil frackers out of business and cause major harm to America, since the frackers owe gigantic amounts to banks, who may have trouble staying alive if all those loans default.<\/p>\n
Add it all up and you have the perfect storm.<\/p>\n
Stocks will crash today. Pure panic.<\/p>\n
It could well be time to buy. Remember what Buffett said about blood in the street.<\/p>\n
Actually it wasn’t Buffett. I just checked Professor Google:<\/p>\n
Baron Rothschild, an 18th century British nobleman and member of the Rothschild banking family, is credited with saying that “the time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” He should know. …<\/p>\n
The original quote is believed to be “Buy when there’s blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.”<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, I received several emails from learned prognosticators who claimed the market is way oversold and today’s crash will be the bottom. Remember also 70% to 80% of stock trades are made by machines, who just trade the trend.<\/p>\n
Staying healthy and alive is our key. You know the routine. Hand washing. No face touching. Stay six feet from people. Get plenty of rest.<\/p>\n
Want to freak yourself out a bit?<\/p>\n
+ Richard Engel had an hour-long piece on MSNBC last night. I’m sure you can find it on the web.<\/p>\n
+\u00a0Putin just sparked an oil price war with Saudi Arabia – and US energy companies may be the victims<\/p>\n