Here And Now
Stop me if you've heard this one before: US equities were torn between encouraging vaccine news and fresh lockdowns, as the "here and now" realities of a public health crisis played tug of war with expectations of a brighter future.
That's been the script for markets nearly every session for weeks and Wednesday was no different. Pfizer said its vaccine was 95% effective based on a final analysis of clinical trial data, but the good vibes didn't last.
New York City schools will stop in-person l
NYC is an alpha++ city and arguably the world’s financial capital. The city is a treasure, a reflection of American success, and American dominance in all matters financial and political, for many, many decades now. And yet, our nation, the richest, most successful beacon of wealth and democracy the world has ever known, can’t seem to find it in our soul to keep the trains running.
How we have managed our decline, nay, not even recognizing from within that it is even occurring, will not be judged kindly by future storytellers. The historians will start their chapter on our collapse from hegemony with a parable taken from a Disney children’s story book.
The real estate lobby is largely to blame for NY’s many intractable, perhaps unsolvable, financial and inequality problems. I for one look forward to the day soon, perhaps next year or so, when Vornado and SL Green, or much of their portfolios, go bust, probably not without first shamelessly begging Congress and the FED to save them. How is it, one might ask, that arguably the richest, most powerful city in the world, built on arguably the most valuable real estate in the world has a dysfunctional public transit system seemingly always on the verge of bankruptcy? The arrow points exactly in this direction. The other points directly at Cuomo, who has used his control of it as political leverage over the city for a long time.
H-Man, it may not be a rainy night in Georgia.
This will be how our currency comes to debasement.
Maybe by the time the next pandemic hits, nations will have a financial ‘force majeure’ plan in place to freeze debt obligations, give out government backed food coupons to all in need that can be used in grocery stores, and to prevent idiot politicians from allowing a rerun of the ‘Trump’ virus scenario. There will be another one.
Just tactically, follow the Euro curves that shot up, peaked as countries re-locked down, and are declining. I think US curves will do the same – even the Trumpiest of governors flinches when their hospitals are full. It is going to be a bad couple of months for people, but I think investors have learned to apply “second derivative” trading rules to the new case curve.