February 2020

Play Video The market's down maybe 10% this week. Let's play "Catch a Falling Knife." So it looks like we're entering official bear market territory, especially when we refer to the peak in early February. We've been here before. We've seen this before and always, it appears obvious with hindsight. But let's do a quick recap of what we know. We know there's a Coronavirus and we know it's pretty likely going to hit all corners of the Earth. We know there are a lot of underreported cases and the most likely fatality rate, especially in Western nations, is probably at or below half a percent. That's significant, but the regular flu is one 10th of a percent. Disproportionately it's affecting males over 65. Interestingly, it's not affecting children that much. I mean, from a very callous point of view - and trust me, this is not where my heart...