Sorry, not going to happen, mate.
Sorry, not going to happen, mate. Ole Schwander/gettyimages.com

At 4 pm EST, the Dow Jones lost nearly 7 percent of its value in one day of trading. What caused the sell-off? Data showing that a number of states that reopened early are seeing resurgence in coronavirus infections and deaths.

NBC:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,500 points on Thursday and was on pace for its worst day since the March sell-off as coronavirus cases increased in some states that are reopening up from lockdowns. Shares that have surged recently on hopes for a smooth reopening of the economy led the declines.

Who predicted this would happen? I did. Again, and again. Please read all of the pieces. They were not written by an economist, though he is the son of one and the father of one.

But it really does not take an economist to put this kind of two and two together. There is no cure for COVID-19. We are still trying to make sense of how it works. Some theories seem plausible, others do not. For now, there is only one way of dealing with the damn thing, and that is a lockdown. But a successful lockdown takes time, money, lots of government support, and competent leadership. The US did not meet any of the requirements for the only and only effective response to the novel coronavirus.

That said, I must show a horrifying video from Arizona, a state whose hospitals are once again filling up.


The whole video, which was posted on June 6, is here.

Now, did you notice something very strange about this pretty standard episode of MAGA-inspired racism? No one in the convenience store is wearing a face mask. The Latino woman: no mask. The racist woman: no mask. The store attendant: no mask. The man with the Latino woman: no mask. The man back there: no mask.

What planet are these people on? I'm as horrified by the racism as I'm by the total absence of any kind of behavior and practice that squares with the reality of an ongoing deadly pandemic.

This convenience store is in Phoenix, the largest city of a state that has seen COVID-19 cases "nearly double in two weeks" and a spike in hospitalizations (almost at capacity). Why are so many Americans so committed to the dangerous belief that the pandemic is not a thing they need to think about anymore? Because of the reopening. If the leaders say it's safe out there, people believe it is just that and go about their business.

But the pandemic was never close to over, and so it may even be wrong to call what crashed the markets today a resurgence. The South Koreans and Taiwanese have the right to worry about a resurgence. They beat the damn thing in the first place. Nothing of the kind can be said about Arizona...


And also Georgia ("COVID-19 hospitalization numbers increase again"), and Florida ("Statewide coronavirus cases skyrocket"), and Texas ("a third straight day of record coronavirus hospitalizations").

What's next? Re-close opened states or experience an another explosion of American deaths. In either case, the economy will not be popping in time for the presidential election. I also think there should be no stimulus plans until after this election. Trump's administration is just too corrupt administer another large recovery package.


This is what you call looting.