Patterico's Pontifications

3/15/2020

Dow Futures Tank; Market Set for a Brutal Monday

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:45 pm



I sincerely hope none of my readers was counting on stocks in the near term for anything important.

Investors were unassuaged by news that the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates to near zero. US stock futures dropped 5% Sunday evening, hitting the “limit down,” meaning they can’t fall any further.

Dow (INDU) futures plummeted and were last down 1,041 points, or about 4.5%. S&P 500 (SPX) futures were down about 4.8% , while Nasdaq (COMP) futures were down 4.5%.

Last week all three indexes fell into a bear market, declining more than 20% from their recent peak.

Tomorrow is going to be a very, very, very ugly day for the stock market. Many people who had hourly wage jobs going into the weekend will hit tomorrow with nothing.

You might recall I told you a very bleak economic time was coming. Not everyone agreed. I have worse news: it will still get worse — far worse — before it gets better.

I take no joy in saying this. I am just being realistic. We’re all in it together.

UPDATE: You know, I shouldn’t predict what stocks will do on a particular day. Yes, the market will open in the basement, but I can’t predict the whole day and I don’t pretend to. Maybe the sharks use tomorrow to fleece the suckers before the bigger hit comes later in the week. But I’m telling you: the immediate future is very, very bleak.

Two Old White Guys Have A Debate – Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:55 pm



[guest post by Dana]

The Democratic debate is happening now. A lot of coronavirus talk, the economy, wealth inequality, undocumented aliens, etc. And they mention how frequently they wash their hands, and reassure us they don’t shake hands anymore

One wants a revolution, the other says we don’t need a revolution, we need solutions.

And they get testy with each other too:

Joe: No, I didn’t!

Bernie: Yes, you did! Go to the YouTube and look…

The YouTube.

PS – Joe’s suit is sharp and beautifully tailored and his bright, red tie pops. Not unlike his shiny veneers. Bernie’s suit is off-the-rack pedestrian gray, and nothing pops. Not his tie, not his teeth.
They wear their image. This is who they are.

–Dana

New Coronavirus Updates for California [Updated]

Filed under: General — JVW @ 1:44 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appeared on CNN earlier this morning and announced that city bars and probably restaurants would be shut down, according to a newscast I am currently watching.

Mayor Garcetti and the LAPD have also been trying to convince citizens not to hoard items and not to immediately all converge on grocery stores, so if the mayor is serious about shutting down restaurants and bars then I hope he understands that he will simply be encouraging yet another run on big box, grocery, pharmacies, and liquor stores. He’s probably now honor-bound to follow through, lest he be accused of contributing to a sense of panic.

Property taxes in Los Angeles County are due in just under four weeks. Given the circumstances of the virus and related closedowns, and especially given the progressive nature of this county and state, will property owners be granted a delay in making payments? Yeah, I kind of doubt it too.

Governor Gavin Newsom was supposed to have given an address at 1:00 pm Pacific Time today, but he’s apparently running late and the address is being pushed back. This does not promise to inspire confidence in his constituents. I’ll update this post after he has made whatever announcement he intends to make.

UPDATE: I kind of live-blogged it in the comments, but here is a quick overview: California has to date conducted a little over 8300 tests and have 335 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 16 deaths. The goal is to quickly develop the capacity to conduct 5500 tests daily. The state is working with a private company to create an online portal where a user can answer some simple questions about their symptoms and their circumstances to determine whether they are a high likelihood for having the virus. The state also expects to increase hospital capacity shortly.

The governor is asking that citizens aged 65 and above to remain home. He is also calling for the closure of bars, wineries, breweries, and brewpubs, though he is not yet mandating this closure by law. He thinks that businesses will for the most part voluntarily comply. He wants restaurants to cut their capacity by half and to ensure that patrons are seated well apart from each other. He also hopes to explore ways to have restaurants help prepare meals for those who are shut-in and unable to prepare their own meals.

Governor Newsom estimates that close to five out of six schoolchildren in the state have had their schools close. He is not yet ready to order a statewide closure because many rural counties have parents who cannot work from home and do not have the child-care capacity to ensure the safety of children should the schools close. Finally, he plans to have all “non-essential” state workers remain home, and he is working to prepare some guidelines to help people who face the inability to pay their rent or mortgage payments which I think he hopes to announce tomorrow.

– JVW

Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 170

Filed under: Bach Cantatas,General,Music — Patterico @ 12:01 am



It is the third Sunday in Lent. My church service is cancelled today and perhaps yours is as well. Let’s worship together, with music. Today’s Bach cantata is “Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust” (Delightful rest, beloved pleasure of the soul), a solo cantata for alto:

Today’s Gospel reading is John 4:5-42:

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

It sickens me to live longer,
therefore take me away, Jesus!
I shudder before all sins,
let me find this dwelling-place
where I myself shall be at peace.

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.


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