pot full of vinegar

"It is true people used all possible precaution. When any one bought a joint of meat in the market they would not take it off the butcher's hand, but took it off the hooks themselves. On the other hand, the butcher would not touch the money, but have it put into a pot full of vinegar, which he kept for that purpose. The buyer carried always small money to make up any odd sum, that they might take no change." daniel defoe. a journal of the plague year.

that the politicians are playing politics with this doesn't help my acidic vision...then again giving trumpy $500 billion with virtually no strings attached in terms of oversight doesn't seem judicious either...he has caused enough trouble...

of course "the market" dithers in response...greed breeds fear every bit as much as a deadly virus and these people are panicked at the thought of material loss...they would like to reassure us but their behavior betrays them...

usa today, which has seemingly become the volkisher beobachter of the current administration, does seek to reassure us and to get us to commit wholeheartedly to shoring up the crumbling markets and help wealth regain its sense of equilibrium...if i should receive any sort of stipend from a paternalistic government i will pointedly refuse to do anything other than bank the lot..they will want this money back sooner or later...

over at the bbc they are asking the brits to "be considerate" as they hoard supplies...empty shelves coming to a tesco near you in the immediate future...

and over at al jezera...as at the bbc...there are lots of photos of people wearing those "ineffective" masks...someone is acting on distorted information and false belief...still trying to work out who...oddly neither of these two media outlets had anything to say about "the market"...no nyse, ftse100, dax, or cac40 quotes to be found ( i searched )...i had to find them elsewhere and foreign markets are panicking as well...seems the human element is more to the fore here...who knew?...closer to home "new" statistics are out...the CDC says there are 33404 cases of covid-19 in the u.s. as of 4 p.m. yesterday...given the times guess of 21000 saturday that is a growth of 12404 cases with 400 deaths nationwide...my state recorded 75 more cases yesterday and another 58 today..with 4 more in my county...growth is accelerating and may be exponential soon enough...so, i am still at home...the schedule portion of the company web site has simply vanished...no news forthcoming there so i will continue to wash my hands and try to understand why people are buying so much toilet paper...and if an when this dies out and things return to "normal" are they going to try to return it all, or just be set for life?