I’ve been writing about how the pandemic is a causing hunger crisis in the poorer countries. The Los Angeles Times published an article predicting that the pandemic-induced economic crisis in these countries could cause more loss of life than the virus. My fear is that the big institutions that have the means to mitigate these issues won’t do so until the death toll gets large. My...
A quick, fun little video showcasing how much life has changed since January
Over a month ago I warned that the coronavirus pandemic is more than a health crisis in Africa (and the rest of the emerging market countries). Last week I posted the first signs of that coming crisis. It’s here. WATCH: Thousands of people in South Africa stand in a line over two miles long to receive food amid the coronavirus crisis. pic.twitter.com/2rzl2SLHV8— CBS News (@CBSNews)...
If 200,000 (on the way to 400,000) deaths from Covid-19 were not enough to worry about, there is the coming hunger crisis across at least half of the world caused by the lockdowns and economic collapse. I predicted this a month ago and have been talking almost daily with entrepreneurs in Africa with actual stories of the food system collapsing. The New York Times wrote about this crisis a few...
McKinsey latest report on the pandemic response in Africa includes this very interesting chart of the size of the government responses to the pandemic as a percentage of GDP: It is interesting as South Korea and Italy both spent very little, with vastly different outcomes. It is interesting as if there is any correlation here, it is that the smaller the outbreak, the less spent on stimulus. Thus...
I’ve been having a long discussion with a nonbeliever over on Quora. He’s convinced the virus is real but the deaths are made up propaganda, and as such the government shut downs are unnecessary. It’s a challenge to convince people like that of reality, when they refute all sources of data. Part of what leads to such denials is the fact that the data is in fact wrong. But it is...
The REM song popped up on my shuffle playlist. Wait long enough and all song lyrics become relevant. None more than this one in these times. Polyphonic thought so too, and gave us the history: The REM video needs a refresh: Bob Dylan’s doesn’t (it’s mentioned in the Polyphonic backgrounder): Although… there was once something of a refresh, and I don’t know a better...
As the U.S. and Europe hit the peak of the Coronavirus Pandemic infections and deaths, these countries have begun the debate on unlocking the lockdowns and quarantines. Let’s look at this graphically to estimate whether this discussions are premature or not. Here’s today’s view of infections, courtesy of The Financial Times and John Burn-Murdoch (with the US curve highlighted by...
The coronavirus pandemic is laying bare quite a lot of the normally hidden features of our modern capitalism system. And the government reactions to the economic shutdown is demonstrating that we don’t actually live in an capitalistic system, but something of a hybrid with the incentives and rewards of capitalism (when times are good) but the downside cost of socialism (when the economy...
