Europe has moved as expected and banned short selling in Italy, Belgium, Spain, and France. Politicians fail to realize that it is ONLY shorts who are buying during a panic. Without the short-players, there is NO BID which makes markets far less liquid.
Whatever politicians can do seriously wrong, they are doing in spade! I have never seen such stupidity in my life. This is why some qualification is really necessary. Even Trump, who may be a businessman, is not a trader. He is asking for $850 billion in coronavirus relief which is insane. Coronavirus is not rare. It accounts for about 14% of respiratory diseases annually. There are more than 200 viruses to blame for the estimated 1 billion common cold cases each year in the United States. With less than 8,000 deaths and 200,000 cases worldwide, the healthcare industry has wiped out the economy and destroyed far more than any disease will ever do. Yes, if we all stay inside and never go out we will reduce virus contagions. But at what cost?
Politicians are acting all because the press will bash them just to sell papers. Once again, the press has acted totally irresponsibly. They are destroying the economy and the result, hopefully, will be that their own advertising revenue collapses and they have to start firing journalists because there is no commerce. This is Pulitzer & Hearst all over again. Instead of creating the Spanish-American War on fake news, this time it is the entire world economy.
Socrates is running all the economic data around the world. I will be putting out a general report for the public. This is not specific market forecasting so this is outside the boundaries of our services where clients want to keep things limited and not broadcast opening. This report is outside that scope so in electronic format we will price it at $9.95.