The virus crisis is ongoing and we should be thinking ahead - the financial crisis is going to be massive and individual's money may be at risk. People should think if they have any money in a bank account which is in excess of the financial protection offered (e.g. £85,000 in the UK, Php500,000 in the Philippines) to move it out soon. I cannot say anything about buying gold at this time as I have no certainty it will go higher - but I think it will. I suspect many will contradict what I have written, but if people had done what I did in 2010/2011 (bought N95 masks and gold) they would be in a better position than if not. So, although most, if not all, of us will survive, without masks or gold, there is no reason to be complacent about the financial implications about to engulf the world. Then again, maybe they will just keep printing money!
I'm trying not to think about it for the next couple weeks. I've taken a beating but I haven't lost anything yet because I'm not selling, and I'm sure as hell not about to start now (I should have sold when the orange idiot was obviously lying out his *ss about the virus trying to downplay it to influence the markets and protect his only hope in getting reelected). I believe a lot of this (being the markets and gold prices) is currently based on emotion and speculation, not on actual numbers...yet. Will companies suffer? Absolutely. However, I believe that the markets will sharply correct themselves as the spread of the virus slows and it becomes better understood, though I think it will take years for it to get back to where it was a couple weeks ago. Luckily I invested heavily in dividend stocks and those payouts have yet to take a hit, though I fully expect it to in the coming months. Hopefully those hits will be temporary and will rebound in a quarter or two. I have other income, enough cash to go 2-4 years, depending on the level of austerity I'm willing to take, and many job offers currently coming in. Personally, I believe this will all blow over in short order. I just don't see this going on for more than a couple months. People and governments will not allow their livelihood and economies to completely crash. There will be extreme measures taken to try to stop that from happening.
Look how quickly China was able to cope with the coronavirus. They now have zero local transmission. Taiwan never had an issue. It will be painful while the US learns to manage this but it will be short lived. The community as a whole needs to learn how to cope together. The stock market was due for a correction anyway. This was the longest bull run in history. (a 339% gain) So far it has only given back 1/3 of this gain. Although it may continue to go lower as the US realizes the pain in a quantitative way. (Job losses, defaults, etc.) Yes the government will print money. The current relief bill ballooned from less that one Trillion to 1.8 Trillion in just a few days. That is Trillion with a "T". The US society has lost the concept of failure being necessary to determine the strong. Now everything is too big to fail.
And isn't it interesting that printing money was regarded as the best way to trash a currency - yet the USD remained so strong. The facts of finding shale oil and being a 'safe haven' helped but, anyway, currencies are fiat and so the whole thing is just based on confidence (or lack of alternatives). It is like me giving you a piece of paper saying 'I promise to pay you $1m' and you give me one the same - with neither of us actually having any money! I read lots of financial sources - before 2008 they warned of imminent collapse (correct) and they have been doing the same in recent years. Some even stated this would likely happen due to a 'black swan' event (something unknown and unpredictable) - how correct they were. So after 2008 the 'rule book' was torn up - savers lost out and debtors did well. The problem of the 2008 DEBT crisis was 'solved' by creating more debt! At some time this has to be corrected. Perhaps this is the time or perhaps the world will again hide it under the carpet, soldier on, print more money - and everyone will hold their breath for the next financial crisis. My guess if that this current crisis could be a massive correction in many ways - giving already debt-laden countries another 10 years or more of paying down the debt. But perhaps it will cause some businesses to fail (banks may fail if indebted businesses fail and if property crashes) and economies will become leaner and more efficient. As with all aspects of this crisis, time will tell.
