True Anon Truth Feed - Episode 51: Moronavirus II: Epidemic Flu-galoo
Aired: 2020-03-10
Duration: 01:14:15


=== Walking While Incubating (14:46) ===

[00:00:00]  Previously on lost.
[00:00:02]  This thing starts in the city of Wuhan.
[00:00:04]  And there's like literally more people in Wuhan than like all of Canada not looking up if that's true.
[00:00:09]  People don't really know where it came from.
[00:00:11]  The incubation period is between basically 10 and 14 days.
[00:00:15]  Which is a long fucking time.
[00:00:17]  You could be walking around with it incubating inside of you for two weeks.
[00:00:21]  And not even have symptoms.
[00:00:23]  Coronavirus spreads through both direct and indirect contact.
[00:00:26]  Could it be that China is actually trying to create a super army of scientists out of this containment measure?
[00:00:35]  You killed Naomi.
[00:00:43]  I've Corona.
[00:00:44]  Do you like that?
[00:00:45]  So the thing is, I don't have.
[00:00:48]  So I got sick last Wednesday because a certain producer decided to shake my hand as a show of fealty and was covered in germs.
[00:00:57]  And I did that whole Chapo show, sick as a dog.
[00:01:00]  You were really sick.
[00:01:01]  And I feel really bad because I, before the Chapo show, Brace was like, please, can you give me a mana sand?
[00:01:06]  My wife, my wife.
[00:01:07]  No, he's Suda Fed.
[00:01:08]  So I did.
[00:01:09]  Well, I went super, super mom style on you.
[00:01:13]  That didn't sound right.
[00:01:14]  Yeah.
[00:01:15]  Yeah.
[00:01:16]  It was amazing.
[00:01:19]  It was amazing.
[00:01:21]  Have you?
[00:01:22]  I've never had milk of that quality before.
[00:01:24]  Oh, my goodness.
[00:01:26]  It was.
[00:01:26]  It was.
[00:01:27]  So I literally access this puppet.
[00:01:29]  All right.
[00:01:29]  No, go ahead.
[00:01:30]  Jesus.
[00:01:31]  Yeah.
[00:01:31]  Yeah.
[00:01:32]  Exactly.
[00:01:33]  This is what I was saying.
[00:01:36]  You're disgusting.
[00:01:37]  Not just the, okay, but I did get you the really good noasle spray that you like.
[00:01:41]  That was good too.
[00:01:42]  Okay, but then I did get Brace the like, you know, street legal pseudo Fed.
[00:01:48]  I had to, you know, go up to the pharmacy and give them my name and address.
[00:01:52]  They had to make sure I wasn't cooking meth or whatever.
[00:01:55]  Yeah.
[00:01:56]  I don't know how that works.
[00:01:57]  Yeah.
[00:01:57]  You're in the meth.
[00:01:58]  I think I'm in the meth database.
[00:02:00]  I've been arrested for selling meth possession before.
[00:02:04]  I'm not in any database, except for probably the FBI.
[00:02:08]  And the one in my heart.
[00:02:09]  Oh.
[00:02:10]  Yeah.
[00:02:10]  It has every woman who I've ever podcasted with.
[00:02:14]  One.
[00:02:16]  Anyway, so then Brace got crazy from the Suda Fed.
[00:02:21]  You were like not well.
[00:02:22]  I was unwell.
[00:02:23]  It made it worse, maybe.
[00:02:24]  Yeah, I've done a lot of uppers in my life, probably more than most people in the world, just because most people haven't done them.
[00:02:31]  But I've done a lot and I never enjoyed them.
[00:02:34]  And I can't say that that record is, I still don't enjoy them.
[00:02:39]  Yeah, you were like a little shaky and funny.
[00:02:41]  I was feeling a little crazy.
[00:02:42]  Yeah, but able to pull it off.
[00:02:44]  Yeah, I think it went well.
[00:02:46]  Although, no, actually, we had some feedback from a listener that was not pleased with what we said.
[00:02:52]  Was it Ro Khanna?
[00:02:54]  No, David from David From.
[00:02:57]  Actually, now, who is that now?
[00:02:59]  David Frum is George W. Bush's former speechwriter and actually a more dishonorable job.
[00:03:04]  He is, I believe, the editor of The Atlantic.
[00:03:06]  You know, it's funny, his actual name is David Cum because I came in his mouth a bunch of times.
[00:03:11]  In fact, filled it like a reservoir.
[00:03:14]  Yeah, he came up with the excess of evil.
[00:03:16]  And now he's calling us the excess of evil.
[00:03:19]  Yeah, he said it was fucked up that I said I fucked Elizabeth Warren.
[00:03:22]  You know what I think is fucked up?
[00:03:23]  When women don't call you back.
[00:03:49]  Well, hello, everyone.
[00:03:51]  Welcome.
[00:03:53]  Down with the sickness.
[00:03:55]  What is that?
[00:03:56]  You don't know what that is?
[00:03:58]  Wait, are you fucking with me?
[00:04:00]  Literally whispering.
[00:04:01]  Yeah, the song has whisperers in it.
[00:04:04]  Let's just continue.
[00:04:05]  Who is that one?
[00:04:06]  What is the W?
[00:04:06]  What is that one?
[00:04:07]  I don't understand why the notes.
[00:04:09]  Brace, stop.
[00:04:10]  Stop.
[00:04:11]  Just stop.
[00:04:12]  Okay.
[00:04:13]  Welcome to Tronon.
[00:04:15]  Oh, yeah.
[00:04:15]  I'm Liz.
[00:04:17]  My name is Dr. Brace.
[00:04:18]  Oh, yes.
[00:04:19]  Dr. Brace is here.
[00:04:20]  We're joined, of course, by Young Chomsky.
[00:04:23]  My faithful nurse.
[00:04:24]  But he's my nurse.
[00:04:26]  Not like he's a nurse made for me.
[00:04:28]  Your wet nurse.
[00:04:29]  He's my wet nurse.
[00:04:30]  Well, okay, if you want to call him that, sure.
[00:04:33]  I don't know why that makes you that.
[00:04:34]  Shut it down.
[00:04:35]  Okay.
[00:04:36]  One thing before we get to the episode today.
[00:04:41]  Yes.
[00:04:42]  We have a live show coming up for our listeners in the Bay Area.
[00:04:48]  Yes.
[00:04:48]  We are doing, we have been invited to a crossover live podcast episode with Drumroll Radio Warner.
[00:05:00]  Yes.
[00:05:01]  Now, I am like totally freaking out about that.
[00:05:04]  Starstruck.
[00:05:06]  I am.
[00:05:06]  Yeah.
[00:05:07]  I am the biggest fan of The Exile.
[00:05:09]  We had Yasha Levine on.
[00:05:10]  I'm the biggest fan of Warner.
[00:05:13]  I believe, I feel like that.
[00:05:16]  Have you seen that photo of LeBron on Instagram where he's like, I'm smiling through it.
[00:05:20]  I can't believe my lies.
[00:05:21]  No, I don't know that photo.
[00:05:23]  That's good.
[00:05:23]  Anyway.
[00:05:25]  That's what I feel like.
[00:05:26]  Fellas, we're all on Mastodon.
[00:05:30]  Yeah, no, on April 22nd, two days after the birthday of Adolf Hitler.
[00:05:37]  Jesus Christ.
[00:05:39]  I did all say Jesus Christ.
[00:05:41]  I don't know to a Jew.
[00:05:42]  There's not too much difference.
[00:05:43]  Not too much daylight between the two.
[00:05:46]  So on April 22nd at 7:30 p.m. at Viverdi Club.
[00:05:52]  V-E-R-D-I Club.
[00:05:54]  Don't know how to spell that one.
[00:05:55]  In San Francisco, California.
[00:05:57]  You have Radio Warner Live featuring Truna.
[00:06:01]  Yes.
[00:06:02]  Mark Ames.
[00:06:03]  And John Dolan, aka Gary Bretcher, the Warner.
[00:06:08]  Live in person, hanging out with us.
[00:06:11]  And it's selling out.
[00:06:12]  It has been selling like hotcakes.
[00:06:14]  These guys are flying in for the show.
[00:06:15]  This is John Dolan's triumphant return.
[00:06:18]  Napoleon leaving Elba or, yeah, coming to the mainland, 100 days, whatever.
[00:06:22]  He's back in the bay.
[00:06:24]  Back at it, baby.
[00:06:26]  And if you wish to join him as a phalanx armed guard, sort of like Gaddafi's Amazonian guard, except you'll probably be a dude if you're going to this.
[00:06:35]  Just statistically.
[00:06:37]  Ladies, ladies, probably.
[00:06:40]  That doesn't mean definitely.
[00:06:41]  Probably.
[00:06:42]  Ladies, I have a guest list of 85 women that I can do.
[00:06:46]  So if you'd like to come, email me at gmail.
[00:06:52]  Jesus.
[00:06:54]  Wait, cut that.
[00:06:55]  That's literally.
[00:06:59]  Okay, on with the show.
[00:07:00]  Yeah.
[00:07:00]  Well, speaking of on with the show, we are also coming to New York next week.
[00:07:03]  Those shows are sold out.
[00:07:05]  Do not give me coronavirus.
[00:07:08]  So what I usually do when I meet a fan is I kiss you deeply with my mouth on any place of your choosing on your body.
[00:07:14]  I mean, I'm talking shoulders, face, nipple, whatever.
[00:07:17]  Dudes only.
[00:07:18]  Do not, I will not be doing that this show.
[00:07:22]  We're doing the whole show in masks.
[00:07:23]  On masks.
[00:07:24]  In masks.
[00:07:25]  It's kind of actually, it's crazy.
[00:07:26]  But we don't have the, like, we don't have surgical masks.
[00:07:29]  We actually have those kind of like bird masks with the long nose set.
[00:07:33]  In fact, the whole.
[00:07:34]  Yeah, the whole audience will be wearing those as well.
[00:07:37]  Yes.
[00:07:38]  And there will be.
[00:07:39]  But then no clothes.
[00:07:41]  Not a robe in sight.
[00:07:43]  And we're doing it at the Bloomberg news offices.
[00:07:46]  Yes.
[00:07:47]  And we're doing it on June 6, 66.
[00:07:53]  That wasn't funny.
[00:07:54]  That wasn't funny.
[00:07:55]  You're just confusing people.
[00:07:56]  New York, we're going to see you in a week.
[00:07:57]  Yeah.
[00:07:58]  Do you?
[00:07:59]  Yeah.
[00:07:59]  Well, that's not.
[00:08:00]  I refuse to believe that show is real.
[00:08:02]  Okay.
[00:08:02]  So coronavirus has swept the nation.
[00:08:06]  People have a fever.
[00:08:08]  Uh-huh.
[00:08:09]  Literally because they have coronavirus.
[00:08:10]  And they're dying.
[00:08:12]  Oh, sorry.
[00:08:13]  Okay, we're getting serious.
[00:08:14]  This is fucked.
[00:08:16]  Okay, so.
[00:08:16]  I shouldn't say that.
[00:08:17]  This might be fucked.
[00:08:18]  Okay.
[00:08:19]  Pause.
[00:08:21]  Before Dr. Brace gets into his Dr. Brace stuff.
[00:08:24]  Yes.
[00:08:25]  I just want to say that we, faithful listeners, know we did record an episode about coronavirus previously.
[00:08:33]  We did.
[00:08:34]  But circumstances have changed.
[00:08:37]  I don't know when we did that a couple weeks ago.
[00:08:39]  Who knows?
[00:08:40]  But we, you know, I haven't gone back and listened.
[00:08:44]  We got some, I mean, you know, a lot of stuff has changed, but I will say, you know, towards the end of the episode, we talked about possible economic shocks to be expected.
[00:08:56]  And we're going to be talking later in the pod to friend of the show, Alexander Skaggs, about how some of those things are happening right now.
[00:09:06]  Yes.
[00:09:06]  Yeah.
[00:09:06]  No, this is our economic correspondent will be joining us.
[00:09:10]  Yes.
[00:09:10]  I just like to say that.
[00:09:11]  I know you like correspondent.
[00:09:12]  Yeah, I like how we have all broad correspondents, 100% dames.
[00:09:19]  Oh, always.
[00:09:20]  Always.
[00:09:20]  No fellas.
[00:09:21]  I don't know what to do.
[00:09:22]  Times and dames.
[00:09:23]  Yeah.
[00:09:23]  But I will say, yeah, once we've, you know, we can trust you, you've been elevated from gumshoe to correspondent.
[00:09:31]  Exactly.
[00:09:32]  Okay, but coronavirus.
[00:09:33]  So.
[00:09:33]  Well, speaking of elevated, so remember when there was like the death rate, they were like, damn, this is 2%.
[00:09:40]  And people were like, that's fucked up.
[00:09:42]  That's like a lot more than the flu.
[00:09:43]  No.
[00:09:44]  Yeah.
[00:09:45]  I think we should start out the episode by saying that has changed.
[00:09:48]  That has changed.
[00:09:49]  So the WHO, which you are calling Q.
[00:09:53]  Oh, that's what that.
[00:09:54]  So I thought there was just who written all over this.
[00:09:56]  Like, you couldn't figure out who any of these folks contributed to.
[00:09:59]  I'm just fucking kidding.
[00:10:00]  We have many pages of notes.
[00:10:02]  I've read them all.
[00:10:02]  I even wrote some of them.
[00:10:03]  And I know WHSR.
[00:10:05]  You almost just said who stands for who.
[00:10:07]  Who stands for who?
[00:10:08]  It stands for the World Health Organization.
[00:10:10]  Yes.
[00:10:11]  Okay.
[00:10:11]  So they have, as of, I think it was March 3rd.
[00:10:14]  Yes.
[00:10:14]  So just a couple days ago, they announced that the new recorded mortality rate for coronavirus, this is globally, by the way, not specific to the United States.
[00:10:24]  Yeah.
[00:10:24]  But globally, is now 3.4%, which is far more deadly than the flu.
[00:10:33]  Yeah, the flu, I think, kills about less than 1%.
[00:10:37]  Yes.
[00:10:37]  So it's way worse.
[00:10:39]  And coronavirus has been spreading.
[00:10:42]  So the thing is, I'm still, I'll be honest with you.
[00:10:45]  I've read a lot about the coronavirus in the past, well, month, but specifically the past couple weeks.
[00:10:52]  It seems like when you get it, of course, not everyone's symptomatic.
[00:10:57]  About 80% of cases are not very serious, maybe mimicking the regular flu or not even that bad.
[00:11:02]  20% are much more serious.
[00:11:04]  And then a smaller fraction of those are fatal.
[00:11:07]  Yes.
[00:11:08]  3.4%.
[00:11:09]  Yes.
[00:11:10]  And a lot of that has to do with viral pneumonia.
[00:11:13]  You get pneumonia.
[00:11:14]  And you die from complications from that.
[00:11:17]  I've had walking pneumonia.
[00:11:19]  It's very serious.
[00:11:20]  Yeah.
[00:11:20]  That was not that bad.
[00:11:21]  And I had it for a year before I realized what was going on.
[00:11:24]  I just thought I was dying.
[00:11:25]  Oh, my God.
[00:11:27]  This is a problem.
[00:11:28]  Men, go to the doctor.
[00:11:30]  Oh, my God.
[00:11:31]  You all need girlfriends so that you'll just fucking call the doctor when you're sleeping.
[00:11:35]  So I actually, I went to the doctor to get my Siemens, like, no, no, to get my Merchant Marines physical checked out.
[00:11:45]  And it's like this big Goomba.
[00:11:46]  And he was like, brother, you got Walking Man's Pneumonia.
[00:11:50]  And I was like, Walking Man?
[00:11:51]  He's called the Walking Man's Pneumonia.
[00:11:53]  And he gave me a little albuterol, cleared that motherfucker wrong.
[00:11:58]  No, but seriously, so the big issue with complications with coronavirus, because remember, it's a lung, you know, it gets in your lungs, is basically, you know, infections, you know, caused by or, you know, amplified by the virus.
[00:12:16]  So like you say, pneumonia, bronchitis, you know, different infections through the body.
[00:12:23]  And that's really where stuff starts to get weird and why, you know, the populations that are particularly high risk are, you know, the elderly, the immunocompromised.
[00:12:37]  But I should say, you know, anyone with underlying medical issues is going to be at a higher risk than probably, you know, what I'm guessing are the demographics of our listener, which would probably be diabetics.
[00:12:50]  Well, I was going to say that they're probably less than, you know, under 30.
[00:12:53]  I have no idea.
[00:12:54]  Yeah.
[00:12:55]  Who cares?
[00:12:56]  But, you know, we should say like diabetes is an underlying condition and that affects a big population of the United States.
[00:13:03]  Yeah, people in my family have it.
[00:13:05]  I look like I have.
[00:13:06]  I'm just kidding.
[00:13:08]  No, I it is it is not great.
[00:13:13]  And I think a big problem here is that like in you when you are hospitalized for this, because a lot of these cases will involve hospitalization.
[00:13:23]  We don't have like, first of all, an unlimited supply of hospital beds, but also in a lot of cases, ventilators are needed.
[00:13:29]  Right.
[00:13:30]  And we definitely don't have enough ventilators to basically cover everyone that is projected to be covered.
[00:13:35]  And there's a lot of varying sort of projections about how many people could get this and overall and then what the numbers inside of that look like.
[00:13:45]  Yeah, I think basically, again, because it's been relatively, I mean, I think it's safe to say that a lot of this is being underreported in the United States.
[00:13:57]  Absolutely.
[00:13:57]  For various, I am going to say political reasons, both locally, statewide, and nationally.
[00:14:06]  We totally, we don't really, but then also the nature of the virus and the, you know, infection, like how it's being transmitted.
[00:14:14]  And then also the incubation period, which we mentioned on the previous show, is anywhere between 14 and 30 days.
[00:14:21]  It's really hard to get good numbers on what exactly is happening.
[00:14:26]  And so Bryce dropped his phone.
[00:14:30]  It's the phone I used to time the episodes with, so don't give me shit about it.
[00:14:35]  But so, you know, there's been a lot of like viral threads on Twitter that I'm like hesitant to even quote from or direct people to because you just don't know.

=== Viral Threads and Uncertainty (15:48) ===

[00:14:46]  You just don't want to cause a panic or anything like that.
[00:14:48]  Exactly.
[00:14:48]  It basically holds that like, you know, if these doubling rates, which would be, you know, the rate at which people are getting infected and mortality rates hold, what you're looking at, you know, I mean, you're looking at in the millions of infection, recorded infections, you know, a month and a half.
[00:15:09]  Yes.
[00:15:09]  Yes.
[00:15:10]  Yeah, you are.
[00:15:11]  And possibly the fatality numbers reaching hundreds of thousands just in the United States.
[00:15:16]  Yeah.
[00:15:17]  And again, we don't know what's going to happen with that.
[00:15:20]  Obviously.
[00:15:21]  It is, I mean, so today is, what day is it today?
[00:15:24]  The 7th?
[00:15:26]  It's the 7th, March 7th at 4.30 a.m.
[00:15:31]  And yesterday, there was one confirmed case in San Francisco that was community transmission.
[00:15:37]  That means they had gotten it from somebody else in the community, not necessarily, they hadn't been to China or been, you know, they weren't one of these people who had gotten it early.
[00:15:45]  Or a cruise ship.
[00:15:46]  They didn't have any contact.
[00:15:47]  Yeah.
[00:15:47]  And now today there are eight confirmed cases.
[00:15:50]  I have a feeling, and that is confirmed cases.
[00:15:52]  They have been tested for coronavirus using the coronavirus test.
[00:15:56]  Yes.
[00:15:57]  Essentially, there's no way to know how many people have it.
[00:16:00]  I mean, it went from, it was in three states and then next day, I think it was in 21 states.
[00:16:04]  Now it's in over 25.
[00:16:06]  I'm sure it's probably in every state.
[00:16:08]  Yeah.
[00:16:09]  And again, okay, so I want to pause here because like we're not trying to start a panic with our listeners.
[00:16:13]  No.
[00:16:14]  We're like, you know, we're trying to be as sober as possible.
[00:16:18]  Yeah.
[00:16:18]  And I don't mean, you know what I mean in terms of how we're talking about it.
[00:16:21]  Yeah.
[00:16:22]  But I have seen a lot of stuff just, you know, anecdotally like on my social media, particularly on Instagram, which is a different kind of beast than Twitter, where it's a lot of people saying like, there's no reason to freak out.
[00:16:35]  There's no, this is just the flu.
[00:16:37]  This is just like a sickness, blah, blah, blah.
[00:16:39]  And it's like, that's half true, but also half not true.
[00:16:42]  Yeah.
[00:16:43]  And part of the reason why it's half not true is one, because there is actually like barely any like information being told to us, which is very scary.
[00:16:58]  But also because the, you know, the nature of pandemics, we're going to be facing possibly school closures, quarantines.
[00:17:09]  It's just very different than the regular flu.
[00:17:11]  And by the way, we were talking about this before we started recording.
[00:17:15]  The regular flu sucks too.
[00:17:17]  Yeah.
[00:17:18]  Like, it's, that's, that doesn't make it like easier.
[00:17:22]  It's funny.
[00:17:22]  I've had it so many, like not flu, but flu-like symptoms due to certain destructive behaviors of my life.
[00:17:28]  Yes.
[00:17:29]  And so it's like, to me, it's like, it sucks, but you get it like every six months.
[00:17:33]  I haven't had the flu since I was a kid.
[00:17:34]  Yeah.
[00:17:35]  I think I get sick kind of a lot because I'm Jewish, but it's, it, it's, if everyone, that's the thing.
[00:17:44]  It's like, we might like all get this at the same time.
[00:17:47]  Well, that's not.
[00:17:47]  Because that's usually how the flu works.
[00:17:49]  I mean, people get the flu, but not like 100 million people.
[00:17:53]  Right.
[00:17:54]  And so it's a little, it's different than what we've been dealing with before.
[00:17:58]  You said something about school closures, though.
[00:18:00]  So like, I think to give us kind of a glimpse of like what can happen with that, can you go into that a little bit?
[00:18:04]  Well, I will say, so like it came out today that, you know, a couple cities in Italy are going full quarantine, which respect, I guess.
[00:18:13]  Moradini, they call it.
[00:18:15]  Yeah.
[00:18:16]  But, you know, the outbreak in northern Italy is very serious.
[00:18:20]  And so, you know, the governments there are taking some pretty serious measures.
[00:18:23]  Bryce and I were talking and, you know, I have no idea if they're going to be doing that in the United States.
[00:18:29]  Some schools have closed in San Francisco already.
[00:18:31]  No, but I just mean like cities going full quarantine.
[00:18:34]  I think the nature of the United States makes that very difficult.
[00:18:37]  Also, like our leadership are a bunch of fuckamorons that don't take any public power seriously.
[00:18:43]  This is why I voted for the five-star party America.
[00:18:47]  Yes, La Lega.
[00:18:50]  No.
[00:18:51]  But there, so again, yeah, so schools are closing.
[00:18:56]  Yep.
[00:18:56]  They're going to start advising churches probably to close.
[00:18:59]  I would not be surprised.
[00:19:01]  Movie theaters, you know, like we mentioned before, South by Southwest canceled.
[00:19:06]  Big events are canceling.
[00:19:08]  But the thing about the schools canceling is very interesting to me because, you know, these aren't, they're short-term measures, but they actually have like long-lasting effects.
[00:19:18]  Yeah.
[00:19:19]  And what's worrisome is like, and I know this sounds stupid, but you're going to have all these kids basically not able to keep up with schoolwork.
[00:19:26]  Parents are going to have to stay home to take care of their kids.
[00:19:29]  Those parents have to work.
[00:19:32]  I mean, they'll figure out probably telecommunicate or telecommuting for school, but it's going to be a second, you know?
[00:19:37]  Yeah.
[00:19:37]  I mean, we just don't have any of that infrastructure in place at all.
[00:19:41]  And the places that we do are, of course, going to be private schools where there's a richer population.
[00:19:46]  God knows what the public schools are going to do.
[00:19:48]  I mean, I imagine most of them are just going to be pretty much ghost towns for at least a month.
[00:19:53]  Yeah.
[00:19:53]  So it's just, you know, these things have kind of like snowball effects.
[00:19:57]  Yeah.
[00:19:58]  Like, for example, you know, there is a large population.
[00:20:03]  There's a story in the New York Times about this.
[00:20:05]  A large population of children in America that rely on, you know, public schools for meals.
[00:20:15]  Right?
[00:20:15]  Yeah.
[00:20:16]  So school lunches, not just school lunches, and you hear a lot about school lunch programs, but also breakfast, you know, like they, so we're talking about like, you know, child poverty rates skyrocketing, child hunger rates skyrocketing.
[00:20:29]  Even in short term, that's going to have long-lasting effects.
[00:20:33]  Well, it's, it's, I mean, and you talked about parents having to stay home too.
[00:20:36]  I mean, a lot of parents, there's, as many of you know, no free childcare really, and definitely not on a federal level in America.
[00:20:44]  And school sort of serves that purpose, especially very early school.
[00:20:49]  Now parents are going to have to stay home.
[00:20:52]  And when parents have to stay home, I mean, I don't know about you.
[00:20:54]  I've never had a job where I could work from home.
[00:20:56]  Every job I've had has been, I've been mostly a florist, you know, worked at a gym, worked at a brewery, et cetera.
[00:21:03]  You can't do any of those jobs from home.
[00:21:05]  And that's true for a lot of people.
[00:21:07]  So you're going to come up to sort of an impasse there.
[00:21:10]  Like, what do you do in that situation?
[00:21:12]  And I don't think I don't know the answer to that.
[00:21:15]  Here it says, you know, in this country, more than two-thirds of the 31 million students who regularly eat school lunch are economically dependent upon the meal.
[00:21:24]  And low-income kids similarly constitute the majority of 14.6 million who eat school breakfast and the 1.3 million who receive an after-school supper.
[00:21:35]  That is a lot.
[00:21:36]  It's a lot of kids.
[00:21:37]  Yeah.
[00:21:38]  And, you know, there have been some cases at schools.
[00:21:43]  I believe there was one in, I want to say Winchester, but I don't have that right in front of me.
[00:21:49]  And the good thing is, is that, you know, the, you know, kids are a relatively low-risk group in terms of like their immune systems, but they can be basically like what you would kind of call like a disease vector, where because they're carrying it and so many, you know, you can't really quarantine.
[00:22:09]  There's this new book out on Verso.
[00:22:13]  Oh my God.
[00:22:14]  It totally sounds like a Verso fucking book.
[00:22:16]  Go on.
[00:22:16]  But, you know, kids can just be carriers that then transmit the disease elsewhere.
[00:22:22]  And that's, you know, it poses a real problem.
[00:22:25]  Yeah.
[00:22:26]  I mean, especially if there are older generations in the house as well.
[00:22:29]  I mean, that's the thing is, as older people die at much higher rate.
[00:22:33]  I mean, that is the majority of the deaths have been for older people.
[00:22:35]  That first sort of outbreak in Washington at the old folks home in King County.
[00:22:41]  I know.
[00:22:42]  It's like devastating.
[00:22:43]  Yeah, I was reading about the other day.
[00:22:46]  But it's terrifying because in a lot of places, like, you know, multiple generations live in one house.
[00:22:51]  Yeah, absolutely.
[00:22:52]  Well, especially when they're, you know, poor.
[00:22:55]  Yeah.
[00:22:56]  Yeah.
[00:22:56]  And that's the thing is like, it's, it's, so in San Francisco, you know, they declared a state of emergency here, like they've declared in a lot of places.
[00:23:03]  And they've said like, you know, don't, if you are, if you're old or like if you're, you know, an at-risk group for this, forget this and dying from it, like try not to go outside.
[00:23:12]  Well, there's 10,000 people in San Francisco alone, a city of 800,000 people, probably more like a million now, that sleep outside every night.
[00:23:22]  You know, we have 10,000 homeless people all over California.
[00:23:25]  I mean, like, all that shit you see on Fox News about California, by the way, is correct.
[00:23:29]  Yeah, that's right.
[00:23:30]  There are shanty towns everywhere.
[00:23:31]  The streets are covered in shit because there is no fucking place.
[00:23:35]  I mean, there are places to put people, but the housing market is so financialized that there's basically no incentive to give people homes if you're not rich.
[00:23:45]  So I don't know what's going to happen with that.
[00:23:48]  Like if an outbreak of corona gets out among the homeless in San Francisco, I mean, I can imagine there will be a lot more.
[00:23:54]  I mean, there is already extremely high anti-homeless sentiment from a certain class of people in San Francisco.
[00:23:59]  Yeah.
[00:24:00]  I imagine that will not only skyrocket, but we'll probably see some yeah.
[00:24:04]  And I want to say too, like, not that it, this makes any difference, but it's like, you know, there's families living on the street too here.
[00:24:13]  It's not, you know, there is like a, you know, that it's just a bunch of rabble rousers crazy people.
[00:24:19]  That's not, you know, how I know two people, like just off the top of my head that I've been friends with, I've known for a long time that are just homeless.
[00:24:27]  Yeah.
[00:24:27]  That's just not how extreme inequality manifests.
[00:24:30]  Right.
[00:24:32]  And if it were to out, you know, if there were an outbreak, like you said, in that population, yeah, it would be devastating.
[00:24:40]  Yeah.
[00:24:41]  And it could, it could kill a lot of people.
[00:24:43]  Yeah.
[00:24:44]  And I want to, you know, the state, the city and the state, like, I, I just think they're, I mean, yeah, the federal government, of course, is, is insane.
[00:24:56]  Yeah.
[00:24:57]  And we can talk a little bit about their response, which has been completely fucking bonkers.
[00:25:03]  Yeah.
[00:25:03]  It's totally bonkers.
[00:25:06]  But also, like, the cities and the states have a lot of power that they can exercise when it comes to public health emergencies.
[00:25:14]  Like, for example, Newsome, Gavin Newsom, our fucking shiny ass mayor.
[00:25:20]  And Yasha Ali is former boss.
[00:25:23]  You know, he has already declared that he's going to waive all fees, all insurance fees for coronavirus testing.
[00:25:32]  It's like, okay, but hey, question for the mayor.
[00:25:35]  Why can't you do that for everything related to these hospital states?
[00:25:39]  Oh, wait, he could.
[00:25:40]  Yeah.
[00:25:41]  That's what I'm trying to say.
[00:25:41]  Like the state and even the cities, like the mayors, under public health emergencies, so many powers open up that they can exercise.
[00:25:51]  And, you know, you saw some of that in response, particularly in San Francisco and even in New York during the AIDS crisis when, because Reagan, you know, everyone knows the Reagan administration just basically fucking ignored that epidemic.
[00:26:10]  And particularly in San Francisco and New York, where outbreaks were quite serious, you know, city officials had to rely on what powers they could, you know, kind of take on and communities as well to try and contain as much as they could.
[00:26:26]  But it's really difficult to do without the kind of power of the purse of the federal government.
[00:26:31]  Yep.
[00:26:31]  Yeah, absolutely.
[00:26:33]  And, you know, yeah, I don't need to get into the AIDS crisis.
[00:26:36]  That stuff makes me too upset.
[00:26:38]  Yeah.
[00:26:38]  It's, it's, it's, I don't, like, they're putting, so Dean Preston, city councilman here, you know, I don't even want to say friend of the pod because I don't want to get him in trouble.
[00:26:48]  Admired by the pod.
[00:26:50]  He is putting a moratorium, he's trying to pass a moratorium on evictions during this.
[00:26:55]  And like that, that I have a feeling that will go through.
[00:26:59]  But think of every other city in America where, you know, almost none of that won't happen most other places.
[00:27:07]  And so like during this whole thing, you know, the economy will keep chugging along.
[00:27:11]  And the way that most people sort of deal with the economy is through things like evictions.
[00:27:16]  Right.
[00:27:16]  And like going to the, you know, whatever.
[00:27:19]  I mean, I was, I was listening to this thing about like a, maybe I was reading, no, I was reading it.
[00:27:23]  It was a friend's Facebook page and he was asking people in his town how this had affected them.
[00:27:27]  It's a town in Washington.
[00:27:28]  And one guy was like, well, I volunteer at a food bank for people with AIDS and no one shows up.
[00:27:35]  Yeah.
[00:27:36]  And so like, I mean, people going to food banks are people who need to use food banks.
[00:27:40]  Right.
[00:27:40]  And so now these people are either, you know, spending money that they can't really afford to spend on food at a grocery store or they're more likely not going out at all because people with HIV AIDS are immunocompromised.
[00:27:52]  Absolutely.
[00:27:52]  And that is a huge target group for this.
[00:27:54]  And also, I should say, like, you know, it's one thing for, you know, the Trump admin to advise people possibly stay home from work, but that's like not a luxury that a lot of people can afford in this country.
[00:28:08]  Yeah.
[00:28:08]  And that's also not what the Trump admin told people to go to work.
[00:28:12]  No, like at one point they were kind of sad.
[00:28:13]  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:28:14]  But like, you know, that's kind of the good.
[00:28:16]  I mean, I think Cuomo said that.
[00:28:18]  I'm sure London British said that, you know.
[00:28:22]  But again, you know, almost, I'll say this.
[00:28:26]  It's one of my favorite quote, one of my favorite statistics.
[00:28:30]  Nearly 80% of all new jobs added after what we call the Great Recession were in precariate labor.
[00:28:39]  Now, the thing about that is the way that those, you know, or what we call gig economy, the way those jobs work is you only get paid if you literally show up to work, which is usually in your car or, you know, making deliveries or, you know, whatever.
[00:28:55]  In most cases, you're not an employee.
[00:28:57]  Meaning you don't have the rights of an employee.
[00:28:59]  Exactly.
[00:29:00]  You know, some accruing vacation.
[00:29:04]  Any kind of like possible telecommuting, anything like that.
[00:29:08]  I mean, most people can't.
[00:29:09]  I mean, and think about this too.
[00:29:10]  Of course, most people can't telecommute.
[00:29:11]  You know what I mean?
[00:29:12]  You can't, most people don't.
[00:29:13]  Yeah, exactly.
[00:29:14]  Most people don't work in an office.
[00:29:16]  Think about this too.
[00:29:16]  In San Francisco, a lot of our really poor people live in SROs, single room occupancy hotels.
[00:29:24]  Basically like almost like dormitories where there's one or more person people to a room.
[00:29:31]  The room is just one room, no kitchen, no bathroom, shared bathroom at the end of the hall.
[00:29:37]  And how are those people supposed to be quarantined or self-quarantined?
[00:29:40]  They can't cook.
[00:29:42]  They have to use the same bathroom.
[00:29:43]  It's like, it's almost an impossibility.
[00:29:46]  And the federal government's response to this has been fucking, like we were saying, fucking insane.
[00:29:53]  Yeah.
[00:29:53]  Like if in, so like to compare it to South Korea, in South Korea, they are going door to door and testing every single person to see if they have coronavirus, whether they exhibit symptoms or have come into contact with people or anything or not.
[00:30:08]  They're testing everybody.
[00:30:08]  And they've gotten mortality rates down to 0.6%.
[00:30:11]  That does not look like it will be the same case in America.
[00:30:14]  It doesn't look like they're really testing anyone at all.
[00:30:16]  I mean, I don't.
[00:30:17]  No, they're not.
[00:30:18]  The testing thing is.
[00:30:20]  Yeah.
[00:30:20]  We would have to.
[00:30:21]  Yeah.
[00:30:21]  The testing thing is fucking absurd.
[00:30:23]  I mean, yeah, I don't.
[00:30:26]  There is absolutely zero reason why the United States cannot deploy the Federal Reserve to mandatory tests.

=== Testing Absurdity (11:40) ===

[00:30:34]  Oh, like the Army Reserve or whatever.
[00:30:36]  Yeah.
[00:30:37]  Yeah.
[00:30:37]  What did I say?
[00:30:37]  The Federal Reserve?
[00:30:38]  Yeah.
[00:30:38]  I was like, damn.
[00:30:40]  National, you know, National Guard, excuse me.
[00:30:42]  Yeah.
[00:30:45]  We need to deploy the Federal Reserve to smash Ron Paul's mouth.
[00:30:50]  Oh my God.
[00:30:51]  That's a weird slip.
[00:30:52]  Anyway, there's absolutely no reason why the National Guard can't be deployed in every state, in every city to test everyone.
[00:31:03]  Yeah.
[00:31:03]  Literally everyone.
[00:31:05]  Yeah.
[00:31:08]  You know, yeah.
[00:31:09]  It's just like really, it's really upsetting.
[00:31:11]  And, you know, I kind of wish that, you know, I question why more politicians aren't kind of raising some red flags here and not really speaking out.
[00:31:24]  And I have the unfortunate feeling that we're going to have to rely on whistleblowers, particularly within, you know, the health industry.
[00:31:32]  You know, there was a nurse in Northern California from Kaiser who came out, you know, saying the practices going on in the hospital were not okay.
[00:31:42]  There was no testing.
[00:31:43]  She wasn't tested.
[00:31:45]  And we're going to have to rely on brave whistleblowers to really get a lot of information.
[00:31:49]  I mean, that's how we heard about the standard.
[00:31:51]  I mean, that's when I heard about what they did at Travis Air Force Base, where they just had federal health workers working with no protective gear alongside people in fucking hazmat suits.
[00:32:01]  Yeah.
[00:32:02]  I was like, oh yeah, we're fucked.
[00:32:03]  And we should mention like rich people are preparing.
[00:32:06]  Oh, yeah.
[00:32:07]  Like, that's the thing is, like, they are, so there's been a spate of articles lately about how rich people are essentially, not only are they, they just calling random doctors or fancy doctors and looking for a cure, they're signing up for prestige health.
[00:32:21]  I didn't know about health concierges.
[00:32:22]  Did you know about this?
[00:32:24]  I've seen one, I think, downtown, but I don't really understand.
[00:32:28]  Think it's like an urgent care, but they like uh are fancier.
[00:32:32]  I don't really get exactly what they do and I don't care to know, but they're doing stuff for these people and they have these like insane, all right.
[00:32:40]  So one of these masks which uh, I actually have no, I don't uh, the urban air mask costs 70.
[00:32:48]  Uh, check this out.
[00:32:49]  This is from their website.
[00:32:50]  The urban air mask 2.0 introduces a whole new level of protection, breathability and design.
[00:32:55]  By combining cutting edge filter technology with timeless Scandinavian design.
[00:33:00]  The urban air mask 2.0 offers an outstanding performance and comfort to combat harmful particles in the air.
[00:33:06]  Um, it's uh sold to the SF Moment Design store and on their website it is sold out.
[00:33:11]  They're flying all over the place.
[00:33:13]  I'm sure that uh, a lot of these sort of like you know cabins in uh Aspen or in the Caribbean, you know, uh little St. James Island, these things will be filling up with rich people flavor.
[00:33:25]  Yeah, there's also all these little cottage and like a little cottage industry of like rich prepper gear popping up and not just like your run-in-the-mill REI crap but, like you know, like kits that have everything that you need.
[00:33:38]  Yeah, the pussy way to do it.
[00:33:39]  Yeah, I like to.
[00:33:40]  I like to be flexible in my loadout.
[00:33:43]  Well, I do.
[00:33:44]  I, you know, before we get to talking to Alexandra about the financial markets, because a lot of people have been asking us about the recession, about the market, what the hell is going on.
[00:33:56]  Uh I, you know, I do kind of want to talk a little bit about the true non-prep vibe.
[00:34:02]  So a lot of people may have have gathered at this point that Liz is a prepper, like real deal prepper.
[00:34:10]  She doesn't have some of the things, the accoutrements that are necessary to prep, like myself.
[00:34:16]  But no, you prep, what have you been getting?
[00:34:19]  I'm not, I would never claim the title of prepper because I respect that label too much.
[00:34:25]  Okay um no, but I just, you know, jokes aside, I do Brace and I really did want to talk about this for our listeners, because we do really care about you guys or at least I do and it's time to get like a little serious about, you know, preparing for possibly some very weird scenarios over the next couple months.
[00:34:46]  So the number one thing is I know all of you are on bipolar medication the The number one thing to do that, like I always, so I you should get a month's supply of your medication if possible beyond the one that you currently need.
[00:35:00]  So I've told this to a couple friends and, you know, you should call your doctor today if you're listening to this and see if they can call in a one to two month supply of whatever medication you need.
[00:35:12]  The same goes for, you know, if you have family that is on medication, you should make sure that they also have one to two months because we might be seeing some weird shortages and you don't want to be left without medication that you need.
[00:35:25]  The other thing too is food.
[00:35:28]  Yes.
[00:35:28]  Okay.
[00:35:29]  So this one's a little trickier.
[00:35:30]  This is a little tricky, particularly given like storage for a lot of people.
[00:35:34]  Now you don't need to be like hoarder.
[00:35:37]  Ideally what you want to have at home is like I would say three weeks to a month.
[00:35:43]  Yep.
[00:35:44]  And that sounds like a lot.
[00:35:45]  It sounds like a lot, but all, you know, shelf stable.
[00:35:49]  Yeah, don't get shit that like, like, so I made the mistake of purchasing $4,000 worth of clams.
[00:35:56]  Yes.
[00:35:57]  And apparently that is not.
[00:35:58]  I've been making this thing called cuckoo clams for the past three weeks.
[00:36:02]  They've gone bad long ago.
[00:36:06]  Wait, what's in that?
[00:36:08]  Oh my God.
[00:36:08]  So it's at Tomasa's, my favorite restaurant.
[00:36:10]  We should go sometimes.
[00:36:12]  Oh, you're serious.
[00:36:13]  Oh, I haven't been making this, actually, but it's a really good dish.
[00:36:18]  It's just like a garlicky clam kind of thing.
[00:36:20]  I love it.
[00:36:22]  I thought you were making a joke.
[00:36:24]  I was making a joke.
[00:36:25]  I haven't been making cuckoo clams.
[00:36:27]  No, I fucking stocked up on like shit that I'm not going to cook right now.
[00:36:32]  Yes, which is what, brace?
[00:36:33]  So I got a lot of pasta.
[00:36:35]  I got some frozen food for some protein, some meat, et cetera, like a bunch of chicken, a lot of Kansas soup.
[00:36:43]  Yes.
[00:36:44]  Chilies are good.
[00:36:45]  Chilies are good.
[00:36:46]  Beans.
[00:36:46]  Beans.
[00:36:47]  I did not get much in the way of vegetables, although I should go pick up some frozen vegetables tonight, perhaps after we record.
[00:36:54]  But yeah, rice is really good.
[00:36:55]  Yeah, you guys, you just want to get pantry and stuff you can put in the freezer.
[00:36:58]  You don't have to worry about like the power going out in water.
[00:37:01]  Yeah.
[00:37:01]  And if you can't do like three weeks or a month, get two weeks at least, because that is like the general amount of time people have to self-quarantine for.
[00:37:08]  Yeah.
[00:37:08]  And basically the reason why you guys want to get this is not because this is going to be like martial law or jade home.
[00:37:15]  End of the world, whatever.
[00:37:16]  Although I don't want to rule it out.
[00:37:17]  Yeah.
[00:37:18]  But because, you know, if this, if this virus is spreading in your city, you're not going to want to go to the grocery store.
[00:37:26]  Exactly.
[00:37:27]  You're not going to want to have contact with people and like surfaces.
[00:37:32]  Like you aren't going to literally want to touch the like shopping cart.
[00:37:36]  Yeah, because that's the thing is this, this, this virus can stay on surfaces.
[00:37:40]  Yes.
[00:37:40]  It is not.
[00:37:41]  For up to nine days, I believe.
[00:37:42]  It is not the main like vector of transmission.
[00:37:46]  That would be my penis.
[00:37:47]  But it is, you didn't like that one, did you?
[00:37:50]  No, I didn't.
[00:37:51]  Yeah, bro.
[00:37:51]  She's making a face at me.
[00:37:53]  I'm so sorry.
[00:37:55]  No, it is not the main vector of transmission, but it is one.
[00:37:58]  So be careful about that.
[00:37:59]  I mean, the thing is, like, yeah, it's just so you have to be so fucking careful that I feel like there's almost no way, like, everyone's going to get it.
[00:38:06]  Yeah.
[00:38:06]  And so, this is really like, I bought this stuff.
[00:38:08]  So, when if, if, if, and inshallah, that I will not, if, uh, if I have to self-quarantine, I will be uh less miserable.
[00:38:18]  Yes.
[00:38:18]  Oatmeal is good.
[00:38:19]  Also, nut milk is a great option because it's shelf-stable.
[00:38:24]  Yeah, I got two things of soy milk.
[00:38:26]  Just fucking kidding, almond milk.
[00:38:28]  I'm not trying to grow some titties while I'm in there.
[00:38:31]  I got a bunch of cold meds too.
[00:38:33]  Okay, yeah, let's talk about reduce your fever.
[00:38:36]  So, I got a bunch.
[00:38:37]  I got everything from Theraflu, which is not for everybody and may not be the, it's pretty good for this, but the best stuff is just like exetaminophen, anything that is a fever reducer.
[00:38:47]  Yeah, because yeah, that stuff's good.
[00:38:50]  Um, what's the thing called with the O?
[00:38:53]  Osolencium or however you say it.
[00:38:56]  Uh, it's like a vitamin.
[00:38:57]  Coil silver.
[00:38:58]  No, have you seen the guy who turned himself blue?
[00:39:02]  Oh, have my dad dated a girl who turned herself orange from eating carrots.
[00:39:05]  Go on, anyway.
[00:39:06]  I can't remember what it is, but so, in addition to fever reducers, which you want to get, also, I would stock up on vitamins, um, duct tape, good to have Tylenol, Advil, both things, aspirin, uh, you know, dayquil, Nyquil, Theraflu, like we mentioned.
[00:39:24]  Uh, and I'm gonna plug my favorite reducer, no, bleep this part out.
[00:39:30]  No, didn't you get it?
[00:39:32]  I haven't gotten it yet.
[00:39:33]  I ordered it, haven't got yet.
[00:39:35]  It's called yet.
[00:39:36]  Why am I talking like I got corona?
[00:39:38]  Go on.
[00:39:38]  It's called Dr. Singha's Mustard Bath.
[00:39:42]  And I put it in with Epsom salts, and it helps you sweat everything out, read the directions, go exactly by the directions.
[00:39:53]  You have to take a cold shower afterwards, and then get right in bed and go to sleep.
[00:39:56]  But it works every time.
[00:39:58]  Alternatively, if you do want to get sweaty from another sort of activity, you could look up pictures of me on Google Image Search.
[00:40:07]  And that tends to work for many young men and women.
[00:40:11]  Okay, one last thing besides medicine stuff, but that's very serious.
[00:40:17]  Oh, actually, two last things.
[00:40:19]  If you can, I would keep some cash at home.
[00:40:22]  Yeah.
[00:40:23]  So just you want small bills, five, ten dollars, denominations, whatever amount you're comfortable with.
[00:40:31]  Keep it in a safe place, but just you don't, you know, again, you want to like reduce what you're touching, who like you know, you're interacting with, and you never know what's going to happen with anything.
[00:40:44]  That's always a good thing to keep at home.
[00:40:46]  Exactly.
[00:40:47]  You know, a lot of people have been talking about how you shouldn't buy masks.
[00:40:50]  That is probably true because it's, I mean, we are, we are, as we'll find out in the next segment, not going to have a lot of those in America.
[00:40:57]  Yeah, they're basically gone.
[00:40:59]  Also, most hand sanitizer is gone.
[00:41:00]  An alternative, if you can find it, is isopropyl, uh, however you say that, alcohol.
[00:41:05]  That was gone from Target when I went there.
[00:41:06]  Is it?
[00:41:07]  Okay.
[00:41:08]  But it's been at liquor.
[00:41:09]  That's the thing is, a lot of the stuff has been gone from the big chain stores that I've been to, but liquor stores still have like a ton of toilet paper and stuff like that.
[00:41:15]  I mean, I don't think we're about to run.
[00:41:17]  Yeah, that's very weird.
[00:41:18]  You could also literally, I'm not kidding about this.
[00:41:20]  People get mad at me for this.
[00:41:21]  You can fucking just use the sink and like or take a shower.
[00:41:25]  Yeah, just watch your money on a toilet.
[00:41:27]  That's like not the main thing you should worry about.
[00:41:28]  I mean, it'll be, yeah, all right.
[00:41:30]  Um, the last thing I want to say, and I'm very serious about this, is that it's a good idea, if you can, to talk to a friend and set up maybe a buddy system.
[00:41:41]  Because if one of you gets sick, knowing that someone can possibly take care of you or get you things that you need in the event that you don't have stuff outside your door, yes, you don't want to get them sick, but just someone that you know you can contact.
[00:41:54]  It doesn't have to be like an emergency contact person, but just they know that they're prepared, you know, you're prepared, and that you guys can have a little buddy system.
[00:42:01]  And also, it's good to have close friends like that.
[00:42:04]  Because, you know, like 25% of young men do not have a close friend.
[00:42:08]  I'm serious.
[00:42:09]  Well, yeah, so this is a good way to make them.
[00:42:11]  I'm your friend.
[00:42:12]  Me too.

=== Insurers And Earnings Volatility (14:53) ===

[00:42:15]  He's not.
[00:42:18]  Okay.
[00:42:18]  That's the proper situation.
[00:42:19]  I'm just kidding.
[00:42:20]  No, producer Young Chomsky will be available.
[00:42:23]  His phone number is 634-87.
[00:42:30]  And he will be available in the Bay Area, Northern California, up to Reading to bring you anything you need.
[00:42:37]  And if you are a dude, he will.
[00:42:38]  So okay, with that, we should let's get Alexander on the phone because we got to talk Mr. Market.
[00:42:47]  Alexandra Ocasio-Oskaggs.
[00:43:09]  Okay.
[00:43:10]  Well, welcome to the finance zone.
[00:43:14]  We are joined by Truanon Financette, that is a female financier correspondent, Alex Skaggs, also a financial writer for Barons, who is here to tell us about, well, things aren't going so hot in the old markets, are they?
[00:43:32]  No, they are not.
[00:43:33]  Yeah, Mr. Market's going a little crazy.
[00:43:37]  Yeah, and like every finance correspondent on TV also.
[00:43:42]  I don't know if you guys saw them.
[00:43:44]  No, is everyone losing their mind?
[00:43:47]  Did you see Santelli?
[00:43:48]  So Rick Santelli, the CNBC guy who like got famous for this big tea party rant, went on another one of these rants, except his whole thing was that he wanted to give everyone coronavirus all at once.
[00:44:02]  Sounds sound advice.
[00:44:06]  In order to calm the market?
[00:44:07]  Yeah.
[00:44:08]  Was he just like, if we all get it and we're over it in like two weeks, then we can get back to work?
[00:44:12]  He's like, as long as the uncertainty isn't there, it'll be fine.
[00:44:16]  And I was like, Jesus Christ.
[00:44:19]  We don't need a vax.
[00:44:21]  We just need to calm the VIX.
[00:44:23]  Yeah.
[00:44:23]  Oh, God.
[00:44:24]  I don't get that, but Alex seemed to understand terrible ladies on this one.
[00:44:30]  It was fun.
[00:44:31]  Great.
[00:44:33]  Yes, lots of volatility in the market.
[00:44:38]  I think it was like when we were first going to have you on, like so much has even changed in the last week.
[00:44:43]  I think a couple times over now, it's been the Dow's worst day.
[00:44:47]  Yeah.
[00:44:48]  Like ever.
[00:44:49]  Yeah.
[00:44:51]  And so like when we first were going to talk, there was this big sell-off.
[00:44:55]  And so I've like been writing about markets through a few of these.
[00:44:59]  And like every time it's really scary.
[00:45:01]  But then I like, look, I look at the numbers and it's like, okay, it's actually not that bad, like in percentage terms or whatever.
[00:45:08]  It's not that big of a deal.
[00:45:10]  But this time I actually had to go back and correct myself because it was the worst one since 2008.
[00:45:18]  Not a big, I don't know anything that happened big in that year.
[00:45:21]  Not a great.
[00:45:22]  Yeah.
[00:45:22]  Well, I refinance my home.
[00:45:27]  It's a little niche.
[00:45:28]  Yes.
[00:45:28]  We're refinancing, though.
[00:45:29]  That'll be good for all of us.
[00:45:33]  Well, yeah.
[00:45:34]  So basically, we wanted to have you on because a lot of people have been asking, like, is there a recession?
[00:45:40]  There was a big article in Bloomberg that was basically like, actually, maybe we are already in a recession, but no one knows.
[00:45:47]  And just because it's a little unclear exactly what the markets are reacting to.
[00:45:56]  And it seems like a lot of people, it seems to be like continuing to continuing to react to everyone's fear of not knowing what it's reacting to, if that makes sense.
[00:46:10]  It really has kind of snowballed.
[00:46:13]  And it's a little weird because I think the timing is a big factor too.
[00:46:18]  Like, I feel like we had sort of, I mean, I guess the Ebola scare was pretty different because it was a lot more severe and a lot more contained.
[00:46:25]  But like we've had these sorts of scares every like six months, maybe.
[00:46:31]  But what's happening right now outside of all of that is that like, remember in, I guess it was the end of 17, they did the corporate tax cut.
[00:46:40]  So like that was really good for companies.
[00:46:43]  And so through most of 2018 and 2019, they posted like really good earnings growth because it was like really good, you know, it was basically stimulus, but for companies.
[00:46:56]  And so now they're sort of out of that.
[00:46:58]  Like that sort of exhausted itself.
[00:47:01]  And they have a lot of debt.
[00:47:05]  They are actually like really leveraged in their like supply chains and stuff.
[00:47:10]  And so there's probably going to be an earnings recession either way.
[00:47:15]  And now people are like, holy shit, like on top of this earnings recession, we have this huge, you know, pandemic, basically.
[00:47:23]  So two things are kind of happening concurrently here is that this sort of stimulus from 2017 or like whatever, the semi-stimulus from 2017 is wearing off.
[00:47:34]  And then there's also just a sort of unprecedented or at least not precedented for a long time pandemic that's sweeping the workforce and the supply chain.
[00:47:44]  Yeah, exactly.
[00:47:46]  But it's weird.
[00:47:47]  I like, I still don't quite know what to make of it, honestly, but I don't think anyone does.
[00:47:52]  Yeah, that sort of seems to be the main thing here is like nobody really knows what to do or like how to how to view this sort of thing.
[00:47:59]  Yeah.
[00:47:59]  And it seems like the, I mean, the Fed is getting involved and trying to like calm things, but it doesn't seem to be working.
[00:48:07]  Yeah, Alex, could you explain what's going on with that?
[00:48:09]  Because remember, we like, you know, we're not all big money brain ladies here.
[00:48:13]  Some of us are dumb, but, you know, penny rich males.
[00:48:21]  And so let's, can you explain to the fellas what the fuck Liz just said and what you guys are talking about?
[00:48:29]  So the Federal Reserve, I mean, as I'm sure everyone knows, they set interest rates.
[00:48:36]  They're basically like, this is how much it costs everyone to borrow.
[00:48:39]  Everyone borrows at basically its sum spread to the interest rate that the Fed sets.
[00:48:46]  And so like a couple of years ago, they were raising rates because they were like, oh, the economy is really good.
[00:48:52]  We don't want inflation.
[00:48:53]  Even though I'll say there's no inflation anywhere.
[00:48:58]  And then, so they've raised rates for like a little while.
[00:49:02]  But then on Tuesday, they ended up cutting like 50 basis, like half a percentage point all at once.
[00:49:10]  And the funny thing about that was that before the Fed cut, everyone was like, oh yeah, the Fed's going to cut.
[00:49:17]  This is going to be great.
[00:49:18]  And the market like rallied on that.
[00:49:20]  Yeah, I remember that.
[00:49:22]  Yeah.
[00:49:23]  Well, and then after the Fed cut, people were like, oh my God, what does the Fed know?
[00:49:27]  And they started selling off.
[00:49:30]  Like, what are they seeing that we don't see?
[00:49:32]  And I was like, I'm confused.
[00:49:35]  Yeah.
[00:49:36]  Yeah.
[00:49:36]  So Fed rates, I mean, yeah, you brought it up, but it is a great time to refinance your mortgage or even your student loans if you're so inclined.
[00:49:45]  I don't have either of those.
[00:49:46]  So what does that mean?
[00:49:47]  That means just like to sort of borrow again or to like basically to renegotiate the interest rates at which you're currently borrowing.
[00:49:55]  Because the new rates have lowered so much, you can get a better deal, but it involves like, you know, a new contract.
[00:50:03]  So like if I, if I had student loans of whatever, $1,500 a month with an interest rate of 2%, I don't know how much, I didn't go to college.
[00:50:10]  Don't know how much they are.
[00:50:11]  I could go to whatever my loan guy right now and be like, listen, I'll pay you $1,600 a month, but the interest rate is 0.1%.
[00:50:20]  Probably not that low, but.
[00:50:21]  0.2.
[00:50:23]  But yeah, that's a general idea.
[00:50:25]  Yeah, okay.
[00:50:26]  I'm getting that.
[00:50:26]  Yeah.
[00:50:27]  Wow.
[00:50:27]  That seems, well, that doesn't seem so bad.
[00:50:31]  I think a lot.
[00:50:32]  I mean, just anecdotally, anecdotally, I think a lot of people are going to take advantage of that.
[00:50:36]  But I don't know what that's going to mean for the market.
[00:50:39]  And I guess that's like my other question is, and like you said, it's like tough to suss out exactly what it's responding to because it does seem like there are some real supply chain concerns in terms of like manufacturing, but also like, for example, I know that, you know, everyone knows that there's like, there's no hand sanitizer anywhere and there's no masks anywhere.
[00:51:06]  And I know that like the U.S. can make those masks, but all of the materials to make the mask are in China.
[00:51:13]  So it's like all these sort of different kind of shocks going around.
[00:51:17]  Not that that's exactly what the market, those specific things are exactly what the market's responding to, but it's like hard to tell if it's responding to genuine like supply chain shock or just people's uncertainty and volatility.
[00:51:34]  Yeah.
[00:51:35]  So I think like the supply chain thing like should have been fixed by the Fed, right?
[00:51:40]  Because if a company has to get stuff from somewhere else, they could like borrow to cover the cost of getting the supplies from somewhere else and whatever, right?
[00:51:49]  Like I feel like people are kind of over that, even though I do, I do think it was like a real issue for a little while.
[00:51:56]  But I think what people are freaked out about is that they think people are going to like all stay home forever or something.
[00:52:05]  Which like there have been some stories about this, but like I don't know, like I can't self-quarantine.
[00:52:13]  I have to go to my office.
[00:52:14]  Like it would be nice to self-quarantine for the next five months or whatever.
[00:52:19]  But I just think there's a lot of people who work like white collar jobs who think that they're going to stay home forever.
[00:52:29]  So they're like, oh, well, clearly every person's going to do this.
[00:52:31]  Exactly.
[00:52:33]  Yeah, that's a big thing because it's like, so for instance, like, you know, they have in San Francisco, they're asking like basically old people to stay home as much as possible.
[00:52:44]  And I don't think that they'll be able to do the sort of or they, I don't think they have the will to do the sort of quarantine that they'll do in maybe other countries in America.
[00:52:53]  But it does raise like an interesting point.
[00:52:55]  Like, what if, you know, millions of people do get coronavirus?
[00:52:59]  And, you know, obviously.
[00:53:00]  The majority of the cases are mild, but there is a large amount of cases that are serious, but not deadly, which would necessitate staying home.
[00:53:08]  I mean, all of those necessitate, 100% of the cases necessitate staying home from work for a little while.
[00:53:13]  So you have a bunch of people staying home from work, not only not making money, possibly getting fired in some cases.
[00:53:18]  I mean, I'm sure that there'll be some motions against that, but it's what's going to happen in some cases, but also like being short on rent.
[00:53:26]  Or, you know, if millions of people end up in the hospitals, as is a possibility, yeah, I have a feeling they'll probably make the vaccine free in a lot of cases, or not the vaccine, but like whatever, the testing.
[00:53:38]  And if there is a vaccine, develop the vaccine, but like the hospital stays won't be free.
[00:53:44]  And so that has huge financial ripples, right?
[00:53:47]  Exactly.
[00:53:48]  And so I think people are worried about the potential effects from that on like, you know, people just going out and buying things.
[00:53:55]  Yeah.
[00:53:55]  Like sort of basic consumption type stuff.
[00:53:59]  And I think some of the insurers are pretty leveraged too.
[00:54:04]  So like we talked, I think we talked a little bit about this last time, actually, but health insurers have a decent amount of debt, but like life insurers also have a ton of debt.
[00:54:15]  So like, of course, my mind goes to like the darkest possible outcome.
[00:54:19]  Oh, gosh.
[00:54:20]  Right.
[00:54:20]  And if they're paying out and they don't have the ability to do so.
[00:54:25]  Well, could you explain by leverage?
[00:54:27]  Like, what do you leveraged in that case?
[00:54:29]  So the health insurers, I don't know as much as I should probably about the health insurers specifically.
[00:54:36]  But for the life insurers, I know specifically, they basically have all this money, right?
[00:54:42]  And they have a pool of money.
[00:54:43]  And they're like, okay, we're just going to invest it.
[00:54:46]  And the issue is that interest rates are really low.
[00:54:50]  And their assumptions for returns are like, oh, we think we're going to earn like 5% or like 6% every year.
[00:54:57]  And so they're putting their money into like bonds that aren't very good quality.
[00:55:04]  Sort of on the assumption that like, oh, like business is growing.
[00:55:08]  The economy is growing.
[00:55:09]  Everything's fine.
[00:55:09]  Like the losses from these things won't be bad if it turns sour.
[00:55:13]  But like we've never actually seen corporate debt be this high in our economy like ever.
[00:55:21]  So.
[00:55:22]  And that seems like a not so great combination with what's going on right now, especially if a bunch of people do die or a bunch of people do basically have to get paid out of their life, health insurance.
[00:55:32]  Yeah, exactly.
[00:55:34]  I think it's an interesting moment because like for so long, the stock market, like kind of what you're saying, corporate debt.
[00:55:41]  And, you know, you've got the explosion of corporate debt.
[00:55:43]  And, you know, we've talked about it.
[00:55:45]  It's just sort of like debt, buying new debt to buy new debt.
[00:55:48]  Right.
[00:55:49]  Just kind of like pyramid schemes of debt, including, you know, massive stock buybacks in order to inflate corporate, corporate earnings reports.
[00:56:01]  And you have this like instance where for the first time the market is actually responding to the real economy or like potential of the real, like, and by real economy, I mean like actual like labor force participation, like real rates of labor force participation and consumption.
[00:56:18]  Like you mentioned, like people dying, like real economic factors and not financial kind of instruments.
[00:56:24]  And so it's like this real like rubber meets the road moment almost, it feels like, or it has the potential to be where it's like this injection of like, for lack of a better term, like the real into this like environment of complete fictitious speculation.
[00:56:41]  Yeah.
[00:56:42]  Which is like pretty intense.
[00:56:46]  Well, that's why it's freaking out, right?
[00:56:47]  Like that's why it gets insane because they're like, oh shit, we actually have to think about like real people instead of like, how much can this company borrow to like literally pay money to its investors because exactly what's been going on?
[00:57:03]  They've been like, okay, let me borrow money from debt markets and then give it to our shareholders.

=== Economic Choke Points (15:02) ===

[00:57:08]  I know.
[00:57:08]  I saw like Elon Musk tweeted something where he was like, coronavirus is not a big deal.
[00:57:13]  And I was like, someone called the SEC because Elon's back trying to manipulate the market.
[00:57:17]  I mean, that's why what that is.
[00:57:19]  I mean, gosh.
[00:57:21]  What are like some scenarios we're looking at?
[00:57:23]  Like, what will this mean for like a, in real terms, for like the man on the street in, or the woman in the financier's office in, but not like as the financier, like she's like a normal worker.
[00:57:36]  Like, what do this mean?
[00:57:38]  Like, what, what are the effects like we'll actually see from what we're talking about right now?
[00:57:42]  I mean, it's so hard to tell.
[00:57:45]  And I think part, I mean, part of the problem with that is that like companies aren't going to be doing as much as they would have been normally.
[00:57:52]  Like, I don't know.
[00:57:53]  I, this might be a little strong, but I tend to feel like our economy right now is in sort of like a suicide pact with corporate America.
[00:58:01]  Oh, yeah.
[00:58:03]  Because they're the only ones actually giving people jobs.
[00:58:06]  Right.
[00:58:06]  And there's no real public sector to speak of.
[00:58:10]  And so they're like, okay, well, corporate profits have to keep going because they're the only people or they're the only entities that are actually paying people.
[00:58:18]  Yeah.
[00:58:19]  So when that stops, like, what happens?
[00:58:22]  Like layoffs, you get, you know, I think they've already seen some.
[00:58:28]  Like we were talking about Boeing earlier.
[00:58:30]  They put a bunch of employees on furlough at some of their suppliers.
[00:58:35]  Yeah.
[00:58:35]  And the airlines too, like what, like, I mean.
[00:58:38]  It's a massive sector of the economy, too.
[00:58:40]  Huge.
[00:58:41]  I mean, just travel in general, you know, and like that's going to be affected by this absolutely.
[00:58:46]  I mean, they might not cancel flights, but those industries are certainly going to, I mean, there was already an airline closed in Europe, which was like a Ryan-era type airline, like shuttered after like four days after people started getting corona out there.
[00:58:59]  Which does not speak to great about their margins.
[00:59:02]  Yeah, no, I mean, and you know, they're taking it.
[00:59:04]  I mean, it sounds stupid, but it's like, okay, well, Trump's got literally just like, you know, Mnunchin and Kudlow up there.
[00:59:13]  Like they, you know, their first concern is like what that's going to be.
[00:59:17]  And I think there's a reason for that.
[00:59:19]  It's because it's actually pretty serious.
[00:59:22]  Yeah.
[00:59:22]  And the thing is that like, because everything is so financialized, like the market does actually, sadly, echo through into like what these companies actually do, which means it echoes through into people's real jobs.
[00:59:37]  Yeah.
[00:59:38]  Like, because every, again, like everything is so tied together.
[00:59:42]  I was looking at, it was like one of these, you know, Wall Street research guys' notes.
[00:59:47]  And they were saying that apparently at some point in the high yield bond market, which is like Michael Milken created, a funny guy.
[00:59:56]  But if interest, if the sell-off gets bad enough, then interest rates will rise high enough that companies actually won't be able to afford to pay back their debt.
[01:00:06]  And then, yeah.
[01:00:09]  And then everyone's like, no one knows what happens in that case.
[01:00:12]  Exactly.
[01:00:13]  And that's the thing that sticks out about all this is there's like a lot of different futures in this that we can't figure out where we're going and we don't know what happens when we go to any of them.
[01:00:23]  I know I'm like thinking right now about Rumsfeld for the unknown, known.
[01:00:27]  Oh, yeah.
[01:00:28]  And the known, unknown.
[01:00:29]  People gave a lot of shit about that quote, but we're looking at it right now.
[01:00:33]  Kind of.
[01:00:34]  I mean, yeah, I think too, like, there's a, you know, and again, like you say, how these financial markets have ripples into like actual real economy, like what I'm saying, like real people.
[01:00:47]  And I think that's totally right.
[01:00:48]  And one thing that I always think about too is there's a great paper by Pavlina Chernova, who's an economist at the Levy Institute.
[01:00:58]  Yes, she's great.
[01:01:00]  And there's such a great paper about reconceptualizing unemployment as basically, I think, as a virus, which is an interesting way to think of it, because she says that the way that it spreads, like once there's like an infection, basically in a town or a city of unemployment, that it spreads to other sectors as a contagion and it can't be controlled.
[01:01:26]  So like unemployment has these mass ripple effects throughout other sectors of the economy.
[01:01:32]  So if you have massive job loss, like because like you say, these huge corporations, their debt bubble pops and they don't know what to do, or not even the huge corporations, but like even the little guys that are beneath them that are leveraged into those big corporations, right?
[01:01:49]  Like those, that unemployment will eat into real estate, will eat into housing, will eat into education, will eat into, like it moves through and infects other sectors, even non-economic, what you would traditionally think of as non-economic sectors.
[01:02:06]  Yeah, exactly.
[01:02:08]  And I think that's sort of why like everyone, like you see like airlines and like cruise stocks are like, you know, getting absolutely killed.
[01:02:16]  But it's not just them.
[01:02:19]  It's like, you know, Apple too.
[01:02:21]  And people are like, why, why Apple?
[01:02:23]  And it's like, well, you know, if you end up having a mass unemployment wave again, which like, God hope, I really hope that doesn't happen.
[01:02:32]  Yeah, totally.
[01:02:33]  Well, like you mentioned, I mean, it's not only a virus in that it spreads, but also that it's like so bad for people.
[01:02:39]  Like you can actually look and see like health outcomes get so bad.
[01:02:43]  I mean, obviously related to work now.
[01:02:48]  But sort of all of it together is just really brutal.
[01:02:52]  Yeah.
[01:02:53]  I mean, and even you see like, I mean, I know a lot of people were dunking on people getting bummed about South by Southwest getting canceled.
[01:02:58]  And I don't really care about South by Southwest as a thing, but it is true that like that city depends on that revenue.
[01:03:06]  And, you know, you're going to see it even more and more.
[01:03:08]  I mean, I, you know, they're talking about canceling, say, like March Madness.
[01:03:11]  That's like.
[01:03:12]  Comic-Con.
[01:03:13]  I mean, they got to cancel that.
[01:03:15]  Yeah.
[01:03:16]  Like, just to begin with.
[01:03:17]  Yeah, just in general.
[01:03:18]  I mean, but they'll probably cancel like Burning Man.
[01:03:20]  Like, I mean, and, but, and it sounds like it's really dumb or whatever.
[01:03:23]  And it's like, who care?
[01:03:24]  But also it does have ripple effects that again, you start to see in other sectors and not just in the like, you know, headdress creating artisanal sectors.
[01:03:36]  I'm in the, I'm, listen, I'm the first guy to call for Southwest, South by Southwest to be canceled because my mistress did once grab the weekend's penis in a bathroom at a show there.
[01:03:46]  Oh, God.
[01:03:48]  But like, it's crazy.
[01:03:49]  I mean, it's crazy because these things like do bring in a lot of money.
[01:03:53]  I don't even know.
[01:03:54]  I've been thinking about it because like I have friends, you know, I'm in the Longshore Union and I have friends that work on the docks in here up north.
[01:04:02]  And I was talking to them and like, yeah, it's like, I mean, there's certain holidays, I guess, and like it's the time of year that shipping slows down to begin with.
[01:04:10]  But like the way our supply chain works is it's very fragile, right?
[01:04:14]  And like there are these certain sort of choke points.
[01:04:16]  The docks are one of them.
[01:04:17]  And there's not, I mean, some of these, there's some of these ships' crews have been quarantined for 14 days.
[01:04:23]  So that like this whole, it's difficult to like get stuff on the shelves in time.
[01:04:29]  So it'll be empty shelves places, which will cause panic.
[01:04:31]  And what's like, what's people won't have.
[01:04:33]  But you've already seen it's like now everyone's like freaking out buying a billion things of toilet paper just because like 10 people did it.
[01:04:38]  Which is bullshit because you can just use your hand in some water.
[01:04:40]  Oh my gosh.
[01:04:41]  You can.
[01:04:41]  They do in much of the world.
[01:04:43]  So, but like, it's, it's, I mean, is that so?
[01:04:45]  You mentioned the supply chain earlier.
[01:04:46]  Like, what is, so what is, what's going on with that, Alex?
[01:04:50]  Oh, man.
[01:04:51]  So this is another weird thing that I actually think has been for like the past few years undercovered.
[01:04:57]  And I'm trying to write more about it, but it's kind of hard because it's like really opaque.
[01:05:01]  A lot of companies actually have started to like extend, or I guess forever, you know, companies have been extending each other credit like within their supply chain.
[01:05:13]  It's like, okay, you don't have to pay me right away for this thing.
[01:05:15]  You can pay me in two weeks.
[01:05:17]  Oh.
[01:05:19]  Yeah.
[01:05:19]  And then they get a bank to sort of sit in the middle and kind of finance that loan.
[01:05:24]  Yeah, of course.
[01:05:25]  Economies rock, dude.
[01:05:27]  Right?
[01:05:29]  A lot of rents that can be charged here.
[01:05:31]  Gotta love it.
[01:05:33]  Yeah.
[01:05:33]  But it's what's interesting about it is that they're now actually taking those like loans, those like little loans and securitizing them.
[01:05:42]  No.
[01:05:43]  What's that mean?
[01:05:44]  Wait, what's that mean?
[01:05:45]  I don't like that reaction.
[01:05:45]  What's that mean?
[01:05:47]  So they're basically taking them a bunch of like loans that companies make to each other and they're like really short-term loans, right?
[01:05:54]  Yeah.
[01:05:54]  Supposed to be risk-free, by the way.
[01:05:58]  That's never, never a good sign.
[01:06:00]  No.
[01:06:01]  Oh, would they be AAA, maybe?
[01:06:03]  I think so.
[01:06:06]  But they're taking them all and they're sort of packing them into these like bonds that they're then selling to investors.
[01:06:13]  Wait, this sounds familiar.
[01:06:15]  Hold on.
[01:06:17]  I feel like I've heard this song before.
[01:06:20]  Yeah.
[01:06:21]  That is sort of what they did with mortgages before the financial crisis.
[01:06:26]  Right.
[01:06:26]  And this is something that's going like in our like Walmart's doing this.
[01:06:32]  Yeah.
[01:06:32]  Yeah.
[01:06:33]  A lot of big telecom companies are doing this.
[01:06:39]  And a lot of, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of the things that go into the products in these supply chains are made in a, in, in China.
[01:06:48]  Yes.
[01:06:49]  And I know the trade war has been affecting, there's been issues with the supply chain and that, but this, so, so what happens if like the product doesn't come through then?
[01:07:00]  Like what happens if nothing comes in on a ship?
[01:07:03]  Well, that's, it's a good question, right?
[01:07:05]  Because I think that part of what can happen is that like when things like this happen, like in 2015 and 16 when oil prices fell off a cliff, like sometimes banks realize that like, okay, so It's not good for any of us if we like actually collect on this loan, which is interesting because they don't tend to do that with like individual people.
[01:07:30]  So they do this thing called extend and pretend, which is basically say like, okay, well, we're going to give you another two or three months to pay off this thing that you were supposed to pay last month.
[01:07:43]  Because if you default, then like people get really freaked out and investors take losses and it's actually worse for everybody.
[01:07:50]  So I think that's why people are like, okay, as long as this ends in the first half of this year, we're okay.
[01:07:57]  But then if you see it extend into the third quarter, the fourth quarter, like things might start looking pretty, pretty bad.
[01:08:04]  Huh.
[01:08:05]  So this could be like potentially, well, I'm not trying to cause like freak people out here, but this could have some pretty like psychotic effects on our economy.
[01:08:17]  Like beyond, I think, what we're sort of prepared for.
[01:08:21]  Yeah.
[01:08:22]  Very cool.
[01:08:24]  Yeah, that's fun, right?
[01:08:25]  Will this affect podcasts?
[01:08:29]  Podcasts are the future, man.
[01:08:31]  I got to start one.
[01:08:33]  You should.
[01:08:34]  Yeah.
[01:08:35]  They're very lean.
[01:08:37]  Yeah.
[01:08:39]  We do get a new microphone and headphone set for each of us every episode.
[01:08:43]  Just it's like a face mask.
[01:08:45]  You just got to get rid of it.
[01:08:46]  But I mean, so even for like medical supplies, though, that's like, like Lizzie.
[01:08:50]  Yeah, and really pharmaceuticals as well.
[01:08:52]  Yeah.
[01:08:52]  That's the big issue.
[01:08:55]  That market will be pretty badly affected by this as well, too.
[01:08:59]  Potentially.
[01:09:01]  Yeah, I think it already, I mean, the supply chain is definitely being affected.
[01:09:05]  Yeah.
[01:09:06]  I think, well, it's funny because like the healthcare industry has been like investors haven't really been very bullish on it because our guy, Bernie, is thinking about getting rid of a lot of it.
[01:09:18]  Yes.
[01:09:19]  Respect.
[01:09:20]  Exactly.
[01:09:22]  But I think that because of that, like people aren't so worried about the healthcare companies because they're like, oh, we kind of expected this.
[01:09:31]  Yeah.
[01:09:31]  This is all the market.
[01:09:34]  Though another interesting sort of like, I don't know, sub story here is the oil companies.
[01:09:40]  Yeah.
[01:09:41]  Because like oil prices have once again fallen off a cliff and a lot of these small like drillers and stuff in Texas and out there in the U.S. Have they stopped production?
[01:09:57]  I'm not sure.
[01:09:58]  People are looking at drill counts and stuff.
[01:10:02]  It's a little outside of my like realm of like totally.
[01:10:06]  But they are, they do have a lot of debt.
[01:10:09]  And I think they are worried that like this might just be it for that industry, which like, you know, Employs people.
[01:10:20]  That's what's sort of like, yeah, that employs a lot of people.
[01:10:23]  Yeah.
[01:10:24]  I know.
[01:10:24]  I got friends.
[01:10:25]  And it's pretty much like all precarious labor as well.
[01:10:28]  Yeah.
[01:10:28]  Like you go out and work for like four weeks somewhere, you get addicted to OxyContin.
[01:10:33]  One of your friends dies because something falls.
[01:10:35]  I'm literally just recounting what happened.
[01:10:37]  I know.
[01:10:37]  It's such an awful industry.
[01:10:39]  It's horrible.
[01:10:40]  Horrible.
[01:10:40]  It destroys you.
[01:10:41]  By the way, thanks, Obama.
[01:10:42]  Yeah.
[01:10:43]  Big expansion of that shit under his.
[01:10:46]  Very cool.
[01:10:47]  We got to wrap up in a second, Alex.
[01:10:49]  So, what give me some wisdom here?
[01:10:53]  I'm sitting on the edge of the bed, my head in my hand, and a snub-nosed 38 in the other one.
[01:11:01]  Possibly going to use it on our producer, Liz, and then myself, unless you talk me out.
[01:11:05]  What is going to happen?
[01:11:08]  Well, I think that there is a big opportunity, we can say, not for investing, actually.
[01:11:17]  No, okay.
[01:11:18]  Because, like, like you said, a lot of these industries that are getting hit the hardest are the ones that don't do, like, they're not like real world economic, like, they don't have anything.
[01:11:30]  It's fake.
[01:11:31]  It's one of those things that, like, when someone like a layman or even not a layman, like you, you look at this, you're like, this is fake.
[01:11:37]  Like, this is just a money factory.
[01:11:39]  Yeah, exactly.
[01:11:40]  And, like, it does, it makes a case for, let's say, a different policy around jobs and public sector employment.
[01:11:49]  Um, because you know, it sort of demonstrates that, you know, we are kind of in a suicide pact with Worker in America.
[01:11:56]  And if they go down, people get fired.
[01:11:58]  And like, you need something there to sort of provide other types of employment.
[01:12:02]  We just haven't been very creative about what kinds people are interested in or like what people are willing to pay for.

=== Why It's Fake (02:04) ===

[01:12:10]  Yeah.
[01:12:11]  If that makes any sense.
[01:12:13]  Yes.
[01:12:13]  So you're saying it creates a political opportunity.
[01:12:16]  Yes.
[01:12:17]  And I'll say, Paulina Chernova has a really good stuff on that.
[01:12:24]  She does.
[01:12:24]  She absolutely does.
[01:12:26]  So like there could be like a WPA for podcasters for something.
[01:12:30]  Yeah.
[01:12:31]  Yeah.
[01:12:31]  That's what it means.
[01:12:32]  WPA podcast.
[01:12:34]  Yeah.
[01:12:35]  White podcasters of America.
[01:12:38]  Just kidding.
[01:12:39]  That's a dig at podcasters, not at our.
[01:12:43]  Yeah.
[01:12:44]  Well, thank you so much for joining us.
[01:12:47]  Yeah.
[01:12:47]  Thanks for having me.
[01:12:48]  Thank you.
[01:12:48]  Can't wait to have you back on again when things get really crazy.
[01:12:53]  Yes.
[01:12:54]  And we'll hopefully see you soon, unless we're all arrested by men in hazmat suits carrying submachine guns on the streets of New York City.
[01:13:06]  Yes, I'll see you guys soon.
[01:13:08]  All right.
[01:13:08]  See you, Alex.
[01:13:09]  Thank you.
[01:13:10]  Bye.
[01:13:10]  I thank you.
[01:13:42]  That's terrible.
[01:13:43]  Okay.
[01:13:45]  Well, I don't feel any better.
[01:13:46]  I feel way better.
[01:13:47]  Oh, okay.
[01:13:48]  Yeah, that's just because I did some Sudafed while she was talking.
[01:13:51]  So, this has been another wonderful episode of True Anon, the Corona Cast.
[01:13:58]  My name, of course, is Dr. Singa Belden.
[01:14:02]  Joined by Liz and, of course, my faithful lion of Syria, Bashar al-Yangchomsky.
[01:14:11]  I don't know.
[01:14:12]  I'm stretching.
[01:14:14]  Okay, we'll see you next time.