This thing doesn't make sense.
Why is the death rate so much worse in Italy than in Germany, for instance? Why was it so bad in Iran -- and what explanation that accounts for Iran wouldn't also make us expect similarly severe results in other Middle Eastern countries?
Or Sweden and neighboring Denmark?
Denmark completely shut down before almost any other country.
Sweden, by contrast, has enraged "public health" experts for weeks for not clamping down. On Sunday it instituted some relatively mild restrictions, but otherwise it's been fairly laissez-faire.
Yes, its number of hospitalizations has been rising -- but so has Denmark's. In fact, Denmark, with half Sweden's population, has more than half Sweden's hospitalization figure and slightly more than half its number of deaths.
What is going on?
There must be other factors at work -- differing methods of assessing and recording causes of death, perhaps, or comorbidities peculiar to certain populations that make the virus more deadly? Who knows, but there seems to be an odd lack of curiosity about it among the general public.
All we hear is: we're Italy!
I doubt that, even if things could get bad here.
What I do know, amidst all the confusion, is this:
For all their bravado right now -- "I'm glad to fulfill my patriotic duty of staying home!" -- most Americans are going to get anxious pretty darn soon, especially with some governors extending the lockdown periods months into the future.
We're not supposed to mention economic considerations, because that allegedly means we're ogres who want our grandmothers to die.
But for most people it seems rather normal to wonder what will happen to us with weeks if not months of no income.
Or for the rest of us it seems sensible to ask: where should I put my money in times like these?
Last year we all enjoyed the Money Revealed docu-series, which featured some smart libertarians and other accomplished folks.
Every day they released another free episode.
The same people have put together Crisis Investing 2020, which will begin to release its own episodes (also free) next week.
Eventually, they will sell the series.
If you want them for free, sign up in advance (i.e., this very second):
Tom Woods