March 12, 2020

Trump’s speech last night felt like a watershed. According to accounts today, he agreed to make the public address—his second during his presidency—because he wanted to calm the markets. Instead, the short speech made today’s futures drop precipitously last night. According to reports, Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner wrote the speech, hastily over the course of the day, with input from advisor Stephen Miller. As you know, I was shocked by the speech and saw that it would tank the markets, so I wondered if there had been a concerted plan to do so and make money from the crash. It all seemed contrived. But it appears I was wrong and the disaster was, in fact, simply a reflection of extraordinary incompetence.

(Can I just say that Kushner has astonishingly bad political instincts? How much longer can he screw things up before Trump underbusses him?)

In any case, Trump’s speech seemed to make it clear to people that there was no longer any point in looking to the federal government for aid in managing what the World Health Organization now calls a pandemic. It is still scrambling to provide test kits. While numbers are vague, it appears that America, with a population of about 327 million people, has tested about 8,000 people in total while South Korea, with a much smaller population of about 51 million, has tested more than 210,000 and is testing almost 20,000 people a day.

The realization that they had to take charge meant that today state governors, business leaders, sports team owners, university presidents, mayors, and so on, began quite suddenly to assume responsibility for managing the crisis. Schools closed, Broadway closed, Disneyland and Walt Disney World are closing, March Madness is off, the NBA has suspended its season, Major League Baseball will start at least two weeks late.

It remains unclear why United States officials refused to use the WHO coronavirus tests, which would have helped us get a better sense of where the virus was and to contain it. But while there is a continuing outcry about why there are still so few coronavirus test kits available, states are moving forward to stop social contact and try to stop the community spread of the disease.

The stock market today continued to decline after Trump’s speech failed to reassure investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,352 points, or almost 10%. Midday, the Federal Reserve decided to offer at least $1.5 trillion in loans to banks to smooth out financial markets, but that did not stop the day's slide.

I didn’t get home until 1:00 tonight, and it is now 3:15 and I simply must go to bed, so no more now. Am now at home for the long-term, though, teaching on-line, so will do better tomorrow.

One last note: it has been my observation that people are angry and touchy and upset these days. We are all on edge. If you can be kind to someone, it will go a long way in this atmosphere. Someone did that for me today, surprising me with flowers when I left the deserted office for what will likely be months, and I promise, they brightened a very grim day.

Hang in there, everyone. I’ll see you tomorrow (er, today. But later).

H.

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Notes:

Disney: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/media/disney-world-close-coronavirus/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/12/coronavirus-live-updates/

tests: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-testing-failure-123166

Stock market: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/business/live-stock-market-today-updates.html