Castanza

I wish Ray Hudson would read the commentary between rb and alwaysdrawing ;D Took a small short position for entertainment as well. Thanks for the idea!

Devs - Alex Garland on Hulu was really well done and worth a watch. - A blend of tech and philosophy

Yes, I watched this a while ago. I am a bit of a WW1 nerd. Got fascinated with it when my dad showed me a pic of my great grandfather in front of a huge artillery piece in a desolate landscape somewhere in France. If you want a literal description of a soldiers view of WW1, read Ernst Jüngers book “ In Stahlgewittern” (Storm of steel), which you can download as freeware if look around. I will give it a read for sure. Also a few good resources for reading letter directly. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/letters-first-world-war-1915/ There was one I read (not sure if it's from this site) where a soldier documented a patrol and how he tripped and fell on a dead body. He said his hand went through the body as if it were made of soft cheese when he went to catch himself. Absolutely gruesome and unimaginable.

Amazing to think we've been at war for 30+ years over oil. And here we are in an environment where you can't pay people to take it.

What's this say about other commodities? If you have an old beater you could try this.

A sorry excuse for a leader. So is the Governor of Virginia. You know, the guy who can't follow the Constitution, likes to dress up in blackface, and would kill babies after birth. Is he a great leader in your opinion? I want to hold my tongue here, so instead of saying that's a pretty ignorant thing to say, I will say hmmm... you think so. That is an interesting opinion. To paraphrase the late Daniel Moynihan you are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. To wit, I don't think anything you said about the gov Northam is really true. re Northam: One could argue rightfully that he doesn't have the same interpretation of the constitution that you do. As to the black face, there is constitutional statute of limitation for one's college stupidities, (Eighth Amendment if memory serves) ;) (sortof fact) And the baby killing statement is a willful misinterpretation. For the record he was talking about non-viable fetuses. Look, he's a doctor and the nuance on his statements on this was lost in the brouhaha. So no he is not a 'baby-killer'. Trump, on the other hand, is never nuanced. He seems to be quite challenged by the constitution. He is a paragon nothing save narcissistic socio-pathy. He is a mentally ill man with no morals who is utterly out of his depth generally and this crisis is telling. Back to the prez and coronavirus: Sadly, people have (and will) die because of Trump, plain and simple. I didn't say Trump was a good leader. In fact his track record with 2A is worse than Obama. I have been plenty critical of him on this forum. I find it amusing that you are able to use mental gymnastics to look past his blackface era. "College shenanigans" 2A rights don't come from the BofR. They are affirmed by it, meaning those rights exist with or without it. It's merely a declaration that the govt supports the natural rights of its citizens. So interpretation is moot.

A sorry excuse for a leader. So is the Governor of Virginia. You know, the guy who can't follow the Constitution, likes to dress up in blackface, and would kill babies after birth. Is he a great leader in your opinion?

Some things to keep in mind or let individuals know (parents) if they are going to use consumer grade oximeters https://www.consumerreports.org/medical-symptoms/covid-19-pulse-oximeters-oxygen-levels-faq/

I haven't started buying groceries online either this year, I tried peapod from Stop & Shop years ago and liked it, but S&S pulled out of NH and the grocery stores I go to now are all so close to my house that it isn't worth the bother of online ordering. I don't buy clothes online, but I don't buy clothes very often anyway. My wife buys clothes online, especially now that you can just drop off Amazon returns at Whole Foods, she just tries it on and if it doesn't fit drops it off at whole foods and has Amazon send her a different size or just returns it if she doesn't like it. It isn't much of a hasle unless you needed the clothes immediately. Every grocery chain near me is offering their own version of online grocery delivery. Wegmans charges $3 for a grocery order. Takes 2 days to get your order (not a big deal imo). Maybe Amazon is catching on more in big cities, but everywhere else there seems to be plenty of other viable options. Plus there is the local chain branded food which has some price/familiarity leverage. Why pay Amazon for brand name stuff when I can keep getting my knock off store brands?

This seems to be a play on endless QE obviously. Silver traded way up in 2010-2011 after QE2. Tempting for gamble. I hope it was nothing but congressional members ;D

More pork and more violations of individual liberties and rights. This has become a massive power grab. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5717

Relying on habit is a slippery slope since it only takes 21 days to 1 year to break or rather change a habit into something else. For most people, it's already 30 days since the lockdown. People have been changed imho. And they can't change back? Not the point. I didn't say spending will end, I said it may be a possibility for it to dry up for the mid-to-long term. If that's the case, it will have tangible effects. EDIT: So even if they can change back, it does not invalidate my argument. Some things never change on a longterm context. 1.) People want to own homes 2.) People want families 3.) People want to be rich 4.) People want nice things Those four things will never change. Why? Because humanity is hardwired to overcome, innovate, and push forward. Those 4 things have survived hundreds of wars, natural disasters, diseases, and thousands of years. Covid-19 isn’t going to change that. If anything on a historical scale humanity has learned to recover and adapt faster and faster from “events”.

Relying on habit is a slippery slope since it only takes 21 days to 1 year to break or rather change a habit into something else. For most people, it's already 30 days since the lockdown. People have been changed imho. And they can't change back?

If you liked 1917 I would highly recommend watching Peter Jackson’s “And They Shall Not Grow Old”

Any good? Making a beer run tomorrow

On what budget? Once this pandemic is over I wonder how much money any city/state in the US will have to do anything new and non-essential.

I cut about 15% off of my “accumulation pile” and added it to my cash pile. Rally does seem emotionally driven but either way there are some good companies trading at great multiples. Definitely certain sectors in staying away from but telecoms seem like a solid bet along with some banks.

Have you read the book The Economic Consequences of Debt-financed Peace? I would be surprised 'cause the book has been written but is still not published. A good synopsis https://mises.org/wire/economic-consequences-peace-100-years-later

Regarding microdroplets transmission in enclosed environments, the Chinese turned off all air circulation systems during the quarantine in buildings. Likely due to experiences with SARS. Do that during warm weather and your sure to end up with millions of dollars tied up in mold damage. My hometown built a new HS and to save costs they turned off the HVAC systems over the summer because the building wasn’t in use. Well when school came around they weren’t to happy to see their brand new building filled with mold costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat while also pretty much guaranteeing more issues down the line. Investment angle? Idk perhaps a lot of these commercial office space companies will likewise implement similar measures to cut costs unwillingly knowing what they’re doing.

Agreed, I bought some May 1st 35 strike calls yesterday for .20 and sold today for 1.40. The asset cap hasn’t changed much but I’ll gladly take some profits off “sentiment” in the near term.

Thanks for sharing wabuffo and SD.

I think this is more due to volume declines than anything else. UPS and FedEx are not insulated to the decline in B2B. Dare I say Amazon has an advantage in this environment due to its direct to consumer warehouse model. Overall it's hard to say until we see some numbers reported. What's interesting is for UPS they have the SurePost contracts with USPS which is beneficial during good times, but in an environment where you're running trucks at (I'm guessing) 1/2-3/4 volume those last mile deliveries might seem a bit more valuable simply to put volume on the trucks (purely speculation). I poked around and talked with a few former contacts. At least in their region it seems that route cuts/consolidation, holding areas (packages) back to build density increasing stops per mile, and reducing overtime are the current approach. Until businesses open up in large FedEx and UPS will see some near term negative effects.

Well during this crises I have seen many ideas flung around by a few economists. - Going back to the gold standard and getting rid of the fed - Implementing something along the lines of Bancor like Keynes suggested by Michael Pettis recently I guess I was curious on your thoughts for either of these "solutions". Specifically as it relates to US monetary policy etc. Looking at it now, it's a rather vague and open ended question so feel free to disregard it :P

Thanks for sharing Wabuffo, would be curious you hear your thoughts as to why or what has caused the US to go down this path? I noticed you mentioned the gold standard earlier. Personally, I see more nationalization on the horizon both in Europe and elsewhere. I'm not saying globalization has failed, but the cracks and inefficiencies are showing to some extent.

Lmfao at some of you who don’t understand a metaphor and then simultaneously prove my point. “Shout him down!” Burry was a fucking genius to most of you leading up to 2008. Now because he has a differing opinion on a topic he’s a goddamn degenerate ;D I’m not sure what his GameStop investment has to do with his covid19 opinion. If that’s your logic then perhaps you should part with your beloved BRK.b because ol daddy WB messed up his airline play. Idk if he’s right or wrong. But he’s smart enough and respectable enough for me to listen to what he has to say and give it thought.