Der Stand der Dinge - 1.6.2020
News: Taking Friday off and not switching on any news broadcasts over a very warm and sunny week-end certainly is good for one’s mental well-being. Going through my early morning routing of watching the news over breakfast this morning brought into sharp focus the difficult times in which we find ourselves.
On ITV Piers Morgan (back from a week’s holiday) pointed out how the UK lockdown effectively was over as of Friday, when it was announced that as of today, not Saturday, lockdown restrictions were being eased in England (and not in Scotland or Wales, while Northern Ireland ploughs its own furrow in conjunction with the Irish Republic). No social distancing in sight on various beaches and parks, thanks to the “Cummings effect” (“You can do what you like, as long as you do it “with integrity”). Not having watched any news over the week-end, I didn’t realise that the UK Government’s daily Covid briefings no longer include statistics on the number of Covid-19 tests. It came to light that the number of tests has been fudged: each person tested is administered a nose swab and a throat swab. That is one person tested but the government counted that as two tests. That would explain the surprising jump in test results we saw late last month. The much vaunted Track & Trace app is late, not that it matters much: if the first part of the 3T Process (the Test bit) cannot be done on a large scale, the other two bits are pointless.
The US were faced with demonstrations on a scale not seen since the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 as citizens protested about the death of George Floyd during a police arrest. Last week I reported that the policeman responsible was charged with third-degree murder. I had never heard of third-degree murder. In Europe we have murder and manslaughter, that’s it. I can only surmise that “third-degree murder” defines some “accident” involving a white policeman and a black suspect resulting in the latter’s death, although I would hesitate to call keeping one’s knee on someone else’s throat for eight minutes an “accident”. While President Trump went into the White House’s bunker room on Friday as Secret Service agents battled angry protesters outside, he was busy sending “MAGA” tweets (“Make America Great Again”) instead of trying to calm the masses. My definition of “leadership” does not include tweets… 40 American cities have now declared nightly curfews as riots continued overnight and the situation seems out of control. Security forces aimed at clearly-designated journalists with pepper bullets. In this crisis US political leadership is suspicious by its absence, and I include not only the POTUS but also the Senate and Congress here.
The global Covid-19 statistics highlight that the pandemic now is raging in South America. Brazil has overtaken Russia to claim the number two spot of infections and the rate of infections in neighbouring countries is climbing at an equally alarming rate.
There was some good news on Friday: Space-X docked successfully at ISS after a 19hr journey. We have to give credit to Elon Musk: his rockets are more reliable than his cars ??.
Financial Markets: Markets shook off all the trouble around them and closed firmer in the US and Asia. Europe was down. It appears that riots in the US and Hong Kong are supportive for equity markets. Let’s hope this logic does not make its way to Europe. Oil closed up in anticipation of this week’s OPEC meeting.
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Stay safe!