We've been here before.

It might not look exactly the same this time, but the last crisis didn't look the same as the crisis before that either, and neither the crisis before that.

On the wall in the hallway leading to Warren Buffet's office in Omaha, Nebraska, hangs a framed copy of the New York Times from the 1929 stock market crash. The 1929 crash would lead to the Great Depression of the 1930s. "I wanted to put on the walls days of extreme panic in Wall Street, just as a reminder that anything can happen in this world." Buffet explains in the HBO Documentary, Becoming Warren Buffet, "I mean, it's instructive art, you can call it."

Berkshire Hathaway, under Warren Buffet, has earned an average annual rate of return of 20.5% since the stock began trading in 1965, which has made Warren Buffet one of the richest men in the world and perhaps the greatest investor of all time. As the coronavirus destroys lives and the economy along with it, we have good reason to be optimistic. We've seen the Coronavirus before, but it was slightly different last time.

In August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. The ensuing World War would have 70 million military personnel fight worldwide and kill 20 million military and non-military personnel before it's end in 1918.

In the months leading up to the end of the war and following the war, soldiers returned en masse back to their home countries with a trojan horse enemy much deadlier than the German army in the trenches.

Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, the Spanish Flu infected 500 million people – about a quarter of the world's population at the time. Exacerbated by the mass mobilization of people across the world from WWI, the death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. Does the newspaper from The Seattle Daily Times, from October 5, 1918 look familiar?

Strangely enough (or perhaps not so strangely, if you keep reading) the decade that followed was one of the most prosperous in history, especially in the United States, where GDP grew by 42% from 1920-1929. The "Roaring 20s" saw an increase in productivity and the birth and proliferation of game-changing industries like automotive and airlines. It also saw the invention of consumer products that benefitted everyday life. Employment was high and life was good!

If only the good times could last forever. The stock market crash of 1929 was a bad end to an otherwise great decade. Unfortunately, it was about to get worse.

The Great Depression of the 1930s was the longest and deepest depression of the 20th century. The stock market bottomed in 1932 when the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 41.22, a level not seen since 1904. The Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor countries. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade fell by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 23% and in some countries rose as high as 33%.

Just as the economy steadied itself from the depths of the depression, in the late 1930s, trouble was brewing in Europe. World War II broke out as resentment from WWI and the hardship of the Great Depression had Germans looking for someone to blame and a leader to restore order. Hitler and the Nazis filled the void and plunged the world into World War II.

Some 75 million people died in World War II, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians, many of whom died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.

After the war ended in 1945, the good times returned with a vengeance. The post–World War II economic expansion, also known as the golden age of capitalism and the postwar economic boom or simply the long boom, was a broad period of worldwide economic expansion beginning after World War II and ending with the 1973–1975 recession. During this time, OECD member countries enjoyed real GDP growth averaging over 4% per year in the 1950s and nearly 5% per year in the 1960s. 

At its peak on November 14, 1972, the Dow Jones closed at 1,003.16. Had you bought the Dow Jones approximately 60 years earlier when this story began, before WWI broke out on January 2, 1914 when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 78.59, you would have made over 19 times your money if you reinvested your dividends, for an annual rate of return of over 9%. Even including inflation, your adjusted rate of return would be around 6.5%. Yes, that's correct, WWI, WWII, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and a real annual rate of return of over 6.5%. This doesn't include the Vietnam war either. Life was getting better and wealth was being created, despite all these atrocities.

Next up: Black Monday crash of 1987, the cold war, the dot com bubble, September 11, the financial crisis of 2008. Each was different. Each was terrible and each created mass uncertainty. I'm sure you are spotting the trend.

Warren Buffet is not sure what will happen tomorrow, the day after or the year after that, but he is committed to one crucial fact that has contributed to Berkshire Hathaway's outstanding results, and he has reminded us of a life lesson in the process. Buffet believes we will get through this, just like we have in the past, time and time again. Things are getting better, they always have and they will continue to do so. 

Coronavirus might slow us down, but it won't stop us.