Tidewater News and Opinion Forum
A place for civil discussion of the events of the day for Tidewater residents without the limitations imposed by media forums.
No matter which flavor of conspiracy theory you like best — Trump equals Hitler, or the Deep State is running amok — the video is an assumption challenger. Here’s a link to the MIT Technology Review article it is based on:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615370/coronavirus-pandemic-social-distancing-18-months/
The idea that “strong companies” don’t need help to survive an economic storm is a persistent one. The writer mentions a few aspects of the fallacy of thinking so.
Read moreAn article at WSJ mentions something Dr. Tabor alluded to in another thread today: Testing to determine how many people have coronavirus antibodies. Those test results are necessary to determine the actual infection rate which, in turn, is necessary to know the actual mortality rate:
Continue reading “WSJ: Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?”To the extent that media-induced panic over Covid-19 exists, this article is a minor counterpoint. Time will tell, of course, but why not be aware of this information?
If, for some reason, you don’t like the ZeroHedge version of the story, you can read the original at the LA Times by following the internal link.
Recommended by Tyler Cowen, a fascinating technical analysis of masks, surgical and N95 (respirators) as anti-infection devices. My main takeaway, UNscientific to be sure, is that any mask is better than none in terms of preventing the spread of infection to persons not wearing a mask, even if no mask is certain to prevent infection for the person wearing it. Simply put, if you wear a mask you will protect others from you, even if the mask doesn’t protect you from others.
Interesting statistical observation about coronavirus infection rates in Virginia.
Continue reading “Bacon's Rebellion: COVID-19 Update: From Exponential Increase to Arithmetical?”Many politicians lately, including President Trump, have been expressing disdain for corporate stock buybacks during the coronavirus crisis. A couple of investment specialists explore the counterargument in a commentary at The Wall Street Journal today:
Continue reading “WSJ: Worst Coronavirus Idea: A Ban on Share Buybacks”https://www.unz.com/mhudson/a-debt-jubilee-is-the-only-way-to-avoid-a-depression/
The writer, Michael Hudson, is an academic economist with strong Marxist leanings. While I don’t agree with his politics, his work on the history of money and debt seems pretty solid to me. His perspective on the Covid-19 response is therefore worth examining.
Continue reading “Unz: A Debt Jubilee Is the Only Way to Avoid a Depression”I’m not keen on blaming the prior administration for anything, but this story does provide a data point for those hoping to understand the current N95 mask shortage. Spoiler alert: We drew down the national stockpile during the Swine Flu epidemic, and never replaced it.
BTW, if you don’t like PJM for some reason, you can skip, instead, to the sources on which the article is based using the internal links.
https://www.kerrydougherty.com/allposts/2020/3/19/suburbia-is-swell
This story from Kerry Dougherty also appears on the Richmond-based web site Bacon’s Rebellion. Apparently, the “unemployed & unedited” former Pilot writer entered into a content sharing agreement with James Bacon not long ago.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 