Tag: Crisis Posts

On January 7th, 2020, I was on an airplane flying from Vancouver, Canada, to Spain, fully unaware of what was occurring in Asia with regards to a novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19. Little did I know, in roughly two months we would be on lockdown here in Spain for the foreseeable future in an effort to curb the rapidly increasing countrywide death rate associated with COVID-19. Like many countries who now find themselves in a similar place, Spain mostly ignored the lessons we should have learned from Italy, and Italy largely ignored the lessons they should have learned from China. The end result for both Spain and Italy is a daily battle to prevent the collapse of the national health care system, and the continuing restriction of liberties in an effort to ‘flatten the curve’ and reduce the deaths that are occurring daily. I myself am guilty of it […]

The senate passed the deal to raise the debt ceiling today, which means the United States can pay their bills and not default. But truthfully, that’s probably the worse thing that could have happened, since the US has delayed dealing with some very hard problems. First, let me comment on the ratings agencies. Right after a deal was announced, two of the three major rating agencies reaffirmed the United State’s AAA credit rating. These are the same ratings agencies that also gave AAA ratings to the credit default swaps and other securities that were the underpinnings for the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Saying the United States is in good fiscal shape is like saying Icarus was the world’s best astronaut. S&P hasn’t weighed in on their rating yet, but I suspect they’ll give a AAA rating as well. It doesn’t really matter – either way the markets have reacted negatively and […]