Sunday, February 09, 2020

Coronavirus


If one can trust China’s official coronavirus illness and death numbers (I am dubious), there is a small ray of hope on this spreading pandemic. Take another look at the official numbers and notice the options (linear and logarithmic) on the two charts therein. Next click on the logarithm option at the top of each chart ... and you will see the curves bending down slightly.This says that the cases and deaths are still growing ... but at a slowing rate. If these logarithmic curves were to become horizontal, all growth would cease.

Now, even if the cases are off by 10-fold ... and the deaths, by 100-fold (as I suspect), this slowing growth still could be somewhat positive news. But we still have many weeks, possibly even many months before we (mainly China) are out of the woods.

In the meantime, keep your China-related investment and domestic political powder dry.

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