whilst a bad case of the sniffles is unpleasant, it appears the fallout for many people will be devestating.

the most intelligent man in economics, warren buffett has been selling stocks for the last 3 months.
normally a guy who says not to hold too much in cash, he has sold nearly 100 billion in US securities and parked it all in tresury bonds.

unprescedented.

yuval noah harare, best selling author of sapiens has said that the west in particular was on the brink of the AI and robotics wholesale destruction of jobs and that this crisis has thrown enormous ammounts of fuel on that fire.

he estimates that of the 30 % of employees worldwide whose jobs have been tempoararily lost, less then 1/2 will get them back long term.

companies are broke and they will not re employ and this will drive job replacement of expensive humans with cheaper robotics and AI.

this will be devestating in the west but catastrophic in the third world.

possibly 20 % unemployment in australia but places like south east asia will see levels much higher as the west has no cash to buy products and their governments have no income to pay welfare.

places like nigeria , kenya and ethiopia which were seeing cash from china will see that dry up as china withdraws and there will be massive refugee crisis and migration.

bangladesh, pakistan and india will follow.

housing prices could collapse, runs on banks, sharemarkets trashed, super accounts demolished.

australia with no tourism, no manufacturing, expensiver healthcare and ongoing costs for protecting the elderly will see standards of care and welfare massively reduced.


your fridge full of food and your free public hospital full of expensive technology are all contingent on a vibrant economy which the cowardice of world leaders has now demolished.

interest rates are at zero so there is no way to spend our way out of this.
people cant borrow and invest when they dont have a fridge full of food.


massive
massive
own goal

massive
massive
pain ahead for fat steve and the unthinking masses who thought they could
stay safe in their houses and keep prospering because,because

well just because.

i'd advice people to develop a lot of resilience very quickly.
the days of pleasuring yourselves are over

Did buffet sell off before the crash?

aquascoot wrote on Jun 6^th, 2020 at 6:22am:


A quote straight out of the LNP handbook?

You sound just like Joe Hockey.

Some stock market and economy advice:

freediver wrote on Jun 6^th, 2020 at 12:20pm:


From what Berkshire Hathaway has disclosed so far, we know about the following moves from Warren Buffett and his company:

    On April 1 and 2, Berkshire sold about 13 million shares of Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL), raising $314 million in cash and taking his stake in Delta down from more than 11% to about 9.24%.
    Berkshire also sold shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) in that time period, with a smaller sale of 2.3 million shares raising about $74 million and leaving the insurance giant with a 9.92% stake in the Dallas-based airline.
    Later in April, Buffett sold 860,000 shares of Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK), raising $30 million and leaving Berkshire with a 9.96% stake in the banking institution.

Those sales made huge news, raising all sorts of questions about Buffett's motivations. But if you look closely, you'll notice that the moves took all of those stocks below the 10% ownership threshold. Amid the storm and fury, it's possible that the implications of 10% ownership were the primary motivations for selling the stocks.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/04/15/why-is-warren-buffett-selling-so-many-...


So he's just been selling to get his holdings below 10% for regulatory reasons

That doesn't stop Aqua from misrepresenting it however

aquascoot wrote on Jun 6^th, 2020 at 6:22am:


You're still the same waste of time you're always been...

freediver wrote on Jun 7^th, 2020 at 10:07am:


What 10% ownership means

There are surprisingly large ramifications from owning a 10% stake in a publicly traded company. One core securities law comes into play, as Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 limits the ability of 10% owners to make ongoing trades in a stock, as the 10% owner essentially gains insider status and invites litigation if it continues to buy and sell shares. That's not such a large issue for Buffett, who tends not to trade his positions frequently, but it often comes into play for activist investors looking to influence corporate policy. That's why you'll so frequently see activists take 9.9% or smaller stakes in the companies they've chosen to engage. It leaves them with greater flexibility to exit their positions if they choose later on.

There are restrictions on those who own 5% or more of a company's shares, but they're less severe. In particular, 5% owners are required to file initial disclosures revealing that they've passed that threshold, but they get 10 days to do so. Again, that's a relatively minor issue for Buffett.

The biggest issue for Berkshire is the set of rules governing bank holding companies. Owning 10% or more of a banking institution could force the insurer to face the same regulations that major financial players in the banking industry have to obey, including capital requirements and oversight from the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators. Buffett has repeatedly sold shares of other banks to keep under the 10% threshold, so the recent sale of BNY Mellon isn't surprising in that context.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/04/15/why-is-warren-buffett-selling-so-many-...

aquascoot wrote on Jun 6^th, 2020 at 6:22am:


Mr Trump's saying the opposite, Aquascoot. He's comparing the virus to a hurricane or natural disaster. A couple of months and everything will be back to normal, America booming again.

If you beg to differ, dear, that's FAKE NEWS.