Pandemic! Pandemic! The End of the World!

70 years ago, when I was a little kid living in then-rural Connecticut, our dog, an adventurous German Shepherd named Clipper, liked to go next door, break into the neighbor's chicken coop and kill a few hens. My father, of course, had to pay for the damages. I remember Dad telling us that our neighbor always knew when Clipper was stalking his chickens because the hens would make a racket. They would run around in circles, clucking loudly, petrified that our predator dog would soon attack. The hens, of course, had good reason to fear Clipper. 

Clipper in Connecticut (1948)

Last week Wall Street acted a lot like those fearful hens, with one exception: their Clipper was chimerical. Indeed, most of Wall Street's fears are self-generated. Of course, the fact that those clucking the loudest are all Trump-haters could be part of the problem. Let's blame Trump for this disease originating in China.

Yes, the dreaded "deadly" virus has, in fact, reached the United States, although only in small numbers. All those infected are isolated and being treated, and none have died. 

Interestingly, though, while the politicians, media, and traders run around in circles clucking like our neighbor's frightened hens, millions of Americans will be infected by influenza and thousands of these will die. But this means nothing to those who want to create a crisis. They have discovered a new word: Pandemic! And it's always spoken with an exclamation point. Listening to them, one would think we are confronted with something akin to the Black Death that wiped out much of the medieval world. Of course, it won't. 

Certainly we should take precautions but this virus will not satisfy the great hope of radical environmentalists: the end of humanity. It, too, will pass. The markets will recover to reflect once again the strength of our economy. And in the meantime millions of human beings will find other means to enter eternity.