COVID-19 # 56

Pretty damn big financial news today. Didja' ever see Crazy Rich Asians? It's about crazy rich asians who happen to be ethnically Chinese families native to Singapore. Anyway, one of those big (#1349 in that linked article), closely-held, businesses went bankrupt  — and in a worse than normal way — over the last few days. Hin Leong Trading (HLT) was in bad enough shape that it pledged collateral to obtain funding ... and then sold the collateral. So its bankers (including HSBC, and # 267 in the linked article) are out way more than they anticipated might be possible. This is the way financial crises get started. HLT has a lot of business lines, but their main business is oil storage and tankering, which I've posted about here and here as being a weak link in international energy infrastructure.

Yeah ... about Singapore ... they used to have it under control. Not so much now:

The gross numbers are not that large in Singapore, it is after all a city-state. Remember not to do comparisons between the curves a graph like this: New York City's rate is still 10 times that of Singapore.

China's Ambassador to Russia released a video discouraging Chinese students in Russia from going home or attempting to do so. Of course, Russia is on the upswing of their outbreak while China is trying to void re-igniting theirs.

FYI:

Philadelphia prematurely ended its quarantine from the Spanish Flu. Some 200K people lined the streets. Within 72 hours, Philadelphia's 31 hospitals filled & the city ended up with 4500 people dying from the flu or its complications within a matter of days. Learn from history

— Arthur Caplan (@ArthurCaplan) April 19, 2020

Philadelphia's and St. Louis's (better) experiences are often contrasted in the literature.

NYC data:

The last time I saw 3 obituary pages with an index in the Sunday @nytimes was after 9/11....the new #COVID19 normal. Many families ask that donations be made to health related institutions in their loved ones' names. pic.twitter.com/S1QLGunazO

— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) April 19, 2020

I posted something similar about Bergamo about a month ago.

Do you remember that ancient history (from all of 10 days ago) when I noted that the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 would soon exceed the Korean War? Yeah ... happened yesterday. We'll pass the entire 8 years of the Vietnam War (a defining part of American culture for 55 years now), probably on Wednesday.

Ummm ... yeah ... have you checked out the numbers in the Central Utah Public Health Department District? There are about twice as many people in those six counties as in Iron County, so it's not like they shouldn't have more cases. And they don't. But they're rising pretty quick, and they have them in 4 of the 6 counties now, and it's not like those communities are all connected through a tight network.