LC

I have also been looking at Paychex but the industry does have low-ish barriers to entry. It does not seem like a large value-add although I will admit there is stickiness.

Dipped the toe twice in WFC yesterday and today; Bought some T today as well. My assumption is the SP500 will eventually hit 2000. I am averaging my cash position down to that point, so that's the plan I guess ;D

Surgical masks are more effective at viral transmission compared to N95 makes, despite being not as effective against 1-3 micron particles. Why is that? Because they cover a larger portion of your face.

Doing ok. Wife and I WFH normally so not much changed for us. Biggest concern is my family & community. Back in NY & Italy many relatives are doctors and nurse, they are at risk and some have recently tested positive. They are in their 40s and 50s so I am hoping for a recovery, but preparing for the worst. Here in Denver I am worried for the community, college kids and mid-20s and such who work in bars, restaurants, cafes, etc. They are and will be out of work for what seems like quite a while and I am worried what will end up happening, whether they will have a place to sleep/eat at the end of all this. The small business owners I know, they are doing their best to keep people employed or at least pay their healthcare. So we are giving $$ for that and for meals. The question is how long they can keep it up for, every day it gets more difficult.

On his 74th birthday, an old man received a gift certificate from his wife. The certificate paid for a visit to a medicine man living on a nearby reservation who was rumored to have a wonderful cure for erectile dysfunction. After being persuaded to go, he drove to the reservation, handed his ticket to the medicine man and wondered what he was in for. The old man handed a potion to him, and with a grip on his shoulder, warned, "This is a powerful medicine. You take only a teaspoon and then say '1-2-3'." When you do, you will become more manly than you have ever been in your life and you can perform as long as you want." The man was encouraged. As he walked away, he turned and asked, "How do I stop the medicine from working?" "Your partner must say '1-2-3-4,'" the medicine man responded, "but when she does, the medicine will not work again until the next full moon." The man was very eager to see if it worked so he went home, showered, shaved, took a spoonful of the medicine and then invited his wife to join him in the bedroom. When she came in, he quickly took off his clothes and said, "1-2-3!" Immediately, he was the manliest of men. His wife was excited and began throwing off her clothes as she asked "What was the 1-2-3 for?" And that, boys and girls, is why we should never end our sentences with a preposition, because we could end up with a dangling participle.

Drink warm/hot liquids (tea, honey, maybe a pinch of salt!)

Same with Obama's 800B infrastructure plan of which like, 60B? was actually spent on projects. Same story, new decade.

If your assumption holds, then I would guess yes but only from the fallout of the virus itself. What happens if we see 30% unemployment, massive decrease in Q1 earnings numbers, and a slow Q2/Q3 of getting people back to work? I don't know the answer to that situation. But the market is forwards looking so maybe that is priced in?

Thank you for sharing! Ditto. And screw the CPC.

A couple of reasons: Shortage of skilled workers: https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2019/05/06/the_2_trillion_infrastructure_plan_is_never_going_to_happen_103726.html There is no such thing as "shovel-ready" projects: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/happened-shovel-ready-infrastructure-projects-212123861.html And this is just the stuff that is publicly visible. My uneducated but jaded view is a boatload of shitty politicking going on behind the scenes in terms of what States get what, what concessions are made, etc. etc.

Nobody has ever been opposed to infrastructure spending. It just never happens.

The measures China is taking:

Photo of NYC's floating hospital

From this thread:

I'll echo the other sentiments - thanks for providing updates.

lenovo thinkpad. everything else sucks unless you can use apple products.

NYC hospitals now using morgue trailers (previously used vans).

Sorry - difficult to tell the difference these days ;D

Donald Trump met with the Queen of England, and politely asked her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give me?" "Well," replied the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people." Trump frowned, and then asked, "But how do I know the people around you are really intelligent?" The Queen took a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy; you just ask them to answer an intelligent riddle." The Queen pushed a button on her intercom. "Please send Boris Johnson in here, would you?" The Prime Minster walked into the room and said, "Yes, Your Majesty?" The Queen smiled and said, "Answer me this, if you would, Boris. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?" Without pausing for a moment, he answered, "That would be me." "Yes! Very good," said the Queen. Trump went back home to ask Mike Pence the same question. “ Mike, answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?" "I'm not sure," said Pence. "Let me get back to you on that one." He went to his advisers and asked everyone, but none could give him an answer. Finally, Pence ran in to his friend Jack Murphy in a restaurant the next night. Pence asked, "Jack, can you answer this for me? Your mother and father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?" Jack Murphy answered right back, "That's easy, it's me!" Pence smiled, and said, "Thanks!" Pence then went back to speak with Trump. "Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle: It's my friend Jack Murphy!" Trump got up, stomped over to Pence, and angrily yelled, "No, you idiot! It's Boris Johnson!"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/28/unacceptable-dems-fume-after-trump-announces-plan-refuse-congressional-oversight

Good question. Assuming I could get a decent price, I would probably trim shares. He’s had many opportunities to deploy capital: internally, repurchases, in private/takeover deals, and now in public markets. We can talk about the perils of activity just for activity’s sake, or how all of humanity’s problems stem from difficulty sitting in a room alone, but at some point you have to take risk to earn a reward.

The whole COVID 19 discussion has become very polarizing rather than scientific, (at some point it becomes boring to keep saying, "we don't know for sure, we need more time/data, etc."). So rather than throw my own opinions out there and get dumped into Camp A or Camp B, rather let people make up their own mind. At least it gets people thinking. As you mention, the weekly mortality monitors are probably one of the strongest resources we have at his point in time to detect an incremental impact of COVID 19.

Microsoft has like 140B of liquidity. Some debt but pretty well covered.

What a display of cowardice.

wow... As far as I can find it is the only timely mortality data we have. CDC publishes a weekly report but I cannot find underlying data for USA (that is recent - public datasets only go through 2018). I have not checked for Asian countries. As to the European data itself, I won't make any conclusions, just presenting the evidence. Draw from it what you will.