1/ Love in the times of Corona, a thread
With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez who wrote "Love in the Time of Cholera"
First things first: make sure that, as much as you are able, take the commonsense recommendations such as frequent hand washing, social distancing and
With apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez who wrote "Love in the Time of Cholera"
First things first: make sure that, as much as you are able, take the commonsense recommendations such as frequent hand washing, social distancing and
2/ making sure that other family members are doing the same. Some additional precautionary items may also be in order. For example, knowing if your blood oxygen levels are normal could prevent getting frightened if you're anxious or give a warning that things may require a
3/ call to your doctor. The easiest way to do this is order a ChoiceMMed Real Person Reading Fingertip Pulse Oximeter from @amazon linked here: amazon.com/gp/product/B00… These are relatively inexpensive and still appear to be widely available from @amazon
4/ Information consumption: clearly, you want to stay updated on any new information on the virus but I'm worried about excessive watching of ANY of the cable news outlets. Sad to say but from what I've heard and from a brief sampling of the largest outlets, I think they are
6/ findings and or recommendations. This is not ideal and I understand that, but more exposure to hyperventilating conjecture and finger pointing is not going to help you do ANYTHING positive and will only increase your anxiety. I find music has a calming effect, especially
7/ works by J.S. Bach and others of the Baroque period, if you hate classical music maybe try some of @philipglass can be hypnotically calming as well. (philipglass.com) In terms of other proactive things you can do, I recommend staying in close contact with family
9/ ones or friends. Now, on to markets. Obviously, this is a serious situation and it's best to just accept that and think as clearly as you can about what you should or should not do. Selling in panic is almost always the wrong thing to do, but if you feel you MUST do something
10/ then by all means do something that will cause the LEAST amount of damage to your financial health 5-10 years from now. We're all different, so I won't give specific advice as to what is right for you, but if you have a financial adviser, call them for recommendations and
11/ and a game plan. It's times like these that good financial advisers earn their keep and simply talking about your fears and concerns with them can also help serve as an anxiety relief valve, so do it. I recommend that if you're in a relationship, you also have your
12/ significant other participate in the call. Clarity between you and your loved one is paramount now, so best that you both hear the same thing. Don't be afraid to ask ANY question. There are NO stupid questions, so ask whatever you need to--it might be helpful to write out
13/ questions ahead of time so that you remember to ask them all. Our brains do strange things under stress and uncertainty which I've written extensively about on this app. Here's a link to my threads which may be helpful to getting you at least thinking about the fact that
14/ we're ALL human and thus susceptible to the same kinks of perception: Now, onto what can be done to help mitigate this health crisis from turning into a prolonged economic crisis. The worst crises I've studied all have one thing in common: a total
15/ loss of confidence in almost everything. It's what caused the run on the banks in the Great Depression and similar irrational behavior in the financial crisis of 2008-09. And these acts of desperation ADD to the crisis, they never alleviate it. So I think we should be
16/ willing to consider all reasonable measures that can ameliorate the duration and depth of the economic fallout. Due to structural changes in our economy over the last few decades, the people that need immediate help are those who are working paycheck-to-paycheck.
17/ They need to be reassured that they will have access to funds and or the ability to get essentials when they need them. I've seen a lot of proposals, from issuing 50-100 year Corona bonds to different ways to get cash in their hands as fast as possible. We should all be
18/ willing to put our political preferences aside and consider every reasonable proposal for the good of ALL American citizens. The perfect is the enemy of the good. No doubt whatever the government does or proposes will have very vocal critics and that's fine for after the
19/ crisis. This is not a time to drag our feet. We need to understand that the secondary and tertiary effects of doing NOTHING would be far more damaging to our economic and social system than any knock-on effects from the actions we will take.Now is the time
20/ to think simply that we are ALL Americans and we need to help those most urgently in need first. We can return to bickering and Monday morning quarterbacking AFTER restoring confidence, which is ultimately one of the best things we can aim to do. We can use social media in
21/ a POSITIVE way and try to harness the wisdom of crowds through a use of distributed intelligence via apps like Twitter. That means highlighting the potential benefits AND risks of policy proposals, but ultimately being willing to support those with the least amount of defects
22/ Finally, remember that little acts of kindness go a long way. Perhaps reserving the first hour of shopping for those 65 and older after the store has sanitized and cleaned everything thoroughly. If your local restaurants or shops have gift certificates, now is the time
23/ to buy them and either use them later or gift them to friends. There are all sorts of these small gestures floating around but it's incumbent on us to do them. I will be doing so later today. We're all in this together and my belief in the American people has never wavered
24/ we've gotten through far worse and come out better, stronger and more vibrant on the other end. This will not be different. Deep breaths and steady hands help us to remain calm and carry on.
