Th3 Core

Hussman, who’s been very vocal about getting burned by his bearish misfires in recent years said the current position of this market is reminiscent of Rodrigue’s “return to normal” stage. If that’s the case, “fear” and “capitulation,” followed by “despair,” are still to come.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-a-return-to-normal-could-mean-disaster-for-the-stock-market-2020-04-22

LM - if you have time for podcasts, you might enjoy Tim Ferriss' recent interview with Jane Goodall.

He knows how to make money with his businesses but also knows how to take care of others while doing it.

In one section he was ranting about how companies that have employees who collect government assistance are effectively taxpayer-subsidized companies engaging in a sort of socialism for the rich.

But he went the next step - he had all his companies do an audit to find out whether he had any employees on public assistance. To his chagrin, he found out they did have a small handful of such employees, usually due to some extenuating circumstance such as medical bills. They then set about developing programs to get those employees off public assistance and whole again.

This could go in any number of threads, but this is as good as anywhere.

Mark Cuban: Capitalism must get kinder, Trump has done okay, and “universities are f###ed"
Investor, Dallas Mavericks owner, and Shark Tank co-host Mark Cuban talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about what capitalism and entrepreneurship looks like in a post-coronavirus world; whether he's planning to run for political office, and what his platform would be if he did; and what it will take for professional sports to come back. Cuban, who was recently announced as a member of President Trump's panel to re-open the economy, says the government hasn't done enough yet for small businesses and explains why "America 2.0" will require putting more money in the hands of workers — in good times and bad — and much more investment in technology. Plus: What companies would he create now if he were a young entrepreneur?
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vox/recode-decode/e/68963574

I have only ever listened to a few episodes of Recode/Decode (notably the Snowden interview, which was terrible actually). And I don't follow sports and I've never seen Shark Tank, so I have practically no idea who Mark Cuban is, other than having heard the name. Perhaps those of you more familiar with either one won't find this as interesting, but I thought this was a really good interview. It was done just before he was named to Trump's committee to examine reopening the economy.

I was super impressed actually. Again, I know little about him, but based on this interview, if he threw his hat in the ring for the 2020 presidency, I would vote for him tomorrow. One thing he talked about is how both current candidates are complete tech illiterates and how, he thinks, post corona, we are going to need tech-literate politicians or China will eat the US alive.

Other topics
 - what businesses he would start if he were a young kid starting from scratch (Alexa services, disinfection services)
 - what job he would look for if he were laid off ("anything in sales") and build his Alexa/disinfection business as a side hustle until it got going
 - why universities are f###ed (#1 because he doesn't think they'll reopen in the fall and #2 because if all they can offer is distance learning, they can't justify their absurd costs in the US)
 - how long he thinks it will be until the economy is humming again
    -- 3 years if everything goes really, really well
    -- 5 years as his over/under
    -- 10 years if this really goes to sh##
 - what this means to workers and unions and wages

Anyway, I'm like the interviewer - I wouldn't know off the top of my head what sport the Dallas Mavericks play if I weren't told and I couldn't have told you anything about Cuban. I've heard the name a lot and always filed him under the "celebrities to ignore" column. I was really impressed by this interview though. Well worth a listen.

Update...

This makes me like him less (hopefully he has learned something in the 14 years since this quote), but it also sounds like a certain president I know, so it's not a disqualifier:

In a June 30, 2006 interview, Mavericks player Dirk Nowitzki said about Cuban:[103]

Quote

He's got to learn how to control himself as well as the players do. We can't lose our temper all the time on the court or off the court, and I think he's got to learn that, too. He's got to improve in that area and not yell at the officials the whole game.

But this makes me think he would be an interesting guy to have in the White House.

In a nationally publicized incident in 2002, he criticized the league's manager of officials, Ed T. Rush, saying that he "wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen." Dairy Queen management took offense to Cuban's comments and invited him to manage a Dairy Queen restaurant for a day. Cuban accepted the company's invitation and worked for a day at a Dairy Queen in Coppell, Texas, where fans lined up in the street to get a Blizzard from the owner of the Mavericks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cuban

https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/g3y3cy/hitler_reacts_to_florida_beaches/

BTW, that's from a movie called Downfall in the English release. I believe that scene is from when the generals tell Hitler that Berlin is lost.

>> social variables

Words fail me... I wonder if historians will eventually look back and see Covid as the final straw that put the United States on the path to becoming multiple separate countries.

Liberal founder of Vox media interviews Scott Gottlieb, Trumps former FDA chief and one of the lead authors of the American Enterprise Institute report on how/when to reopen the economy. I have only listened to the first 15 minutes, but this is a good, in-depth (over one hour) discussion not the quick and superficial confrontational style that tends to play on evening news.

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/14/21219021/scott-gottlieb-coronavirus-covid-19-social-distancing-economy-recession