Coronavirus is an economic disease

Coronavirus or Covid-19 has become like a thriller horror show in Netflix (only thing here is it's real). Not a day goes by where we are not bombarded by messages or news about it. It has touched every corner of the world. Who knew something so small and invisible could cause widespread panic across the world. Personally I am fed up of opening or reading news. This is a show I would like to see it end and not watch it anymore. A much as I would love to talk about this virus and the way governments across the world are taking action, I will stay away from it as I am not a medical expert nor am I a politician. Its a tough time for a lot of people and Its depressing to see it cause more problems for millions of people everyday. I had always been saying to lot of my friends that there is going to be a big crash coming either in 2020 or 2021 post US re-elections. But I was not expecting a virus to be the trigger to start the crisis.

A lot of people's pensions (401k in US) and Investment portfolios have suffered massive damage since the last month or so. A lot of millennial's in my age group have been asking me loads of questions like If this is a good time to buy more stocks. Some of them are first timers and have never owned a stock before. So I thought I will resume blogging and regularly start posting stories on this topic in my Instagram feed.

So how bad is this going to be??

This Shock or crisis is fundamentally very different compared to every other crisis we have seen or heard about. This has brought the entire global economy to an absolute halt. The Music literally has stopped . Coronavirus will claim more more financial victims than the deaths. Airlines will definitely go out of business and file bankruptcy if this quarantine period lasts more than 2 months. Hotels, cruise-liners, travel agents and list of small businesses dependant on tourists will also see a loss of their livelihood. What starts with these will eventually hit every sector of the economy. People will not have confidence to go shop for luxury items anymore for a long time. People are already facing mass layoffs as many companies would not have sufficient resources to pay the wages during this lock down. The economic damage will be wide spread and be even more immediate. This is unprecedented on many scales for many people and we are already witnessing mass scale anxiety , uncertainty, fear and feeling of powerlessness that is resulting in over reactions.

Due to all the news and social media covering this on a minute by minute basis, the fear and the negativity in the air is so high that we seem to be losing sight that this shock can be contained and will be contained. This too will eventually end and we will be on the path to recovery . The only way to go from here is up. Unfortunately like every panic or recession this too will claim several businesses and Jobs. But there will also be newer companies emerging after the crash and people upgrading their skills. Life will move on and things will get better and safer.

And when this is over , there will be an economic turnaround. The move up will be more stronger and it will come. The Pullback is going to be sharp.

This crisis has certainly taught us big lessons and I am sure we will see a lot of investment going into upgrading healthcare and coming up with medicines to prevent this kind of an attack in the future.

“Hope is Important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.- Thich Nhat Hanh"

Don't worry, be happy is the mantra we need to live by now.

As you can already see, there is not much we can do but wait this out. So we might as well take this time to do all the things we generally would not have found time to do . And this virus ain't going to kill us. We have taken precautions now , soon the worst will be behind us and we can go back to our normal lives. So stop worrying and stop reading the news, we should be grand.

Will come up with more posts in the coming days

Will come up with more posts on where one can Invest etc as many of you have been asking me to . Will keep you updated.

Stay healthy, happy and safe.