Global Macro Monitor

Just askin’, folks.

I talked to a friend who runs a local restaurant last night, she said their food distributor is almost out of meat, mainly pork.

The shortage is not the result of a demand shock, such as the irritational run on toilet paper, but a supply shock because meat processing plants and slaughterhouses are shuttering as their workers are getting sick and dying from COVID-19.

At least 20 meatpacking plants have closed in recent weeks because of coronavirus outbreaks, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. The United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents thousands of workers in meat plants across the country, said Tuesday at least 17 workers in the industry have died of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and at least 5,000 have been directly affected by the virus.

“America’s meatpacking workers and our nation’s food supply are in greater danger every day that companies and leaders fail to act during this outbreak,” UFCW President Marc Perrone said in a news release. “It is clear that our food supply chain is threatened, and that is why our country’s elected and corporate leaders must act now.”

…”The food supply chain is breaking,” John H. Tyson, chairman of Tyson’s executive board, wrote in a full-page newspaper ad published in The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday. –  Washington Post

Many of the plants, such as Smithfield’s Food in South Dakota are in states without strict shelter-in-places rules.  More than 700 of the plant’s 3,700 employees at Smithfield’s South Dakota site have been infected with COVID-19 and now one of the country’s largest COVID-19 clusters.

Trump To Use DPA To Keep Plants Open

President Trump, using the Defense Production Act, plans to order the meat processing plants to stay open as part of the critical infrastructure,  setting up a showdown between the giant companies that produce America’s meat and the unions and activists who want to protect workers in a pandemic.

Misinformation Galore

Still, the FAUX News just keeps on coming.

Un-fricking-believable as the U.S. COVID death count, which is probably undercounted, will reach 60k this week in timespan just a little one month and will surpass the number of U.S. troops killed in Vietnam over more than a decade.

Was the war in Vietnam just not as deadly as we thought it was?

Sheltering In Place Does Flatten The Curve

Some more data to repudiate some of the nonsense floating around.   Yes, it is not a perfect experiment/comparison as their controlling variables that cannot be controlled, such as population density but it’s all we got folks.   Science is about the preponderance of evidence not reasonable doubt.

Take a look at the Bay Area’s curve compared to the rest of the country.

The SF Bay Area (six counties) was the first to shelter in place on March 16th even with very few cases, only 138 in Santa Clara County, and almost no deaths.

And New Zealand.

“We can say with confidence that we do not have community transmission in New Zealand. The trick now is to maintain that,” said Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister. The Pacific nation reduced its Covid-19 alert from level 4, the highest level of restrictions.  – FT

Careful out there who you listen to, folks, your life may depend on it.   Fauci, Newsom, Cuomo, and Gates are my trusted sources.

Good God, what is wrong with these people.  Listen to this nonsense and B.S., which is kinda is why we are bearish.  You need almost 100 percent buy-in from the country and strong and unified political leadership to get out of this mess.

Let’s get this right, we may have only one shot.