Juggling Dynamite

As the WHO today declares COVID-19 a global pandemic, it is best to understand as much as we can.  This Joe Rogan episode offers a science-based discussion of what is known, how the outbreak is proceeding, and why it is likely to be with us for the next many months.

Michael Osterholm is an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology. He is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a professor in the Technological Leadership Institute, College of Science and Engineering, and an adjunct professor in the Medical School, all at the University of Minnesota. Look for his book “Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Deadly Germs” for more info.  Here is a direct video link.

This is not a ‘women’s issue’ or a problem just for minorities.  Lack of diversity in decision making is a proven negative for effective, enlightened management and policies.  At the same time, concentrating wealth in the same small pockets of the population is a huge impediment to economic and social sustainability and strength. Building smarter, more inclusive institutions and policies for the 21st century are critical to our collective prosperity.  This includes allowing men the room and support to be fully engaged caregivers as well as income earners.  Greater sharing of duties at home leaves the opportunity for great sharing of duties outside the home as well.

In a move to bring equity to the corporate boardrooms, on January 1, 2020, Canada became the first global jurisdiction requiring diversity disclosure beyond gender, by federally incorporated public companies. But does that translate into great strides in attaining gender and cultural diversity into the country’s boardrooms? We look at what it will really take to achieve equity in corporate governance.
Here is a direct video link.

Today’s rebound in stocks and other risk assets was anemic and did zero to reverse the strains spreading through financial markets and the real economy.  The segment below with “Dr. Realist” Nouriel Roubini offers some useful perspective on forces at work here.

Again, while many politicians and long-always asset allocators are trying to blame present stress on an unforeseeable virus outbreak, the seeds of this cycle’s demise have been sown long and thick, through years of bad policy and financially destructive choices.

It is no small feat to pack so much complex detail and big picture clarity cogently into an 8-minute segment, as Nouriel does below. Embarrassingly, host Sarah says his comments are “scaring her.”  This reminds, yet again, that financial-tainment hosts pose as experts and spend their day talking about how to ‘play’ markets while treating every loss cycle as a meteor from space that no one saw coming.

As if financial conditions have not been terrifying for some time now, at least, to fiduciaries who actually manage risk for a living.  Some of us have been taking the measurements, actively working to protect capital, and warning publicly, while the oblivious, willfully blind, and reckless have been playing fast and loose with life plans and livelihoods. Unfortunately, many participants play a leading role in their own demise, repeatedly.

Nouriel Roubini, Chairman of Roubini Macro Associates and Professor of Economics at NYU’s Stern School of Business, joins ‘Closing Bell’ to discuss markets due to the coronavirus. Here is a direct video link.