Clorox Wipes

Fear.

   "What I see more as a problem than anything else is this panic. And there is a panic going on if you look at the market."

    Market analyst Ken Langone, to CNBC on Friday

That was then. Over this weekend the mood changed to worry.

Donald Trump isn't talking about Democratic "hoax" anymore.  Now the virus problem is real. The news stories are about it spreading and people dying, and on Fox it is about Trump being on the job, protecting America. Breitbart headlines a Fox News correspondent saying "I've never seen an emerging epidemic handled better." 

The top five stories on the Foxnews website are the coronavirus. 

The financial media headlines another impending drop in the stock market at 8:00 a.m Eastern Time, changing to a stock market rally as I write here at 9:15 a.m. Fear and greed battle it out.  Warren Buffet said to buy when others are selling, because that is when the prices are right. 

Or maybe it is a "bear trap." Prices drop, and then they go lower. In 2002 they dropped 50%. In 2009 they dropped 60%. Are you OK losing over half your money?

Investors have flocked to bonds, and treasuries are at historic lows. That isn't guesswork. That is real. Investors get one percent a year for ten year bonds, at a time when inflation may be about 2%. You lose money, but do it safely. Even if it turns out to be no big deal in America, it might be bad elsewhere, and that will hurt American businesses. There is a travel advisory out warning people about Italy.

Worry.

People are fearful in the real world of everyday life, measurable on store shelves. They are empty of alcohol disinfectants and wipes. That isn't speculation. News stories report it--Willamette Week in Portland, Oregon says there isn't a Clorox wipe or alcohol disinfectant for sale for miles. I witnessed an empty shelf myself in a CVS pharmacy in St. Petersburg, Florida last night. 

People are responding to emails and text messages from friends. I have been bombarded with warnings and advice. Wash your hands with soap for twenty full seconds, and count. Don't shake hands, do a fist bump. Touch elevator keys with a knuckle, not a fingertip. Don't touch your eyes.

You don't get the disease from the air, I learn. The only things the masks are good for is to keep you from touching your mouth. Gloves, though, are better. Get gloves if you can find them. You get the virus from things other people touched: door knobs, shopping cart handles, railings, your own keyboard that you touched yourself after touching a doorknob that an infected person touched. 

Cooties. 

There is something about the warnings circulating that are reminiscent of the AIDS scare, back when it was seen as "the gay disease." Travelers to San Francisco worried about what the waiters might have touched. It was an invisible threat. 

And reminiscent of the McCarthy red scare. There were hidden communists at the State Department and everywhere, dangerous and invisible. There have always been spies and saboteurs. Loose lips sink ships.

Trump understands and exploits this sense of fear. Mexico wasn't "sending its best;" some he assumed were good people but you cannot really tell them apart. Nor with Muslims, so ban them all. And the FBI and CIA, full of Deep State operatives, subverting the will of the people.

I get emails from old white Trump supporters, homophobes, gloating that Buttigieg dropped out and that people from Latin America and Asia don't really assimilate, don't really understand and appreciate Judaeo-Christian values. 

The political left is open to its own fear of secret villainy, too. The oligarchs are powerful and visible but their oppression works in secret, through "dark money." Bernie supporters are stuck on 2016: the DNC confounded democracy. Hillary got help; Bernie got shafted. It continues. The Iowa mess was no accident; Buttigieg and the DNC and MSNBC worked it out months prior. 

Trump exploits this psychology of suspicion, trolling Democrats today, calling Buttigieg's decision to leave the race as another obvious step in a calculated DNC plan. You are being screwed, he tells Bernie supporters. Divide. Vote third party. Show those Democrats you won't be taken for a fool. Democrats do not need Russian troll farms or even Trump to divide and anger them with dark fears of hidden villainy and danger. It is there, ready to be exploited.

Meanwhile, the virus fear is real because the risks are real, especially for old people, sick people, people with compromised immune systems, and smokers or others with impaired respiratory systems.

People really do die from this.