Envelope / Develope

Photo by davide ragusa on Unsplash The social distancing forced families to stay together and live confined for many hours in a row. Habits exposed at work were transferred in  the family setting and did not fit or led to conflict. The simple way of spending time revealed that suddenly when the time is lapsing slower than usually, people don't know how to stare or leave in contemplation. For unknown reasons: 1. what became obvious to everyone during the corona virus: people have time to think and question and fall on the same old theories - the gods are cheating on us, there is a large conspiracy of big pharma, the government is sold to big corporations, etc.. 2. when there is no skin in the game, there is no incentive to innovate - education, health, management of limited resources, cooperating among nations at safeguarding resources  3. there is no planning for all elected officials and there is no pay-back for the ones who really played the system - I ...

Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash I was reading about the developing efforts for a vaccine reflected through the stock market. It happened to have a few shares of the VIR Biotechnology ( VIR ) company when the chase of finding a vaccine started. It was an incredible ride, even for a guy accustomed with the up-and-downs of the shares in a company and the political game played when companies are bought or acquired. Just for illustration, please see the chart of this stock for a three month period. There is excitement, at the beginning  of March about the possibility of developing a vaccine for Corona virus, and the stock surpasses 70$/share when before is was lingering under the 17$/share threshold. There are many companies in the race - Moderna ( MRNA ), Gilead ( GILD ), Inovio Pharmaceuticals ( INO ) and probably a few of them will find a virus. What I don't understand is the effort spent in parallel of fighting the same cause. It is a lot of ...

Photo by CDC on Unsplash   Detect immunity One of the numbers broadcasted every day is the number of COVID-19 patients who recovered. Instead of being fixed on detecting people with corona virus, we should be fixed on detecting the ones who had a mild version of corona virus or even were asymptomatic. Once we know they can freely move, socially mark them in a certain way (with a special certificate).  They could be the soldiers of opening closed businesses or helping important economic sectors. They are on the other side of the fear, all the COVID-19 restrictions should not apply to them. It is not known for how long is the immunity lasting, but at least, these people should come back and revive the industries and get the jobs and make the economy re-start. It is a small number, but they can propel some ideas for the ones in the isolation (see below). That should be the second most important decision of our governments - detect immunity, instead of just...

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash   The Covid-19 virus is here to stay. The isolation will only buy time, the WFH will not get back the industries, the jobs and the permanent fear that another virus can hide somewhere. The only major reverse back to normalcy would be to find a treatment/vaccine which could be easily accessible. In order to get validation for it the only action which will convince population and recover the whole lock-up is to put off the spread in Italy. What is it done to get to that ideal scenario? Maybe we should have a website updating this pursuit and calling for volunteers (big pharma, I am quite sure there are many volunteers waiting in the wings !).

Photo by Rob Schreckhise on Unsplash In times like this I wonder if the people with their hand on the power lever have second thoughts - about handling the major problems instead of wasting our money and their life time in petty quarrels or egocentric show offs. They can be in a hospital fighting for their life or looking at someone close to them separated by a thick glass. If you are a doctor, sick on a hospital bed, will you relinquish a ventilator for a younger bum? Is any doctor going to apply the same rule, the younger have priority over a ventilator? Or, if you are a famous basketball player, are you going to make that gesture? Yes, I know that at this moment nobody wants to think about it, but how about doing more that just staying put within your four walls? Is this crisis going to move a few marbles and change your view on life and what you will do from now on? You probably may understand there are more barriers the wealthy and the powerful are putting betwe...

Photo by HH E on Unsplash Today, 16th of March 2020, I saw again a stock market in free fall - almost 12% down. Friday, 13th of March, the whole market was up because of the fiscal stimulus released by US government. The funny thing is that I just finished a discussion with a friend who is telling me she is waiting for the signal to get back in the market. I almost laughed, because there is no signal, the market is on uncharted territory and inevitably that is not a strategy for investments, maybe for daily traders, but I would not do that in the current market. Yes, we are in the COVID-19 craziness, self isolated and looking to Italy with increased anxiety. It is not their fault (Italians, Koreans), dear readers. It is the laissez-faire of an entire political class, an entire generation in power which cannot comprehend simple mathematical models and technical prognosis about the possible quick exits for mankind. We can blame the bat-eaters in China, or the travelers ...