Immune

Shelter-in-place is causing numerous emotions. Some are thinking they feel fine and are willing to take the risk to go back to work. Many don’t feel safe to return now. This week we will look at what safety and immunity means. My wife, our youngest daughter and I have compromised immune systems. We feel fine but we will stay home. It is a difficult decision.

Company  

The established rules of business are being tested by The Virus. Businesses were either realistically engaged or have skinny cash budgets that are being exposed. Unfortunately the solutions are not government or The Fed bailouts, they are cutting costs and embracing technology. We don’t need to spend money on fancy offices, we can meet on Zoom like we have been during the lockdown. The money saved can be used for our Furlougheed professionals. New roles and responsibilities will be required, we don’t need to wait until we receive an “All Clear”.  We can make the changes now with the input from our clients and teammates. Our leadership will reduce each group’s anxiety regarding what our new and improved  firm looks like and will they have a job. We can make better decisions than our government.

COVID-19

We are getting tired of the daily press “briefings updating us on COVID-19. Our frustration is that there are too many chefs. Each has a different opinion on drug treatments and trends. The coverage of the briefings is politically biased. Each media source loves the moderator supporting their opinions. COVID-19 doesn’t care. Several scientists, like our oldest  daughter who treats returning Veterans with PTSD, believes that most of us will suffer from PTSD symptoms when we return to work. Advisors and their clients need to discuss how to address the problems with honest questions and emphatic answers. Most of our conversations will NOT be about the capital markets. Hopefully honest conversations will make us both feel better.

Euthanasia 

History has some lessons on how we can handle a health crisis. Many of the old solutions  feel barbaric to us today. The solution of choosing who should die was common and the choice was to sacrifice children!  Any human sacrifice is a poor option. What we can and should sacrifice is failing legacy solutions. Governor Cuomo presented some ideas at his daily briefing that were summarized on social media. Old media also has some good thoughts.   Good ideas and thoughts come in disparate laces if we are willing to look for them. 

Many advisors don’t follow their own advice and we deserve to ask them if they eat their own cooking. We also need an answer from our politicians if they have been tested using the LONG nasal qtip test.