Are we there yet? Are we at the intersection of fear and dread? Are we afraid yet? In some ways, yes.
We’d be foolish not to be concerned. On the other hand, just because coronavirus is popping up in counties and states all around us, and just because Monday’s stock market sell-off was so steep that it triggered the market’s self-imposed “circuit-breaker” rule that halts trading for 15 minutes so cooler heads might prevail – well, not even all of that taken together is cause for panic.
No, we don’t know of any magic cures for this new virus, COVID-19, which already has infected more than 113,575 people worldwide, including four in Tennessee and 11 in Georgia, and killed about 4,000.
Nor do we know the cure for a volatile stock market – especially one influenced by warring oil barons in Saudi Arabia and Russia who are making their own moves amid fears the coronavirus epidemic will stymie their oil sales.
But take a breath. By comparison, flu has killed 18,000 in the United States this year alone. And surely America’s economy is strong enough to weather two filling stations having a price war on the corner. After all, President Donald Trump is president and he knows more than the generals, more than the doctors and more than the economists. Besides, his aides planned to brief him on the stock market when he returned from golfing.