Manic Monday – Omicron Seems Mild, Markets Relieved

Let's not get carried away.

It SEEMS like Omicron is giving people a mild case of Covid that does not often lead to hospitalization and that's a good thing – like the way we now live with Influenza, which used to kill millions (still kills 10s of thousands) so markets are a bit relieved this morning though the World is still ending and stuff – but we can worry about that some other time…  

China's Central Bank reduced bank reserve requirements by 0.5%, pusing $188Bn into the system.  This is because they are "not worried" about Evergrande, which has another round of note payments due this week.  Another Chinese developer, Sunshine 100, defaulted on $170M in bonds over the weekend.  Chinese stocks listed in the US have lost $1Tn since February.  We should have stuck with all those Chinese Ultra-Short (FXP) longs we had at the time (we cashed in early).  

Bitcoin bounced big this weekend, coming back to $48,600 from $42,000 on Saturday but still down 9% from Friday.  Here's a converstation you can have when you use Bitcoin - Friend:  "So how much money do you have for retirement?"  You: "I have no F'ing idea."  See – FUN!!!  There's something truly thrilling about leaving the house with $100 worth of BitCoin to go on a date and not being actually sure you can afford dinner and a movie by the time you get there….  

Of course, with inflation, I don't see how people can afford dinner and movies at all.  I had a simple dinner with my mom at a normal restaurant last night and it was still $80 ($67 + tip).  Still, people seem to be going out so they must be finding money somewhere.  I feel bad for my kids though – I was wondering why their bank accounts are constantly melting down in college but EVERYTHING is so expensive.  And employers are wondering why no one wants to work for $20 an hour – what are you going to do with that – taking home $100 a day?  

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