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The lifeboat is a good analogy - better to try to save the few that can be accommodated than leave all to drown. Remember, many will "drown" before we are able to reach them. Surely though it is better to have some lifeboats than none at all. This is the dilemma that will face every conscientious health professional who stays at his post. So why not me too? Why should I have the luxury of running off into hiding and isolation?
It is always a problem when considering acts of mercy: what difference will my weak efforts make when the need is so overwhelming? We can too easily make this an excuse for passivity. We must take courage from the thought that although we surely cannot help everyone, we can perhaps help just one person / perhaps one family / perhaps the neighbour on the right, although not the one on the left. It is awful to have to think of turning anyone away, of having to choose who to help. But it must be better to plan to save one extra person than to make no such plan at all. And when we have made provision for one, to then see if we can double up, and so on. We must trust that when the time comes it will be clear who we can help and who we cannot. Someone will receive our help gladly. Someone else will refuse it and push us away. But at least let's do what we can. That is the way I am thinking at the moment.
My only fear is that when it comes to the point of crisis I may not prove to be the kind of person I want to be. I am not confident of how I will react under pressure and when full of fear. One thing I am sure of is that if all that are left are selfish gun toting self preservationists, it will be a horrible world which I would not want to be part of. And if I fail morally, and become a gun toting self preservationist myself, then I hope the plague will not spare me.
Kernel Klink...this post is most beautiful in what you have shared. It is people--and hearts--like yours that make me thankful I am part of the human species.
Interesting link, Gnosis. International economy issues are beyond my home grown knowledge, but, if foreign companies are buying up US companies, so what?
They are taking the dollars they earned from selling overpriced geegaw to US citizens and reinvesting them in the US economy. They must believe that there still money to be made in the U.S. or else they would take those dollars and invest them in Treasuries and demand high interest rates. Or worse, they would take those dollars and swap them for a different fiat currency (Euros, perhaps?).
Or, and scariest of all, they would take those dollars and cash them in for gold. Then the US dollar and by default, the US economy, would have a real problem. Some posters in this forum believe this is happening even as we post.
Interesting link, Gnosis. International economy issues are beyond my home grown knowledge, but, if foreign companies are buying up US companies, so what?
They are taking the dollars they earned from selling overpriced geegaw to US citizens and reinvesting them in the US economy. They must believe that there still money to be made in the U.S. or else they would take those dollars and invest them in Treasuries and demand high interest rates. Or worse, they would take those dollars and swap them for a different fiat currency (Euros, perhaps?).
Or, and scariest of all, they would take those dollars and cash them in for gold. Then the US dollar and by default, the US economy, would have a real problem. Some posters in this forum believe this is happening even as we post.
The party is about over.....
Fund released its semiannual Global Financial Stability Review, ahead of meetings this weekend in Singapore. The report was full of warnings that the risk of a global financial crash is increasing. This comes hot on the heels of a message from HSBC, one of the world's largest investment banks, that it has put the United States on recession alert.
So what is behind all of the doom and gloom? Chalk it up to the rising global imbalances in trade and foreign reserves that are boosting the possibility that a cyclical global slowdown could melt down into something worse. Not surprisingly, the U.S. economy is the key variable here.
Just look at the U.S. trade deficit, which surged to a record level of $68 billion in July according the Department of Commerce. As the U.S. deficit increases, it depresses the dollar, since more foreign currency is needed to buy all those imports while demand for dollars weakens. The flip side of this is China's record trade surplus, which is flooding that country in foreign currency -- boosting reserves and creating upward pressure on Chinese currency. A rapid depreciation of the dollar could add to inflationary pressures here at home, while inflicting substantial losses on foreign investors' dollar-based investments.
The IMF says that with the world fixated on the U.S. slowdown, not enough attention is being paid to these imbalances. The IMF scheduled multilateral consultation between the U.S., China and Saudi Arabia, to help find an orderly solution to the problem.
The managing director of the IMF, Spaniard Rodrigo de Rato, remains optimistic, however. He sees continued smooth sailing for the world economy, albeit with more ominous clouds on the horizon today than a few years ago. So you can see there continues to be a lot of debate among the smart money about the direction of the world economy. We need to monitor the data and commentary to guide our investment approach through the rest of the year.
The signs of the current economic crisis were discussed here at FT almost 2.5 years ago.
If we saw it coming, where were the experts in the financial markets?.......
Not only was the world wide potential economic crisis discussed in this thread in 2006, but the economics effects of the unfetter boom in real estate prices in the US (along with ARMs, interest only loans, etc.) were carefully dissected in 2006 as well. The prognosis at that time was dismal. To read more about the housing issues (as discussed at FluTrackers starting in 2006) see this thread:
The concern is that the warning signs for the current world-wide economic crisis should have been readily apparent in 2006 to decision-makers, politicians, economists, speculators, and investors.
The potential for world-wide economic disruption from a pandemic is clearly understood today by numerous individuals and organizations (including FluTrackers). Yet, there is no evidence that world governments, global leaders, public health officials, etc. are taking the threat seriously enough to implement appropriate measures to protect the just-in-time global economic structure from a pandemic.
The next pandemic, regardless of the CFR, will bring the global economic markets to a standstill. Failure to recognize and prepare for the economic consequences of a pandemic is a failure of leadership. Failure to believe that there will even be a pandemic in the future is simply a sign of ignorance.
At least a few people get it!! Here's the final paragraph of a 5 page report
Reports Highlight Emergency Preparedness Crisis by Anthony Kimery
?This threat is just as real ? and likely during the next five years ? as was the leadership on Wall Street and in the mortgage lending industry that caused that crisis, which the federal government saw fit to bail out.
What we need is a similar financial commitment to public medical preparedness for the unthinkable ? which could be far more devastating both in terms of the economy and lives,? candidly stated the government public health preparedness official HSToday often talks to on background.
The University of California San Diego (UCSD) received a $1.3 million contract to create technology to defend againstlarge and sophisticated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). The contract is for a project called, “Surveying Spoofing Susceptibility in Software Systems,” and was awarded through
The salvage of human life ought to be placed above barter and exchange ~ Louis Harris, 1918
Apologies GSGS an incorrect link was posted in my original response to your question:
Originally posted by GSGS
[there are always some people predicting crisises.
What was different in 2006 ?
It has been corrected. Hope this offers more of an explanation. It is somewhat confrontational but represents some prevailing attitudes at the time. It is also interesting to witness the outcomes of those predictions mentioned.
It's time to change that "unthinkable" terminology.
After an proliferation of artificial organisms and bugs, mixed with relaxed safety, it can't be any more named as that.
Now it must be called as bug preventing preparedness effort.
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"Originally Posted by kernel klink The lifeboat is a good analogy - better to try to save the few that can be accommodated than leave all to drown."
It's a good analogy only at the first look.
1. If we analyze it, we can state that the main responsable in the case of the lifeboat question are the legislators and the scientific advisors who, prior to any thing, pass the safety guideliness laws for passenger ships.
2. The ship are submited by laws, and controlled by registers/Lloyd/... to have bulted on enaugh lifeboats to receive all the passengers in a number it was registered to carry on before it can be released to navigate.
3. The ship must not be released to navigate from the port if it does not have achieved the point 2. by investing money to all neccessary things legislated in 1., and the portual officers are in charge of.
4. The ship crew with the Capitain's supervision must be trained to safely divert ordinary the mass of passengers to the lifeboats, and drive them safely onto the sea surface.
Prior to leave the passengers to the lifeboats, and abandon the ship, the Capitain/crew must do anything possible to twarth an ship sinking.
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Only when the nation antipandemic/antiinf.disease chain structure apply and achieve the above points 1. to 4., than it can be inserted an next stat./probability about the lifeboats:
5. After all the legislating/building/preparing/investing/training/watching and twarthing from 1. to 4, if some lifeboats crashes prior entering onto the sea surface, or other non preventable reasons entering, only than it remains the S.O.S., and the words from the begining: "better to try to save the few that can be accommodated than leave all to drown."
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