A year’s worth of losses in the stock market in a few days
By Morf Morford
Tacoma Daily Index
I thought the near non-stop oddness of January 2020 would be hard to beat, but I underestimated February.
February of 2020 has an extra day since 2020 is a “Leap year”.
February is also the month with the name most difficult to pronounce (FEB-yoo-err-ee or FEB-roo-err-ee. Many people drop the first “r”, as if it were spelled “Febuary”).
Historical names for February include the Old English terms Solmonath (mud month). That name certainly fit the Pacific Northwest – by the fifth week of 2020, many local regions had a third of their annual rainfall.
The first week of February –
The Mid-West will rise again
The first week of February gave us the numeric equivalent of a palindrome – a word the same backwards and forwards – 02/02/2020.
That date was also Superbowl Sunday. The Superbowl was, of course, won by the Kansas City Chiefs – for the first time in 50 years – causing the term “Great state of Kansas” to trend on social media.
In the political arena, it doesn’t get much crazier than the first week in February; the Iowa caucuses began their job of vetting our Democratic candidates for president, as of Monday, February 3. Early voting was allowed for California’s March 3 Primary, President Trump’s State of the Union Address was on Tuesday.
The US Senate made its final verdict on President Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday. To no one’s surprise, voting, denials and pontificating fell along party lines.
The Iowa caucus process and results were muddled, late and inconclusive – and, presumably, a precursor of what to expect in November.
The second week of February
The week began with the Academy Awards – Parasite wins four Oscars, including Best Picture. It is the first foreign language film to win Best Picture.
The New Hampshire Democratic primary showed Bernie Sanders as clear winner – with cries of “Socialism” across the media. The Republican primary shows Trump clearly winning.
Record breaking temperatures hit Antarctica – 65 degrees Fahrenheit – warmer than most of New Mexico.
And over 141 years of climate records, there has never been a warmer January than last month, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
January 2020 marked the 44th consecutive January and the 421st consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average (https://www.noaa.gov/news/january-2020-was-earth-s-hottest-january-on-record).
On February 11, President Trump tweeted “BEST USA ECONOMY IN HISTORY!”. By February 12, our president cancelled a scheduled Federal Pay Raise, citing “Serious Economic Conditions”.
The Stock Market responded accordingly throughout February with either erratic triple digit swings or by barely moving.
Gold prices surge.
McClatchy, publisher of the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star and dozens of newspapers (including The News Tribune) across the country is filing for bankruptcy protection.
The Coronavirus gets a new name, COVID-19 (thanks to the World Health Organization) and grows exponentially – killing well over 1,000 and infecting over 60,000 world wide.
This week’s Constitutional crisis (1*) involves the US Attorney General, the President and Roger Stone. It is vastly too complicated to elucidate here, but in simple terms it puts in question the proper authority and domain of the Department of Justice and the executive branch of our government.
Later on, in the third week of the month, more than a thousand federal judges called for an emergency meeting to decide how to respond to continual presidential intervention in judicial cases (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/18/trump-barr-judges-emergency-meeting-concerns).
In local news
On February 13 Redfin announced that Tacoma was (again) the hottest real estate market in the country – with over a third of homes selling well above their listing price – and most within three weeks of listing.
Flooding, mudslides, and damage to several roads in and around Mount Rainier National Park forced closure of all winter vehicle entrances.
The work week ended with Valentine’s Day (and the second anniversary of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida).
The third week of February
The third week of February began (for most of us) as a holiday – President’s Day.
Besides the usual President’s Day’s sales on furniture and appliances, Tacoma hosted Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. More than 17,000 packed the Tacoma Dome.
In local news (though covered by national and international media) a Spanaway woman (with her 16 year old daughter) was arrested for posing as a photographer and drugging a mother and attempting to steal the mother’s 5 week old baby.
Those of us in the Puget Sound region finally had a day without rain – and some sunshine.
Not exactly local
Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest individual committed $10 billion of his personal fortune to set up the new Bezos Earth Fund, which would support “scientists, activists, NGOs—any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world.”
Bob Moore, founder and owner of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, decided, instead of retiring and selling his company (he got offers almost every day) to give the company to its 209 employees who now own the place and its 400 offerings of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes- https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/2010/02/bobs_red_mill_natural_foods_ro.html?.
President Trump commuted the prison sentence of Rod Blagojevich — the ex-governor of Illinois who was convicted on corruption charges over his attempt to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama and pardoned Michael Milken, once known as the junk bond king.
Boy Scouts of America, after one hundred years, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as they face thousands of lawsuits from men who say they were sexually abused as Scouts.
Scouting programs will continue.
CBS News released a survey of the cities with the highest murder rate in 2019. St. Louis, Missouri was number one with 60.9 per 100,000. Baltimore, Maryland was second with 51 per 100,000.
Chicago, Illinois, was number 16, with 20.7 murders per 100,000, fewer than Washington, D.C. or Richmond, Virginia.
Further details can be found here – https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/murder-map-deadliest-u-s-cities/66/?
Meanwhile, in Utah
Utah’s state Senate on Tuesday unanimously voted to decriminalize polygamy among consenting adults and treat it instead as a simple infraction similar to a parking violation.
In politics
Former NYC Mayor Bloomberg joins the Democratic presidential debates for the first time – and looks as if he regrets it immediately.
And the week opened with a stock market drop of more than a thousand points.
HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world, said it would cut around 35,000 jobs and dramatically overhaul its business after its profit plunged by a third in 2019.
The White House acknowledged what many economists considered obvious through much of last year: President Donald Trump’s trade stance depressed economic growth and business investment.
“Uncertainty generated by trade negotiations dampened investment,” admitted Trump chief economist Tomas Philipson.
Similar retractions are expected on climate change, immigration polices, federal judge and cabinet appointments, taxes, deficits and sales and industrial extraction of our national parks are expected soon.
A range of US security officials filed reports documenting conclusively that Russian involvement in our electoral process (in support of President Trump) was active in 2016 and is in full force already. In response, Acting Director of National Intelligence Adm. Joseph Maguire, was dismissed.
In local business
GSA announced its move from Auburn to Downtown Tacoma. This move to the Columbia Bank Center at 1301 A Street in Tacoma is projected to bring approximately 320 jobs to Downtown Tacoma by the summer of 2021.
Hardiplank announced an expansion of their Fredrickson facilities which will add 400,000 square feet and 240 more jobs.
The fourth week of February
The final week of February is dominated by two seemingly unstoppable forces; first, Bernie Sanders sweeps the Nevada caucuses – as he has every other caucus and primary so far in the 2020 election season, (“How do we stop Bernie” was the resultant rallying cry among Democratic party leaders and news anchors) and second, the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to expand across international borders with over 80,000 cases and approaching 3,000 deaths by Tuesday. (2*)
The luxury industry (including travel and hotels) expects to lose $40 billion. (3*)
And the week opened with a NY stock market drop of over a thousand points on Monday.
And almost a thousand more on Tuesday.
International markets were down even more – some up to 4%.
In local news
The Orting City Council has voted to waive all local car tab fees which means residents there will pay a flat $30 to the state – https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article240521921.html?.
A crime wave seems to hit Puyallup(!). A 61 year old woman delivering the newspapers was shot by a man at about 5:30 am. Road rage is the apparent motive.
On February 29, at about 1 am, a Puyallup man reported being kidnapped while sitting in his car in his own driveway.
The first reported death in the USA due to COVID-19 was a male in Kirkland.
One result is that Costco stores are sold out of “essentials” like bottled water and toilet paper.
In not-so local news
Joe Coulombe might not be a household name, but his stores are. Joe Coulombe was the founder of Trader Joe’s which currently has 500 stores in more than 40 states. Joe passed away February 28.
The South Carolina Primary winnows the field of Democratic candidates. Biden wins the majority, Buttigieg and Steyer drop out.
February’s word of the month
Sometimes a word emerges that captures and defines the hopes, fears and anxieties of an era. For February 2020, that word is certainly “pandemic”. As of mid-February I have probably heard or seen that word at minimum, every day in a headline, news program or conversation.
Pandemic is very different from epidemic, which we usually hear in January and February in the context of colds or the flu, and has to do with the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time, usually two weeks or less.
A pandemic is an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population – and lasts months, not weeks.
(1*) I don’t use the term “Constitutional crisis” lightly. For those who would like to know more about the dynamics and complications of interpreting and applying an 18th Century document to 21st Century problems, I’d recommend this article – https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/constitutional-crisis/.
(2*) You can track the movement of COVID-19 here – http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/maps-visuals.
(3*) https://qz.com/1807385/coronavirus-will-cost-the-luxury-industry-an-estimated-40-billion/?
