In my first post for last month, I said, “I believe that the coronavirus will ultimately be contained before it reaches the level of a global pandemic. I think Bible prophecy will be the key reason why. We are in a state of profound financial risk. A global lockdown on economic activity related to the effort to fight the virus would certainly push us over the edge.”
The virus has now spread to the point where it can now be called a pandemic. Dow Jones has had its fastest collapse from a record high since 1928 but, so far, the economy has not gone into meltdown mode. If we are going to witness yet another monetary miracle that saves the financial system from a depression, this one will leave no doubt that God rules over Wall Street.
The reason why the coronavirus has spooked markets around the world is because it spreads very rapidly and it kills large numbers of people. This estimated fatality rate currently stands at 3.4%. The flu virus has a mortality rate of 0.1%. This means the average person has 34 times a greater chance of dying from coronavirus than the flu.
In a worst-case scenario where 60 to 80% of the global population could contract the virus, 100-180 million people could die. This level of death would have a profound impact on society. Going out in public could mean risking your life.
The reported case of over 100,000 may lead some people to think that they are still safe being part of the 7.2 billion who don’t have the virus. The rate of how coronavirus spreads needs great attention. In a two-week period, the number of infections in South Korea went from one person to more than 5,000. In a couple more weeks, it could spread to 25,000 or 50,000 people.
Iran has been clearly lying about its coronavirus numbers. It claims to only have a few thousand cases, but dozens of people who visited that nation have tested positive for the virus. Nearly 10% of Iranian lawmakers are infected with the coronavirus, admits Iran’s State Media Report. Iran can thank its nuclear program for being the most likely cause of its coronavirus outbreak. Hundreds of Chinese workers are stationed at its various nuclear facilities.
The World Health Organization has found that 16% of the people who come down with the coronavirus develop symptoms that require hospitalization. The flu results in 0.2% needing hospital treatment: which is an 80-fold factor. In the US, there are only about 200,000 open beds in hospitals. England only has 28 beds for people with severe respiratory failure.
The coronavirus has been found to be very deadly when combined with pre-existing illness like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. In some areas of Africa, 18% of the population is HIV positive. If the coronavirus kills huge numbers of people in Africa, waves of infected individuals would likely flee to Europe to try to escape the carnage.
The sharp decline in stock prices puts us at risk of seeing a systemic collapse in our financial markets. In recent years, stocks have been largely rising based on companies issuing bonds to buy back their own shares. Because their stock has increased in value, banks would gladly loan firms money to finance more purchases.
Uncle Sam gets a huge chunk of his taxable income from capital gains on stocks. A chart of the Treasury’s income and the Dow Jones are nearly equal to each other. This connection is the reason why President Trump starts yelling at the Fed every time the Dow takes a dive.
China is currently the bullseye of the coronavirus outbreak. The economic impact has been stunning. In February, car sales declined by 95%. Macau, the far east Las Vegas, closed for 15 days to help control the spread of the virus, but it cost them. Gross gaming revenue for February was just $386.5 million, an 87.8% fall from 2019.
Some people in China have been in financial lockdown for over a month. The lack of work has left workers and businesses with debts that can’t be paid. Beijing responded to the financial crisis by telling banks to give lenders a three-month grace period. Ultimately, the debt will have to be forgiven or added to the Chinese national debt.
For well over 10 years, Terry and I have maintained that the economy is going to hold together until the rapture. Because Jesus said his return for us would be like the days of Noah or tranquility, we think that time is now. The days-of-Noah factor is an explanation for how the stock market has been able to delay the consequences of our unmanageable debt load. The following five events should have popped the financial bubble:
The 2008/2009 Housing Bubble should have been the Great Depression II.
The unmanageable debt loads of nations were magically lifted by rates going below zero.
The trade war with China had no impact on the US economy.
We hit several record highs during the Impeachment of President Trump.
The total collapse of the Repo market in Sept of 2019 was a snoozer.
The coronavirus outbreak appears to be the most serious threat to the global economy in the last 100 years. In the next few months, America is going to either become a very scary place or we are going to think how in the world did we dodge another bullet. The day will come when a third option takes all believers to a place where the coronavirus can never reach us.
“So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:31).
— Todd