FOOT IN MOUTH VIRUS

yo!.. week a long time... innit!

in palookaville..

a great plague has come upon the land..

while all the folks are..

standin around waitin..

for herd immunity..

it strikes at the very heart..

of politics..

and national debate..

the two ronnies..

tweedle dee an tweedle dum..

have been struck down..

by a heavy virus load..

although now..

back in a saddle..

both hands look..

an sound..

much the worse for wear..

apart from misspeaking..

other symptoms include..

making poor decision..

appointing the wrong people..

includig but not onl..

the keystone cops..

and the tree stooges..

to create a test fo the bug..

an to..

make palookaville great again..

THE LONG GOODBYE

standing in front of the cameras ..

for the endless boring briefings..

you can see just by looking at their hair..

that they are not yet well enough..

to be in charge..

of the..

SHIP OF STATE

captains.. 

donald johnson and boris trump..

are having a bad hair day..

and saying the dumbest things..

while one quiffe wants to..

wash his hands of the whole virus thing..

the other quiffe wants to..

INJECT AND DISINFECT

the whole country..

although national panic has..

been avoided..

just in time..

as the media reported that..

it was the virus..

FOOT IN MOUTH

that was to blame..

it was all combed over..

with a promise of..

no more excruciatingly long briefings..

during which hardened political journos..

had either been found wanting..

or nearly laughing their heads off..

DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD

boris trump and donald johnson..

have been criticized for being..

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

after nodding off in..

cobra meetings..

and not washing their hands properly..

when asked a direct question..

"when will there be masks"

they replied in unison..

and with one voice..

simultaniously..

together..

they promised..

help was on it's way..

but was very heavy

and had to come..

all the way from china..

in the mean time..

we should all sing along..

SIXTEEN TONS AND WHAT DO YOU GET

another day older..

an deeper in debt..

Tennessee Ernie Ford

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones..

A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get..

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine..

I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt..

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go..
I owe my soul to the company store...

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died..

One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you
Then the left one will..

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

meanwhile back at the

PHILLY BLUSTER

probably to be continued..

this could go on an on

see also..

mad cow disease

swine fever

animal farm

COCK LOCK STOCK SHOCK

yo!.. could get messy... innit!

 LOCK DOWN, COCK UP,  STOCK SHOCK 

Sechel

comments from mish site

Michigan residents should be angry at Donald Trump..

What's stopping people from going back to work are..

swabs, reagents, test kits, gowns and masks..

The governors don't want people staying home..

its costing people their livelihoods..

and state tax revenue.

PALOOKAVILLE MASK SHORTAGE

Last week five million surgical masks and more than a million respirators were packed on to EU-registered lorries by one UK wholesaler 

VIX UP OIL DOWN

The collapse in oil markets comes amid a generalized economic downturn, 

with the coronavirus pandemic 

plunging most of the world’s economies into a downward spiral 

many believe will be the deepest since 

the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Courtesy of IHSMarkit's energy vice president Roger Diwan

from zeropoint

https://slopeofhope.com/socialtrade/users/zeropointmin#

 How did you end up with negative oil prices today?

 This happens when a physical futures contract finds..

no buyers close to or at expiry.

Let me explain what that means:

A physical contract such as the NYMEX WTI has a delivery point at Cushing, OK, &
date, in this occurrence May. 

So people who hold the contract at the end of the trading window 

have to take physical deliveryof the oil 

they bought on the futures market. 

This is very rare.
It means that in the last few days of the futures trading cycle, 

(which is tomorrow for this one) speculative or paper futures positions

start rolling over to the next contract.

This is normally a pretty undramatic affair.
What is happening today is trades or speculators

who had bought the contract are
finding themselves unable to resell it, 

and have no storage booked to get delivered
the crude in Cushing, OK, where the delivery is specified in the contract.
This means that all the storage in Cushing is booked,

and there is no price they can pay to store it, 

or they are totally inexperienced in this game and are caught
holding a contract they did not understand the full physical aspect of

as the time clock expires.
A decline of over 15% in the June contract price points to real worries 

that the physical stress will continue to reverberate, 

and will force a lot more production shutdowns during May 

than the ones announced so far.
So today negative prices are the reflection of dire market conditions for producers,
with the hope that demand restart before the middle of May and that the 

June contract does not face the same fate. 

West Texas Intermediate oil prices have gone negative in a record low for the US benchmark, as the market continues to crater amid the general economic collapse.

Vanishing demand and a glut of supply have combined to heavily impact the US benchmark fuel, with prices dropping from $18.27 to close at -$37.63 a barrel on Monday – down over 300 percent from the previous day’s close. It's the first time the crude oil futures contract has ever traded in the negative since the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) started trading it in 1983.

BREAKING: May contract for WTI crude oil settles at negative $37.63/barrel, down 305% https://t.co/HlsH3slbGOpic.twitter.com/6Zf848zhNP

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) April 20, 2020

Brexitologist

comments from mish site

This is today, bad enough.

What about next week ? Next month ??

Anyone with any practical knowledge of the oil patch knows that this is going to get (literally) messy, very messy indeed...

Sechel

comments from mish site

I know how we got here.

Economic Growth is weak to collapsing
America is now an oil exporter
China is not a driver of oil consumption

I'm still not sure about this price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia Some say they are colluding against American shale producers. I can't see Saudi Arabia an aly doing that. My view is Saudi Arabia was going after Russia and not colluding with them. The Saudis and Russians never cooperate.

I don't see how high cost shale and tar sand production is economically justified. High cost sites will have to be capped if that's the right term. Long term cars are moving to electric and the price of solar and wind keeps dropping. Incidentally New York State just shut its last coal plant

Oh and Donald Trump said trade wars are easy to win.
And I do think Randolph and Mortimer Duke made a killing!

Freebees2me

comments from mish site

Where are the "Greenies"!!!??? Where are all the environmentalists....?????

Are we not now living in the world they have long sought? Are we now not living in a world where there's no demand for oil? Where there's no demand for production and workers either.....And, the trees soaking it up.... We're seeing huge reductions in CO2...

Shouldn't the Greenies' be cheering all this on? But, all we hear are crickets....

Montana33

comments from mish site

Traders in these futures markets distort prices by buying oil
when they can't take delivery of it..
and/or selling oil they don't have.
They never expect the music to stop which is so foolish.
So now a bunch of hedge funds/oil traders who bought futures..

HAVE TO PAY FOR THE OIL!
That's right - they have to buy oil that they cannot store and cannot sell.
 Futures contacts are real..
 and if you can't roll them over into a new contract..
then you have to legally pay up..
or go bankrupt.

 This is why the price is negative -
that's the hedge funds/oil traders begging someone who is actually in the oil business
to take this oil off their hands.
Good luck with that!

I'll bet there is literally no storage space left.
The little that was there is already spoken for so.... oil prices could go down from here.
 All oil producers need to shut down completely.
 How fast can additional oil storage facilities be built?
Not fast enough.

Brent crude plunges 25%

In another alarming development, the Brent crude oil price has now plunged to an 18-year low.

Brent (sourced from the North Sea) is trading at just $19 per barrel, down 25% today alone, following the slump in US crude oil prices below zero last night.

That’s its weakest level since early 2002, when the world economy had weakened after the dot-com bubble and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

West Texas Intermediate oil prices have gone negative in a record low for the US benchmark, as the market continues to crater amid the general economic collapse.

Vanishing demand and a glut of supply have combined to heavily impact the US benchmark fuel, with prices dropping from $18.27 to close at -$37.63 a barrel on Monday – down over 300 percent from the previous day’s close. It's the first time the crude oil futures contract has ever traded in the negative since the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) started trading it in 1983.

BREAKING: May contract for WTI crude oil settles at negative $37.63/barrel, down 305% https://t.co/HlsH3slbGOpic.twitter.com/6Zf848zhNP

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) April 20, 2020

This Is Why the Oil Price Is About to ‘Surge’ $40 Overnight

coming up..

oil to be stored in kings college chapel..

oil to be stored in kilner jars..

jam jars..

when is a door not a door..

when it's a jar..


the oil future's not what it used ta be..

Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken..

Take it with a grin of salt.

WHEN WILL THERE BE MASKS?

yo!... self defense...innit!

in palookaville today...

we plan ahead...

we saw this coming...

and set our defenses up...

HOW MANY BULLETS MUST A STRONG COUNTRY HAVE

before we all are safe?

HOW MANY BULLETS

will it take

to stop the virus?

HOW MANY GUNS

to cure this plague?

HOW MANY AIRPLANES ?

...wait a minute aren't airplanes...

part of the problem...

maybe they are the problem...

THE 9/11 VIRUS

airplanes turn into missiles...

crash into skyscrapers...

they fly in the virus...

from all around the world... 

THE DEFENCE BUDGET

just got bigger here in palookaville...

an don't forget the agencies...

FBI, ICE, DEA, HOMELAND... etc.

can any of these stop the virus...

can they even wound the virus?


WHEN WILL WE HAVE MASKS?

when will the medics get protection?

all that they need?


VIRUS KILLS : BULLETS DON'T WORK

CHINA SYNDROME

once upon a time in beijing...

a small guy inna white shirt...

carryin shoppin bags...

stood in front of a line of tanks...

brave guy...

gone guy

later...

some time last fall...

a descendant maybe...

goes to see the emperor...

to tell him about the new killer...

breathing virus

was prevented by goons...

and given a lesson...

Li Wenliang is among the 14 health workers and police declared to be “martyrs” for their efforts. The Chinese doctor was reprimanded by authorities for “spreading rumours” after he sought to warn colleagues about the emergence of Covid-19 in December, but in March an investigation into his death exonerated Li and recommended the reprimand be withdrawn.

soon after this...

the new virus...

catcha airplane ta palookaville...

and then onto...

the rest of the world

VIRUS MUTATES

after many thousands of people become sick...

the virus mutates into... 

A DEBT VIRUS

as debt is already killing the world economy...

this is not a good time at all

hundreds of billions more created...

from nowhere