Opinion

On April 20, the price of oil crashed, dropping to the lowest level ever recorded and plunging into negative territory for the first time in history.  By the close of trading, oil had dropped to -$38/barrel; that meant that sellers had to pay buyers nearly $40 to take a barrel of oil off of their hands. Traders and speculators watching the market had to rub their eyes to make sure they were seeing the numbers correctly.

While investors are trying to decide whether this is the time to buy, sell, or hold stocks, some people are trying to make money in a very different way: They are using the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to exploit, swindle, cheat, and rip off people with clever and deceitful schemes.  These individuals represent the worst of human nature.  Nevertheless, they make a great deal of money by duping and tricking others.

In the last two months, all of us were shocked by the stock market crash - but that was not the only blockbuster story to come out of Wall Street. The price of oil also crashed, and so did interest rates.  Will the next banner headline be about silver? 

Even as the coronavirus is making people panic, Wall Street wither, and shuls and schools shut down, Israeli scientists have done it again.  They have developed the world’s first vaccine against this epidemic, and if all goes as planned, it will be ready for testing in less than three months.

On November 28, 1940, police were called to investigate a shot heard at the Sherry Netherland Hotel in Manhattan.  A man was dead, a suicide who had written an eight-page note which was found alongside him.  The police didn’t know it at the time, but the deceased was a Wall Street legend, one of the very best stock traders ever. 

Even if a cure for the coronavirus were found immediately, it would still be the story of the year and probably the story of the decade.  In addition to the terrible suffering and toll on human lives, trillions of dollars have been lost in the markets in the U.S. and abroad, and trillions more in lost business.  Add to this the emergency costs of caring for those who have become ill and the preventative measures that need to be taken, and the impact of these will hurt businesses for months, if not years.