Is it possible that the flu is really worse then the media is telling us. Is it possible that WHO and the CDC are aware of things that the media is not aware of?

It be real nice to know the truth. Do I need to move my family or not...

I appreciate the work you are all doing. There is always something to learn. This place is the only one that has constant updates from around the world that help regular people connect the "dots".

The first order of business in any battle plan is to gain control of the information flow.

But here at ATS we have a system of people who refuse to bow to the disinfo, misinfo and lack of info. Common sense prevails.

I just want to say thank you!

I'm a fairly intelligent person. I understand medical issues well.
IF nothing else, NOTHING else, this is the most confusing coverage I have ever seen - of anything. I do strongly feel like the FACTS are being misrepresented or obscured.

It makes me angry. It would not be hard for some news agency to really get a handle on it, and give good, up to the minute, summations - not just of who is confirmed, but maybe - how many more people are dying of complications - OF ANY FLU - than usual?

The media is NOT doing a good job of telling people how the RULES they are making up as they go along affect the numbers.

Originally posted by Memysabu
They are not going to enact marshal law until a lot of people have it so how on earth will it be a lie if so many people have it? Listen my friend just got it this morning are you seriously trying to say this flu doesnt exist? I really dont know how you come to this conclusion theres dead people in Mexico. I mean if that doesnt show you its real maybe the video will from the sick wards. Seriously people deny ignorance this is just rediculous.

My friend, the point is that 36,000 people DIED from the flu in the United States last year. Yes, THIRTY SIX THOUSAND. People die from the flu all of the time.

Sure, your friend has it but he will most likely live. There hasn't been one death in the United States from this flu. (Unless you count a sickly Mexican child that brought it with him.)

So, when you look at the numbers and see how much attention THIS flu is getting, you have to start to wonder, "Why all of the hype?"

Originally posted by dariousg

Originally posted by Memysabu
They are not going to enact marshal law until a lot of people have it so how on earth will it be a lie if so many people have it? Listen my friend just got it this morning are you seriously trying to say this flu doesnt exist? I really dont know how you come to this conclusion theres dead people in Mexico. I mean if that doesnt show you its real maybe the video will from the sick wards. Seriously people deny ignorance this is just rediculous.

My friend, the point is that 36,000 people DIED from the flu in the United States last year. Yes, THIRTY SIX THOUSAND. People die from the flu all of the time.

Sure, your friend has it but he will most likely live. There hasn't been one death in the United States from this flu. (Unless you count a sickly Mexican child that brought it with him.)

So, when you look at the numbers and see how much attention THIS flu is getting, you have to start to wonder, "Why all of the hype?"

I keep hearing this "36,000 die every year" thing, but that doesn't apply here.

This is an engineered virus that combines multiple elements of swine, avian and human characteristics. This is completely new and there is no defense and no immunity (unlike the seasonal flu).

This virus is spreading like wildfire from person to person. In six months the pandemic will be bigger than anything we've seen in our lifetimes.

Does that mean everyone will die? No. (Though many, many people will) But it does mean that people will be tightly controlled and quarantined. Martial law without calling it martial law. Just in time for the total economic collapse that is coming.

Having gone through the 2003 SARS crisis in Canada. I can say this type of thing can be wildly overblown. There were conspiracy and end of the world stories circulating back them.

An epidemiologist I know tells me the number and variants of avian and swine flus are incalculable. We are only alerted to a tiny percent of them. He also says it was inevitable a particularly virulent and resistant strain would emerge and become widespread.

I seriously doubt there is any malign involvement of US government agencies in this. But it is a default assumption for many, particularly in this environment.


Mike

I’m still concerned about the huge population of Mexicans that will soon fill up our hospitals. If they are dying there they will come here instead.

I don’t know how bad this flu will be. My kids brought home flu warning papers from school yesterday.

What worries me is I posted a thread a few days ago about Washington state being hit with the swine flu, yet WHO nor the CDC have put it on the map yet. There is some weird time period it takes to have samples tested. You would think if they are worried about spreading it they would speed up the process.

I agree. It would only take one word from Timmy Geitner or Obama to set off panic in the streets. Becoming transparent on the global economic collapse, would set off bank runs and a stock market collapse.

They may also be preparing for a terrorist attack, in advance. Never before in history has Homeland Security been involved with a medical crisis.

Does anyone find it odd they aren’t stopping border crossing and encouraging us to take mass transportation systems. When it’s homeland Security’s job to do that. There is another purpose that they have been deployed.

Not only are we expecting a credit card bubble burst we are also expecting a commercial real estate bubble, Prime mortgage foreclosures, a possible treasuries bubble.

We also have a food shortage and overpopulation problem.

With AIG failing neither they, nor any other insurance company can cope with a mass natural disaster, tornado, earthquake, flood or Volcano’s.

The Federal government is tapped out. I think we will skip deflation, stagflation, inflation and head right in to Hyperinflation.

We all need to stock up on more herbal anti-viral medications.

When trying to solve a problem, always start with the simplest solution first. This flu emergency we have smells of something else entirely. Every year in the USA , we have thousands that die from the regular ole flu, and it's just an everyday occurance. What's going on now?
I think it's all about power. The big O needs an emergency to declare martial law, and his administration has said, "never waste a good disaster" or something like that. I agree with the idea that there are alterior motives to this emergency. Something just doesn't smell right.
Everything boils down to money or power. It always does. The Dems have already sealed our fate with the stimulus package, and the next item on the agenda is a total power grab with martial law--"for our own protection".
Obama will soon control the banks totally, and with martial law, can control the public any way he sees fit"for our own protection of course".
I certainly would love to be wrong on these ideas, but the chips are falling into place by the day. Be ready for some sneaky, lowdown, underhanded policies to be enacted soon, "for our own protection".

Hi there. I'm writing from a hedge fund office on Wall Street. We're doing fine. No economic collapse on the horizon. Sure it was dicey for a bit, but just as it ALWAYS HAS...people panic and over sell, then the cooler minded individuals go in a buy up all the stock that the panickers sold at firesale prices.

We're up more than 20% this month, and there's no reason to believe we won't be up another 8-10% next month. Sure the market may retest lows, but I can say with some certainty that the swine flu was not "created" to attempt to stem a market crash.

I would more likely believe that the Mexican Gov't floated this out there to try and stem the violence between drug cartels in the border region and it got away from them.

Still, I don't really think it was that either.

I think we're dealing with a pretty tame strain of flu that is somewhat efficient at moving from host to host.

Originally posted by beefytee
Hi there. I'm writing from a hedge fund office on Wall Street. We're doing fine. No economic collapse on the horizon. Sure it was dicey for a bit, but just as it ALWAYS HAS...people panic and over sell, then the cooler minded individuals go in a buy up all the stock that the panickers sold at firesale prices.

We're up more than 20% this month, and there's no reason to believe we won't be up another 8-10% next month. Sure the market may retest lows, but I can say with some certainty that the swine flu was not "created" to attempt to stem a market crash.

I would more likely believe that the Mexican Gov't floated this out there to try and stem the violence between drug cartels in the border region and it got away from them.

Still, I don't really think it was that either.

I think we're dealing with a pretty tame strain of flu that is somewhat efficient at moving from host to host.

The smart money is still sitting on the sidelines. The only people trading are those who want gamble on making a quick buck before SHTF. I pulled out in Oct. 2007.

Congrats on having a hedge fund job. There isnt much leveraging going on now is there? I personally blame hedge funds for the problem we are in.

I'm surprised a person of your stature doesnt understand the difference of a bear market rally and the next step to the Great Depression. Have you seen the Correlating charts. We also have never seen this sort of volatility in history. We haven’t seen blood on the streets yet.

This is the calm before the storm. Look at Vanguard, for instance. Who would have thought it would break a buck. Everyone fled to treasuries. I for one went a different route.

No insult intended but we cant take financial advice from anyone in the hedge fund business.

Look at Warren Buffett. His cool minded buying was a huge mistake. I saw it before he did and I'm not a pro.

What if this flu is man made perfectly released in time to draw away attention from something else not of this world. and at the same time pick up on the perks that go along with it ie total control, and a short breather from an economic solution.

Originally posted by wonderworld
The smart money is still sitting on the sidelines. The only people trading are those who want gamble on making a quick buck before SHTF. I pulled out in Oct. 2007.

So I assume you wouldn't consider Warren Buffet "smart" money, because he's been pumping more money in all the way down.

Congrats on having a hedge fund job. There isnt much leveraging going on now is there? I personally blame hedge funds for the problem we are in.

Well at least you're not blaming the government or the grays or the reptilians under ground.

There are a few hedge funds that were VERY large contributors to this crisis, however, don't damn the entire industry for the actions of a few. The main culprits were the heavy dealers in CDS and CMO's.

I'm surprised a person of your stature doesnt understand the difference of a bear market rally and the next step to the Great Depression. Have you seen the Correlating charts. We also have never seen this sort of volatility in history. We haven’t seen blood on the streets yet.

Firstly, I've done nothing to illustrate my stature. I could fill the printers and order lunches for the group for all you know.

The major difference between this rally and bear market rallies (and the great depression) is the thawing of the credit markets. A bear market rally is not fueled by fundamentals or the availability of new credit into the system. Bear market rallies are fueled by false optimism of "well the worst MUST be over" That already happened and then we had March. The policies of the Fed, treasury and administration have worked very hard to help liquidate the frozen credit markets, and we are certainly seeing these efforts bear some fruit. I will NOT say that the equity markets will not retest their lows, I will however say that unless something new happens (e.g. terrorist attack, if this swine flu does turn out to be a big deal) we have seen the darkest days of this financial crisis.

This is the calm before the storm. Look at Vanguard, for instance. Who would have thought it would break a buck. Everyone fled to treasuries. I for one went a different route.

A lot of people in the Hedge Fund industry were not surprised that Vanguard broke the buck, in fact, many of them bet a WHOLE lot of money on it. We may not be a scrupulous bunch, but we know how to do what we do.

No insult intended but we cant take financial advice from anyone in the hedge fund business.

I don't believe I offered any financial advice.

Look at Warren Buffett. His cool minded buying was a huge mistake. I saw it before he did and I'm not a pro.

Mistake? run the numbers my friend, Buffett put $5b into Goldman Sachs @115/share. It's currently $127/share. On capital appreciation alone he has made over $500 million on this investment (that's a 10% return since September) But this isn't plain old common stock, it was 10% PREFERRED stock, so he gets an additional $500million/ year without any capital appreciation. So far he has accrued more than $250million.

So he has made three quarters of a billion dollars on a 5 billion dollar investment. That's 15% He made that less than 8 months. Not included in this is the fact that Buffett ALSO reserves the right to buy $5billion more at any time in the next 5 years @ $115. So let's pretend Goldman sees $150 a share by 2013. Not ONLY is that another billion on his initial investment, but another 1.5 billion of INSTANT profit, PLUS the 10% coupon he's been clipping and will continue to clip for the foreseeable future. Yeah...big frigging mistake.

A good investor knows good investments, not market timing. Warren Buffett has NEVER claimed to had a crystal ball, just fierce loyalty to his ideas and investments...I think we can see why.