I don't hear the various hosts on cable news shows, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, or financial programs on CNBC and others ask viewers not to succumb to fear and sell their investments in a state of panic. It's as if Rome is burning and nobody is fighting to put out the blazing fire.
While the virus situation is not yet in a complete state of panic, the economic situation is, sending the stock market into a fast downward spiral. And the more the market collapses the more fear is generated, followed by more panic, followed by more selling. So, around and around and around it goes, and where it stops nobody knows.
Well, maybe we don't know where it will stop but there is something that we absolutely must do. This coronavirus pandemic, this escalating crisis, is bad enough and we are helpless to do much of anything about it. But the worst thing we can do is to compound its detrimental effect on our country by allowing ourselves to fall into panic selling.
Of course, now that the Senate has finally passed the $2 trillion stimulus legislation and the House will, no doubt approve it soon, that should help greatly to bring this situation under control. But no one should be fooled into thinking that there won't be more selling and market downturns. We will, without a doubt, see one or more significant stimulus packages to prop up the fragile market.
Fear begets fear, panic begets panic, but only if we allow it to continue to happen. So let's just remain calm and stop the panic-selling. And here's what I'm going to do. I'm doing everything to protect my family and myself from this virus. Secondly, I have no intention of selling our investments.
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