Hopefully I Won't Regret Posting This -- April 1, 2020

I'm heading to bed so I won't see e-mail / comments until tomorrow. I might regret writing this, and it's against my better judgement to post this and then go to bed without thinking about it for awhile.

But, here I go.

We're well past the discussion of whether we're headed into a recession -- from my vantage point, it's much worse than that. I've been suggesting that for awhile but a note -- received just moments ago -- from a reader puts things in perspective.

Before reading the comments from that reader, think back to 1992 and how much has changed since then and how much economic growth the US has seen since 1992.

Now, having given that a moment's thought, read these comments from a very, very knowledgeable reader:

Just a few records & benchmarks hit this week:

Oil inventories up the most since October 2016; refinery utilization lowest since Hurricane Harvey; gasoline production lowest in 22 years; gasoline demand lowest since February 1992, and the biggest one week demand drop ever ...

Oh, and that crude oil in storage now near the five-year average for this time of year; it's also about 30% above the prior five-year average (i.e., 2010 to 2014) ... we've now had five fat years.

We haven't seen numbers like this since 1992. Let that sink in.

Now, think about it again, tomorrow morning, 8:30 a.m. CT, when we get the first time unemployment claims numbers.

And the media is hung up on the number of ventilators available and whether two US Navy hospital ships arrive in port on time.

About two weeks ago we were told that every airline would be "broke" by the end of April.

Bedtime reading.