The stock market is not the U.S. economy.  The stock market is an investment instrument.
Yes, the downstream consequences from coronavirus mitigation efforts means there is likely going to be temporary, very specific, fluxes within the Main Street economy.  Entertainment, hospitality and leisure are likely to see the strongest initial impacts. However, as noted by the release of weekly jobless claims the U.S. economy is very strong.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week as employers continued to hold on to their workers.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 211,000 for the week ended March 7, the Labor Department said. Jobless claims are the most timely labor market indicator. They have declined for two straight weeks.

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The level of media opposition and snark against President Trump is simply so ridiculous at this point there’s a desperation to it.  So let us consider…
From the outset of Donald Trump’s entry into the world of politics he espoused a series of key tenets around what he called his “America-First” objectives:

1. The U.S. needed to have control over our borders, and a greater ability to control who was migrating to the United States.  A shift toward stopping ‘illegal’ migration.
2. The U.S. needed to stop the manufacture of goods overseas and return critical manufacturing back to the United States.  A return to economic independence.
3. The U.S. needed to decouple from an over-reliance on Chinese industrial and consumer products.  China viewed as a geopolitical and economic risk.

Donald Trump was alone on these issues.  No-one else was raising them; no-one else was so urgently pushing that discussion. In 2015, 2016 and even 2017, no-one other than Trump was talking about how close we were to the dependence point of no return.
Given the status of very consequential issues stemming from the Chinese Coronavirus threat; and the myriad of serious issues with critical supply chain dependencies; wasn’t President Trump correct in his warnings and proposals?
In early 2017 President Trump and his administration coined the phrase: “economic security is national security”, and the economic team set about starting a very complex process to ensure the past three decades of trade policy was reversed.
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Tonight President Trump delivered an address to the nation on the issues surrounding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. [Transcript and video below]

[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: My fellow Americans: Tonight, I want to speak with you about our nation’s unprecedented response to the coronavirus outbreak that started in China and is now spreading throughout the world.

Today, the World Health Organization officially announced that this is a global pandemic.
We have been in frequent contact with our allies, and we are marshaling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the American people.
This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history. I am confident that by counting and continuing to take these tough measures, we will significantly reduce the threat to our citizens, and we will ultimately and expeditiously defeat this virus.
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President Trump previously took executive action under sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, to restrict entry from China, Hong Kong, Iran and South Korea.  Today President Trump is extending entry restrictions to the EU “Schengen Area”.
The EU nations impacted include: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
This is a prudent step because these are EU nations, under their collective assembly, who permit unrestricted travel without border enforcement or containment measures.

[The Proclamation ] – On January 31, 2020, I issued Proclamation 9984 (Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus and Other Appropriate Measures To Address This Risk). I found that the potential for widespread transmission of a novel (new) coronavirus (which has since been renamed “SARS-CoV-2” and causes the disease COVID-19) (“SARS-CoV-2” or “the virus”) by infected individuals seeking to enter the United States threatens the security of our transportation system and infrastructure and the national security.
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Tonight at 9:00pm ET, President Donald Trump will address the nation on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Oval Office.  The address will be carried live on most major news broadcasts with additional livestream links below.

RSBN Livestream Link – Fox Business Livestream – Alternate Livestream

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Earlier today President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Munchin held a meeting of key banking executives to discuss the economic impacts of COVID-19, banking stability and financial mitigation.   [Video and Transcript Below]
Attendees include: Rob Nichols, President and CEO, America Bankers Association; Brian Moynihan, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Bank of America; Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO, Blackstone; Ken Griffin, CEO, Citadel; Michael Corbat, CEO, Citigroup; Richard Hunt, President and CEO, Consumer Bankers Association; David Solomon, Chairman and CEO, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.;Rebeca Romero Rainey, President and Chief Executive Officer, Independent Community Bankers of America; Gordon Smith, Co-President and COO, JPMorgan Chase; Kelly King, Chairman and CEO, Truist Financial Corporation; Andrew Cecere, Chairman, President and CEO, U.S. Bank and Charlie Scharf, CEO and President, Wells Fargo & Company.

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. And we are having a meeting — a very important meeting — with the, I would say, the greatest bankers in the world, the most important banks in the world, financial centers, and having a good discussion. We’re discussing the economy. We’re discussing how it relates to jobs and all of the things that are happening right now with the virus that we’ve become so familiar with.
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Amid growing fears and uncertainty over the threat of Coronavirus; and after numerous meetings with legislators, cabinet officials and economic advisors from the private and government sector; President Trump has announced he will address the nation from the oval office at 9:00pm ET tonight:

Earlier in the day President Trump also sent the following tweets about the issues.

Earlier today Vice-President Mike Pence and the coronavirus task force held a press briefing and daily update in the White House Brady briefing room.

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Exhibiting once again why Bernie Sanders is just incapable of taking a populist campaign to the finish line, the Vermont senator cancels a scheduled rally in Cleveland, Ohio, due to the risks of Coronavirus; aka: Sanders acquiesced to the media-driven planetary panic narrative.

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Via CNN – A senior aide to Bernie Sanders tells [Ryan Nobles] that Sanders himself made the decision to cancel the rally after given the guidance from Ohio health officials. The campaign says 5k people RSVP’d for the event- so it was a decision they did not take lightly, but felt was necessary.

Earlier today President Trump and VP Mike Pence traveled to Capitol Hill to brief congress on the efforts of the Coronavirus task force and hold discussions on what legislative measures might be needed.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: So we just had a great meeting. Tremendous unity in the Republican Party. And we’re working on a lot of different things. We’ve also had some very good updates on the virus. That’s working out very smoothly. Tremendous people. It’s a tremendous task force. They have done a great job — not a good job, a great job.
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