Will Coronavirus Usher in the “Reign of Saturn?”

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen” — said a man named Lenin.

This week has the color of a week where decades happen.

The stock market has withstood its lightningest plunge in history…

The aerial ways to Europe are closed…

Hand sanitizer is more precious than oil…

Disney World has locked its gates…

Universities, high schools, grammar schools and grade schools have locked their doors…

Broadway is dark…

Professional sports leagues have put the balls away…

“March Madness” has been canceled.

Instead, an alien madness stalks the land — the coronavirus madness.

North to south, east to west… even to ships asea… the fever builds.

And today the president declared a national “state of emergency.”

Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia have now reported coronavirus infections. Each day brings fresh cases.

How many Americans might it ultimately hook? The possible answer shortly.

Ironic, it is, that America’s biggest monster is visible only through a microscope.

Yet we fear the unseen greater than the seen…

The enemy bomber turns up on radar. The plunging barometer alerts you to the storm. The onrushing train does not approach in silence.

These are observable menaces. Since observable, defensible.

But the black bugaboos of night, the phantom-haunted shadows, the stealthy spirits of the air…

These unseen terrors fetch us most.

And an invisible fee-fi-fo-fum — like a lethal virus — is potentially everywhere at once.

Every person you encounter is a potential executioner, every surface you touch may harbor a plague.

The air itself may carry you to your grave.

Communists lurked beneath every bed once upon a time in America. The “Red Scare,” it was called.

Today we verge upon the “Invisible Scare.” But is it unjustified?

We know nothing of epidemiology… and would prefer to know even less.

But we have had our best men look into it. And they report that medical professionals — of highly sober aspect — give ominous warnings.

A certain Dr. Brian Monahan is the attending physician of Congress. This fellow has informed the Senate that 70–150 million Americans — one-third of the population — may potentially come down with the coronavirus.

If fatality rates run as low as 1%… the pathogen could claim 1.5 million American souls.

Yet our agents report scenarios suggesting the virus may invade up to 214 million Americans.

The variables are many. Much depends upon preparation.

The final death roster may run anywhere from 5,000… to 5 million… depending.

But assume for the moment the virus slips its leash…

Workplaces shutter, the truckers stay home, supply chains snap and the shelves go bare in the supermarkets.

Perhaps one month of shattered commerce could result in a general discombobulation.

What might happen?

Writer Brandon Smith sketches the scene in dark colors:

When the public can’t find an open grocery store, then you will see panic. When there are checkpoints in and out of major metropolitan areas stopping people from leaving if they have any symptoms of illness, then you will see panic. When COVID-19 continues to circulate through the population for a year or more and does not disappear during the summer months as some people theorize, get ready for anger and panic.

When your local banks announce a financial “holiday” for an unspecified amount of time because of a credit crisis and lack of liquidity, and all the ATMs are shut down, then you will see panic. When crime rates explode because of lack of supplies and people start fighting over access to the meager food lines… THAT will be panic.

And don’t think for a second that this is not possible in this country, because it absolutely is. All it takes is for the global supply chain to break down for one month and there will be chaos like nothing the average person has seen in their lives.

Alarmist? Perhaps it is.

And we do not believe the virus will rout us in the manner suggested. Yet…

How many truly anticipated 1987’s Black Monday? Or 1929’s Black Tuesday?

How many anticipated Donald Trump’s presidency of the United States?

Indeed… how many anticipated the coronavirus… or that the United States would fall under a state of emergency today?

“You think that a wall as solid as the Earth separates civilization from barbarism,” writes author John Buchan...

“I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.”

Who is prepared for the reign of Saturn?

Below, Jim Rickards takes you to the year 2026. He reflects upon the great Panic of 2024… and a world drastically changed. Could it happen? You be the judge. Read on.

Regards,

Brian Maher
Managing editor, The Daily Reckoning