The Great Health Crisis

HFA Padded
Dr. David Kass
Published on
Updated on

COVID-19 is a once in a century event that the world has not experienced since the Spanish Flu of 1918. Fortunately for the United States, we have entered this public health crisis with a strong economy and banking system. The stock market and the economy will start to recover as soon as the number of new cases declines sharply and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the likely development of therapeutic treatments by the end of the summer. Only when we have a vaccine, which is estimated to be one to two years away, can the economy fully recover. This Great Health Crisis is similar to a natural disaster such as an earthquake that has temporarily shut everything down.

Q1 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

Corona
iXimus / Pixabay

The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Congress are providing the necessary financial resources to permit the economy to survive until it is safe for economic activity to resume.  This may take several weeks or months. The duration of this public health crisis is not known. But The Great Health Crisis is definitely not another Great Depression that lasted 12 years nor The Great Recession which were financial crises resulting from a weak banking system.

Article by Dr. David Kass

HFA Padded

David I Kass Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Finance Ph.D., Harvard University Robert H. Smith School of Business 4412 Van Munching Hall University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742-1815 Phone: 301-405-9683 Email: dkass@rhsmith.umd.edu (link sends e-mail) Dr. David Kass has published articles in corporate finance, industrial organization, and health economics. He currently teaches Advanced Financial Management and Business Finance, and is the Faculty Champion for the Accelerated Finance Fellows. Prior to joining the faculty of the Smith School in 2004, he held senior positions with the Federal Government (Federal Trade Commission, General Accounting Office, Department of Defense, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis). Dr. Kass has recently appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, PBS Nightly Business Report, Maryland Public Television, Business News Network TV (Canada), Fox TV, American Public Media's Marketplace Radio, and WYPR Radio (Baltimore), and has been quoted on numerous occasions by Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal, where he has primarily discussed Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. He has also launched a Smith School “Warren Buffett” blog. Dr. Kass has accompanied MBA students on trips to Omaha for private meetings with Warren Buffett, and Finance Fellows to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meetings. He is an officer of the Harvard Business School Club of Washington, DC, and is a member of the investment and budget committees of a local nonprofit organization. Dr. Kass received a Smith School “Top 15% Teaching Award” for the 2009-2010 academic year.