COVID-19; Fool Me Once, Shame on Me!

By guest author Sam Pearson

Over the last 3 days we discussed what was the actual risk from the SARS-C0V-2 using World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) data. We found that the risk was statistically equal to the previous 10 year running average for the annual flu for both cases and death using CDC’s data. Next, we analyzed what was the return on investment from the efforts to reach herd immunity comparing SARS-2 with previous similar virus outbreaks. We found that we spent $16 Trillion vs an average of $25 Billion to obtain the same results. This paper will attempt to identify and analyze who benefitted from the way that we handled the SARS-2 virus.

Many industries have been directly impacted by the pandemic, especially restaurant, airlines, cruises, media production, manufacturing, retail, oil, and gas. According to a poll,^[1] 70% of small business owners were concerned about surviving the pandemic due to prolonged closures while 58% worry about having to permanently close.

The coronavirus crisis has crushed the global economy. The pandemic’s effects will continue to reverberate throughout the world for decades to come. The pandemic has been credited to have killed over 2.5 million people worldwide but also disrupted each nation’s economy. Since February 2020, approximately 9.5 million jobs have been lost in the U.S. according to the jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The study from Edelman Financial states that more than half of the American adults believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is worse than the 2008 Great Recession.^[2]

The companies who profited the most from the pandemic (below) were the tech sector and tech driven organizations plus those whose delivery services remained open. The fact is that when the government shut down small and medium sized businesses it removed competition and then gave the large corporations lots of cash and other benefits. Below are the largest gainers that increase in market cap as one goes down the list:

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $1.2 trillion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $1.68 trillion

Market cap added: $0.478 billion

Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $18.81 billion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $66.5 billion

Market cap added: $77.67 billion

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $141.98 billion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $239.49

Market cap added: $97.51 billion

Meituan (OTC: MPNGY)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $76.63 billion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $219.18 billion

Market cap added: $92.41 billion

Beijing-based e-commerce platform

Pinduoduo Inc. (NASDAQ: PDD)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $43.87 billion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $217.88 billion

Market cap added: $173.91 billion

e-commerce sector, the Shanghai-based company

NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $144 billion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $323.24 billion

Market cap added: $179.24 billion

California-based tech company NVIDIA

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $689.05 billion

Market cap added: $230.43 billion

China’s largest internet company

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $920.32 billion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $1.183 trillion

Market cap added: $262 billion

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $75.74 billion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $677.4 billion

Market cap added: $601.66 billion

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $920.22 billion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $1.639 trillion

Market cap added: $717.78 billion

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)

Market cap on Dec 31, 2019: $1.288 trillion

Market cap on Dec 31, 2020: $2.32 trillion

Market cap added: $1.032 trillion

I would like to take a moment to discuss Amazon.

Read the rest here.

Image by Queven from Pixabay