When considering risk, it is always very easy to become gloomy and negative, which is why some of the most perspicacious advisors nevertheless fulfil the old maxim of “If you’re so clever why aren’t you rich?” They see risk and seek to avoid it.

The economics of shutdown will undoubtedly go into the history books, but so will the psychology and the politics, as well as the psychology of the politics.

One of the most famous chapters in psychology involves what is known as the Stanford Prison experiment, conducted by a Stanford Psychology Professor Zimbardo back in in 1971.

Having highlighted the role of Professor Neil Ferguson and the team of catastrophists at Imperial College in the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease response (Oxford versus Imperial) it was interesting to see the article in the Daily Telegraph

Like more than 99% of the people commenting on the Covid 19 virus, we are not expert virologists, but we are ‘humble students of the markets’ which means we are interested in the psychology of crowds as well as the behaviour of state and other actors.