You would think, from all of the talk about the virus, that its emergence is the only reason the market is down.

The magnitude of the decline is rooted in 40+ years of central economic planning. You have heard references to the wealth effect for years. What we are seeing these days is a the beginning of the reversal of the wealth effect. Q.E. and massive deficit spending initiatives are ostensibly for the benefit of the economy.  The Federal Reserve can pump mountains of money into the economy now but they can do just as well by adding grains of sand to the economy. More money is simply more money. When borrowed money has no use to those with the privilege of receiving, adding more of it ,  does them no good.

So, we let the richest 100 use government as a means of running up the value of everything they own and control. What is the final outcome? Either the economy sinks into a depression slowly or something happens that cannot be controlled with self serving legislation or anything else. My expectation has been that reality would impose itself on everyone slowly. It turns out that a virus emerges out of nowhere and the market starts down in a big way.

In an honest and free stock market, prices would respond to the virus, but that alone would not end a bull market. Will a spreading virus cause a depression? No, but the way governments respond to the virus can and that is happening. Without 40+ years of central economic planning behind us it would not.

So, it makes good sense for China and all other  countries to shut down production,conduct massive quarantines and take away the freedoms various populations

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