Wall Street’s talking heads in the financial media would have you believe the financial markets’ travails are caused by the coronavirus. But facts argue otherwise. First, this is happening well within the time frame one would have expected based on the inversion of the yield curve last May. Second, there were already serious dislocations in the financial system as evidenced by the repo seizure last September.  Both months before stock traders ever heard of the spooky little bug.  Third, there were already signs of weakness in leading economic indicators by year end.  Fourth, the last viral plague of comparable scale, the Spanish Flu of 1918, was not accompanied by a financial crash.  

The cause of a financial crash is a financial bubble.  Bubbles burst.