Tag: Black Plague

Is COVID Following the Economics of the Black Plague?

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

While just about every historical piece on the Black Plague you will read tells the story from the plague perspective. However, I look at history differently. I always correlate everything from all sides and what all the reports on the Black Plague overlook are the economics of the crisis. While there are no GDP records, which is why they ignore the economics, there is a coin record that also provides an eye into the very existence of the crisis at the time. What is also omitted is that Mount Tambora erupted in 1815 which set in motion a volcanic winter. The worse instances of disease follow periods of a severe winter where food production collapses creating malnutrition leaving people more susceptible to disease.

Continue reading “Is COVID Following the Economics of the Black Plague?”

Bad priorities, bad ideas, bad execution. What could possibly go wrong?

Guest Post by Simon Black

It was late spring of 1348 when a small ship departed from the port of Gascony in Southwestern France, destined for Dorset County on the English Channel.

The ship was carrying basic provisions and goods for trade.

But unknown to the sailors, dockworkers, and the locals in Dorset County, the ship was infested with a nasty bacteria called Yersinia pestis, also known as the Black Death.

The disease spread rapidly; it vanquished Briston, then London, then eventually all of England. And modern historians estimate that between 40% and 60% of England’s population died as a result of the Black Death pandemic.

The economic fallout was devastating. Most people were terrified to leave their homes. And the few people who were willing to work demanded higher wages.

But King Edward III wasn’t having any of that.

Continue reading “Bad priorities, bad ideas, bad execution. What could possibly go wrong?”

THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Black Death is created, allegedly – 1345

Via History.com

According to scholars at the University of Paris, the Black Death is created on March 20, 1345, from what they call “a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius, occurring on the 20th of March 1345″. The Black Death, also known as the Plague, swept across Europe, the Middle East and Asia during the 14th century, leaving an estimated 25 million dead in its wake.

Continue reading “THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Black Death is created, allegedly – 1345”

When Plagues Pass: Slower Growth, Social Unrest, & Labor Gets The Upper Hand

Authored by John Authers, op-ed via Bloomberg.com,

As the Black Death scythed through Europe in 1348 and 1349, workers across the continent discovered that they had power for the first time in their lives.

Textile workers in St. Omer in northern France asked for and received three successive wage rises within a year of the Great Plague’s passing. Many workers’ guilds struck for higher pay and shorter hours. When the French government tried to cap these demands in 1351, it still allowed pay rises of as much as a third more than their pre-plague level. By 1352, the English Parliament — which in 1349 had passed a law limiting pay to no more than its pre-plague level — was taking action against employers who had instead doubled or tripled workers’ pay.

Continue reading “When Plagues Pass: Slower Growth, Social Unrest, & Labor Gets The Upper Hand”

THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Black Death is created, allegedly – 1345

Via History.com

According to scholars at the University of Paris, the Black Death is created on March 20, 1345, from what they call “a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius, occurring on the 20th of March 1345″. The Black Death, also known as the Plague, swept across Europe, the Middle East and Asia during the 14th century, leaving an estimated 25 million dead in its wake.

Continue reading “THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Black Death is created, allegedly – 1345”

Anyone with courage and clear thinking will do extremely well

Guest Post by Simon Black

The year 1348, in the words of historian A.L. Maycock, was the closest that humanity ever came to going extinct.

That was the year the Black Death descended on the European continent. And many historians today estimate that it killed as much as 60% of Europe’s population.

Italy was hit especially hard by the plague. Port cities like Venice were accustomed to receiving ships from all over the world, and many of them carried the Yersina pestis bacteria which caused the plague.

Continue reading “Anyone with courage and clear thinking will do extremely well”

Plague is Starting in Africa

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Panic has ensued in Madagascar where a recent outbreak of the plague has claimed the lives of at least 24 people. Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana has announced a ban on all public gatherings and demonstrations in effect until the outbreak can be contained.

Continue reading “Plague is Starting in Africa”

US Military Admits It “Misplaced” Black Plague Samples

Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/10/2015 22:55 -0400

Back in May, the US military was forced to admit that it had done something really stupid and what’s great about the story is that it requires very little in the way of explanation and/or added color to explain why what happened can be fairly classified as an example of sheer governmental incompetence. Put differently: this story speaks for itself. Here’s a recap:

According to CNN, “four lab workers in the United States and up to 22 overseas have been put in post-exposure treatment, a defense official said, following the revelation the U.S. military inadvertently shipped live anthrax samples in the past several days.” The army apparently thought they were shipping samples rendered inactive by gamma radiation last year, but that clearly was not the case because when a Maryland lab received their sample last Friday they were able to grow live Bacillus anthracis. The lab reported their concerns to the CDC. By Saturday afternoon, labs in Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia were notified that the US military had accidentally mailed them the deadly bacteria. A sample sent to a US base in South Korea was destroyed on Wednesday.

That came just a few months after the CDC admitted to mishandling an Ebola sample, potentially exposing a dozen people to the deadliest virus known to mankind.

Needless to say, the story grabbed headlines across the country as Americans struggled to understand how it’s possible that the US army could possible have managed to unknowingly jeopardize dozens of lives by FedEx-ing live anthrax to nine states and one foreign country.

Well don’t look now, but the DoD is out warning that the army might have also mishandled samples of the black plague which isn’t known to be dangerous unless you count the time it wiped out 60% of Europe’s entire population. Here’s more from CNN:

Continue reading “US Military Admits It “Misplaced” Black Plague Samples”