One of the reasons for the coronavirus media hype could very well be the outstanding World Bank Pandemic Bonds which will come due for expiration this July here in 2020 which are in the neighborhood of $500 million which is perhaps a structured derivative time bomb that most people have never heard of.

These pandemic bonds were sold to investors as a giant gamble in the global financial casino. The World Bank sold “pandemic bonds” which were a scheme like no other. In 2017 these bonds were sold to private investors on the premise that they would lose their money if any of six deadly pandemics hit. They did not pay out in 2019 when the Ebola virus broke out in Africa. The World Bank announced the creation of these structured bonds in May 2016 at the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Governors meeting in Sendai, Japan.

The World Health Organisation will keep the money and will use it to fight the outbreak. Investors bought the bonds and received regular coupons payments in return which were substantial in this world of negative interest rates. If there is an outbreak of disease turned into a pandemic, then investors don’t get their initial money back. There were two varieties of debt that are scheduled to mature in July 2020.

That's how wonderful our little globe has become. You win if you can call it a pandemic outbrake.....