Calling all misanthropes out there. For some H5N1 is a golden opportunity to make money, writes Charlotte Moore
Schadenfreude doesn't get much better than becoming rich as millions of humans die from the latest flu pandemic. If you fancy yourself in the Blofeld evil-genius mould, then as well as going out and buying a large white Persian cat to stroke, its time to log onto the avian flu investor blog.
Jeff from Portland, Oregon, says we should buy shares in Del Monte on the basis that a pandemic will create panic buying and suddenly we will be fighting one another for the last can of pineapple rings in our local supermarkets.
The realisation that most investment banking deals are actually done in a strip club rather than in boardrooms has percolated through to Portland and promoted Jeff to give my favourite investment tip. He reckons its time to sell Rick's Cabaret International Inc - the only publicly quoted strip club chain - as the thought of imminent death from an airborne disease may put a dampener on a banker's ardour to host a lap dancer while ingesting large quantities of over-priced champagne. He predicts that fear of too much human contact mean that strip joints will be deserted and profits will plummet.
