By Reuters Staff
SHANGHAI
(Reuters) - China is minting new billionaires at a record pace despite an
economy bruised by the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to booming share prices and
a spate of new stock listings, according to a list released on Tuesday.
The Hurun China Rich List 2020 also
highlights China’s accelerated shift away from traditional sectors like
manufacturing and real estate, towards e-commerce, fintech and other new
economy industries.
Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba 9988.HK
Ant is expected to create more mega-rich through
what is likely to be the world’s biggest IPO, as it plans to raise an estimated
$35 billion through a dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The combined wealth of those on the Hurun
China list - with an individual wealth cut-off of 2 billion yuan ($299.14
million) - totaled $4 trillion, more than the annual gross domestic product
(GDP) of Germany, according to Rupert Hoogewerf, the Hurun Report’s chairman.
More wealth was created this year than in
the previous five years combined, with China’s rich-listers adding $1.5
trillion, roughly half the size of Britain’s GDP.
Booming stock markets and a flurry of new
listings have created five new dollar billionaires in China a week for the past
year, Hoogewerf said in a statement.
“The world has never seen this much wealth
created in just one year. China’s entrepreneurs have done much better than
expected. Despite Covid-19 they have risen to record levels.”
According to a separate estimate by PwC and
UBS, only billionaires in the United States possessed greater combined wealth
than those in mainland China.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-rich-billionaire/stock-market-boom-new-listings-mint-china-billionaires-at-record-pace-idUKKBN2750GJ?il=0
Back in the real world, a looming new
trade war front for after the US elections. More sign of the real economy
collapse.
EU set to gain WTO clearance for
U.S. tariffs next week October 19,
202010:03 AM
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union
should gain formal clearance next week to impose tariffs on $4 billion of
annual U.S. imports in a dispute over aircraft subsidies, a World Trade
Organization document showed on Monday.
The EU won the right to retaliation in its
dispute with the United States over subsidies to planemaker Boeing BA.N this month, potentially
deepening a record trade spat that has already prompted Washington to slap
duties on EU goods.
Under WTO rules, the European Union needs to
formally notify its plan to impose tariffs to the Dispute Settlement Body
(DSB), a committee on which all 164 WTO members sit. According to the DSB
agenda released on Monday, the EU plans to do so at the next meeting on Oct.
26.
This does not necessarily mean the bloc will
impose tariffs immediately. The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade
policy, also has to consult with the 27 EU governments on the issue.
The U.S. government has said there was no
legal basis for the EU to impose tariffs since the contested tax break had been
eliminated, a view echoed by Boeing which has said it had already complied with
WTO findings.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened
to “strike back” against the European Union if it puts tariffs on U.S. goods.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-wto-aircraft/eu-set-to-gain-wto-clearance-for-u-s-tariffs-next-week-idUKKBN2740ZR
Coronavirus: Hong Kong tourism
almost non-existent, with visitor numbers for September down 99.7 per cent from
last year ·
Covid-19
travel restrictions have paralysed global tourism, with Hong Kong entry mostly
off limits for non-residents
·
Just over
9,100 arrivals entered Hong Kong in September, less than half a per cent of the
amount of visitors the same time last year
Published: 4:10pm, 19 Oct, 2020 Updated:
4:26pm, 19 Oct, 2020
Hong Kong tourism remained nearly non-existent in September, with just
9,132 arrivals entering the city – a 99.7 per cent year-on-year slump.
The provisional figures, released by the Hong Kong Tourism Board on
Monday, showed the sector suffered a 92.4 per cent decline in arrivals to 3.55
million for the first nine months of this year from the same period in 2019.
Non-residents arriving by plane are barred from entering the city in
most cases, while those allowed in, including Hongkongers, are subject to 14
days of compulsory quarantine.
Worldwide travel restrictions and fears of imported coronavirus All but three of the city’s border
checkpoints remain closed, with travellers only able to enter via the airport,
Shenzhen Bay and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3106109/coronavirus-hong-kong-tourism-almost-non-existent
'Bad math': Airlines' COVID
safety analysis challenged by expert October 19,
202010:20 AM By Laurence Frost
PARIS
(Reuters) - A campaign by coronavirus-stricken aviation giants to persuade the
world it’s safe to fly has been questioned by one of the scientists whose
research it draws upon.
Dr David Freedman, a U.S. infectious diseases specialist, said he
declined to take part in a recent presentation by global airline body IATA with
planemakers Airbus, Boeing and Embraer that cited his work.
While he welcomed some industry findings as “encouraging”, Freedman said
a key assertion about the improbability of catching COVID-19 on planes was
based on “bad math”.
Airlines and planemakers are anxious to restart international travel,
even as a second wave of infections and restrictions take hold in many
countries.
The Oct. 8 media presentation listed in-flight infections reported in
scientific studies or by IATA airlines - and compared the tally with total
passenger journeys this year.
“With only 44 identified potential cases of flight-related transmission
among 1.2 billion travellers, that’s one case for every 27 million,” IATA
medical adviser Dr David Powell said in a news release, echoed in comments
during the event.
IATA said its findings “align with the low numbers reported in a
recently published peer-reviewed study by Freedman and Wilder-Smith”.
But Freedman, who co-authored the paper in the Journal of Travel
Medicine with Dr Annelies Wilder-Smith of the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, said he took issue with IATA’s risk calculation because the
reported count bore no direct relation to the unknown real number of
infections.
---- “It was bad math. 1.2 billion
passengers during 2020 is not a fair denominator because hardly anybody was
tested. How do you know how many people really got infected?” he said. “The
absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
IATA believes its calculation remains a “relevant and credible” sign of
low risk, a spokesman said in response to requests for comment from the
industry body and its top medic Powell.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-airlines-risks/bad-math-airlines-covid-safety-analysis-challenged-by-expert-idUKKBN27411M
Finally, is this a good time to rotate
out of big tech stocks? 2021 looks like big tech trouble ahead.
Japan to join forces with U.S.,
Europe in regulating Big Tech firms: antitrust watchdog head October 19, 20205:35
AM By Leika Kihara , Takahiko
Wada
TOKYO
(Reuters) - Japan will join forces with the United States and Europe to take on
any market abuses by the four Big Tech companies, the new head of its antitrust
watchdog said on Monday, a sign Tokyo will join global efforts to regulate
digital platform operators.
Kazuyuki Furuya, chairman of Japan's Fair
Trade Commission (FTC), also said Tokyo could open a probe into any merger or
business tie-up involving fitness tracker maker Fitbit FIT.N if the size of such
deals are big enough.
“If the size of any merger or business-tie
up is big, we can launch an anti-monopoly investigation into the buyer’s
process of acquiring a start-up (like Fitbit),” he told Reuters. “We’re closely
watching developments including in Europe.”
EU antitrust regulators in August launched
an investigation into a $2.1 billion deal by Alphabet GOOGL.O unit Google's bid
to buy Fitbit that aimed to take on Apple AAPL.O and Samsung 005930.KS in the wearable
technology market.
Japan is laying the groundwork to regulate
platform operators. Among them are big tech giants dubbed "GAFA" -
Google, Apple, Amazon AMZN.O
and Facebook FB.O - that
face various antitrust probes in western nations.
Multi-national companies like GAFA have
similar business practices across the globe, which makes global coordination
crucial, Furuya said.
“We’ll work closely with our U.S. and
European counterparts, and respond if to any moves that hamper competition,” he
said.
“This is an area I will push through
aggressively,” he said, adding the FTC was ready to open probes if digital
platformers abuse their dominant market positions against consumers.
Furuya, who assumed the post in September,
also said the FTC would conduct research into Japan’s mobile phone market to
see whether there is any room for improvement to spur competition.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-ftc/japan-to-join-forces-with-u-s-europe-in-regulating-big-tech-firms-antitrust-watchdog-head-idUKKBN2740DZ
Winter Watch .
The Arctic winter sea-ice expansion and
northern hemisphere snow cover. From around mid-October, the northern
hemisphere snow cover usually rapidly expands, while the Arctic ice gradually
expands back towards its winter maximum.
Over simplified, a rapid expansion of
both, especially if early, can be a sign of a harsher than normal arriving norther
hemisphere winter. Perhaps more so in 2020-2021 as we’re in the low of the
ending sunspot cycle, which possibly also influenced this year’s record
Atlantic hurricane season.
Adding to this year’s winter concerns,
a developing La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific. While the La Nina effect
on the winter weather of western Europe is weaker than that of an El Nino
pattern, which tends to make for a milder winter, a La Nina pattern tends to
make for a colder winter.
US National Ice
Center.
https://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/
"The
great merit of gold is precisely that it is scarce; that its quantity is
limited by nature; that it is costly to discover, to mine, and to process; and
that it cannot be created by political fiat or caprice."
Henry
Hazlitt
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
20% of verified coronavirus
patients did not develop immunity Bnei Brak
serological survey shows at least 9% of city had corona By MAAYAN
JAFFE-HOFFMAN OCTOBER 19, 2020 22:52
Only 80% of people
who tested positive for coronavirus had antibodies to the virus, according to a
report published Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Health
Ministry and the Gertner Institute.
The
results mean that a percentage of people who develop asymptomatic or even mild
cases of the virus
could contract it again.
The report was based on a serological survey conducted between June and
August in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community of Bnei Brak. The city has had
some of the highest rates of infection in the country.
The survey also found that the number of people who tested positive for
antibodies increased with the number of sick patients, thought not
proportionally.
In June, 2% of the Bnei Brak population tested positive and 6.3% had
antibodies. In July 4.1% tested positive and 6.4% had antibodies, and in August
5.6% tested positive and 13.8% had antibodies. On average, at the time that the
research concluded, some 9% of the Bnei Brak population were thought to have
immunity to coronavirus.
“The infection rate is not nearly enough to assume herd immunity,” said
Dr. Boaz Lev, the ombudsman of the medical professions at the Health Ministry.
Speaking at a briefing on Monday, he said that the results show that even in
communities where the infection rate was high, social distancing and wearing
masks continues to be important.
More
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/2-percent-3-percent-of-people-who-develop-covid-19-antibodies-lose-them-sheba-646228
Hong Kong Social Distancing;
Green Lane Travel: Virus Update Bloomberg News October
19, 2020, 11:50 PM GMT+1 Updated on October 20, 2020, 4:44 AM GMT+1
European leaders intensified efforts to tamp down surging
infections, while soaring cases in U.S. battleground states are posing a
challenge for President Donald Trump two weeks before the election.
India has already seen a peak in the number of new infections
and may be able to contain
The Philippines shortened curfew hours in Manila and eased reportedly
Key
Developments: Global Tracker :
Cases top 40.3 million; deaths exceed 1.1 millionSee the latest on the race
for a vaccine with Bloomberg’s tracker Trading floors are full and
masks are off in post-Covid Shanghai Fear of job loss haunt half the world’s
workers as crisis rages CDC issues ‘strong’ call for
masks on U.S. airplanes, trains How do people catch
Covid-19? Here’s what experts say: QuickTake https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-19/ireland-returns-to-lockdown-trump-rips-fauci-virus-update?srnd=coronavirus
Oxford University says COVID-19
patients experience symptoms months after contracting virus October 19, 202010:39
AM
(Reuters) - Britain’s Oxford University said on Monday initial findings
from a study on the long term impact of COVID-19 has found that a large number
of patients discharged from hospitals still experience symptoms of
breathlessness, fatigue, anxiety and depression two to three months after
contracting the virus.
The scientists also detected abnormalities in multiple organs and
believe persistent inflammation may be a factor for COVID-19 survivors, the
university said in a statement.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-oxford-university/oxford-university-says-covid-19-patients-experience-symptoms-months-after-contracting-virus-idUKKBN27413I
Belgium says COVID-19 situation
now worse than spring wave October 19,
20201:11 PM
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The health situation in Belgium is worse than in
March during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with cases of infection
reaching new highs and the number of people in hospital doubling each week,
officials said on Monday.
“The situation is serious. It is worse than on March 18 when the lockdown
was decided,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told Belgian television
RTL-Info.
To slow the second wave of coronavirus the government has ordered bars
and restaurants across the country to close for four weeks. Most employees must
work from home and a night-time curfew will start from midnight on Monday.
The number of patients in intensive care units (ICUs), which stood at
412 on Sunday, is doubling every eight to nine days - and half of those are on
ventilation.
Meanwhile, the number of patients in hospitals is doubling every week.
On Oct. 17, 351 people were admitted to a hospital, more than half of the peak
of 629 on March 28.
Health Ministry spokesman Yves Van Laethem told a news conference the
number of patients in intensive care will rise above 500 this week.
“Whatever the impact of the measures, we will have 1,000 patients in
intensive care by the end of this month,” he said.
“Thanks to the measures, and hoping for their rapid impact, we should be
able to avoid the mathematical projection of 2,000 patients in mid-November. If
we did, we would be at the maximum level of intensive care beds planned for
COVID patients.”
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-belgium/belgium-says-covid-19-situation-now-worse-than-spring-wave-idUKKBN2741KR?il=0
Portugal's COVID-19 cases pass
100,000 October 19,
20203:36 PM By Reuters Staff
LISBON
(Reuters) - Portugal’s coronavirus cases passed 100,000 on Monday, with nearly
2,000 new infections in the past 24 hours, days after tough new measures to
contain the disease came into force.
“Everyone’s tiredness is legitimate but it cannot legitimise failure,”
the secretary of state for health, Antonio Sales, told a news conference. “We
continue to depend on each other - and our success is the success of Portugal.”
The nation of just over 10 million people initially won praise for its
quick response to the pandemic.
It has recorded a comparatively low 101,860 confirmed coronavirus cases
and 2,198 deaths.
But, like in most European countries, infections have risen again. On
Friday, Portugal hit 2,608 cases, the highest single-day figure since the
pandemic started, although testing has also increased.
Gatherings are now limited to five people, weddings can be attended by a
maximum of 50, university parties are banned and there are heavier penalties
for rule-breaking establishments.
Authorities have repeatedly said it would be unbearable for country’s
economy to shut down again, as happened during a six-week lockdown in March.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-portugal/portugals-covid-19-cases-pass-100000-idUKKBN2741YN?il=0
Ireland imposes some of Europe's
toughest COVID-19 curbs
October
19, 20201:31
PM By Padraic
Halpin , Graham Fahy
DUBLIN
(Reuters) - Ireland announced some of Europe’s toughest COVID-19 constraints on
Monday, shutting non-essential retail, limiting restaurants and pubs to take
away service and telling people not to travel more than five kilometres (3
miles) from their home.
Ireland imposed one of Europe’s longest lockdowns during the first surge
in coronavirus cases and eased restrictions at such a cautious pace that pubs
that only serve drinks in Dublin had not reopened by the time a rise in
infections prompted a tightening of curbs.
This time, schools will stay open and essential services such as construction
are allowed to continue, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said, as he moved the
country to the highest level of restrictions, Level 5, for six weeks from
midnight Wednesday.
Hotels may remain open, but only if their rooms are needed by essential workers.
“The evidence of a potentially grave situation arising in the weeks
ahead is now too strong,” Martin said in a televised address, two weeks after
rejecting what was then seen as a surprise call by health chiefs to move to
Level 5, marking the first time ministers went against their advice.
Martin said the government’s aim was to return to Level 3 by Dec. 1.
That would allow all retailers to reopen and restaurants to serve 15 customers
outdoors. Even then, another lockdown could not be ruled out in 2021, he added.
----
On Sunday, Ireland broke its single-day record for new for the fifth
time in nine days, and has the 12th highest rate among the 31 countries
monitored by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-ireland/ireland-imposes-some-of-europes-toughest-covid-19-curbs-idUKKBN2741MG
Next, some vaccine links
kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative
update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY
Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford
Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory
Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Covid19info.live
https://wuflu.live/
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC
energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards.
China’s $5.4bn scheme to transmit
solar power from Tibet
China has opened the world’s
second largest solar plant in the Tibetan province of Qinghai. The 2.2GW
facility was built by state-owned utility Huanghe Hydropower Development. The plant cost $2.2bn to build, and a further $3.2bn was
spent by the State Grid Corporation on the ultra-high-voltage line that
transmits the electricity produced to more populous areas of the country.
The line is said to be the first such line to deliver 100% renewable
energy over long distances.
The plant is second in size only to the Bhadla Solar Park
in northern India, which has 45MW more generating capacity.
China is planning to build the world’s largest super grid
by connecting the country's six regional power grids and transmitting
electricity from renewable resources in the west to the east, where most of the
demand is.
This September, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged at the
UN General Assembly that China would achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 (see
further reading). According to PV Magazine it will need to install 1.9TW of
solar generation capacity by mid-century.
Greg Jones, a projects expert at legal firm Pinsent Masons,
commented in the firm’s Out-Law journal: “Historically
there have been issues with renewable power being stranded while awaiting
suitable grid connection, but this project’s ultra-high-voltage line and the
wider national super grid plan demonstrates a firm commitment to putting this
right. We can expect many more facilities at this scale in the coming years
given the investment needed to achieve the carbon neutrality goal.”
China’s biggest solar power station before the opening of
the Qinghai plant was the Tengger Desert Solar Park in the northwest province
of Ningxia, with a capacity of 1.5GW.
The plant, which is part of a planned 16GW renewable power
complex, was completed in four months and includes a 200MW energy storage
system supplied by Hefei-based solar technology company Sungrow.
Built in five phases, it consists of 672 arrays with over 7
million individual modules.
https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/chinas-54bn-scheme-transmit-solar-power-tibet/
US Politics Betting Odds https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics
"I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. … When one
person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not
be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they
ride the subway."
Joe Biden, providing handy tips to protect against the swine
flu, "Today Show" interview, April 30, 2009
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