Bad News Is Good News. How To Be A Billionaire.

 Baltic Dry Index. 1301 +05 Brent Crude 51.24

Spot Gold 1884

Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000

Deaths 53,100

Coronavirus Cases 18/12/20 World 75,283,201

Deaths 1,668,366

"A company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is"

1720 South Sea Bubble.

Up first, as usual, the bad news is good news, stock casinos. Shame about the real economy and a resurgent coronavirus pandemic.

In the USA, Democrat run California has become America’s epicenter. No comment yet from President elect Biden, who shamelessly exploited people’s illness and tragedy to claw his way into the White House. (It’s pretty bad in Democrat run New York City too.)

Asia shares retreat from record, but U.S. stimulus hopes buoy market mood

December 18, 2020 12:33 AM  By Hideyuki Sano

TOKYO (Reuters) -Asian shares on Friday slipped from the record they hit a day earlier, but the prospect of a major U.S. coronavirus relief package left some investors still in the mood to pick up stocks and other risk-exposed assets.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.3% from Thursday’s record. Still, it’s on track for a seventh consecutive week of gains - the longest such streak in about a year.

Japan’s Nikkei dipped 0.2%, facing strong resistance around 27,000.

U.S. S&P 500 futures eased 0.15%, a day after their underlying index gained 0.58% to close at an all-time high of 3,722.48.

Global equities remained swathed in optimism that a deal will be reached over a fresh U.S. economic stimulus package.

Congressional negotiators in Washington were scrambling on Thursday to agree on details of a $900 billion COVID-19 aid bill. Lawmakers from both major U.S. political parties said failing to agree was not an option, and earlier Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said talks could spill into the weekend.

Many investors saw the passing of new measures to support the economy as imminent after data showed the number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week.

“We are in an environment now where bad news is good news because it means more stimulus,” said Sharon Zollner, chief economist at ANZ Research.

More

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/asia-shares-retreat-from-record-but-u-s-stimulus-hopes-buoy-market-mood-idUKKBN28S01U

In trade US war news, President Trump may not have won his “easy to win” trade war with China, but he’s determined to crash out of his presidency still wreaking havoc on China (and just about everyone else.)

Exclusive-U.S. to blacklist dozens of Chinese firms including SMIC, sources say

December 18, 2020  5:27 AM  By Alexandra Alper, David Shepardson, Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is set to add dozens of Chinese companies, including the country’s top chipmaker SMIC, to a trade blacklist on Friday, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

The move, which has not previously been reported, is seen as the latest in President Donald Trump’s effort to cement his tough-on-China legacy. It comes just weeks before Democratic President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office on Jan. 20.

In total, the United States is expected to add around 80 additional companies and affiliates to the so-called entity list, nearly all of them Chinese.

The designations by the Commerce Department are expected to name some Chinese companies that Washington says have ties to the Chinese military, including some helping it construct and militarize artificial islands in the South China Sea, as well as some involved in alleged human rights violations, the sources said.

The Trump administration has often used the entity list - which now includes more than 275 China-based firms and affiliates - to hit key Chinese industries.

These include telecoms equipment giants Huawei Technologies Co and 150 affiliates, and ZTE Corp over sanction violations, as well as surveillance camera maker Hikvision over suppression of China’s Uighur minority.

SMIC, the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, has already been in Washington’s crosshairs.

In September, the Commerce Department mandated that suppliers of certain equipment to the company apply for export licenses after concluding there was an “unacceptable risk” that equipment supplied to it could be used for military purposes.

SMIC, the Commerce Department and the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

More

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-sanctions-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-to-blacklist-dozens-of-chinese-firms-including-smic-sources-say-idUKKBN28S0HL?il=0

Analysis-Global chip shortage threatens production of laptops, smartphones and more

December 17, 2020 8:47 AM  By Hyunjoo Jin, Douglas Busvine, David Kirton

SEOUL/BERLIN/SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - Makers of cars and electronic devices from TVs to smartphones are sounding alarm bells about a global shortage of chips, which is causing manufacturing delays as consumer demand bounces back from the coronavirus crisis.

The problem has several causes, industry executives and analysts say, including bulk-buying by U.S. sanctions-hit Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, a fire at a chip plant in Japan, coronavirus lockdowns in Southeast Asia, and a strike in France.

More fundamentally, however, there has been under-investment in 8-inch chip manufacturing plants owned mostly by Asian firms, which means they have struggled to ramp up production as demand for 5G phones, laptops and cars picked up faster than expected.

“For the whole electronics industry, we’ve been experiencing a shortage of components,” said Donny Zhang, CEO of Shenzhen-based sourcing company Sand and Wave, who said he faced delays in obtaining a microcontroller unit that was key to a smart headphone product he was working on.

“We were originally planning to complete production in one month, but now it looks like we’ll need to do it in two.”

A source at a Japanese electronics component supplier said it was seeing shortages of WiFi and Bluetooth chips and was expecting delays of more than 10 weeks.

More

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-chip-shortage-analysis/analysis-global-chip-shortage-threatens-production-of-laptops-smartphones-and-more-idUKKBN28R0ZJ?il=0

Was Microsoft hacked?

Microsoft says it found malicious software in its systems

December 17, 2020 10:29 PM  By Joseph Menn

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it found malicious software in its systems related to a massive hacking campaign disclosed by U.S. officials this week, adding a top technology target to a growing list of attacked government agencies.

The Redmond, Washington company is a user of Orion, the widely deployed networking management software from SolarWinds Corp which was used in the suspected Russian attacks on vital U.S. agencies and others.

Microsoft also had its own products leveraged to attack victims, said people familiar with the matter. The U.S. National Security Agency issued a rare “cybersecurity advisory” Thursday detailing how certain Microsoft Azure cloud services may have been compromised by hackers and directing users to lock down their systems.

“Like other SolarWinds customers, we have been actively looking for indicators of this actor and can confirm that we detected malicious Solar Winds binaries in our environment, which we isolated and removed,” a Microsoft spokesperson said, adding that the company had found “no indications that our systems were used to attack others.”

One of the people familiar with the hacking spree said the hackers made use of Microsoft cloud offerings while avoiding Microsoft’s corporate infrastructure.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to questions about the technique.

More

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-breach/microsoft-says-it-found-malicious-software-in-its-systems-idUKKBN28R2ZJ?il=0

Finally, they wouldn’t do that would they? Even though it’s 2020, nearly 2021, everyone is still presumed innocent until conviction.

Hungary arrests fertiliser tycoon Bige for corruption

December 17, 2020 12:58 PM  By Marton Dunai, Anita Komuves

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Leading Hungarian businessman Laszlo Bige was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of a string of economic crimes including graft and misappropriation worth billions of forints.

Bige is the 10th richest Hungarian with a net worth of 112 billion forints ($385 million), according to a 2020 tally by the news website napi.hu. He owns several large companies, of which the most significant is the fertiliser maker Nitrogenmuvek.

Prosecutors said in a statement that they had “initiated the arrest of a man who accepted more than 800 million forints in graft payments while misappropriating nearly 2 billion forints from his own company”.

They did not identify Bige by name, calling him an “entrepreneur from Nyiregyhaza”, but added that there was another similar case pending against him - a description that clearly fits Bige.

The entrepreneur’s son Zoltan, chief strategist at Nitrogenmuvek, acknowledged to Reuters that his father had been detained.

In a statement to the state news agency MTI on Wednesday, Nitrogenmuvek said the charges were completely unfounded.

“Nitrogenmuvek will use all legal tools to defend itself and Laszlo Bige against unfair procedures against the company, whose clear motive is to intimidate and defame our chairman, Laszlo Bige,” it said.

Prosecutors said in their statement that they believed Bige had for years falsely declared part of his company’s output as below usable standard, selling it at a discount to an accomplice who then re-sold it for near full price, costing the company nearly 2 billion forints.

They split the proceeds and Bige pocketed more than 800 million forints, the prosecutors said, adding that the offence could carry a prison term of up to five to 10 years. ($1 = 290.6100 forints)

https://uk.reuters.com/article/hungary-police-billionaire/hungary-arrests-fertiliser-tycoon-bige-for-corruption-idUKKBN28R1U4?il=0

Winter Watch.

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 northern 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.

Update: we seem to have started new sunspot cycle 25 this month, though it’s unlikely to affect 2020-2021s coming winter.

Northern Eur-Asia turned snowy fast in mid-October.  The Arctic sea ice expansion was slow, and from a very low level at the end of September, but with the vastly expanded snow cover, sea ice formation sped up.

The Laptev Sea ice was back to normal at the end of November.  The failure of the Kara Sea ice to return to normal, leads me to bet on a warmer western European winter ahead.

Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

https://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims/ims_gif/DATA/cursnow_asiaeurope.gif

 

Covid-19 Corner                       

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

U.S. FDA advisory panel sets stage for Moderna vaccine authorization

December 17, 2020  12:13 PM  By Manas Mishra, Manojna Maddipatla

(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will “rapidly” work towards granting emergency approval of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said on Thursday.

A panel of outside advisers to the FDA overwhelmingly endorsed the emergency use of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, virtually assuring a second option for protecting against COVID-19 for a pandemic ravaged nation.

The committee voted 20-0 with one abstention that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed its risks in people aged 18 and older.

A week ago, the same panel backed a vaccine from Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE, leading to an FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) a day later.

Following Hahn’s comments, the Financial Times reported that the FDA had decided to approve Moderna’s vaccine candidate on an emergency basis. It cited people close to the process and added that the emergency approval will be granted in coming days.

The FDA and Moderna did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Financial Times report.

The FDA is expected to grant EUA late on Thursday or Friday.

It would provide more hope to a nation that has lost more than 300,000 lives to COVID-19 - including a one-day high of 3,580 deaths on Wednesday - while record numbers of patients threaten to overwhelm U.S. hospitals and healthcare workers.

More

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-vaccines-moderna/u-s-fda-advisory-panel-sets-stage-for-moderna-vaccine-authorization-idUKKBN28R1O7

High blood levels of cadmium linked to worse COVID-19

Dec. 17, 2020 / 3:05 AM  By HealthDay News

Old age and chronic health conditions aren't the only risk factors for serious COVID-19 infection.

Researchers say people with high levels of the heavy metal cadmium may also have higher odds of severe disease during the pandemic.

Cadmium is found in cigarettes and in contaminated vegetables. Previous research has shown that long-term exposure to cadmium, even at low levels, may weaken the lungs' defense system.

"Our study suggests the public in general, both smokers and nonsmokers, could benefit from reduced exposure to cadmium," said study co-author Sung Kyun Park.

RELATED Study: Men at higher risk for serious illness, death from COVID-19

He's an associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, in Ann Arbor.

This study found that people with high levels of the chemical have higher death rates from respiratory viruses, such as the flu and pneumonia, suggesting they may also be more vulnerable to COVID-19.

The researchers analyzed data from nearly 16,000 people who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1988-1994 and 1999-2006.

RELATED COVID-19 leaving patients with neurological harm, even moderate cases

Cadmium was measured in urine in the first survey and in blood in the second. After adjusting for a number of factors, the investigators found that patients with cadmium levels in the 80th percentile were 15% more likely to die of influenza or pneumonia than those in the 20th percentile.

Among those who never smoked, the difference was even greater, with a 27% higher risk of death among those in the 80th percentile than those in the 20th percentile, according to the study.

The report was published in the December issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

RELATED At least 1 in 10 COVID-19 patients experiences lung or kidney complications

"We couldn't directly look at cadmium body burden among COVID-19 patients in the early pandemic," Park said in a university news release.

"Our motivation was to find a modifiable risk factor that can predispose people with COVID-19 infection to develop a severe complication and die of COVID-19," Park added.

"COVID-19 may not be a one-time event. Our findings suggest that the public can benefit from reduced cadmium exposure when the next pandemic occurs. This cannot be done suddenly and takes time through policy changes," Park said.

Smokers should stop smoking, and everyone should know about major sources of cadmium in their diet: cereal, rice, animal organs such as the liver and kidneys, soybeans and some types of leafy vegetables, Park said.

There are other vegetables you can eat instead, he suggested.

For instance, cabbage and broccoli and other cruciferous veggies contain high levels of antioxidants but relatively low levels of cadmium.

More

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2020/12/17/High-blood-levels-of-cadmium-linked-to-worse-COVID-19/9561608158393/

‘Feel Like I’ve Aged 20 Years’: COVID Long Haulers Continue To Experience Symptoms Months Later

By Dillon ThomasDecember 17, 2020 at 6:42 am

DENVER (CBS4) – As 2020 comes to an end, some of the first Americans to contract COVID-19 are still experiencing side effects of the coronavirus. Those who experience many of the common symptoms, as well as brain fog, are now being studied as “COVID-19 Long Haulers,” people who continue to experience issues with the virus even after they should have recovered.

Emily Ringering, who contracted COVID-19 in March, said many of her symptoms are still lingering nine months later.

“I feel like I have aged 20 years,” Ringering told CBS4’s Dillon Thomas “I had a couple months there where I felt good. Then stuff started coming back. In late August, stuff started coming back where I was having memory issues, bad fatigue, joint pain, I was getting winded.”

Ringering was recently admitted to an urgent care due to shortness of breath, cough, chest pain and more. Though she has continuously tested negative for the virus since her initial diagnosis, the impacts continue to persist.

Researchers at UCDavis Health published research stating upwards of 10% of those who contract COVID-19 could possibly become a long hauler. One of the most common issues with long haulers is said to be brain fog, where the patient has memory and overall cognitive struggles.

Ringering said she recently took a test for her cognitive abilities, which she failed. She said her father, who is over 70, regularly passes the test with ease.

“I can’t remember what I walked in a room for. Or, I will be in the middle of a sentence and I will just lose the words,” Ringering said.

UCDavis Health said there currently is no known cause for the long haulers’ symptoms. Some believe it could be due to a small amount of active virus still in a system, while others said it could be caused immune systems overreacting. Also, there is no known timeline as to how long the issues may last for the long haulers. Studies are underway.

More

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/12/17/covid-long-haulers-symptoms-colorado/

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

The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)

https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national

 

Technology Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.

Atom-thin transistor uses half the voltage of common semiconductors, boosts current density

The two-dimensional structure could by key for quantum computing, extending Moore's Law

Date:  December 10, 2020

Source:  University at Buffalo

Summary:  Researchers report a new, two-dimensional transistor made of graphene and molybdenum disulfide that needs less voltage and can handle more current than today's semiconductors.

 University at Buffalo researchers are reporting a new, two-dimensional transistor made of graphene and the compound molybdenum disulfide that could help usher in a new era of computing.

As described in a paper accepted at the 2020 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, which is taking place virtually next week, the transistor requires half the voltage of current semiconductors. It also has a current density greater than similar transistors under development.

This ability to operate with less voltage and handle more current is key to meet the demand for new power-hungry nanoelectronic devices, including quantum computers.

"New technologies are needed to extend the performance of electronic systems in terms of power, speed, and density. This next-generation transistor can rapidly switch while consuming low amounts of energy," says the paper's lead author, Huamin Li, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

The transistor is composed of a single layer of graphene and a single layer of molybdenum disulfide, or MoS2, which is a part of a group of compounds known as transition metals chalcogenides. The graphene and MoS2 are stacked together, and the overall thickness of the device is roughly 1 nanometer -- for comparison, a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers.

While most transistors require 60 millivolts for a decade of change in current, this new device operates at 29 millivolts.

It's able to do this because the unique physical properties of graphene keep electrons "cold" as they are injected from the graphene into the MoS2 channel. This process is called Dirac-source injection. The electrons are considered "cold" because they require much less voltage input and, thus, reduced power consumption to operate the transistor.

More

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201210145735.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Richard Wittington, an honest dreamer, travels to London “where the streets are paved with gold”. Fairy Bow Bells realises his destiny, and supplies him with an introduction to the leading London bitcoin gambler, Bernie Buymore, a 22 year old dropout from the London School of Economics, who’s fighting extradition to America over an unintended flash crash in shady Chicago.

A Panto for modern times. With apologies to Richard Gauntlett author of pantomime scripts.