By Reuters Staff
(Reuters)
- U.S. consumers stuffed more money into bank accounts and paid down their
credit cards last month in a signal of how some of the $900 billion in
coronavirus pandemic relief enacted at the end of 2020 was put to use as the
new year began.
Commercial
bank deposits jumped by $97.9 billion in the week ended Jan. 27, the most in
three months, to a record of more than $16.3 trillion, Federal Reserve data
released on Friday showed.
Deposits
were up by $226.1 billion from the end of December and since early last March
have shot up by nearly $3 trillion, essentially four years of savings growth in
less than a year.
U.S. banks’
outstanding consumer loans, excluding real estate, fell by $3.5 billion to a
two-year low of $1.513 trillion in the latest week, the Fed data showed.
The drop was
led by another fall in credit card balances, which account for roughly half of
non-real estate consumer credit and now stand at $735.6 billion, their lowest
in more than four years. Since March, when much of the U.S. economy was first
forced into shutdown mode to try to prevent the spread of the virus, households
have slashed bank credit card debt by more than 14%, or about $121 billion.
The
deleveraging and savings boost has come to a good degree courtesy of multiple
rounds of coronavirus relief packages from the federal government, totaling
roughly $4 trillion since last spring.
Many
economists and policymakers see the record levels of cash in consumers’ bank
accounts - now equal to roughly 75% of annual U.S. economic output versus 60%
before the pandemic - as fuel for a powerful recovery later this year.
The hope is
that vaccine deployment will give Americans confidence to resume activities,
such as dining out and traveling, that they significantly curtailed as
coronavirus infections surged through last year.
Still, as
Friday’s monthly employment report showed, the economy has a long road to
recovery. Just 49,000 jobs were created in last month, making January the third
straight month to show no substantial progress in restoring the nearly 10
million jobs still lost since last February.
President
Joe Biden pointed to the tepid payrolls report in pushing his case for another
$1.9 trillion of COVID-19 relief spending, a plan Democrats are aiming to force
through Congress by mid-March.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-credit/u-s-consumers-sock-away-more-cash-pay-down-card-debt-in-covid-19-times-idUSKBN2A52TT
U.S. faces
risk of bankruptcies, unemployment if fiscal support not maintained: IMF February 5, 2021 8:03 PM
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The head of the International Monetary Fund on Friday warned that
the United States faced a possible “dangerous wave” of bankruptcies and
unemployment if it did not maintain fiscal support until the coronavirus heath
crisis ended.
IMF Managing
Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters the United States, the world’s
biggest economy, had scope to take further action and doing so would provide
positive spillover effects for the global economy.
Asked if she
supported President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan, Georgieva said the
IMF supported the plan’s focus on vaccinations, health care, support for the
unemployed and aid to state and local governments.
Despite the
economy’s nascent recovery, Georgieva said risks remained, especially if
support was not maintained long enough.
“There is
still that danger that if support is not sustained until we have a durable exit
from the health crisis, there could be a dangerous wave of bankruptcies and
unemployment,” she said.
In 2020, she
said U.S. bankruptcies were lower than average in normal years due to fiscal
support and it was important to continue to calibrate that support in 2021
while preparing carefully for the moment when some businesses did not survive
“We want to
see careful, well-calibrated policy action. We are keen for policy support to
be there,” she said, adding, “Great care is necessary so we don’t find
ourselves in a difficult situation.”
Georgieva
acknowledged concerns raised by former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers
about a possible overheating of the U.S. economy, but said she was confident
that new Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would keep a careful eye on those
risks.
“Indeed we
have to be watchful of risks, but we have the best possible Secretary of the
Treasury for this potential risk, she said, “And I’m confident that there will
be a lot of attention being paid on anticipating and, if necessary, taking
appropriate action to address these risks.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-imf/u-s-faces-risk-of-bankruptcies-unemployment-if-fiscal-support-not-maintained-imf-idUSKBN2A52JG
“War is peace. Freedom is
slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
George Orwell. 1984
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Israel
Vaccinations Curb Spread; Korea Eases Rules: Virus Update Bloomberg News
February
5, 2021, 5:43 PM EST Updated on February 6, 2021, 1:43 AM EST
Israel, whose Covid-19 vaccination program leads the world,
found
AstraZeneca Plc’s vaccine is effective finally arriving
The World Health Organization has called on countries to
share vaccine doses. South Korea is relaxing its social distancing rules and
allowing longer opening hours for some businesses as new cases decline.
Key
Developments: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-05/nfl-offers-stadiums-race-an-issue-in-nyc-vaccines-virus-update?srnd=premium-europe
Approx.
6 minutes.
Johnson and
Johnson vaccine from Janssen || COVID 19 Vaccine Update Today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20NgO6dLMLo
Approx.
15 minutes.
Herd Immunity
-- Facts and Numbers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NENhBmN_tps
Next, some very useful 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
FDA information . https://www.fda.gov/media/139638/download
Regulatory Focus COVID-19
vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some more 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/
The Spectator
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. Is converting
sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC energy mankind’s future from the 21st
century onwards.
Powerpaste
packs clean hydrogen energy in a safe, convenient gray goop By Loz
Blain
February 02, 2021
Fraunhofer researchers have presented a magnesium-based
"Powerpaste" that stores hydrogen energy at 10 times the density of a
lithium battery, offering hydrogen fuel cell vehicles the ability to travel
further than gasoline-powered ones, and refuel in minutes.
Typically, of course, hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles carry their H2 fuel in gaseous form, stored in tanks at pressures
around 700 bar (10,150 psi). These tanks are fairly large and heavy, which
counteracts one of hydrogen's key advantages over today's lithium batteries –
its higher energy density. The high pressures involved also make hydrogen an
impractical option for powered two-wheelers like motorcycles and scooters.
But a team
based at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced
Materials IFAM in Dresden have come up with an interesting new way to store and
carry hydrogen energy, in the form of a magnesium hydride-based
"Powerpaste" that stores the hydrogen in a chemical form, at
atmospheric pressure, ready for release when needed.
To produce
the paste, magnesium is combined with hydrogen at around 350 °C (662 °F) and
five to six times atmospheric pressure to form magnesium hydride. An ester and
a metal salt are added to complete the process and form a viscous gray goop
that can be loaded into cartridges.
In
Powerpaste form, it's completely stable at temperatures up to 250 °C (482 °F).
It carries 10 times the energy of a similar weight in lithium batteries, and
substantially more than a 700-bar H2 tank of the same weight. The researchers
say vehicles running on a Powerpaste powertrain can expect a range
"comparable to – or even greater than – gasoline."
When it
comes time to release the energy, a plunger mechanism extrudes the paste into a
chamber where it reacts with water to release hydrogen at a dynamically
controlled rate, which then feeds a fuel cell to create electrical power with
which to run an EV powertrain or other device. Part of the paste's impressive
energy density comes from the fact that half of the hydrogen released comes
from the water it reacts with.
Refueling a
Powerpaste scooter, for example, would be a matter of pulling out the cartridge
and replacing it with a full one at a service station. In this way, this stuff
could become something like a bottle of BBQ gas: an easily replaceable way to
use clean energy in a range of devices. The Fraunhofer team speaks of using it
in large drones, putting a multiplier on their flight time and range, or in
portable electric appliances, such as a paste-powered camping toaster or
kettle, for example.
And where removable
cartridges might be just the ticket for some applications, others might find it
easier just to pump the stuff into a tank – for example, fuel cell cars and
trucks, aircraft and larger applications. The team says this sludgy goop can be
supplied via standard filling lines with "relatively inexpensive
equipment."
Logistically, this stuff seems much
simpler than regular gaseous (and certainly liquid) H2. It can be trucked
around in barrels or tankers, and left more or less anywhere without danger. Fraunhofer
IFAM is building a Powerpaste production plant at its own facilities, which
will open later this year and have the capacity to make up to four tons of
paste a year for pilot programs and industry evaluation. It also has a power
generator up and running on the test bench in the lab.
More
https://newatlas.com/energy/powerpaste-hydrogen-fuel-paste/
WoodMac on
Green Hydrogen: It’s Going To Happen Faster Than Anyone Expects Public and private commitments are catalyzing green
hydrogen through its early development.
John Parnell February 05, 2021
Green hydrogen is set to play a substantive role in the overall
energy mix with its development likely to happen faster than anyone predicts,
according to a new report by Wood Mackenzie.
The 2050: The Hydrogen Possibility report details
how the project pipeline has grown nine-fold since October 2019 to a staggering
26 gigawatts. National hydrogen strategies has set targets for 66 GW of
electrolyzer capacity suggesting there is plenty more growth to come.
Last month, the electrolyzer manufacturer Nel set a target
of $1.5 per kilogram by 2025 , a price level that would
beat the traditional fossil fuel-based options. The current price is more like
$4/kg.
Predictions on when green hydrogen might
be competitive with existing high-carbon production methods keep accelerating.
“This is going move faster than anyone forecasts, even
us. But that's just the nature of this, because this is so dynamic,” Ben
Gallagher, senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie and author of the report, said in
an interview.
The EU is targeting 40 GW of electrolyzer deployment by 2030. France is eying
6.5 GW and both the U.K. and Germany have set their own 5 GW goals too.
At the same time, major utilities like RWE and Iberdrola have joined oil majors Shell , BP and Total in developing substantial early-stage green
hydrogen projects.
More
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/woodmac-on-green-hydrogen-its-going-to-happen-faster-than-anyone-expects
This weekend’s musical diversion. J. S, Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 first movement.
Will we ever get back to live performances again? Approx. 7 mins.
J.S. Bach:
Brandenburg Concerto no. 4, 1st mvt. - Apollo's Fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzmRwsmHMWI
Next, this week’s chess masterclass. Bobby Fischer again. Approx. 15 mins.
Bobby Fischer
Crushes Everyone and Then Continues Crushing Everyone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wHufHWUMes&t=691s
Finally,
this weekend, is time reversible? If not, why not?
Physicists to
look for quantum time dilation inside nuclear reactor By Michael Irving February 03, 2021
We’re all too familiar with the inexorable march of time,
but why exactly it flows in one direction remains a mystery of physics. A few
years ago Australian physicist Joan Vaccaro proposed a new quantum theory of
time, and now a team is planning to test the hypothesis by searching for time
dilation in a nuclear reactor.
The “arrow of time” points from the past towards the
future, but physics has a hard time explaining why it favors one direction over
the other. The most widely accepted explanation for this asymmetry is covered
by the second law of thermodynamics, which states that time tends to flow in
the direction of increased entropy , which is essentially the measure of disorder in a system.
But according to Vaccaro’s quantum theory of time , entropy is more of a symptom of the
flow of time, rather than the root cause. She uses the analogy of a tree
blowing in the wind – while the leaves (entropy) may appear to be shaking the
tree, they aren’t responsible for the motion themselves, but are the result of
another force (wind). In this new theory, the "wind" is created by
time reversal symmetry violations (T violations).
---- Vaccaro proposes that something on the quantum scale creates T
violations locally, and if enough of them occur it could begin to have a wider
effect on the macro scale – essentially producing the dynamics we see as time
moving forward.
Vaccaro’s
quantum theory of time is a pretty major departure from accepted physics, and
she freely admits that it’s controversial and may very well be wrong. But
importantly, like any good hypothesis there’s a way to test it experimentally.
Subatomic particles called neutrinos may hold the key to
unlocking the whole thing. Recent studies have suggested that neutrinos exhibit
time symmetry violations.
So in a new study, researchers from Griffith University,
the National Measurement Institute (NMI) and the Australian Nuclear Science and
Technology Organization (ANSTO) are attempting to measure these T violations
from neutrinos.
Neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts,
anti-neutrinos, are produced
in nuclear reactors , so that’s where the new experiment will be conducted.
The team has installed two extremely precise atomic clocks in the OPAL reactor
in Sydney, and the idea is that if the clocks fall out of sync, it would be
evidence of quantum time dilation, which itself would be evidence of local T
violations.
Time dilation is a well-studied phenomenon, predicted by
the theory of relativity. If you have an atomic clock on the ground and one on
a satellite orbiting Earth, the ground clock will tick ever-so-slightly faster
than the one in the sky. That’s thanks to differences in gravity, which bends
spacetime.
Vaccaro says
that there’s currently no reason to believe that time dilation should also
occur in a nuclear reactor, so if any sign of it is found it could support her
hypothesis.
To
investigate, the team will use two timing stations, one placed 5 m (16.4 ft)
from the reactor and the other 10 m (32.8 ft). Each station contains a cesium
primary clock, three secondary clocks and a series of measurement systems that
will compare the clocks down to under a billionth of a second, looking for any
discrepancies.
More,
including video from U. Waterloo, Canada.
https://newatlas.com/physics/quantum-time-theory-nuclear-reactor/
Q uestion: is Giggleswick the funniest place to live in England?
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