The
vaccine rollouts globally and pick-up in demand provided optimism for a vast
number of businesses that had grappled for months with a cash-flow crunch and
falling profits.
In Japan, manufacturing activity expanded at
the fastest pace in over two years while South Korea’s exports rose for a
fourth straight month in February, suggesting the region’s export-reliant
economies were benefiting from robust global trade.
On the flip side, China’s factory activity
grew at the slowest pace in nine months in February, hit by a domestic flare-up
of COVID-19 and soft demand from countries under renewed lock-down measures.
“The big picture, supported by the latest
figures, is that China’s growth remains fairly robust, but it is slowing from
previously very rapid rates,” Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital
Economics, wrote in a note to clients.
ING economists said that while domestic
demand in China should be solid, external demand is likely to continue to be
volatile.
China’s was the first major economy to lead
the recovery from the COVID-19 shock, so any signs of prolonged cooling in
Asia’s engine of growth will likely be a cause for concern.
With the global rebound still in early days,
however, analysts say the outlook was brightening as companies increased output
to restock inventory on hopes vaccine rollouts will normalise economic
activity.
“The recovery in durable-goods demand is
continuing, which is creating a positive cycle for manufacturers in Asia,” said
Shigeto Nagai, head of Japan economics as Oxford Economics.
“As vaccine rollouts ease uncertainties over
the outlook, capital expenditure will gradually pick up. That will benefit
Japan, which is strong in exports of capital goods,” he said.
China’s Caixin/Markit Manufacturing
Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 50.9 in February, the lowest level
since last May but still above the 50-mark that separates growth from
contraction.
That was in line with official manufacturing
PMI that showed factory activity in the world’s second-largest economy expanded
in February at the weakest pace since May last year.
Activity in other Asian giants remained
brisk.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-economy/tech-demand-drives-asias-factory-revival-chinas-slowdown-puts-dampener-idUSKCN2AT13S
Once Trump’s ‘enemy,’ Fed emerges
as White House ally in rejecting concerns about overdoing stimulus
Rachel Siegel February
28, 2021
The House passed pandemic
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell is waving off
concerns about an over-torqued economy producing long-feared inflation, saying
the job market has a long
way to heal
As a result, the Fed and the White House appear closely
aligned on policy — which can be a risky place for the central bank. With
Powell at the Fed, and his predecessor Janet Yellen serving as treasury
secretary, neither power center regards the potential dangers of overspending
as a top concern.
If this view is right, the economy could be in for Goldilocks
period
Indeed, bond yields and interest rates jumped last week as
markets assessed that it is likelier that the economy will be far stronger in
coming months.
“They all think alike,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former
head of the Congressional Budget Office and now the president of the American
Action Forum, a center-right think tank, of the Fed and the White House.
“They’re just working off the same playbook.”
The situation is tricky ground for the Fed, which has spent
decades professing its independence from politics and as a guardian against
inflation. Former Fed chair Paul Volcker famously acted to stem spiraling
inflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, causing a recession but making
clear that the central bank would always act to keep prices from rising too
fast. That has stood as a bedrock of economic policy for nearly 40 years.
In 2019, Powell stood firm against meddling by President
Donald Trump, who attacked him routinely for not doing more to stimulate the
economy, labeling him an “enemy.”
Powell, for example, has staunchly refused to weigh in on
the particulars of Biden’s stimulus package and has been quieter about the need
for stimulus more generally. That’s a notable shift from 2020, when he pushed
hard for more fiscal aid and it was unclear whether a Republican Congress or
Trump White House would pass another bill.
Still, in recent remarks, Powell has repeatedly laid the
economic groundwork for more spending, making clear he doesn’t see big risks to
additional action. It’s possible that there could be “some upward pressure on
prices,” Powell said this month, but his “expectation is that will be neither
large nor sustained.”
“Inflation dynamics do change over time, but they don’t
change on a dime, and so we don’t really see how a burst of fiscal support or
spending, that doesn’t last for many years would actually change those
inflation dynamics,” Powell said
Over two days of hearings on Capitol Hill last week, Powell
turned
down
----When asked recently about the risk of inflation, Yellen
said the Fed could step in, if need be.
“Inflation has been very low for over a decade. And, you
know, it’s a risk, but it’s a risk that the Federal Reserve and others have
tools to address,” she told CNBC
“[Powell] knows as well as anybody that his former
colleague Janet Yellen is pushing for this massive 1.9 trillion spending plan,”
said Tim Duy, an economist at SGH Macro Advisors and the University of Oregon.
“So I find it hard to see this as anything but a concerted effort between the
two agencies, between monetary and fiscal policy, to send the economy into the
stratosphere.”
At the same time, the Fed and Treasury Department have a
long history of close collaboration, particularly in a crisis. Powell worked
well with Trump’s treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, despite a public
clash
----The stimulus debate is just one example of a broader
tug-of-war between Republicans and Democrats over what they want the Fed to be.
As part of December stimulus negotiations, Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) led
a charge
“My concern was there would be tremendous political
pressure to misuse these,” Toomey said racial
equity
Now the inflation question has added new fraught dimension
to stimulus talks.
A number of economists and lawmakers say Biden’s bill goes
overboard and could actually overwhelm the economy. Harvard professor Larry
Summers, who was President Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary and nearly picked
by President Barack Obama to lead the Fed, raised
alarms
His concerns have been echoed by Olivier Blanchard, a
former top economist at the International Monetary Fund, who has written
-----Heavy inflation, in turn, could force the Fed to raise
interest rates, which would crimp economic growth and also raise the cost of
servicing the growing national debt.
more
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/once-trump-e2-80-99s-e2-80-98enemy-e2-80-99-fed-emerges-as-white-house-ally-in-rejecting-concerns-about-overdoing-stimulus/ar-BB1e5CDe?ocid=uxbndlbing
"In
economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension."
John Kenneth
Galbraith.
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
India PM Gets Bharat Dose;
Philippines Starts Jabs: Virus Update Bloomberg News 28
February 2021, 22:29 GMT Updated on 1 March 2021, 04:22 GMT
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his first dose of
the Covid-19 vaccine and urged all Indians eligible for the shot to get
inoculated. Elsewhere in Asia, the Philippines, which has the second-worst outbreak in
Southeast Asia, started vaccinations, while New Zealand’s largest city Auckland
entered a seven-day lockdown on
Sunday.
Starting Monday in Europe, Italy will tighten curbs in some
cities to counter an acceleration of the virus caused by new variants,
particularly the strain first found in the U.K. The Norwegian capital Oslo will
close restaurants and shops to also curb an acceleration of new cases caused by
virus strains.
Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine was
cleared for distribution after U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
formally recommended that adults 18 and older should receive it.
Key Developments:
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-28/j-j-shot-clear-for-distribution-cuomo-under-fire-virus-update?srnd=coronavirus
U.S. authorizes J&J's
COVID-19 vaccine, making it third available February
27, 2021 11:24 PM By Julie
Steenhuysen
(Reuters)
- The U.S. government on Saturday authorized Johnson & Johnson’s
single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, enabling millions more Americans to be vaccinated
in the coming weeks and setting the vaccine up for additional approvals around
the world.
The J&J vaccine is the third
authorized in the United States, following ones from Pfizer/BioNTech and
Moderna, both of which require two doses.
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration announced the emergency use authorization of the J&J vaccine
for adults aged 18 and older following Friday’s unanimous endorsement by the
agency’s panel of outside experts. Shipments to vaccination sites are expected
to begin Sunday or Monday.
President Joe Biden hailed the move
but cautioned Americans against celebrating too soon. “Things are still likely
to get worse again as new variants spread,” he said in a statement, urging
people to continue washing their hands, wearing masks, and maintaining social
distancing.
“There is light at the end of the
tunnel, but we cannot let our guard down now or assume that victory is
inevitable,” he said.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna
vaccines, which are based on new messenger RNA technology, showed higher
efficacy rates in pivotal trials that used two doses versus J&J’s
single-shot vaccine. Direct comparison, however, is difficult because the
trials had different goals and J&J’s was conducted while more contagious
new variants of the virus were circulating.
“We believe that people should take
the vaccine they are able to access,” the FDA’s acting commissioner, Dr. Janet
Woodcock, said in a call after the authorization, noting the three vaccines had
not been studied head-to-head.
More
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-johnson-j/u-s-authorizes-jjs-covid-19-vaccine-making-it-third-available-idUSKCN2AR0PT
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on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk Next, some vaccine links
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World
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NY
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Stanford
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Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource
centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
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.
Molecular bridges power up
printed electronics Researchers
boost the efficiency of conductive inks and devices connecting layered
materials flakes with small molecules Date: February 25, 2021
Source: Graphene Flagship
Summary: Researchers have boosted the efficiency of
conductive inks and devices connecting layered materials flakes with small
molecules.
The exfoliation of graphite into
graphene layers inspired the investigation of thousands of layered materials:
amongst them transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). These semiconductors can
be used to make conductive inks to manufacture printed electronic and
optoelectronic devices. However, defects in their structure may hinder their
performance. Now, Graphene Flagship researchers have overcome these hurdles by
introducing 'molecular bridges'- small molecules that interconnect the TMD
flakes, thereby boosting the conductivity and overall performance.
The results, published in Nature
Nanotechnology, come from a multidisciplinary collaboration between
Graphene Flagship partners the University of Strasbourg and CNRS, France, AMBER
and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Cambridge Graphene Centre, University
of Cambridge, UK. The employed molecular bridges increase the carrier mobility
-- a physical parameter related to the electrical conductivity -- tenfold.
TMD inks are used in many fields,
from electronics and sensors to catalysis and biomedicine. They are usually
manufactured using liquid-phase exfoliation, a technique developed by the
Graphene Flagship that allows for the mass production of graphene and layered
materials. But, although this technology yields high volumes of product, it has
some limitations. The exfoliation process may create defects that affect the
layered material's performance, particularly when it comes to conducting
electricity.
Inspired by organic electronics --
the field behind successful technologies such as organic light-emitting diodes
(OLEDs) and low-cost solar cells -- the Graphene Flagship team found a
solution: molecular bridges. With these chemical structures, the researchers
managed to kill two birds with one stone. First, they connected TMD flakes to
one another, creating a network that facilitates the charge transport and
conductivity. The molecular bridges double up as walls, healing the chemical
defects at the edges of the flakes and eliminating electrical vacancies that
would otherwise promote energy loss.
Furthermore, molecular bridges
provide researchers with a new tool to tailor the conductivity of TMD inks on
demand. If the bridge is a conjugated molecule -- a structure with double bonds
or aromatic rings -- the carrier mobility is higher than when using saturated
molecules, such as hydrocarbons. "The structure of the molecular bridge
plays a key role," explains Paolo Samorì, from Graphene Flagship partner
the University of Strasbourg, France, who led the study. "We use molecules
called di-thiols, which you can readily buy from any chemical supplier's catalogue,"
he adds. Their available structural diversity opens a world of possibilities to
regulate the conductivity, adapting it to each specific application.
"Molecular bridges will help us integrate many new functions in TMD-based
devices," continues Samorì. "These inks can be printed on any
surface, like plastic, fabric or paper, enabling a whole variety of new
circuitry and sensors for flexible electronics and wearables."
More
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210225113151.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29
If economists could manage to get
themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists,
that would be splendid.
John Maynard Keynes.
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