Baltic Dry Index. 2754 -55 Brent Crude 68.41
Spot Gold 1898
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 27/05/21 World 169,093,368
Deaths 3,512,497
May 27, 1905
The Battle of Tsushima (Japanese: 対馬沖海戦, Tsushimaoki-Kaisen, Russian: Цусимское сражение, Tsusimskoye srazheniye), also known as the Battle of Tsushima Strait and the Naval Battle of the Sea of Japan (Japanese: 日本海海戦, Nihonkai-Kaisen) in Japan, was a major naval battle fought between Russia and Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. It was naval history's first, and last, decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets,[2][3] and the first naval battle in which wireless telegraphy (radio) played a critically important role. It has been characterized as the "dying echo of the old era – for the last time in the history of naval warfare, ships of the line of a beaten fleet surrendered on the high seas".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima
The big news in today’s LIR lies in the Global Inflation section. No matter how many deceitful central banksters try talking down the effects of rising inflation and try passing it off as “temporary,” with each passing day it looks to me, at least, as far from temporary.
The Covid pandemic has greatly, and probably permanently altered the global economic value chain.
The crooked central banksters are trapped over a barrel of their own making.
Do nothing and let inflation rip roar through the G-20 economies in a massive scramble to get into goods and assets with intrinsic value.
Do something, anything, like normalising interest rates and ending the Magic Money Tree free money, and collapsing the everything bubble.
After 71 years on planet earth, experience tells me our crooked central banksters and bent politicians will opt to do nothing, and take their chances on letting inflation loose on the world again.
Having released the genie of free fiat MMT money from the lamp in 2020-2021, the socialist populist mob now demands free money forever.
From stock casino billionaires desperate for the stock manias to continue, to peons who found out that they made more from government pay outs not to work than they did previously working, society has changed to expect free money forever.
But forever is an awfully long time, to misquote Fed Chairman Powell.
When the giant coming inflation crisis gets large enough, social disorder will force a belated reaction to the folly of the Great Nixonian Error of fiat money, communist money.
Right now though, we are drinking in the last chance saloon, living on borrowed money and time, hoping against hope on pixie dust.
“All
the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”
Fed Chairman Powell with apologies to Peter Pan
Asian shares step back from two-week highs, dollar firm
Restaurants in New York City are finding it hard to hire workers as restrictions related to Covid-19 are being eased across the country and demand within the industry picks up, restauranteur Danny Meyer said Wednesday.
“Nobody can hire back all of their workers even if they wanted to because many of our workers have left the city,” Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group and Shake Shack founder, told “Closing Bell.” “Everybody is hiring at the exact same time. It is going to take, per my judgement, at least two or three months for supply and demand to keep up with each other and to hit an equilibrium.”
Demand for restaurants has been coming back in New York City as more people get vaccinated. Rules around social distancing and mask-wearing have also been eased as the number of new cases in the country keeps falling.
“Vaccination has probably been the greatest thing that has happened for our industry, both for the people who work for us and for our guests,” Meyer said.
But restaurants are still struggling to hire staff to replace those they were forced to let go of at the beginning of the pandemic, he added. Not only is there a limited supply of restaurant talent as many restaurants rush to hire, but some workers may have left the industry altogether.
“Many people who were laid off took work instead in businesses that were actually doing quite well during Covid,” Meyers said. “They may have very good jobs right now and they may or may not back come to our industry.”
More
Wage rises and labor shortage are a ‘democratization’ of U.S. workforce, fund manager says
The U.S. labor shortage is lifting wages for workers and causing a “democratization” of the workforce and changing the face of “class warfare,” according to Cole Smead, president of investment advisory firm Smead Capital Management.
While the U.S. labor force participation rate remains well below pre-pandemic levels, with April’s nonfarm payrolls growing by just 266,000 against forecasts of 1 million, workers’ wages have risen at their sharpest pace in years, and new unemployment filings continue to fall.
With companies forced to up their wage offerings in order to attract prospective employees, McDonald’s, Chipotle, Bank of America and Under Armour are among those that have recently promised to raise minimum and average wages.
The labor shortage after the pandemic, attributed in part to a lack of qualified workers, Covid-related reluctance to return to work and the continuation of enhanced unemployment benefits due to government stimulus, has shifted the sands after decades of growing wealth disparity.
“In effect, we’re short labor, and that’s why the price of labor is climbing,” Smead told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday. “We haven’t seen this in so long, and that is why people are befuddled, and it is going straight to the mouths of people on the lower end of the income bracket, it is not helping the CEOs.”
Tilman Fertitta, CEO of hospitality and gambling empire Landry’s, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Tuesday that while his businesses were busier than ever, the government’s weekly stimulus checks are “killing” companies when it comes to finding workers.
“Everybody’s getting the extra $300, people aren’t working so they are going out and they are having dinner and they are going to the casinos, but at the moment I can’t find employees,” Fertitta said.
More
The advocates of public control cannot do without inflation. They need it in order to finance their policy of reckless spending and of lavishly subsidizing and bribing the voters.
Ludwig von Mises
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Biden orders closer review of Covid origins as U.S. intel weighs Wuhan lab leak theory
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he has ordered a closer intelligence review of what he said were two equally plausible scenarios of the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden revealed that earlier this year he tasked the intelligence community with preparing “a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of Covid-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.”
“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” Biden said in a statement.
“Here is their current position: ’while two elements in the IC leans toward the [human contact] scenario and one leans more toward the [lab leak scenario] – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” Biden said.
Biden’s statement mirrors the unique way that the intelligence community presents its findings to sitting presidents. This includes explaining when different agencies within the community disagree, and using a scale, low-moderate-high, to quantify the level of confidence analysts have in the accuracy of their assessments.
“I have now asked the intelligence community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days,” said Biden.
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not commit to publicly releasing the findings of a future report.
More
More than 130 million Americans are fully vaccinated as average daily Covid cases dip below 25,000
Published Tue, May 25 2021 12:36 PM EDT Updated Tue, May 25 2021 1:56 PM EDT
The seven-day average of daily Covid cases in the U.S. is below 25,000 for the first time since June 19, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows, as the pace of new infections continues a downward trend.
The country is reporting about 24,900 daily cases on average, down 22% from a week ago.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. is averaging 1.8 million vaccinations per day over the past week, and about 49% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose.
Nearly 26,000 cases were reported Monday, bringing the seven-day average of daily new infections to just below 25,000.
A CNBC analysis of Hopkins data shows that average daily case counts have declined by at least 5% in 41 states and the District of Columbia over the past week.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/25/covid-19-cases-deaths-and-vaccinations-daily-us-data-on-may-25.html
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
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.
World's first graphene-enhanced concrete slab poured in England
Nick Lavars May 25, 2021
As the mostly widely used material on Earth, concrete has a massive carbon footprint that scientists are working to chip away at in all sorts of ways. Recent research projects have demonstrated how the wonder material graphene could play a role in this and now we're seeing the first real-world deployment of the technology, with engineers using so-called "Concretene" to form the foundations of a new gym in the UK.
As the world's strongest artificial material, graphene may have a lot to offer the world of construction, among its many other potential uses. Scientists have previously found success incorporating it into the concrete manufacturing process to make the finished product stronger and more water-resistant, while one research project even demonstrated how this graphene can be recovered from old tires.
The freshly poured Concretene is the handiwork of scientists at the University of Manchester and construction firm Nationwide Engineering. To form the material, the team adds tiny amounts of graphene to water and cement, where it both acts as a mechanical support and offers an extra catalyst surface for the chemical reactions that turn the mix into the concrete paste. The end result is improved bonding at a microscopic scale, and material that is around 30 percent stronger than standard concrete.
“We have produced a graphene-based additive mixture that is non-disruptive at the point of use," says Dr Craig Dawson, from the University of Manchester. "That means we can dose our additive directly at the batching plant where the concrete is being produced as part of their existing system, so there’s no change to production or to the construction guys laying the floor."
The Concretene was used in an initial pour of a concrete floor slab for the new Southern Quarter gym near Stonehenge in England in early May, with a second pouring completing the foundation on Tuesday. This is the world's first graphene-enhanced concrete slab, and will make the gym a living laboratory as the building is completed and operated and Nationwide Engineering monitors the performance of the innovative material.
Concrete production accounts for around eight percent of global carbon emissions, and would stand behind only China and the US as an emitter if it were a country. Because Concretene is far stronger than traditional concrete, far less of it is required to bring the same structural strength to a building, which could result in a far smaller carbon footprint and cost.
Nationwide Engineering has crunched the numbers on this, and claims that if Concretene was used across the global supply chain it could shave as much as two percent off worldwide emissions. The material is more expensive to produce at around 5 percent additional cost, but because less of it is needed the company estimates that it can offer an overall saving of between 10 to 20 percent to the customer.
“We are thrilled to have developed and constructed this game-changing, graphene-enhanced concrete on a real project,” says Alex McDermott, co-founder of Nationwide Engineering. “Together with our partners at The University of Manchester’s Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre and structural engineers HBPW Consulting, we are rapidly evolving our knowledge and experience and are positioned for wider industry deployment through our construction frameworks, becoming the go-to company for graphene-enhanced concrete.”
Source: University of Manchester
https://newatlas.com/materials/worlds-first-graphene-enhanced-concrete-slab/
The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of oppression and coercion, policemen, customs guards, penal courts, prisons, in some countries even executioners, had to be put into action in order to destroy the gold standard.
Ludwig von Mises.
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