Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed former Luxembourg P.M., serial liar, ex-president of the European Commission. Scotch connoisseur.

Inflation’s back nearly everywhere, but don’t worry, it’s only temporary and under control. At least that’s the official view of Biden, Yellen and Powell. People who ought to be better informed than the hoi polloi.

What they really think we’ll never know, because if they came out and said that they don’t think inflation will be temporary, and it’s not under control, they would set off a stampede out of US bonds and dollars, and into tangible assets like gold, silver, trophy real estate, jewels, art works, storable foodstuffs and the like.

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.

Japanese stocks lead declines in Asia-Pacific; China reports inflation data

SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets were under pressure on Tuesday, following a sell-off in tech stocks that weighed down major U.S. indexes overnight.

Japanese stocks led declines across the region, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 shedding around 2.6% while the Topix moved 2% lower. South Korea’s Kospi fell around 1.7%.

In Australia, the ASX 200 inched down 0.8% ahead of the government’s budget announcement on Tuesday evening.

Greater China markets also opened lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.3%, while stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen were down by 0.6% and 1%, respectively.

China said Tuesday consumer prices in April jumped 0.9% from a year ago, slightly missing the 1% forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll. However, the producer price index rose 6.8%, beating the 6.5% projected by analysts polled by Reuters.

Tech selloff deepens on inflation fears, Fed outlook

May 11, 2021 3:26 AM By Julie Zhu, Tom Westbrook

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian tech stocks tumbled on Tuesday and a regional equity gauge suffered its biggest slide in nearly two months after a selloff on Wall Street, as traders braced for U.S. inflation data amid worries growing price pressures might bring forward rate rises.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.7% by mid-session, its largest drop since late March, and Japan’s Nikkei fell 2.8%.

Selling was heaviest in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng tech index fell 4% and dragged the broader market down 2%. That followed a 2.55% fall on the Nasdaq overnight, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost a further 1% in Asia trade.

“Markets reversed course overnight as inflation fears drove investors away from growth stocks, notably the tech stocks, to pick cyclicals amid the momentum of the economic recovery,” said Hong Hao, head of research at BoCom International.

Soaring commodity prices that have sent the cost of raw materials from copper to iron ore and lumber to record heights are the latest indicator that inflation may not be as transitory as some policymakers seem convinced. U.S. breakeven rates scaled multi-year peaks, even as profit taking dampened commodities.

A host of Federal Reserve speakers this week will be closely watched by markets to assess how authorities are likely to respond to receding risks posed by the coronavirus in some major economies.

A test case on U.S. inflation will come this week when the Labor Department releases its latest consumer price index report on Wednesday.

“Inflation’s shadow looms large and we do think that there is a limit to the Fed’s tolerance of inflation,” DBS Bank strategists said in a note on Tuesday.

“While the Fed has tolerated the rise in 10-year breakevens to 2.50%, we think that there could be a line in the sand if 5-year/5-year inflation swaps head towards 3.0%.”

Five-year TIPS breakevens hit 2.717% overnight. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields eased slightly to 1.5914% in Asia trade. [US/]

Elsewhere in Asia, profit taking tipped Australia’s miner-heavy benchmark from Monday’s one-year high. China’s blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.5% in morning trade. Tech conglomerates Tencent and Alibaba dropped by more than 3% in Hong Kong. Food delivery major Meituan fell 8.5% and has lost more than $30 billion in market value this week. Tech-exposed indexes in Seoul and Taipei fell 1.4% and 2.4% respectively.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/tech-selloff-deepens-on-inflation-fears-fed-outlook-idUSKBN2CS07K

In China news, China is testing its digital Yuan. If they can make it into a successful payments option, the dollar will likely be the biggest long-term loser, albeit, far from today.

China’s population growth slows slightly.

Alibaba’s Ant Group will let more users test China’s digital yuan

Published Mon, May 10 2021 1:38 AM EDT

BEIJING — Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, is becoming one of the first major privately run businesses to work with China’s digital currency trials.

MYbank — an online-only bank in which Ant has a 30% stake — is allowing some users to link their accounts with China’s digital yuan app, state-backed China Securities Journal said Monday.

The new feature is accessible to some users through Ant’s Alipay app, another report from the journal said. Alipay is one of the two primary mobile pay apps in China, where using smartphones for daily payment transactions is the norm.

In the last year, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has distributed several million dollars’ worth of a digital yuan through an app that is connected with the six major, state-owned banks. These tests have allowed selected users to buy products from participating brick-and-mortar stores and JD.com’s e-commerce app.

Ant did not confirm the exact nature of its participation in the digital currency project, but said that along with MYbank, the group would be involved with trials and research around the digital yuan — also called e-CNY — according to a statement.

“As one of the participants in the trial of the e-CNY, Ant Group’s associate MYbank will steadily advance the trial pursuant to the overall arrangement of the People’s Bank of China,” the company said. “Ant Group, together with MYbank, will also continue to support the research, development and trial of PBOC’s e-CNY.”

MYbank said it had more than 35 million small business and individual clients as of the end of last year, marking growth of 68% from the year before.

It was not immediately clear to what extent MYbank users could transact in the digital yuan.

The news comes as Chinese authorities seek to encourage spending through shopping festivals this month in Shanghai and other cities, where state media said some merchants are accepting the digital yuan.

Reuters reported in late February that MYbank and WeBank, an internet bank backed by Tencent, were joining the central bank’s digital currency pilot.

Chinese media noted on Monday that WeBank accounts were not yet activated for use with the digital yuan app. A representative for WeBank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

----Unlike internationally popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, China’s digital currency is controlled by a single authority — the central bank

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/10/china-digital-yuan-alibabas-ant-joins-e-cny-currency-trial.html

China’s census shows population growth slowed

Published Mon, May 10 2021 10:19 PM EDT

BEIJING — China’s once-a-decade census showed that the national population of the mainland was 1.41 billion people as of Nov. 1, 2020.

The average annual growth rate was 0.53% over the past 10 years, according to the results of the seventh national census, released Tuesday.

That’s down from an average annual growth rate of 0.57% between 2000 and 2010.

The population survey, which was conducted late last year, was originally expected to be released in April.

In 2019, mainland China’s population rose by 4.67 million to just over 1.4 billion people, according to official figures by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Several years ago, Chinese authorities began to roll back a decades-old “one-child policy” and allow people to have two children. But births continued to fall, dropping 15% in 2020 in a fourth straight year of decline.

Earlier this year, researchers with the People’s Bank of China published a paper calling for the full removal of restrictions on childbirth. The paper also gave other suggestions for encouraging more births, while describing how China’s aging population puts the country at an economic disadvantage to the U.S. and India.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/11/chinas-census-shows-population-growth-slowed.html

Finally, more on that Greensill/Cameron scandal. Greensill finance was “banking” without the trouble of being a bank.

Today should be an interesting day at a certain Treasury select committee inquiry.

How Lex Greensill helped sow the seeds of Carillion crisis

Supply chain finance scheme launched in 2012 helped failed contractor mask mounting

Jim Pickard, Gill Plimmer and Robert Smith 10 May, 2021

It was October 2012 and David Cameron was flanked by senior ministers — as well as Australian financier Lex Greensill — as he announced a new scheme designed to speed up payments to government suppliers.

The then British prime minister described the “supply chain finance” initiative as a “win-win” for industry, when the UK had only just emerged from recession.

Under the scheme, suppliers’ bills were settled up front by banks, for a small charge, rather than the typical 60 to 90-day wait with contractors. The aim was to ease their cash flow at a time when banks were wary of traditional lending.

Cameron had no idea he was helping create a central plank in Carillion’s later scandal. The British construction group went into liquidation in 2018 after it could no longer service its £7bn of debt, becoming one of the biggest corporate collapses in recent British history. It had just £29m of cash at the time.

In the midst of the crisis around Greensill Capital, the finance firm that fell into insolvency in March, the connection between Lex Greensill and Carillion has been only a footnote.

But the way the outsourcer used supply chain finance to mask its mounting debts — something that helped it to continue to pay bonuses and dividends even as it veered towards collapse — can be traced back to that Cameron announcement.

Cameron revealed a long list of companies that had agreed to use Greensill’s big wheeze, which helped larger businesses to manage payments. Some of those companies quickly realised that loans to cover suppliers’ bills would not show up in their reported debt, helping to flatter their balance sheet.

Carillion’s use of supply chain finance became contentious because shortly after the scheme was launched, the company extended its maximum payment times to suppliers from 65 to 120 days — in effect forcing subcontractors to use the scheme, even if they had to pay a price.

The contractors wooed by Greensill Cameron “absolutely pushed” the supply chain finance initiative and sent a letter to the government’s 20 biggest suppliers urging them to come to a meeting at 10 Downing Street, where they were pressed to use the scheme, according to one person close to Carillion.

Carillion never used Greensill but its finance team had several meetings with the entrepreneur, who was working as an unpaid adviser in the Cabinet Office — with his own desk and team of four civil servants. Executives had “stars in their eyes about him”, said one former employee.

According to people briefed on the plans, Carillion set up its “early payment facility” — its own version of the scheme Cameron announced — after meeting with Greensill.

---- Greensill told the Financial Times he was not directly involved in the creation of the Carillion early payment facility and refused to comment on the Wolverhampton event. He will provide his own version of events when he gives evidence to a Treasury select committee inquiry on Tuesday.

https://www.ft.com/content/cb7e1c50-6e38-4063-ae20-057726c6b98f

A large bank is exactly the place where a vain and shallow person in authority, if he be a man of gravity and method, as such men often are, may do infinite evil in no long time, and before he is detected. If he is lucky enough to begin at a time of expansion of trade, he is nearly sure not to be found out till the time of contraction has arrived, and then very large figures will be required to reckon the evil he has done.

Walter Bagehot. Lombard Street. 1873.

Global Inflation Watch.

Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.

China's factory-gate prices surge at fastest in over 3 years

May 11, 2021 2:58 AM By Stella Qiu, Ryan Woo

BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s factory gate prices rose at the fastest rate in three and a half years in April, data showed on Tuesday, adding to inflation concerns as the world’s second-largest economy gathers momentum after strong growth in the first quarter.

The producer price index (PPI), a gauge of industrial profitability, rose 6.8% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said, ahead of a 6.5% rise tipped by a Reuters poll of analysts and a 4.4% rise in March.

Investors globally are increasingly worried that pandemic-driven stimulus measures could spark a rapid rise in inflation and force central banks to raise interest rates and take other tightening measures, potentially holding back economic recovery.

However, while producer prices are soaring, analysts said the rising costs were unlikely to be fully passed on to consumers. April’s consumer price index (CPI) rose by a modest 0.9% on a year earlier.

---- The sharp jump in producer prices included an 85.8% surge in oil and natural gas extraction from a year ago, while ferrous metals processing rose 30%, said Dong Lijuan, senior NBS statistician in a statement accompanying the data release.

Consumers could see some price rises ahead from a global chip shortage affecting goods such as home appliances, cars and computers, said Iris Pang, Greater China chief economist at ING.

“We believe that the chip price increase has already pushed up prices of fridges, washing machines, TVs, laptops and car prices in April, which increased 0.6%-1.0% month-on-month,” she said.

Even as producer prices surged, the consumer inflation remained mild. April’s 0.9% CPI increase was up on a 0.4% rise in March, driven mostly by gains in non-food prices as the services sector recovered. However, it missed analysts’ expectations for a 1.0% rise.

Sheng Laiyun, a deputy director at NBS, said on Friday that China’s full-year CPI is likely to be significantly below the official target of around 3%.

https://www.reuters.com/article/china-economy-inflation/update-3-chinas-factory-gate-prices-surge-at-fastest-in-over-3-years-idUSL1N2MW0LW

Iron Ore Turns ‘Very Hot’ as 10% Surge Adds to Commodities Boom

Bloomberg News

10 May 2021, 01:52 BST Updated on 10 May 2021, 06:29 BST

· Futures soar past $226 in Singapore to all-time high

· Goldman says commodities may be entering ‘Goldilocks scenario’

Iron ore futures surged more than 10% and copper jumped to a record amid growing bets they’ll be among the biggest winners from a commodities boom that’s stoking concerns about inflation around the world.

While market participants struggled to pinpoint a trigger for Monday’s gains, they cited several ongoing trends including optimism that central banks will retain supportive policies even as the global economy recovers. Expectations China will tighten environmental rules have added to the bull case for copper -- seen as vital to the green energy transition -- and fueled speculation that steelmakers may front-load iron ore purchases before new curbs kick in.

The gains add to a more than yearlong surge in raw-materials prices that has shifted into overdrive in recent weeks, with the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index climbing for 14 of the past 15 days to the highest level in almost a decade.

A “Goldilocks scenario” may be forming as strengthening global growth combines with restrained wage pressures and a dovish Federal Reserve, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. commodities analysts said in a May 7 report, the same day weak U.S. jobs figures added to the case for more stimulus. The risk for bulls -- and anyone betting on buoyant returns from stocks and bonds -- is that the surge in raw materials feeds through to broader measures of inflation and eventually forces central banks to tighten.

The iron ore sector “is very, very hot,” Vivek Dhar, commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in Bloomberg Television interview. “Supply is still not able to meet that strong demand.”

Read: Investors Bet Billions That the Metals Bull Run Isn’t Stopping

Iron ore futures in Singapore jumped to a record above $226 a ton, extending this year’s gain to about 40%. Contracts in Dalian climbed by the daily limit when the market opened. Raw materials producers led gains in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index of regional shares, while Australia’s benchmark equity index was trading near an all-time high. Iron ore is the country’s biggest export earner.

Copper, often viewed as a barometer of the global economy’s health, rose as much as 2.1% to a record $10,639 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange.

Copper remains a favorite long wager in the commodities complex, as “massive green demand is set to clash with a completely unprepared supply side,” Goldman Sachs analysts led by Sabine Schels wrote. They said the metal may rise to $11,000 a ton in 12 months and to $14,000 in 2024.

“The supply side has been overshadowed somewhat recently with this spike in prices and stimulus projects talking about electric vehicle demand and decarbonization,” Sam Spring, CEO of Kincora Copper Ltd., an exploration company, said in a phone interview. “Before Covid and the spike in the copper price, you already had the industry struggling to keep supply flat. Investment from the last commodity cycle had peaked and not many new projects had been kicked off post 2015-16.”

The iron-ore boom comes as China’s steelmakers keep output rates above 1 billion tons a year, despite a swath of production curbs aimed at reducing carbon emissions and reining in supply. Those measures have boosted steel prices and profitability at mills, allowing them to better accommodate higher iron ore costs and potentially front-load production ahead of more environmental restrictions.

Steelmakers in the rest of the world, such as ArcelorMittal SA, are also enjoying a boom as demand bounces back from pandemic lows.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-10/iron-ore-turns-very-very-hot-as-prices-jump-10-in-minutes?srnd=premium-europe

Corn Is the Latest Commodity to Soar

Prices have risen roughly 50% in 2021, and a bushel costs more than twice what it did a year ago

Updated May 10, 2021 3:11 pm ET

America’s biggest cash crop has rarely been more expensive. Corn prices have risen roughly 50% in 2021 and a bushel costs more than twice what it did a year ago.

Corn has been one of the sharpest risers in the broad rally in raw materials that is prompting companies to boost prices for goods and fueling concern among investors that inflation could hobble the post-pandemic economic recovery.

Lumber prices have shot to more than four times what is typical, pushing up home prices and obliterating renovation budgets. Copper, a cog of industry found throughout the home and in electronics, hit record prices Friday. Crude oil hasn’t cost so much since 2018 and soybeans are trading at their loftiest level since 2012.

With corn climbing toward a record, Americans can expect to pay more for all sorts of items at the grocery store as well as at the gasoline pump. Corn is a key ingredient in making products ranging from tortilla chips and chicken wings to bourbon and Coca-Cola. About 40% of the U.S. crop is blended into motor fuel.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/corn-is-the-latest-commodity-to-pop-11620644400

Visualizing the Recent Explosion in Lumber Prices

Published May 8, 2021

Lumber is an important commodity used in construction, and refers to wood that has been processed into beams or planks.

Fluctuations in its price, which is typically quoted in USD/1,000 board feet (bd ft), can significantly affect the housing industry and in turn, influence the broader U.S. economy.

To understand the impact that lumber prices can have, we’ve visualized the number of homes that can be built with $50,000 worth of lumber, one year apart.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-explosion-lumber-prices-50k/

Covid-19 Corner

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

In India’s northeast there’s fear of a virus surge to come

By WASBIR HUSSAIN and ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL May 10, 2021

GAUHATI, India (AP) — With experts saying the coronavirus is likely spreading in India’s northeastern state of Assam faster than anywhere else in the country, authorities were preparing Monday for a surge in infections by converting a massive stadium and a university into hospitals.

Cases in Assam started ticking upward a month ago and the official seven-day weekly average in the state on May 9 stood at more than 4,700 cases. But a model run by the University of Michigan — which predicts the current spread of cases before they are actually detected — says infections in Assam are likely occurring as fast as any other place in the country.

Add to that recent elections in the state — and the huge political rallies that accompanied them — and experts fear a uncontrolled surge is on the horizon.

Worryingly, along with cities in India’s northeastern frontier — which is closer to Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan than it is New Delhi — cases have also started to spike in some remote Himalayan villages in the region.

Nationwide, India’s Health Ministry reported 360,000 new cases in the past 24 hours Monday, with more than 3,700 deaths. Since the pandemic began, India has seen more than 22.6 million infections and more than 246,000 deaths —- both, experts say, almost certainly undercounts.

Officials in Assam were racing to prepare for a virus surge because similar onslaughts in infections have overwhelmed hospitals in much richer Indian states.

“We are adding 1,000 beds a week to prepare ourselves in the event of cases spiraling,” said Dr Lakshmanan S, the director of the National Health Mission in Assam.

The state’s largest government-run hospital, the Guwahati Medical College Hospital has more than doubled its number of intensive care beds to 220 and health officials are building another 200 in the hospital’s parking lot.

A football and cricket stadium is being converted into a hospital for COVID-19 patients with 430 beds. The private Royal Global University in the state capital, Gauhati, has been converted into a hospital with 1,000 beds.

----Adding to concerns is confirmation the virus has started spreading into more remote Himalayan villages with poor health infrastructure. These areas are home to indigenous tribes, whose are already face some of the lowest access to health care in the nation.

The region had largely been untouched by the virus earlier and many people behaved like COVID-19 didn’t exist. But it now appears the virus was spreading in even remote villages without people knowing until it was too late.

https://apnews.com/article/india-science-coronavirus-pandemic-health-government-and-politics-a8f84336cc5de2e729ba848f75728837

At Rs 700-Rs 1,500, price of Covid vaccine in India’s private market is among the costliest

Last Updated: May 10, 2021, 02:02 PM IST

From Rs 250, the cost of vaccines in the private sector has shot up by up to six times. It now ranges from Rs 700-900 for Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Rs 1,250-1,500 for Covaxin manufactured by Bharat Biotech (BB). The CoWIN website shows that the bulk of private-sector vaccination right now is by four big corporate hospital groups — Apollo, Max, Fortis and Manipal.

An overwhelming majority of countries are not making people pay from their own pocket for Covid vaccination. India is not only one of the few exceptions, the cost of vaccines in the private market in India is among the highest — almost $12 for getting a shot of Covishield and $17 for Covaxin.

Initially, the Centre was procuring both vaccines at Rs 150 and supplying to state governments and private hospitals. The private sector was allowed to charge Rs 100 per dose as vaccination charges. Private hospitals had agreed that Rs 100 would cover the cost of administering the vaccine. However, many hospitals are effectively charging Rs 250-300 per shot of Covishield as vaccination charges.

A Max hospital spokesperson told TOI that the landed price of Covishield was Rs 660-670, including GST and transportation and storage costs. There is 5-6% wastage due to breakage, and thus the cost of vaccine per inoculation is Rs 710-715, she added. “The vaccine administration charges include hand sanitiser, PPE kit for staff, biomedical waste disposal etc which comes to Rs 170-180. The net cost of Rs 900,” she said.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/at-rs-700-rs-1500-price-of-covid-vaccine-in-indias-private-sector-among-costliest/articleshow/82513865.cms

Australian judge upholds temporary ban on Indian travel

10 May 2021

SYDNEY (AP) — An Australian judge on Monday rejected a challenge to a temporary COVID-19 ban on citizens returning from India.

The government imposed the Indian travel ban on April 30 to relieve pressure on quarantine facilities for returned international travelers. The ban will be lifted on Friday when a government-chartered plane is expected to repatriate 150 of the 9,000 Australians in India who want to come home.

Federal Court Justice Tom Thawley dismissed the first two parts of a four-pronged challenge to the ban initiated by 73-year-old Australian Gary Newman who has been stranded since March last year in the Indian city of Bangalore.

The second two parts are based on constitutional grounds so require more notice for a court hearing than Newman’s application last week for an urgent hearing allowed.

The hearing was initiated before the government announced that six chartered flights would bring Australians home before the end of May. The government has yet to decide when commercial flights will resume.

The ban is the first time that Australia’s Biosecurity Act has been used to prevent Australians from returning home.

Newman’s lawyers had argued the ban violated a fundamental common law right of citizens to enter their country of citizenship.

Thawley ruled that the Biosecurity Act was intended to impinge on common law rights.

https://apnews.com/article/australia-india-coronavirus-pandemic-health-64870bfb1b803ccb02f97de8efa6cc42

Covid jab maker BioNTech to build SE Asia manufacturing site

Issued on: 10/05/2021 - 09:26

Covid jab maker BioNTech said Monday it would build a Southeast Asia headquarters and manufacturing site in Singapore to produce hundreds of millions of mRNA-based vaccines per year.

Construction of the site will start this year, and it could become operational by 2023, the German company said in a statement.

"With this planned mRNA production facility, we will increase our overall network capacity and expand our ability to manufacture and deliver our mRNA vaccines and therapies to people around the world," said BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin.

The vaccine produced by BioNTech jointly with Pfizer of the United States became the first Covid-19 jab to be approved for use in the West late last year.

It is now supplying more than 90 countries worldwide, and is expecting to ramp up its production to up to three billion doses by the end of the year from 2.5 billion doses expected previously.

The pace will further accelerate to more than three billion doses in 2022.

The Singapore production site will be the German company's first mRNA manufacturing facility outside Europe, and will have an estimated capacity of several hundred million doses of such vaccines.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210510-covid-jab-maker-biontech-to-build-se-asia-manufacturing-site

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/

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.

Towards 2D memory technology by magnetic graphene

Date: May 6, 2021

Source: University of Groningen

Summary: In spintronics, the magnetic moment of electrons is used to transfer and manipulate information. An ultra-compact 2D spin-logic circuitry could be built from 2D materials that can transport the spin information over long distances and provide strong spin-polarization of charge current. Experiments by physicists suggest that magnetic graphene can be the ultimate choice for these 2D spin-logic devices as it efficiently converts charge to spin current and can transfer this strong spin-polarization over long distances.

In spintronics, the magnetic moment of electrons (spin) is used to transfer and manipulate information. An ultra-compact 2D spin-logic circuitry could be built from 2D materials that can transport the spin information over long distances and also provide strong spin-polarization of charge current. Experiments by physicists at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and Colombia University (USA) suggest that magnetic graphene can be the ultimate choice for these 2D spin-logic devices as it efficiently converts charge to spin current and can transfer this strong spin-polarization over long distances. This discovery was published on 6 May in Nature Nanotechnology.

Spintronic devices are promising high-speed and energy-saving alternatives for the current electronics. These devices use the magnetic moment of electrons so-called spins ('up' or 'down') to transfer and store information. The ongoing scaling down of memory technology requires ever smaller spintronic devices and thus it seeks for atomically thin materials that can actively generate large spin signals and transfer the spin information over micrometre-long distances.

Graphene

For over a decade, graphene has been the most favourable 2D material for the transport of spin information. However, graphene cannot generate spin current by itself unless its properties are appropriately modified. One way to achieve this is to make it act as a magnetic material. The magnetism would favour the passage of one type of spin and thus create an imbalance in the number of electrons with spin-up versus spin-down. In magnetic graphene, this would result in a highly spin-polarized current.

This idea had now been experimentally confirmed by the scientists in the Physics of Nanodevices group led by prof. Bart van Wees at the University of Groningen, Zernike institute for advanced materials. When they brought graphene in close proximity to a 2D layered antiferromagnet, CrSBr, they could directly measure a large spin-polarization of current, generated by the magnetic graphene.

---- The spin transport in graphene, furthermore, is highly sensitive to the magnetic behaviour of the outer-most layer of the neighbouring antiferromagnet. This implies that such spin transport measurements enable the read-out of the magnetisation of a single atomic layer. Thus, the magnetic graphene-based devices not only address the most technologically relevant aspects of magnetism in graphene for the 2D memory and sensory systems but also provide further insight into the physics of magnetism.

The future implications of these results will be investigated in the context of the EU Graphene Flagship, which works towards new applications of graphene and 2D materials.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210506142123.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fgraphene+%28Graphene+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

What people today call inflation is not inflation, i.e., the increase in the quantity of money and money substitutes, but the general rise in commodity prices and wage rates which is the inevitable consequence of inflation.

Ludwig von Mises.

London Irvine Report

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Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Official Lies.