The big news this morning is Belarus forcing down a commercial passenger plane to arrest a wanted dissident. Shock, horror scandal throughout the west, conveniently forgetting that it was President Obama who started this “game” back on July 1, 2013. For more, see the last articles in this section.

Sadly, I get the impression, the west, NATO, Russia and China are sleepwalking through the 21^st century version of 1913-1914.

Asia shares wary of U.S. inflation, Bitcoin tries to steady

May 24, 2021 1:29 AM By Wayne Cole

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian shares got off to a cautious start on Monday as investors awaited key U.S. inflation readings for guidance on monetary policy, while Bitcoin tried to steady after being hammered on news of China’s crackdown on mining and trading of the cryptocurrency.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.4% in slow trade. Japan’s Nikkei added 0.2% and Chinese blue chips lost 0.5%.

Nasdaq futures were flat and S&P 500 futures firmed 0.2%. EUROSTOXX 50 futures and FTSE futures added 0.1%.

After surveys of the global service sectors out on Friday showed spectacular growth, all eyes will be on U.S. personal consumption and inflation figures this week.

A high reading for the core inflation figures would ring alarms and could revive talk of an early tapering by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The diary has a crowd of Fed speakers this week, including the influential Fed Board Governor Lael Brainard, and markets will be keen to hear if they stick to the script on being patient with policy.

BofA’s monthly Fund Manager survey found a record high 69% of respondents expected above trend economic growth and inflation globally.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets/asia-shares-wary-of-u-s-inflation-bitcoin-tries-to-steady-idUSKCN2D500K

Bitcoin resumes sell-off over weekend, falls below $32,000

Published Sun, May 23 20219:55 AM EDT Updated 5 Hours Ago

The bitcoin sell-off continued Sunday following a roller-coaster week of trading, as authorities in China and the U.S. move to tighten regulation and tax compliance on cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin fell roughly 16% to $31,772.43 by 12:27 p.m. ET, according to Coin Metrics data.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency on Friday afternoon traded at $35,891.20.

Bitcoin’s recent sell-off is a major reversal for the cryptocurrency, which appeared to be gaining traction among major Wall Street banks and publicly traded companies. This month, however, bitcoin has been hit by a series of negative headlines from major influencers and regulators.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who helped fuel bullish sentiment when his company bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin, delivered a blow earlier this month when he announced that the automaker had suspended vehicle purchases using the cryptocurrency over environmental concerns.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/23/bitcoin-resumes-selloff-over-weekend-briefly-falls-below-33000.html

Robert Shiller: ‘Wild west’ mentality is gripping housing, stocks and crypto

Published Sun, May 23 2021 5:00 PM EDT

Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller is worried a bubble is forming in some of the market’s hottest trades.

He’s notably concerned about housing, stocks and cryptocurrencies, where he sees a “wild west” mentality among investors.

“I haven’t done that in print. I’ve been saying that,” the Yale University professor told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Friday.

Even though the record run in stocks and cryptos have been taking a break over the past couple of weeks, Shiller is worried. He’s particularly uneasy about the latest housing boom.

“In real terms, the home prices have never been so high. My data goes back over 100 years, so this is something,” said Shiller, co-founder of the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index. “I don’t think that the whole thing is explained by central bank policy. There is something about the sociology of markets that’s happening.”

Over the past three decades, Shiller finds home prices seem to be driving housing starts. He’s seeing the pattern emerge again, and highlights it in a special chart.

“We have a lot of upward momentum now. So, waiting a year probably won’t bring house prices down,” Shiller said.

According to Shiller, current home price action is also reminiscent of 2003, two years before the slide began. He notes the dip happened gradually and ultimately crashed around the 2008 financial crisis.

---- Shiller, an expert in how our emotions drive financial decisions and author of “Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events,” also sees mass psychology playing a big role in the epic stock market rebound.

Since the March 2020 low, the S&P 500 and Dow are up almost 90% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up just over 100%.

Shiller, who viewed stocks as highly priced going into the year, warns inflation fears could ultimately push long-term assets lower.

Crypto’s ‘ultimate source of value is so ambiguous’

The cryptocurrency market is putting Shiller on alert, too.

“That’s a very psychological market. It’s impressive technology,” Shiller said. “But the ultimate source of value is so ambiguous that it has a lot to do with our narratives rather than reality.”

Even Shiller has been tempted.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/23/robert-shiller-sees-wild-west-in-housing-stock-and-crypto-markets.html

Finally, whose idea was it to start forcing down planes to arrest people in 2013? Hint, who was USA President in July 2013. It wasn’t a good idea in 2013 and it isn’t a good idea now.

USA, NATO, and GB and EU Pots call Belarus Kettle black.

Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.

John Kenneth Galbraith.

Evo Morales grounding incident

On 1 July 2013, president Evo Morales of Bolivia, who had been attending a conference of gas-exporting countries in Russia, gave an interview to the RT television network in which he appeared predisposed to offer asylum to Edward Snowden.^[1] Snowden had fled the United States a month earlier after his disclosure of secret, widespread surveillance by the NSA, for which he faced criminal charges in the United States.

The day after his TV interview, Morales's Dassault Falcon 900, carrying him back to Bolivia from Russia, took off from Vnukovo Airport, but was rerouted to Austria when France, Spain, Portugal and Italy^[2] reportedly denied access to their airspace, allegedly due to suspicions that Snowden was on board.^[3] Snowden was in fact still in Sheremetyevo Airport, where he had been staying since arriving in Russia a week earlier.

----Austria's deputy chancellor, Michael Spindelegger, said that the plane was searched, although the Bolivian Defense Minister denied a search took place, saying Morales had denied entry to his plane.^[4][5] The refusals for entry into French, Spanish, and Italian airspace ostensibly for "technical reasons", strongly denounced by Bolivia, Ecuador, and other South American nations, were attributed to rumors disseminated allegedly by the US that Snowden was on board.^[6][7] Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José García-Margallo, publicly stated that they were told he was on board but did not specify as to who had informed them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident

Belarus forces airliner to land and arrests opponent, sparking U.S. and European outrage

May 23, 2021 2:42 PM By Andrey Ostroukh, Andrius Sytas

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Belarusian authorities scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force a Ryanair plane to land on Sunday and then detained an opposition-minded journalist who was on board, drawing condemnation from Europe and the United States.

In what was described by some EU leaders as a hijacking, the passenger plane flying from Athens to Lithuania was suddenly diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, escorted there by a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet. On its landing, authorities took journalist Roman Protasevich into custody.

Protasevich had his head in his hands and was shaking when he realised the flight was headed for Minsk, Lithuania’s Delfi news outlet said, quoting a passenger. Later, as he was led away, according to the report, he remarked: “I’ll get the death penalty here.” Reuters could not verify the report.

The 26-year-old journalist worked for Poland-based online news service NEXTA, which broadcast footage of mass protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko last year via the Telegram messenger app at a time when it was hard for foreign media to do so.

Protasevich who now works for a different Telegram channel called Belamova, is wanted in Belarus on extremism charges and stands accused of organising mass riots and of inciting social hatred, allegations he denies.

Data from the flightradar24.com website showed the plane was diverted just two minutes before it was due to cross into Lithuanian airspace. After seven hours on the ground, the plane took off and finally landed in Vilnius where Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte was waiting to meet the passengers.

As European officials threatened new sanctions on Belarus, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the forced landing and arrest a “shocking act,” demanded Protasevich’s immediate release and said President Joe Biden’s administration was “coordinating with our partners on next steps.”

EU member state Lithuania, where Protasevich is based, urged the European Union and NATO to respond.

‘ACT OF PIRACY’

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez issued a statement with the heads of seven European parliamentary foreign affairs panels denouncing the forced landing as “an act of piracy.” They called for a ban on all overflights of Belarus, including to and from the country, and for NATO and EU states to impose sanctions and suspend Belarus’ “ability to use Interpol.”

Blinken demanded a “full investigation” of an action he said endangered the lives of the passengers, including U.S. citizens.

“Given indications the forced landing was based on false pretenses, we support the earliest possible meeting of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization to review these events,” he said in a statement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-politics/belarus-forces-airliner-to-land-and-arrests-opponent-sparking-u-s-and-european-outrage-idUSKCN2D40BQ

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

George Orwell.

Global Inflation Watch.

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

The World Economy Is Suddenly Running Low on Everything

‘It is anything but efficient or normal.’ Surging corporate demand is upending global supply chains.

A year ago, as the pandemic ravaged country after country and economies shuddered, consumers were the ones panic-buying. Today, on the rebound, it’s companies furiously trying to stock up.

Mattress producers to car manufacturers to aluminum foil makers are buying more material than they need to survive the breakneck speed at which demand for goods is recovering and assuage that primal fear of running out. The frenzy is pushing supply chains to the brink of seizing up. Shortages, transportation bottlenecks and price spikes are nearing the highest levels in recent memory, raising concern that a supercharged global economy will stoke inflation.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-17/inflation-rate-2021-and-shortages-companies-panic-buying-as-supplies-run-short?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

Meat Eaters Hit Hardest as Inflation Sweeps U.S. Grocery Aisles

Anne Riley Moffat Fri, May 21, 2021, 7:31 PM

(Bloomberg) -- Inflation is landing in America’s refrigerators -- and it’s hitting meat-eaters most of all.

About one in three U.S. adults say they’re spending more on groceries than they were at the start of 2021, according to a Morning Consult survey of 2,200 U.S. adults conducted May 17 to 19 for Bloomberg News. Red meat was the ingredient cited most often for its higher prices, with chicken right behind.

Food inflation has been inching up for months, driven by soaring commodity costs, costlier transportation and challenges securing labor. Rising demand for meat, from home cooks as well as from the booming fast-food industry, has buoyed prices, too.

“We’ve got these pockets of inflation without having corresponding wage growth, and that’s going to put consumers in a really tough spot,” Morning Consult economist John Leer said in an interview.

To save money on their rising grocery bills, about a quarter of U.S. shoppers say they have started buying fewer items overall during the pandemic, including less meat.

Rising grocery bills also appear to disproportionately impact shoppers of color. More than 40% of Hispanic and Black respondents reported higher grocery costs since the start of the year, while most White Americans reported no change in spending.

Leer said that’s likely because minority communities have been hit harder by the pandemic, including job cuts, meaning those shoppers are more likely to swap restaurant spending for more economical grocery shopping, resulting in higher grocery bills but lower overall food costs.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meat-eaters-hit-hardest-inflation-183156184.html

The federal government puts out a ‘help wanted’ notice as Biden seeks to undo Trump cuts

Lisa Rein May 21 2021

The Federal Bureau of Prisons, its staff depleted by Trump-era hiring freezes, is advertising for thousands of jobs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is bringing on dozens of lawyers after being gutted by four years of budget cuts. The Agriculture Department is moving to replace hundreds of scientists who fled or were forced out by the last administration.

At the Justice Department, officials are looking to hire civil rights attorneys — and the Energy Department is recruiting for senior energy efficiency and renewable energy roles that went unfilled when Donald Trump was president.

That’s a fraction of the growth in the federal bureaucracy that the Biden administration would like to see, according to a $1.5 trillion preliminary budget the White House released in April, which directs billions of dollars into hiring to help curb climate change, restore enforcement of environmental and workplace laws, and expand safety net programs in housing, education, public health and veterans’ health.

President Biden vowed during his campaign to restore faith in a federal bureaucracy his predecessor villainized as an unaccountable “deep state” — and with debate stirring in Congress on $6 trillion in spending proposed by the White House, that shift now involves persuading Americans to embrace a bigger government.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-federal-government-puts-out-a-help-wanted-notice-as-biden-seeks-to-undo-trump-cuts/ar-AAKehUY

Green Finance Goes Mainstream, Lining Up Trillions Behind Global Energy Transition

After years of intermittent excitement and fizzled expectations, environmental-oriented investing is no longer just a niche interest

May 22, 2021 12:00 am ET

Some of the world’s biggest companies and deepest-pocketed investors are lining up trillions of dollars to finance a shift away from fossil fuels.

Assets in investment funds focused partly on the environment reached almost $2 trillion globally in the first quarter, more than tripling in three years. Investors are putting $3 billion a day into these funds. More than $5 billion worth of bonds and loans designed to fund green initiatives are now issued every day. The two biggest U.S. banks pledged $4 trillion in climate-oriented financing over the next decade.

“We’ve reached the tipping point and beyond,” said James Chapman, chief financial officer at Dominion Energy Inc., D 1.28% one of the country’s biggest utilities. Dominion, which has begun issuing green bonds, is planning to spend $26 billion or more on clean energy such as wind and solar in the next five years.

---- After years of intermittent excitement followed by fizzled expectations, green finance is now looking less like the niche interest of socially conscious investors and more like a sustainable gold rush. Driven by surging valuations for electric-vehicle companies such as Tesla Inc. TSLA -1.01% and startup battery producers, banks and investors are betting the transition from fossil fuels is here to stay, and that they can make money by getting behind it, further entrenching the shift.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/green-finance-goes-mainstream-lining-up-trillions-behind-global-energy-transition-11621656039?mod=mhp

Covid-19 Corner

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

Wuhan lab staff sought hospital care before COVID-19 outbreak disclosed: WSJ

May 23, 2021 10:59 PM By Reuters Staff

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report.

The newspaper said the report - which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory.

The report came on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization’s decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

A National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the Journal’s report but said the Biden administration continued to have “serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China.”

She said the U.S. government was working with the WHO and other member states to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic’s origins “that is free from interference or politicization.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-china/wuhan-lab-staff-sought-hospital-care-before-covid-19-outbreak-disclosed-wsj-idUSKCN2D40KX

Latin America and Caribbean surpass million Covid-19 deaths

Issued on: 22/05/2021

More than one million people have died of Covid-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to an AFP count based on official figures as of Friday at 2105 GMT.

The region has also recorded more than 31.5 million infections.

More than 90 percent of deaths have been registered in just five countries that account for 70 percent of the region's population: Brazil (446,309 dead), Mexico (221,080), Colombia (83,233), Argentina (73,391) and Peru (67,253).

"The lives of a million people have been cut short because of Covid-19. This is a tragic milestone for all of the region's inhabitants," said Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

"This pandemic is far from over and is hitting Latin America hard, affecting our health, economies and entire societies. However, only three percent of our population has been vaccinated."

Brazil continues to record the largest number of new daily deaths with an average of almost 2,000 this week, although that's a one-third drop from six weeks ago when it surpassed 3,000.

Mexico has made even better progress, dropping from 1,300 daily deaths at the end of January to an average of 170.

At the other end of the spectrum, Bolivia and Ecuador have seen daily deaths increase by 44 percent and 35 percent respectively over the last week.

Etienne blamed the slow vaccine rollout in the region for the problems.

More than 153.5 million people in the Americas have been vaccinated against Covid-19, PAHO said, but only 21.6 percent of those have been in Latin America and the Caribbean.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210521-latin-america-and-caribbean-surpass-million-covid-19-deaths

Indian villagers turn to unlicensed clinics as COVID spreads to the countryside

by Reuters Saturday, 22 May 2021 15:38 GMT

PARSAUL VILLAGE, India, May 22 (Reuters) - An Indian former hospital worker with no medical education is running a small unlicensed clinic, tending to patients with breathing difficulties and checking their oxygen levels as they lie on cots on the mud floor.

India has been hard hit by a second wave of coronavirus infections which has overwhelmed its health system, even in big cities.

In the countryside, medical facilities are dilapidated and doctors and nurses are few on the ground, meaning many clinics are run by people who don't have training.

The poor health infrastructure and lack of testing means many patients do not know if they are infected with COVID-19 or just have a cold.

In Parsaul village, about 60 km (40 miles) from the capital New Delhi, villager Ashok said people in his area were afraid to step out of their houses. He suspects that coronavirus had killed around 15 people nearby in recent days.

Ashok has come with a patient who had fever to the clinic run by a 52-year-old former hospital assistant who moves from one cot to another to check IV levels. Empty intravenous drips lie piled up under a brick-walled staircase.

"Patients with fever and breathing problems have increased in the last two months," said the former assistant, who said he had been helping patients at his clinic since 1993 but did not wish to be identified as he feared a backlash from authorities.

"The people from nearby six or seven villages know me personally and trust me."

Some patients wore face masks lying on cots, while others had their faces covered with clothing.

Bubli, 30, visited the clinic to get treatment for fever.

"No, she doesn't have COVID, it's just a fever," Bubli's husband told Reuters. "...We are scared of COVID, but going out to a big hospital is more dangerous."

Total infections in the country stood at 26.3 million on Saturday, the second highest in the world after the United States, while the country's total death toll was 295,525.

https://news.trust.org/item/20210522143050-gqwxx

Study: 10% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients return for care after discharge

May 21, 2021 / 10:53 AM

May 21 (UPI) -- More than 1 in 10 patients discharged from the hospital following treatment for COVID-19 return within 30 days due to lingering or recurring symptoms of infection, a study published Friday by GeroScience found.

Nearly 25% needed hospital-level care within four months of initial discharge, the data showed.

More than 40% of patients who required hospital care a second time after coronavirus infection had a history of neurological disorders, such as epilepsy, stroke, dementia, migraines, spinal stenosis and peripheral neuropathy before their COVID-19 diagnosis, the researchers said.

"We were surprised to find that a history of neurologic disorders was the only [previous health condition] that predicted an increased risk for recurrent medical complications that required hospital-level care," study co-author Dr. Eric Liotta said in a press release.

"Neither age, need for mechanical ventilation during COVID-19, nor length of the COVID-19 hospitalization, predicted having a hospital reencounter," said Liotta, neuro-critical care specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

More than 33.1 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and nearly 590,000 have died from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University.

However, about 14% of those who have recovered from the virus continue to have persistent symptoms up to nine months later, a study published by JAMA Network Open in February found.

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/05/21/coronavirus-lingering-symptoms-study/9271621602154/

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.

Forget hydrogen fuel cell cars, says Volkswagen. VW bursts hydrogen's bubble.

VW CEO says fuel cell cars 'not the answer' to emissions-free mobility

May 20, 2021 12:00 AM

BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess said hydrogen fuel cell cars are not the answer to future emissions free driving.

“The hydrogen car is proven NOT to be the climate solution,” Diess wrote on Twitter. “In transport, electrification has prevailed. Bogus debates are a waste of time. Please listen to the science!”

He directed the statement at the Twitter handles of those running to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the office of chancellor this autumn, including Armin Laschet, leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Olaf Scholz, the country’s finance minister, and Green Party candidate Annalena Baerbock.

Diess's tweet also tagged Andreas Scheuer, German Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, and included a link to an article in the German business newspaper Handelsblatt reporting on a study backing Diess’s claims.

The study was conducted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The report came to the conclusion that developing hydrogen-based passenger cars would be harmful to the climate, at least for the time being.

Researchers at PIK said hydrogen-based fuels are inefficient, costly, and the availability of the raw materials needed is unreliable, recommending electric battery-based vehicles be the focus of a green mobility strategy.

In an interview published on May 6, Romain Sacchi, a member of the PKI study team, told The Guardian if produced with the current electricity mixes in Europe, hydrogen-based fuels would increase – not decrease – greenhouse gas emissions, compared with using fossil fuels.

VW has repeatedly spoken out against hydrogen as an option for the near future. In a March interview with the Financial Times, Diess claimed hydrogen fuel cell technology would never be efficient enough for widespread use.

https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/vw-ceo-says-fuel-cell-cars-not-answer-emissions-free-mobility

“No one can get up much enthusiasm for a Government which puts you in jail if you open your mouth”

George Orwell.

London Irvine Report

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Monday, 24 May 2021

West’s Pot Calls East’s Kettle Black.

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.”