Baltic Dry Index. 2530 -38 Brent Crude 71.79
Spot Gold 1904
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 03/06/21 World 172,426,494
Deaths 3,706,563
The recent spike in U.S. inflation is likely transitory for now — but it could become more persistent in the coming years as more people return to work, said former New York Fed President William Dudley.
Oil, Gold, Stocks, Covid cases up, the value of Magic Money Tree fiat money down. Just another day in our new insane world of post capitalism.
We left true capitalism on August 15, 1971, for the Great Nixonian Error of fiat money, communist money. That experiment blew up on Black Monday October 19, 1987. Fed Chairman Greenspan then rigged the delayed US stock market openings, via the Chicago stock futures market opening and central bankster have had to rig the stock markets ever since.
But everything really blew up again in 2008. We’ve been living in a central bankster fantasy wonderland since 2008-2009.
But now, since March 2020, we are living in the 21st century wonderland of Magic Money Tree delusion. People are paid not to work or even look for work. Others are living rent free or mortgage free.
Populist politicians everywhere, led by US President Biden and his supporting sycophant minions, promise trillions more Magic Money Tree free cash for all, for all time. Well nearly all, if you vote the right way.
How this new, whatever system, is expected to function long term I don’t know. But short term it is about to enter rising inflation and rising lawlessness, from increasing unintended MMT consequences.
Slowly at first, but steadily increasing in pace, the race into tangible assets is underway. The old and the young and the poor will be discarded and left behind.
Existing fiat money is about to be trashed for digital fiat money, next year or the year after. It is every man for himself, though don’t expect to hear that in mainstream media.
Below, Asian markets, and a new 21st century career opening.
South Korea’s Kospi jumps 1% as Asia-Pacific markets mostly rise
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mostly higher in Thursday trade, as investors reacted to data releases in Australia and China.
South Korea’s Kospi led gains regionally as it rose 1.01% in afternoon trade.
Mainland Chinese stocks were higher by the afternoon, with the Shanghai composite rising 0.38% while the Shenzhen component advancing 0.445%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.4%.
A private survey released Thursday showed slowing Chinese services activity growth in May. The Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index for May came in at 55.1 on Thursday, lower than the reading of 56.3 in April. Still, that was well above the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction.
PMI readings above 50 represent expansion while those below that level signify contraction. PMI readings are sequential and represent month-on-month expansion or contraction.
Elsewhere in Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.47% while the Topix index advanced 0.83%.
Shares in Australia also rose, with the S&P/ASX 200 climbing 0.44%. Australia’s retail sales rose 1.1% month-on-month in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to data released Thursday by the country’s Bureau of Statistics.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.33%.
Stocks on Wall Street edged higher overnight stateside. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked a 25.07 point gain to 34,600.38 while the S&P 500 climbed 0.14% to 4,208.12. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.14% to 13,756.33.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 89.946 following a recent spike above 90.1.
The Japanese yen traded at 109.67 per dollar, weaker than levels below 109.5 seen against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7744, having climbed from levels around $0.772 yesterday.
Oil prices were higher in the afternoon of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.56% to $71.75 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained 0.52% to $69.19 per barrel.
In other news, has a new 21st century career opportunity opened. Work from home, or anywhere else for that matter.
Hacker group DarkSide operates in a similar way to a franchise, New York Times reporter says
DarkSide, the hacker group behind the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, has a business model that’s more familiar than people think, according to New York Times correspondent Andrew Kramer
“It operates something like a franchise, where individual hackers can come and receive the ransomware software and use it, as well as, use DarkSide’s reputation, as it were, to extract money from their targets, mostly in the United States,” Kramer said in an interview that aired Wednesday night.
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that’s designed to block access to a computer system. Hackers demand a ransom payment in return for restoring access. Colonial reportedly paid a $5 million ransom to DarkSide.
Kramer told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that the franchise business model enables hackers to have significantly less computer knowledge than they once needed, because they’re given ready-made software from DarkSide.
“You do one small part of it, and the rest of it can be bought off the shelf,” Kramer said.
Ransomware attack disrupts ferry ticketing to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket
June 2, 2021 / 7:51 PM
June 2 (UPI) -- A ransomware attack disrupted the ticket-buying process for a ferry service to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Mass., on Wednesday.
The Steamship Authority said the cyberattack affected customers' ability to book tickets or change reservations online or by phone, an interruption that's likely to last through Thursday morning.
The service said customers can purchase tickets at terminals, and cash is the preferred method of payment.
"Scheduled trips to and from the islands continue to operate safely as scheduled, although some delays in the ticketing process may occur," the Steamship Authority said on Twitter.
"The Steamship Authority continues to work with our team internally, as well as with local, state, and federal officials externally, to address today's ransomware incident. At this point, we are unable to release or confirm specific details of what occurred."
The company said the attack didn't pose a safety risk because it didn't affect radar or GPS abilities.
More
Next, yet another SoftBank winner that isn’t.
SoftBank-Funded Silicon Valley Unicorn Katerra, which was to “Transform” the Construction Industry, Collapses
by Wolf Richter • Jun 1, 2021
Thousands of workers laid off. $2.2 billion up in smoke. 2nd SoftBank unicorn to collapse this year before getting to the IPO or SPAC window, after Greensill, which it helped take down.
“Incremental progress isn’t enough – we are pursuing transformational change on a massive scale,” says the LinkedIn profile of Katerra, a six-year-old Silicon Valley unicorn startup. “Katerra exists to help transform construction through technology – every process and every product,” it says. It had received about $2.2 billion in funding, largely from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, to disrupt the commercial construction industry “through technology,” as it says.
But it’s shutting down and will lay off the remaining employees – it once had as many as 8,500 employees before the layoffs started – and abandon numerous construction projects that it had agreed to build, according to sources cited by The Information.
The executive that informed employees on June 1 in a video call of the shutdown and layoffs told them that the company didn’t have enough cash for severance packages or unused paid time off. The executive blamed the out-of-money moment on the effects of the Pandemic and the rising costs of labor and construction materials, according to The Information.
Katerra was in the business of modular commercial construction – apartment buildings, office buildings, and other commercial buildings, with the goal of “transforming construction through innovation of process and technology,” as it still says on its website.
This type of big commercial building is where modular construction is the most promising, but with enormous pitfalls.
So it says that its “Katerra Building Platforms take the risk out of construction by applying the principles of repeatable manufacturing to entire buildings. Katerra buildings are made from manufactured assemblies and components; including wall and floor panels, casework, bathroom and kitchen kits, and more,” it says. But the risks are not at all taken out.
Michael Marks, Katerra’s co-founder and CEO was fired in May 2020. Paal Kibsgaard, former CEO of Schlumberger, and the COO of Katerra at the time, was named the new CEO. He stepped down in May 2021. And Katerra is currently being run by folks from the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, according to The Information.
This is the second major SoftBank backed company to collapse this year before reaching the IPO window; the first being Greensill, the supply-chain finance giant that collapsed and filed for insolvency in March. Its German bank was taken over by banking regulators, amid allegations of missing funds.
Credit Suisse, which packaged Greensill’s supply-chain-finance notes into funds that it sold to investors as low-risk money-market-style investments – including $435 million in notes by Katerra – is now having a lot of heartburn, as are the investors in the funds.
Yet, last December, months before its own collapse, Greensill was shanghaied by SoftBank into bailing out Katerra to avert a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. As part of the bailout, Greensill forgave Katerra $435 million in supply-chain debt in exchange for about 5% of the company’s worthless equity.
SoftBank plowed another $200 million into Katerra, after having already plowed $200 million in bailout funds into it in May that year, at the time Kibsgaard was named CEO. And that was enough to cashflow Katerra through May 2021. But that’s it.
One collapsing Vision-Fund-backed company bailing out another Vision-Fund-backed company and then both collapsing in sequence is a dubious practice, but apparently no big deal in the world of SoftBank’s unicorns.
More
Finally, on the one hand, US and global inflation may be “transitory,” while on the other hand it may be “more persistent,” according to ex-Fedster "Dud" Dudley.
I don’t think we’ll have to wait for his “in the coming years,” self-serving hedge. How about starting in 2021 and lasting only through 2025, and only if we’re lucky?
U.S. inflation is transitory but could become more persistent, says ex-Fed official Dudley
Published Wed, Jun 2 2021 1:39 AM EDT
The recent spike in U.S. inflation is likely transitory for now — but it could become more persistent in the coming years as more people return to work, said former New York Fed President William Dudley.
“I think that the scare right now is probably going to abate a bit as we go through the next year, but I think in the long run, are we going to see inflation ... above 2%? I think the Fed is going to succeed in doing that,” Dudley told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” Wednesday.
Inflation has been a major focus in recent weeks. Investors are worried that a quicker rise in consumer prices would prompt the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates earlier than expected. The U.S. consumer price index rose 4.2% in April from a year ago — the sharpest increase since September 2008.
The Fed had previously indicated that it’s willing to let inflation run above the 2% target for some time before raising rates.
More
“Give me a one-handed Economist. All my economists say 'on one hand...', then 'but on the other...”
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 Inflation Could Be the World's Problem
How the country deals with surging input costs will have far-reaching implications for global growth and prices.
By John Authers June 2, 2021As the start of the month brings its usual deluge of data, it may be best to look first to the East. China has an inflation issue of its own, and it could drive the rest of the world.
The country’s latest PMI survey of supply managers showed that the number concerned about rising input prices was the highest in a decade:
Unlike previous periods of heavy producer price inflation, however, this time there is no particular expansion in consumer prices as yet. The gap between China’s PPI and CPI is its highest since the early 1990s:
Logically, this can only be dealt with in two ways. Either companies can increase prices, meaning higher consumer price inflation in due course (classic cost-push), or they can eat the higher input costs, and suffer a fall in profits. Neither option is appetizing. It should be no surprise that prices are rising, however: Last year saw massive Chinese demand for industrial metals, as the leadership pressed the customary pedals to reignite growth. This chart shows the volume of aluminum and copper imports over the last two decades:
In terms of the amounts of metals consumed, then, this was a boom even greater than the splurge of spending with which China helped lift itself (and much of the rest of the world) out of the global financial crisis in 2009.
How might the Chinese authorities deal with this situation? One logical approach would be to try to clamp down on commodity speculation, which they did last week. Another would be to let the currency appreciate. This would make import prices cheaper, and thus reduce inflation. It would also attract funds and goods to China. The last year has indeed seen a dramatic rise in the renminbi. As the following chart from Gavekal Research shows, it has done this even though the global economic situation remains volatile and uncertain. In previous times of heightened economic tension, the authorities decided that discretion was the better part of valor and kept the currency stable:
All else equal, a stronger Chinese currency means a weaker U.S. dollar, with all that that entails. Most importantly, for now, this could portend a period in which China exports inflation to the rest of the world, just as it arguably exported deflation in the 1990s and 2000s when the entry of the nation’s workforce to the world market at an artificially cheap exchange rate helped keep a check on prices everywhere else.
More
One way companies are concealing higher prices: Smaller packages
, June 1, 2021Updated: June 1, 2021 6:45 a.m.
Consumers are paying more for a growing range of household staples in ways that don't show up on receipts - thinner rolls, lighter bags, smaller cans - as companies look to offset rising labor and materials costs without scaring off customers.
It's a form of retail camouflage known as "shrinkflation," and economists and consumer advocates who track packaging expect it to become more pronounced as inflation ratchets up, taking hold of such everyday items such as paper towels, potato chips and diapers.
"Consumers check the price every time they buy, but they don't check the net weight," said Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts, who has been tracking product sizes for more than 30 years. "When the price of raw materials, like coffee beans or paper pulp goes up, manufacturers are faced with a choice: Do we raise the price knowing consumers will see it and grumble about it? Or do we give them a little bit less and accomplish the same thing? Often it's easier to do the latter."
Such cutbacks, economists say, typically coincide with economic downturns, when shoppers tend to be more mindful of cost. There was similar product shrinkage during the 2008 recession, according to John Gourville, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School.
The latest round of downsizing comes as Wall Street is on high alert for signs of sustained inflation. The combination of super-low interest rates and aggressive fiscal spending under the Biden administration has led some economists, including former treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, to warn of possible economic overheating.
More
Eurozone Inflation Above Target Sooner Than The ECB Expected
The sharp acceleration in inflation has been driven by surging energy prices, and central bankers expect it to be temporary
June 1, 2021 7:06 pm ET
The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone rose in May to hit the European Central Bank’s target for the first time since late 2018, as energy prices surged in response to a strengthening recovery in the global economy.
The pickup in price rises comes before a June 10 meeting of policy makers at the eurozone’s central bank, which will consider new economic forecasts and whether to continue stimulus programs launched early in the pandemic.
The central bank’s March forecasts saw inflation reaching 2% only in the final three months of this year. But figures released by the European Union’s statistics office Tuesday showed that inflation had already reached that level.
The central bank targets an inflation rate of just under 2%.
Consumer prices were falling as recently as December.
More
The Wall Street Players Who Worry Inflation Heralds Wild Markets
Investors bet that a coming surge of inflation will change 30 years of market behavior
June 1, 2021 5:30 am ET
Some investors are preparing for wild swings in financial markets, worried that inflation, and the Federal Reserve’s pledge to let it rise, will lead to a more volatile world.
The reason: The economic policies aiming to create inflation now are the opposite of the ones that kept markets relatively stable for decades.
Simplify Asset Management recently launched the Interest Rate Hedge ETF, which will seek to take advantage of what its backers see as a titanic shift in markets and is designed specifically to gain from rising longer-term Treasury yields.
The ETF, run by Harley Bassman, a former Merrill Lynch trader who developed a widely followed measure of bond-market volatility known as the MOVE index, will put half its cash in intermediate Treasurys and half in seven-year options referencing a 20-year interest rate of 4.25%. Those options should appreciate as long-term interest rates rise.
More
My daughter asked me when she came home from school, "What's the financial crisis?" and I said, it's something that happens every five to seven years.
Jamie Dimon. CEO JP Morgan.
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Delta Covid variant first found in India spreads to 62 countries, hot spots form in Asia and Africa, WHO says
The Covid-19 variant first detected in India in October has now spread to at least 62 countries as outbreaks surge across Asia and Africa — despite a 15% week-over-week drop in cases across the globe, according to the World Health Organization.
“We continue to observe significantly increased transmissibility and a growing number of countries reporting outbreaks associated with this variant,” the WHO said of the Delta strain, noting that further study was a high priority.
The WHO changed the name of the variant to Delta in order to simplify its scientific name, B.1.617.2. The new naming system for Covid variants, after letters of the Greek alphabet, also avoids stigmatizing countries that detect new strains.
The P.1 variant, now named Gamma, which was first detected in Japan in people who had traveled from Brazil, has spread to 64 countries, according to the WHO.
Even countries with high vaccination rates are seeing a rise in cases over the last week or two, “so no one is out of the woods,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program said in a Q&A hosted by the WHO on Wednesday across social media platforms.
In Bahrain, where about 55% of the population is inoculated with at least one dose, Covid cases have been spiking since the beginning of May, reaching the highest level of daily reported cases since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Our World in Data.
“Relaxation of public health and social measures, increased social mobility, virus variants and inequitable vaccination are a very dangerous combination,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said in explaining some of the recent surges.
The Western Pacific region is reporting its highest levels of Covid cases and deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the agency’s weekly update. The region reported more than 139,000 new cases in the past week, a 6% increase from the previous week. The highest number of new cases in the region was reported in Myanmar, which had 53,419 new cases in the past week. The highest number of deaths in the region was reported in the Philippines, which had 776 deaths in the past week.
More
Israel sees probable link between Pfizer vaccine and myocarditis cases
June 2, 20218:51 AM BST
A vial and syringe are seen in front of a displayed Pfizer logo in this illustration taken January 11, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Israel’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday it had found the small number of heart inflammation cases observed mainly in young men who received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in Israel were likely linked to their vaccination.
Pfizer has said it has not observed a higher rate of the condition, known as myocarditis, than would normally be expected in the general population.
In Israel, 275 cases of myocarditis were reported between December 2020 and May 2021 among more than 5 million vaccinated people, the ministry said in disclosing the findings of a study it commissioned to examine the matter.
Most patients who experienced heart inflammation spent no more than four days in the hospital and 95% of the cases were classified as mild, according to the study, which the ministry said was conducted by three teams of experts.
The study found "there is a probable link between receiving the second dose (of Pfizer) vaccine and the appearance of myocarditis among men aged 16 to 30," it said in a statement.
According to the findings, such a link was observed more among men aged 16 to 19 than in other age groups.
Pfizer said in a statement that it is aware of the Israeli observations of myocarditis, noting that no causal link to its vaccine has been established.
More
WHO authorizes Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use
June 2, 2021 / 2:15 AM
June 2 (UPI) -- The World Health Organization has granted emergency use authorization of the Chinese manufactured Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for those 18 years of age and older.
The WHO announced its validation of the two-shot regimen by Beijing-based pharmaceutical Sinovac in a statement Tuesday, informing countries, procuring agencies and communities that the drug is safe and meets international standards.
The WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization said following a review of the vaccine that it has recommended it for use in adults 18 years and older, with the two doses to be administered between two and four weeks apart.
"The world desperately needs multiple COVID-19 vaccines to address the huge access inequity across the globe," said Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO's assistant-director general for access to health products.
RELATED Study: Vaccination won't make long-haul COVID-19 symptoms worse
The emergency use listing also makes the drug available to the WHO-led COVAX facility, which seeks equitable access to vaccines, for supply and international procurement while signaling other countries to consider giving it national approval for use.
The Sinovac drug has shown an efficacy rate of 51% in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 illness but a 100% efficacy at preventing severe illness and hospitalization, according to clinical trial results.
---- The WHO also said that since it is an inactive vaccine it is easy to store, making it suitable for low-resource setting.
---- The Sinovac vaccine becomes the second Chinese made drug and eighth total recommended for emergency use by the WHO since Jan. 8 when it signed off on Pfizer.
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.
Ultra-thin lithium offers a solid platform for high-capacity batteries
Nick Lavars June 01, 2021
Scientists in South Korea have made a breakthrough in battery research that could help us bust through a key bottleneck in energy storage. The team's advance overcomes a technical issue that has held back highly promising lithium-metal battery architecture and could pave the way for batteries with as much as 10 times the capacity of today's devices.
The reason lithium-metal batteries hold so much promise is because of the excellent energy density of pure lithium metal. Scientists hope to swap out the graphite used for the anode in today's lithium batteries for this "dream material," though this comes with some complicated problems to solve.
One of the key issues relates to needle-like structures called dendrites, which form on the anode surface as the battery is charged. These penetrate the barrier between the anode and the battery's other electrode, the cathode, and quickly cause the battery to short-circuit, fail, or even catch fire.
Much research in this area therefore centers on preventing the formation of dendrites, and we've seen some promising and creative solutions. Many of these focus on the formation of a protective interface between the anode and the battery's electrolyte, which carries the charge back and forth between the electrodes as it cycles. A "battery butter," special additives or even batteries that build their own protective layers are a few notable examples.
----Lee and his colleagues have approached this problem by using lithium metal powder as a starting point, which creates a higher surface area and enables the creation of thin and wide electrodes. One shortcoming of this technique, however, has been the uneven nature of the surface, which again leads the battery to failure.
The solution, the DGIST scientists have found, may lie in the addition of lithium nitrate. Pre-planting the compound during the fabrication process allowed the team to create ultra-thin lithium-metal anodes with a smooth and uniform interface layer on the surface. This proved to keep the battery stable over 450 charging cycles, in which it retained 87 percent of its capacity and exhibited a coulombic efficiency of 96 percent.
"We expect that pre-planting lithium stabilized additives into the LMP electrode would be a stepping-stone towards the commercialization of large-scale lithium-metal, lithium-sulfur, and lithium-air batteries with high specific energy and long cycle life," says Lee.
The research was published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.
https://newatlas.com/energy/ultra-thin-lithium-metal-batteries/
Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it.
Harry Truman.
No comments:
Post a Comment