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Biden said people should not worry about Washington's military strength because "China, Russia and the rest of the world knows we're the most powerful military in the history of the world."
President Biden, October 21, 2021.
Did President Biden really mean to commit the USA into a war with China yesterday? Did he misspeak?
How many cities on each side, is each side willing to lose in order to “win?” Were any allies consulted in advance?
For more on President Biden’s seemingly casual, all but declaration of war with China over Taiwan, scroll down to this section’s last articles.
Asian tech shares jump, China property stocks rally as Evergrande makes payment
October 22, 2021 4:22 AM BST
TOKYO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Tech stocks climbed in Asia on Friday, following U.S. peers higher, while Chinese property stocks rallied following a surprise interest payment by debt-ridden property developer China Evergrande Group.
Meanwhile cyclical stocks dragged amid worries that central bankers will need to tighten monetary policy into slowing growth in order to tackle persistent inflation.
Regional bond yields rose with those on U.S. Treasuries, where the market priced in higher inflation by narrowing the spread between short- and long-term yields, and pushing breakeven rates to the highest since 2012.
The dollar held gains from overnight - when it rose the most since the start of last week against major peers - as better jobs and housing data boosted the case for a faster tapering of Federal Reserve stimulus and earlier interest rate hikes.
Japan's Nikkei (.N225) rose 0.7% led by technology shares, while energy shares were the biggest drag. The broader Topix (.TOPX) added 0.3%, with a 0.6% jump in the Topix growth index (.TOPXG) handily outpacing a 0.1% advance for the value index (.TOPXV).
Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) gained 0.3%, with the CSI300 Real Estate Index (.CSI000952) rising 2.5%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng (.HSI) rose 0.4%, as an index tracking Hong Kong-listed mainland developers (.HSMPI) rallied 4.3%.
Australia's benchmark index (.AXJO) slipped 0.2% as commodity-linked shares fell.
China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) wired funds to a trustee account on Thursday for a dollar bond interest payment due Sept. 23, a source told Reuters on Friday, days before a deadline that would have plunged the embattled developer into formal default. The stock jumped 5.4%. read more
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) edged down 0.1%.
Meanwhile, S&P 500 E-minis futures slipped 0.1% after the cash index posted a record closing high overnight, led by surging tech shares.
The S&P 500 (.SPX) added 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) rallied 0.6%, although the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) edged slightly lower.
Next week, almost all the so-called FAANG giants report earnings: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google-owner Alphabet. Netflix (NFLX.O) posted its results on Oct.19, and for the quarter that ended in September, diluted earnings-per-share came in at $3.19, beating analyst expectations of $2.57. read more
More
https://www.reuters.com/business/global-markets-wrapup-1-2021-10-22/
Finally, did President Biden just fall into the Thucydides trap? Is it now to be war with China? If yes, who gets to start it and when? How fast does it go nuclear and what does that do to planet Earth?
Biden says United States would come to Taiwan's defense
October 22, 2021 5:23 AM BST
BALTIMORE, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The United States would come to Taiwan's defense and has a commitment to defend the island China claims as its own, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday, though the White House said later there was no change in policy towards the island.
"Yes, we have a commitment to do that," Biden said at a CNN town hall when asked if the United States would come to the defense of Taiwan, which has complained of mounting military and political pressure from Beijing to accept Chinese sovereignty.
While Washington is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, it has long followed a policy of "strategic ambiguity" on whether it would intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
In August, a Biden administration official said U.S. policy on Taiwan had not changed after the president appeared to suggest the United States would defend the island if it were attacked.
A White House spokesperson said Biden at his town hall was not announcing any change in U.S. policy and "there is no change in our policy", but declined further comment when asked if Biden had misspoken.
"The U.S. defense relationship with Taiwan is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act. We will uphold our commitment under the Act, we will continue to support Taiwan's self-defense, and we will continue to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo," the spokesperson said.
Taiwan's presidential office, responding to Biden's remarks, said their position remains the same, which is it will neither give in to pressure nor "rashly advance" when it gets support.
----Biden said people should not worry about Washington's military strength because "China, Russia and the rest of the world knows we're the most powerful military in the history of the world,"
----Military tensions between Taiwan and China are at their worst in more than 40 years, Taiwan's Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said this month, adding that China will be capable of mounting a "full-scale" invasion by 2025. read more
Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend its freedoms and democracy.
China says Taiwan is the most sensitive and important issue in its ties with the United States and has denounced what it calls "collusion" between Washington and Taipei.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Thursday, China's United Nations Ambassador Zhang Jun said they are pursuing "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan and responding to "separatist attempts" by its ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
"We are not the troublemaker. On the contrary, some countries - the U.S. in particular - is taking dangerous actions, leading the situation in Taiwan Strait into a dangerous direction," he said.
More
What Thucydides Teaches Us About War, Politics, and the Human Condition
Eric W. Robinson August 9, 2017
The ancient Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War, who lived almost 2,500 years ago, makes the title of Graham Allison’s prominent new volume, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
The great historian merits this because his analysis of the causes of the ancient war between the Athenians and the Spartans provides the essential dilemma of Allison’s book: Can states avoid catastrophic war when a rising power begins to challenge a dominant state’s control? Thucydides’ pessimistic answer seems to be “No”: War was inevitable, we are told, when emergent power Athens contested Sparta’s supremacy 2,500 years ago. Allison offers only a slightly more optimistic take (“War is more likely than not”) in analyzing China’s growing challenge to America’s dominating position globally.
More
Global Inflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.
Benjamin Franklin.
Panic ordering by retailers is making the supply chain crisis ‘even worse’
Published Wed, Oct 20 2021 1:36 AM EDT
Retailers and manufacturers are overordering or placing orders too early amid panic over the massive supply chain crisis, and that’s making things much worse, those in the industry told CNBC.
“Suddenly, retailers and manufacturers are overordering because of these supply chain issues, and that’s just leading to essentially an even worse scenario,” Jonathan Savoir, CEO of supply chain technology firm Quincus told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.
Supply chains everywhere have been hit by massive disruptions this year, from container shortages to floods and Covid infections setting off port closures.
That’s gotten worse because demand is rocketing, as economies reopen after the worst of the pandemic.
The energy crises in mainland China and Europe are the latest to roil the shipping industry.
China’s power crunch caused widespread disruptions as local authorities ordered power cuts at many factories. Europe is also grappling with a massive gas shortage.
However, Savoir said the situation of retailers overstocking is causing a bigger crunch on capacity, and leading to what he called a “bullwhip effect.” That’s a term describing how small changes in demand at the retail level can progressively cause larger movements in demand to impact wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers. The supplier of raw materials will feel the biggest impact.
The end result of this effect could include distorted demand forecasts and unfulfilled orders.
RBC Wealth Management also flagged a similar issue in an Oct. 15 note.
“Because the problems are well known, orders for raw materials, component parts, and finished goods are now being placed earlier than normal, which is lengthening the queue, creating a vicious cycle,” the firm said in the note.
As the holiday season approaches, those in the supply chain industry have warned that there’s likely to be a shortage of goods, or prices will rocket due to high demand and low supply.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/retailers-manufacturers-over-ordering-amid-supply-chain-crisis.html
Amazon is offering $4,000 bonuses to lure UK workers as Britain faces labor crunch
Published Wed, Oct 20 2021 1:46 AM EDT
LONDON — Labor shortages are forcing British businesses to hike wages to compete for workers, with Amazon offering joining bonuses of up to £3,000 ($4,140) in the run up to the festive period.
The e-commerce giant is currently advertising a number of positions around the U.K. that come with hefty cash bonuses. One role, for a temporary warehouse worker in the English city of Exeter, is offering a £3,000 onboarding bonus, while a London-based job with the company offers a signing bonus of £2,000. Many other roles in Amazon’s U.K. warehouses are offering welcome bonuses of £1,500.
Basic hourly rates are £11.10 per hour in London, while overtime pay can reach as much as £22.20. The average pay for warehouse workers in the U.K. is £ 10.16 per hour, according to jobs site Indeed.
Amazon’s aggressive hiring drive is reflective of a labor problem spanning industries all over the U.K.
Britain has an estimated shortage of 100,000 truck drivers, which has disrupted deliveries and led to empty store shelves, backlogs at ports and dry gas stations. Meanwhile, industries including agriculture, warehousing, food processing and hospitality have all warned of acute worker shortages.
Graham Sheen, secretary of the U.K.’s The Bonded Warehousekeepers Association, told CNBC Tuesday that there was a shortage of warehouse workers, particularly following Brexit.
“If you’re coming in from another country, you have to earn at least £26,000 to be granted a work visa — people who go into warehousing aren’t going to earn that sort of money,” he explained. “So they’re not going to go into warehousing.”
Sheen noted that other companies in the warehousing business would likely be forced to rethink what they were offering employees given the bonuses and pay rates on offer at Amazon.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/amazon-is-offering-4000-bonuses-to-lure-uk-workers.html
The four most expensive words in the English language are, ‘This time it’s different.’
Sir John Templeton.
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
New Delta variant monitored as UK Covid-19 cases rise
AY.4.2 strain could cause problems this winter as vaccine protection wanes
Wednesday 20 October 2021
A new variant of the Delta coronavirus strain thought to account for 6 per cent of all new UK cases is being closely monitored by scientists.
Sub-variant AY. 4.2 could be 10 to 15 per cent more infectious than the original Delta variant that was first spotted in India in December and has become the dominant Covid-19 strain.
Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute, published an analysis on Twitter suggesting that the data implied it was “intrinsically more transmissible”.
He said that research showed AY. 4.2 could be the most infectious variant of the virus to date. It is expected to be placed under investigation by the World Health Organisation.
An NHS document published on Tuesday revealed the sub-variant was one of four being monitored by scientists working for the UK Health Security Agency.
“A Delta sublineage newly designated as AY. 4.2 is noted to be expanding in England. It is now a signal in monitoring and assessment has commenced,” it said.
“New sublineages of Delta are regularly identified and designated. One recently designated sublineage, AY. 4.2, is not yet assigned by the Pangolin tool and therefore is not represented in Figure 10.
“This sublineage is currently increasing in frequency. It includes spike mutations A222V and Y145H. In the week beginning 27 September 2021 (the last week with complete sequencing data), this sublineage accounted for approximately 6 per cent of all sequences generated, on an increasing trajectory.”
“A Delta sublineage newly designated as AY. 4.2 is noted to be expanding in England. It is now a signal in monitoring and assessment has commenced,” it said.
More
Novel AY4.2 COVID Delta variant identified in 11-year-old Israeli
The "Delta Plus" strand has been on the rise in the UK, with British authorities reporting 6% of the positive cases on Tuesday belonging to the AY4.2 strand, according to a Maariv report.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF OCTOBER 20, 2021 08:12
An 11-year-old Israeli boy returning from Moldova to Israel has been identified as COVID positive, carrying the novel Delta variant AY4.2, the only recorded case in Israel of the new strand of the coronavirus.
The child was detected in Ben-Gurion Airport upon his arrival and has since been in self-isolation, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The "Delta Plus" strand has been on the rise in the UK, with British authorities reporting 6% of the positive cases on Tuesday belonging to the AY4.2 strand, according to a Maariv report.
The variant has been detected in several European countries, but its properties are still unclear.
---- No other cases have been identified, the Israeli Health Ministry assured, and the epidemiological investigation is underway.
The Health Ministry is constantly monitoring new variants and developments, the statement concluded.
FDA clears Moderna and J&J Covid vaccine boosters, allows ‘mix and match’ shots
Published Wed, Oct 20 2021 4:55 PM EDT
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday night authorized booster shots of both Johnson & Johnson’s and Moderna’s Covid vaccines, another critical step in distributing extra doses to tens of millions of people.
At the same time, U.S. regulators authorized “mixing and matching” vaccines, allowing Americans to get a booster shot from a different drugmaker than the one that made their initial doses.
“Today’s actions demonstrate our commitment to public health in proactively fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic,” acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement.
---- The FDA clearance, which was expected, came after the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee last week unanimously recommended additional shots of both vaccines. The committee recommended the Moderna booster for elderly people and at-risk adults six months after they complete their primary series of shots, bringing it in line with the distribution plan for Pfizer and BioNTech’s booster. It also endorsed J&J boosters for everyone 18 and older who received the initial shot at least two months ago.
The ruling will now be handed off to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its vaccine advisory committee, which has scheduled a meeting Thursday to discuss Moderna’s and J&J’s booster data. If the committee issues a recommendation, and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signs off, additional shots for those vaccines could be distributed immediately to eligible people.
More
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
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.
Quantum material to boost terahertz frequencies
New study elucidates fundamental enigma of topological insulators
Date: October 20, 2021
Source: Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
Summary: They are regarded as one of the most interesting materials for future electronics: Topological insulators conduct electricity in a special way and hold the promise of novel circuits and faster mobile communications. A research team has now unraveled a fundamental property of this new class of materials: How exactly do the electrons in the material respond when they are 'startled' by short pulses of so-called terahertz radiation? The results are not just significant for our basic understanding of this novel quantum material, but could herald faster mobile data communication or high-sensitivity detector systems for exploring distant worlds in years to come, the team reports.
They are regarded as one of the most interesting materials for future electronics: Topological insulators conduct electricity in a special way and hold the promise of novel circuits and faster mobile communications. Under the leadership of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a research team from Germany, Spain and Russia has now unravelled a fundamental property of this new class of materials: How exactly do the electrons in the material respond when they are "startled" by short pulses of so-called terahertz radiation? The results are not just significant for our basic understanding of this novel quantum material, but could herald faster mobile data communication or high-sensitivity detector systems for exploring distant worlds in years to come, the team reports in NPJ Quantum Materials.
Topological insulators are a very recent class of materials which have a special quantum property: on their surface they can conduct electricity almost loss-free while their interior functions as an insulator -- no current can flow there. Looking to the future, this opens up interesting prospects: Topological insulators could form the basis for high efficiency electronic components, which makes them an interesting research field for physicists.
But a number of fundamental questions are still unanswered. What happens, for example, when you give the electrons in the material a "nudge" using specific electromagnetic waves -- so-called terahertz radiation -- thus generating an excited state? One thing is clear: the electrons want to rid themselves of the energy boost forced upon them as quickly as possible, such as by heating up the crystal lattice surrounding them. In the case of topological insulators, however, it was previously unclear whether getting rid of this energy happened faster in the conducting surface than in the insulating core. "So far, we simply didn't have the appropriate experiments to find out," explains study leader Dr. Sergey Kovalev from the Institute of Radiation Physics at HZDR. "Up to now, at room temperature, it was extremely difficult to differentiate the surface reaction from that in the interior of the material."
In order to overcome this hurdle, he and his international team developed an ingenious test set-up: intensive terahertz pulses hit a sample and excite the electrons. Immediately after, laser flashes illuminate the material and register how the sample responds to the terahertz stimulation. In a second test series, special detectors measure to what extent the sample exhibits an unusual non-linear effect and multiplies the frequency of the terahertz pulses applied. Kovalev and his colleagues conducted these experiments using the TELBE terahertz light source at HZDR's ELBE Center for High-Power Radiation Sources. Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Barcelona, Bielefeld University, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Technical University of Berlin, and Lomonosov University and the Kotelnikov Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in Moscow were involved.
----Some time ago, the research team had already realized that, under certain conditions, graphene -- a two-dimensional, super thin carbon -- can act as an efficient frequency multiplier. It is able to convert 300 gigahertz radiation into frequencies of some terahertz. The problem is that when the applied radiation is extremely intensive, there is a significant drop in the efficiency of the graphene. Topological insulators, on the other hand, even function with the most intensive stimulation, the new study discovered. "This might mean it's possible to multiply frequencies from a few terahertz to several dozen terahertz," surmises HZDR physicist Jan-Christoph Deinert, who heads the TELBE team together with Sergey Kovalev. "At the moment, there is no end in sight when it comes to topological insulators."
If such a development comes about, the new quantum materials could be used in a much wider frequency range than with graphene. "At DLR, we are very interested in using quantum materials of this kind in high-performance heterodyne receivers for astronomy, especially in space telescopes," Gensch explains.
Another weekend and a weekend to ponder on President Biden’s turning up the heat over Taiwan. After the crushing defeat in Afghanistan, is America really ready to rush into war with China? A war that China gets to start on their own timing in their own back yard. How many allies will march behind President Biden after his surprise cut and run on his Afghan and NATO allies?
Have a great weekend everyone.
I made my money the old-fashioned way. I was very nice to a wealthy relative right before he died.
Malcolm Forbes.
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