Baltic Dry Index. 1419 -21 Brent Crude 89.22
Spot Gold 1807
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 03/02/22 World 385,375,737
Deaths 5,719,051
The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess ... It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.
Adam Smith.
It was just another day of central bankster Magic Money Tree fiat money pushing US technology stocks higher yesterday, until after the close reality caught up with “Meta,” the ludicrously renamed Facebook.
Then reality caught up with the rest of US tech stocks and the wheels flew off, the sky fell in, a million klaxons blew, uncounted bells started ringing, while billions of dollars flew out to stock casino heaven.
Now if only we could get some reality into the USA v Russia over Ukraine war.
Oh well, on to today and margin call hell, at least in the US technology bubble. But will the crash spill over into the rest of the casino? We’ll know by the end of today.
Asia-Pacific markets mixed amid lingering growth concerns and geopolitical tensions
- Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday amid some lingering concerns about global growth and ongoing geopolitical tensions.
- On the data front, traders will watch the U.S. Labor Department’s nonfarm payroll count due Friday, which is seen as one of the major indicators of the how the U.S. economy is doing.
- Elsewhere, on Wednesday, OPEC and its non-OPEC allies agreed to green-light an increase in crude output to 400,000 barrels a day for March as oil prices trade near record levels in part due to geopolitical tensions.
SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday amid some lingering concerns about global growth and ongoing geopolitical tensions.
In Australia, the ASX 200 trimmed earlier losses to trade down 0.36%. But, shares of major miners rose as Rio Tinto advanced 2.74%, Fortescue was up 3.13% and BHP added 2.62%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.11% while the Topix index was down 0.67%. In South Korea, the Kospi bucked the downward trend and rose 2% while the Kosdaq advanced 2.23%.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index gained 2.12%.
A number of major markets, including those on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong, remain shut for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Thursday’s session in Asia followed overnight gains on Wall Street, which were driven by a jump in tech shares.
On the data front, traders will watch the U.S. Labor Department’s nonfarm payroll count due Friday, which is seen as one of the major indicators of the how the U.S. economy is doing.
Some estimates suggest that January’s payroll figure could have potentially slowed to a crawl, or even turned negative — data from payroll processing firm ADP showed that companies subtracted 301,000 jobs during the month, largely due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases and a wider slowdown in business conditions.
More
Nasdaq futures drop as Facebook leads tech shares lower
U.S. stock futures fell Wednesday night, as traders pored through the latest batch of corporate earnings, which included disappointing numbers from tech giant Meta Platforms.
Futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 dropped 2.3%, and S&P 500 futures slid 1%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 35 points, or 0.1%.
Shares of Facebook-parent Meta Platforms plunged more than 21% in after-hours trading after the company’s quarterly profit fell short of expectations. The company also issued weaker-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter.
“There was a lot to not like” from Meta’s report, Metropolitan Capital Advisors CEO Karen Finerman told CNBC’s “Fast Money.” She noted that the company’s revenue growth expectations were the “spookiest” part of the release.
However, Finerman added that the move down seems a “little overdone.”
Other social media names, including Snap and Twitter, followed Facebook shares lower. Snap shares slid 16% after the bell, and Twitter dropped more than 8%.
Spotify Technology, meanwhile, fell 10.2% after the company’s latest quarterly figures showed a slowdown in premium subscriber growth.
Wednesday night’s moves come after the major averages notched a four-day winning streak during the regular session.
The Dow jumped more than 200 points on the day, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively. Those gains were driven by a jump in tech shares, which were led by a 7.3% rally in Alphabet shares.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
Facebook shares plunge more than 20% on weak earnings, big forecast miss
Facebook shares tumbled more than 20% in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported disappointing earnings, gave weak guidance and said user growth has stagnated.
Here are the results:
- Earnings per share: $3.67 vs $3.84 expected, according to a Refinitiv survey of analysts
- Revenue: $33.67 billion vs $33.4 billion expected, according to Refinitiv
Facebook also missed estimates with user numbers.
- Daily Active Users (DAUs): 1.93 billion vs 1.95 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount
- Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 2.91 billion vs 2.95 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount
- Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $11.57 vs $11.38 expected by analysts, according to Street Account
The company, which was recently renamed Meta, issued disappointing guidance for the first quarter in addition to coming up short on its fourth-quarter profit and user numbers. Daily Active Users (DAUs) on Facebook were slightly down in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter, marking its first quarterly decline in DAUs on record.
----Facebook said it’s being hit by a combination of factors, including privacy changes to Apple’s iOS and macroeconomic challenges. It blamed the lower-than-expected growth in part on inflation and supply chain issues that are impacting advertisers’ budgets.
There’s also a shift to products that don’t generate as much revenue as its core news feed. For example, people are spending more time on its Reels videos.
“On the impressions side, we expect continued headwinds from both increased competition for people’s time and a shift of engagement within our apps towards video surfaces like Reels, which monetize at lower rates than Feed and Stories,” Facebook said.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-parent-meta-fb-q4-2021-earnings.html
Australian mining billionaire files lawsuit against Facebook over scam ads
By Renju Jose February 3, 2022 4:57 AM GMT
SYDNEY, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest said on Thursday he is launching criminal proceedings against Meta Platform Inc's (FB.O) Facebook in an Australian court, alleging that it breached anti-money laundering laws and its platform is used to scam Australians.
Forrest, Australia's richest man and chairman of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG.AX), said he was taking the action to stop people losing money to clickbait advertising scams, such as ones using his image to promote cryptocurrency schemes.
The lawsuit filed by Forrest in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia alleges Facebook "failed to create controls or a corporate culture to prevent its systems being used to commit crime."
It also alleges Facebook was criminally reckless by not taking sufficient steps to stop criminals from using its social media platform to send scam advertisements to defraud Australian users.
The lawsuit comes after Forrest said he made several requests asking Facebook to prevent his image from being used to promote investment plans, including in an open letter to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in November 2019.
More
PayPal stock closes down 24% in worst-ever trading day
Shares of PayPal closed down 24% on Wednesday, a day after the company provided weak guidance that it blamed in part on inflation.
PayPal reported mixed results for the fourth quarter. Earnings per share of $1.11, ex-items, missed the $1.12 expected. It beat on revenue estimates, though, reporting $6.92 billion vs. $6.87 billion expected, according to Refinitiv.
But it also said it expects first-quarter non-GAAP earnings per share of 87 cents, while analysts had been projecting $1.16. It also anticipated that revenue would grow about 15% to 17% for full-year 2022, on a spot and foreign currency-neutral basis. Analysts expected year-over-year revenue growth of 17.9% for 2022.
In an interview with CNBC, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said the company took “a measured approach” to guidance, but expects revenue to accelerate in the second half of the year.
He pointed to challenges including the transition of former owner eBay to its own payments platform and “exogenous factors” like inflation bringing down consumer spending and supply chain issues “disproportionately impacting” cross-border payments.
PayPal also missed user growth targets due in part to 4.5 million “illegitimate” accounts that joined the platform, which “affected our ability to achieve our guidance in the quarter,” CFO John Rainey said. The company also walked back its user growth goals, which Rainey said was a “choice” to focus on “sustainable growth and driving engagement.”
More
Spotify stock plunges on middling user growth projections
Shares of Spotify plunged 13% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the streamer reported fourth-quarter earnings.
The numbers mostly beat expectations, but projections for user growth in Q1 were barely in line with analysts’ projections. There was also a broader selloff in tech shares after the bell, after Facebook (Meta) reported disappointing earnings.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/spotify-stock-plunges-on-middling-user-growth-projections.html
It’s going to be a year where we are shocked by the volatility,’ BofA’s Savita Subramanian warns
Published Tue, Feb 1 2022 8:02 PM EST
Investors should proceed with caution, according to BofA Securities’ Savita Subramanian.
Even though February kicked off on a strong note, she warned on CNBC’s “Fast Money” a messy sideways market is ahead.
“It’s going to be a year where we are shocked by the volatility,” the firm’s U.S. head of equity and quantitative research said Tuesday. “This is a year where we recalibrate expectations to an environment where cash yields are likely to move from zero — worthless today — to something closer to 2% by the end of the year.”
---- Based on the CNBC market strategist survey, Subramanian has the second lowest S&P 500 price target on the Street. Her target is 4,600, which implies a 1% loss from Tuesday’s close and about a 5% drop from the index’s all-time high.
“Between today and year end, we’re going to hit that target multiple times, and we’re going to see some big swing from the market,” she said.
And, Subramanian believes the Fed won’t come to the rescue.
“We need to get used to the idea that asset inflation may be behind us, and we’re now heading for real inflation,” she noted.
BofA’s economic team predicts the Federal Reserve will hike rates seven times this year. Subramanian anticipates the moves will create acute pain for popular areas of the market.
“I don’t think the market is pricing that in,” said Subramanian. “What gets hurt are some of these longer duration growth stocks in an environment where discount rates are rising. And, that’s where I think the S&P might be in trouble because that’s a bigger weight in the benchmark.”
Subramanian’s advice to investors: Avoid Big Cap Tech and growth names which thrived during the era of free capital and no earnings. Instead, look for high quality stocks trading at lower prices.
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/01/volatility-to-shock-investors-in-messy-market-bofas-subramanian-says.html
After a huge year for growth, the U.S. economy is about to slam into a wall
Published Tue, Feb 1 2022 3:04 PM EST Updated Tue, Feb 1 2022 9:20 PM EST
Spurred by a massive inventory rebuild and consumers flush with cash, the U.S. economy last year grew at its fastest pace since 1984.
Don’t expect a repeat performance in 2022.
In fact, the year is starting with little growth signs at all as the late-year spread of omicron coupled with the ebbing tailwind of fiscal stimulus has economists across Wall Street knocking down their forecasts for gross domestic product.
Combine that with a Federal Reserve that has pivoted from the easiest policy in its history to hawkish inflation-fighters, and the picture has suddenly changed substantially. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow gauge is currently tracking a first-quarter GDP gain of just 0.1%.
“The economy is decelerating and downshifting,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist for the Americas at Natixis and former chief economist for the National Economic Council under then-President Donald Trump. “It’s not a recession, but it will be if the Fed tries to get too aggressive.”
GDP surged at an impressive 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to close out a year in which the measure of all goods and services produced in the U.S. increased 5.7% on an annualized basis. That came after a pandemic-induced 3.4% decline in 2020, a year that saw the steepest but shortest recession in U.S. history.
But the path ahead is less certain.
Much of that end-of-year gain was fueled by an inventory rebuild that contributed fully 4.9 percentage points, or 71% of the total. Inventories were responsible for almost all of the third quarter’s 2.3% GDP increase.
At the same time, Tuesday’s ISM Manufacturing survey showed that the pace of new orders, while still showing gains, is slowing substantially.
Taken together, that’s not much of a recipe for sustained growth.
“Inventories are roughly back to where they should be,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “Then you’ve got growing headwinds from fiscal and monetary policy. So, yeah, growth starting the year will be very soft.”
More
U.S. Treasury yield curve to flatten, possibly invert this year - Standard Chartered
Mon, January 31, 2022, 12:55 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury yield curve is expected to be completely flat by mid year as the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes interest rates but growth is called into question, and potentially invert by year-end, strategists at Standard Chartered bank wrote in a research note.
A hawkish stance by the Fed has pushed up short-term rates, flattening the closely followed yield curve on U.S. Treasuries.
Money managers and economists often view this shrinking of the gap between yields on shorter-term Treasuries and those maturing out years as a sign of worries over economic growth and uncertainty about monetary policy.
The spread between the yield on 10- and 2-year U.S. Treasury debt [US2US10=TWEB] tightened to early November lows on Monday after hawkish comments by Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic.
Standard Chartered's Steve Englander and John Davies, in the research note dated Friday, forecast four rate hikes from the Fed in a row, in March, May, June and July. That will mean pausing ahead of the U.S. midterm election "will not look partisan," they said.
Englander and Davies said they were raising their two-year yield forecast for the end of 2022 to 1.5% from 1.2% but said the market "will increasingly question the resilience of growth during Q2 and beyond, leading to a completely flat 2Y/10Y curve by mid-year."
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-treasury-yield-curve-flatten-125504796.html
In
new European war news, President Biden “reinforced” NATO by shipping penny
packet units to three eastern Europe nations, Russia seems to want to wait out
the Beijing Winter Olympics before starting World War Three. No one in the casinos, Washington or London thinks that there will be a war!
Biden orders nearly 3,000 U.S. troops to Eastern Europe to counter Russia
February 2, 2022 9:39 PM GMT
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The United States will send nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania to shield Eastern Europe from a potential spillover from the crisis over the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
Russia has denied plans to invade Ukraine but signalled it was in no mood for compromise on Wednesday by mocking Britain, calling Prime Minister Boris Johnson "utterly confused" and accusing British politicians of "stupidity and ignorance".
Moscow has deployed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders and says it could take unspecified military measures if its demands are not met, including a promise by NATO never to admit Kyiv.
A Stryker squadron of around 1,000 U.S. service members based in Vilseck, Germany would be sent to Romania, the Pentagon said, while around 1,700 service members, mainly from the 82nd Airborne Division, would deploy from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Poland. Three hundred other service members will move from Fort Bragg to Germany.
More
A Russian invasion of Ukraine could send shockwaves through financial markets
The highly unpredictable nature of Russia’s threat against Ukraine has rippled across financial markets without much impact on stocks. But if Russia were to move its troops across the border, it could cause a major risk-off event — sending equities lower and commodity prices even higher.
The U.S. plans on stinging sanctions if Russia moves into Ukraine. Russia, which says it has no intention to invade, could inflict pain on the rest of the world through its strong hold on some key commodities.
For now, the markets are not pricing any such calamity, but oil prices would spike and European gas prices could surge even more than they already have if Russian troops enter Ukraine. Oil and some other commodity prices have already built in some premium, and Russian assets have been hit.
If there were an invasion, the dollar could strengthen, U.S. bond yields would likely move lower and commodities — including wheat and palladium — would rally.
“There’s another round of U.S.-Russian talks. As long as talks are going on, it’s hard to imagine Russia would go to war,” said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex. He noted that the Russian ruble, off 2.2% for the year, outperformed other emerging market currencies in the past five days with a 4.1% gain.
“Because they’re still talking, the market knows it doesn’t have to worry about it right now,” Chandler said. “Markets aren’t as concerned about it as maybe as much as the politicians.”
High stakes
However, RBC head of global commodities strategy Helima Croft said the odds of an invasion may be higher than some in the markets expect. “Even if it’s at 50%, that is a really high risk, given the stakes involved,” she said.
---- “What I do know is if those tanks cross the border, oil will go above $100 dollars a barrel,” Croft said. “We’ll certainly feel it on the European gas market. We’ll feel it on the wheat market. We’ll feel it across a variety of markets. Russia is not a one-trick pony.”
Croft said Russia is the world’s largest wheat exporter, and together with Ukraine, they account for roughly 29% of the global wheat export market.
“They’re not just a gas station. They’re a commodity superstore. They’re a massive metal producer. Where we think it gets painful is food and energy prices,” Croft said, adding that it would cause more inflation in an already inflationary environment.
More
Justice, however, never was in reality administered gratis in any country. Lawyers and attornies, at least, must always be paid by the parties; and, if they were not, they would perform their duty still worse than they actually perform it.
Adam Smith.
Global Inflation/Stagflation Watch.
Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians, inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Inflation in 19 countries using the euro hits another record
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation fed by high oil and gas prices hit record levels in Europe for the third month in a row, extending pain for consumers and sharpening questions about future moves by the European Central Bank.
The 19 countries that use the euro currency saw consumer prices increase by an annual 5.1% in January, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported Wednesday. The figure broke records of 5% in December and 4.9% in November and was the highest since recordkeeping started in 1997.
Once again, soaring energy prices played a major role, rising a painful 28.6%. Oil prices have spiked as the global economy recovers from the worst of COVID-19 restrictions, while natural gas prices have surged in Europe because of depleted winter reserves, lower supplies from Russia and fears of a renewed military move by Moscow against Ukraine.
Higher energy bills for consumers have quickly become a political issue in Europe as governments roll out subsidies and tax breaks to soften the blow to household budgets. Higher inflation makes it more expensive for people to buy everything from food to fuel and has been one factor holding back Europe’s recovery.
Economic growth slowed to 0.3% in the eurozone in the last three months of 2021 as coronavirus infections driven by the omicron variant led to new restrictions and deterred consumers from in-person activities such as eating out.
High inflation has increased the focus on Thursday’s policy meeting of the European Central Bank. Bank President Christine Lagarde has said much of the inflation is tied to temporary factors that should eventually fade.
As a result, she has said it’s “very unlikely” that the bank will raise interest rates this year, the typical antidote that central banks use against excessive inflation.
Shoppers hit with sharpest price rises in a decade
2 February, 2022
Shoppers have been hit by the highest price rises in nearly 10 years after shop inflation almost doubled over the past month, data suggests.
Shop price inflation jumped from 0.8% in December to 1.5% in January, the BRC-NielsenIQ price index indicated.
The sharp rise was driven by non-food price increases, which included furniture and flooring in high demand.
Many families have been struggling with a cost of living crisis as fuel prices and energy bills soar.
The latest official figures showed inflation at its highest rate for 30 years.
Non-food inflation rose to 0.9% in January after falling by 0.2% in December, while food inflation accelerated to 2.7% in January, up from 2.4% in December.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said January saw shop price inflation nearly double, "driven by a sharp rise in non-food inflation".
"In particular, furniture and flooring saw exceptionally high demand leading to increased prices as the rising oil costs made shipping more expensive," she added.
"Food prices continue to rise, especially domestic produce which have been [hit] by poor harvests, labour shortages, and rising global food prices."
Ms Dickinson also said this would directly affect households' cost of living as "it would be impossible to protect consumers from any future rises" in costs.
The BRC and research firm NielsenIQ measured inflation in retailers in the UK in the first week of January, looking at price changes in 500 commonly bought items.
It said that shop price rises were the highest since December 2012.
Global rising energy prices, supply problems and higher shipping costs are hitting retailers, with many costs being passed on to consumers.
Covid-19 Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Finally, in Covid news, some good or bad news, possibly both.
Covid will always be an epidemic virus — not an endemic one, scientist warns
Published Wed, Feb 2 2022 1:35 AM EST
Covid-19 will never become an endemic illness and will always behave like an epidemic virus, an expert in biosecurity has warned.
Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, told CNBC that although endemic disease can occur in very large numbers, the number of cases does not change rapidly as seen with the coronavirus.
“If case numbers do change [with an endemic disease], it is slowly, typically over years,” she said via email. “Epidemic diseases, on the other hand, rise rapidly over periods of days to weeks.”
Scientists use a mathematical equation, the so-called R naught (or R0), to assess how quickly a disease is spreading. The R0 indicates how many people will catch a disease from an infected person, with experts at Imperial College London estimating omicron’s could be higher than 3.
If a disease’s R0 is greater than 1, growth is exponential, meaning the virus is becoming more prevalent and the conditions for an epidemic are present, MacIntyre said.
“The public health goal is to keep the effective R — which is R0 modified by interventions such as vaccines, masks or other mitigations — below 1,” she told CNBC. “But if the R0 is higher than 1, we typically see recurrent epidemic waves for respiratory transmitted epidemic infections.”
MacIntyre noted that this is the pattern that was seen with smallpox for centuries and is still seen with measles and influenza. It’s also the pattern unfolding with Covid, she added, for which we have seen four major waves in the past two years.
“Covid will not magically turn into a malaria-like endemic infection where levels stay constant for long periods,” she argued. “It will keep causing epidemic waves, driven by waning vaccine immunity, new variants that escape vaccine protection, unvaccinated pockets, births and migration.”
More
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/covid-will-never-become-an-endemic-virus-scientist-warns.html
COVID-19 medical waste management exposes 'dire need' for improvement, WHO says
Feb. 1, 2022 / 5:22 PM
Feb. 1 (UPI) -- COVID-19 medical waste has strained waste management systems, exposing a "dire need" for improvement, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
"Tens of thousands of tons of extra medical waste from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has put tremendous strain on healthcare waste management systems around the world, threatening human and environmental health and exposing a dire need to improve waste management practices," WHO said in a statement on its 71-page report on the matter.
The report said that medical waste produced since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 included masks, gloves, gowns, vaccine vials and needles, COVID-19 tests, and plastic packaging and containers. Approximately 87,000 tons of personal protective equipment was procured during that period and shipped to countries in response to the pandemic, the WHO global analysis shows.
The report also emphasized that 140 million test kits have been shipped, with the potential to generate 2,600 tons of non-infection waste, mainly plastic, and 731,000 liters of chemical waste, equivalent to one-third of an Olympic-size swimming pool.
RELATED COVID-19 virus particles often found outside isolation rooms
Also, 8 billion doses of vaccine administered globally have produced 144,000 tons of additional waste from syringes, needles and safety boxes, the report said.
As the United Nations and member states faced the urgent need to secure supplies for healthcare facilities battling the emerging pandemic in March 2020, they paid less attention to safe healthcare waste management practices, the WHO said.
Thirty percent of healthcare facilities, the majority of which are in the least developed countries, were not equipped to handle existing waste loads, let alone the extra COVID-19 load, the statement on the report noted.
More
Canadian province scraps tax on Covid unvaccinated
Tue, February 1, 2022, 8:13 PM
Canada's Quebec province announced Tuesday it was scrapping plans for a health tax on those who are not vaccinated against Covid-19, following a public backlash over the proposal.
Francois Legault, the premier of the French-speaking province, told a news conference the controversial measure has deeply divided Quebecers.
"To move Quebec forward in a calm social climate, I am announcing that the government will not introduce this bill on the health contribution," he said.
The idea for the tax had been unveiled on January 11, and was intended to incentivize 10 percent of the local population who have not received a Covid jab to get vaccinated.
Legault had lamented that half of all Covid patients in hospital intensive care wards in the province were unvaccinated and that it was straining health care resources.
The announcement Monday marked the second time the Quebec government has walked back public health measures meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
It also nixed compulsory inoculations for all health care workers last year fearing it would lead to thousands of nurses quitting their jobs, worsening an already severe worker shortage in the sector.
Quebec also announced Tuesday an easing of public health restrictions on sports and cultural activities starting mid-February, after joining on Monday neighboring Ontario province's reopening of restaurants for indoor dining -- with capacity limits.
More
https://news.yahoo.com/canadian-province-scraps-tax-covid-201310878.html
Lockdowns Had ‘Little to No Public Health Effect,’ Analysis of 24 Studies Concludes
By January 31, 2022 Updated: February 1, 2022
Lockdown measures used by governments worldwide to reduce the death toll from COVID-19 had little to no effect on mortality, according to three researchers who analyzed 24 studies.
The researchers, led by Steve Hanke, co-founder of The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise, screened 18,590 studies to select the 24 papers used for the final analysis.
They concluded that lockdowns in Europe and the United States pared the mortality from COVID-19 by 0.2 percent on average. Shelter-in-place orders reduced mortality by 2.9 percent on average, they found.
“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted,” the researchers wrote.
“In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
The study specifically looked at mandated government measures, including mask mandates and travel bans, rather than voluntary measures.
Of all the lockdown measures analyzed, the closure of nonessential businesses appeared to be most effective, reducing COVID-19 mortality by 10.6 percent on average, the study found. The researchers speculate that this was largely due to the closure of bars.
“Only business closure consistently shows evidence of a negative relationship with COVID-19 mortality, but the variation in the estimated effect is large. Three studies find little to no effect, and three find large effects. Two of the larger effects are related to closing bars and restaurants,” the study states.
The study found that lockdowns and limits on gatherings slightly increased COVID-19 mortality by 0.6 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.
“Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the researchers wrote.
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.
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.
Koenigsegg's Tiny Electric Motor Makes 335 HP and 443 Lb-Ft of Torque
Mon, January 31, 2022, 5:09 PM
Swedish hypercar maker Koenigsegg has long been a home for novel engineering, and that's evident in its new electric motor. Developed for the Gemera four-seater, this electric motor, dubbed the Quark, is a tiny powerhouse. In a package that weighs just 63 pounds, the Quark develops 335 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque. For scale, that's a 330-mL energy drink in the pictures seen throughout.
The Quark combines both radial- and axial-flux constructions to offer a good balance between power and torque. Rather than explain the difference between the two, I'll turn you towards this article from EV trade publication Charged. All you really need to know is that this is a best-of-both worlds solution—Koenigsegg claims the Quark has an industry leading torque-power-weight ratio. Those peak power and torque figures are only available for 20 seconds, which is common among EV motors. After 20 seconds, the figures drop to 134 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque. That's fine for the Gemera, which has three electric motors and a 600-hp three-cylinder.
"The Quark is designed to bolster the low-speed range of the Gemera, where you need it, for brutal acceleration," said Koengisegg electric-motor design lead Dragos-Mihai Postariu in a statement. "The ICE then focuses on the high-speed range. What this means in terms of performance for the Gemera is a big power surge followed by a continuous record-speed push to 400 km/h [248.5 mph] without any torque or power losses."
Naturally, Koenigsegg uses all sorts of interesting materials for the construction of the Quark, including aerospace/motorsport-grade steel, and hollow carbon fiber—Koenigsegg's Aircore technology—for the rotor. The company hopes the Quark will find a home in more than just the Gemera, as it was also designed for aerospace and marine applications.
More
https://www.yahoo.com/news/koenigseggs-tiny-electric-motor-makes-170900255.html
It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, that the most judicious operations of banking can increase the industry of the country.
Adam Smith.
No comments:
Post a Comment