Baltic Dry Index. 1621 -13 Brent Crude 73.74
Spot Gold 3081 US 2 Year Yield 3.97 -0.01
US Federal Debt. 36.651 trillion!!
Everything in moderation, including moderation.
Oscar Wilde.
In the global stock casinos, a Washington caused car crash. But will next week’s “Liberation Day” be enough to generate a global stocks casino stocks panic? Hopefully not, but it’s something of a toss up next week.
Later today, the Fed’s favourite inflation measure, the PCE price index.
Elsewhere Australia joined Canada in calling for a snap General Election on May 3rd. The early polls suggest a hung Parliament, something us poor Brits can only dream of and hope to see Parliament hung one day.
Below, Asian stock casinos wobble towards Monday’s month-end and end of quarter.
Japan stocks lead losses in region as Trump tariff
threats keep investors on edge
Updated Fri, Mar 28 2025 1:06 AM EDT
Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell on Friday
as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats kept investors on edge.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost
2.09%, sinking to its lowest in two weeks, data from FactSet showed, while the
Topix fell 2.19%. South Korea’s Kospi traded 1.76% lower and
the small-cap Kosdaq dipped 1.44%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 0.41%
while mainland China’s CSI 300 dipped 0.25%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.36%
as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a national election on May 3,
kicking off a five-week campaign.
Investors will continue eyeing shares of
automakers after they declined on Thursday following Trump’s announcement
of 25%
tariffs on “all cars that are not made in the United States.”
The president’s comments this week
regarding the upcoming April 2 tariffs, however, have eased some concerns for
investors. Recently, Trump mentioned that the tariffs would be “very lenient”
and expressed a willingness to lower tariffs on China to facilitate a deal with
ByteDance’s TikTok.
On Thursday, he also used tariffs as a
bargaining tool, warning that he could impose “far larger” duties on the
European Union and Canada, if they join forces to oppose the levies.
U.S. stock futures were little changed as
investors grappled with ongoing tariff uncertainty.
Overnight in the U.S., the three major
averages closed lower. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average dropped 155.09 points, or 0.37%, to end at
42,299.70. The S&P 500 declined
0.33% to close at 5,693.31, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.53%
to settle at 17,804.03.
Asia-Pacific
markets live: Australia elections, auto stocks
CNBC Daily Open: Auto tariffs put markets in
reverse gear
Published Thu, Mar 27 20259:14 PM EDT
When U.S. President Donald Trump won the
2024 presidential election in November last year, markets were in a relatively
buoyant mood.
Talk of deregulation and tax cuts drove
consumer sentiment, while easing inflation led investors to believe multiple
Fed rate cuts would come, boosting the stock market.
Now, there seems to have been a stark
reversal in expectations. Trump’s tariff announcements and, sometimes, walking
back on the threats have sent markets on a rollercoaster ride.
This comes as investors are anxious about
how his retaliatory tariffs will affect the broader U.S. economy, which is
already showing some signs of weakness.
The specter
of a recession looms large, like the sword of Damocles over the stock
market. The question is, will the sword actually cut market returns, and if so,
when?
Dow sees back-to-back losses
All
three major U.S. stock indexes fell on Thursday as investors weighed
the latest tariff-related news from Trump, including new tariffs aimed at
foreign automakers. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.37%, while the S&P 500 declined 0.33%
and the Nasdaq Composite slid
0.53%. Shares of several automakers declined after Trump announced
25% tariffs on “all cars that are not made in the United States,”
which will go into effect on April 2. General Motors pulled back more
than 7%, while Ford slipped
nearly 4%. Over
in Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 slipped 0.44%.
Tesla a clear winner from auto tariffs:
analysts
Several
analysts on Wall Street see
a clear winner emerging from President Donald Trump’s new auto tariff
policy: Tesla. So far,
multiple analysts see Elon Musk’s
electric vehicle giant as a relative beneficiary given its domestic production.
To put it simply: “Tesla wins, Detroit bleeds,” wrote Bernstein analyst Daniel
Roeska in a Thursday note to clients.
Trump threatens ‘far larger’ tariffs on EU
and Canda
Trump
has threatened to impose “far larger” tariffs on the European Union
(EU) and Canada if they work together to combat trade tariffs. “If the
European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large
scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both
in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever
had!,” Trump said in a Truth Social update on Thursday.
CNBC
Daily Open: Auto tariffs put markets in reverse gear
Stock futures inch higher as traders brace for
Fed’s preferred inflation reading: Live updates
Updated Fri, Mar 28 2025 1:16 AM EDT
U.S. stock futures inched higher early
Friday as investors grappled with ongoing tariff uncertainty and awaited the
release of a key inflation measure.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added
44 points, or 0.10%. S&P
500 futures and the Nasdaq
100 futures traded flat.
In extended trading, Lululemon shares tumbled
10% after the athleisure company issued a weaker-than-expected outlook for
the first quarter and 2025.
Wall Street is coming off a losing session
for the major averages. On Thursday, the 30-stock Dow fell about 155 points, or
0.4%. The S&P 500 slid
0.3%, while the Nasdaq
Composite dropped 0.5%.
Those moves come after President Donald
Trump announced a
25% tariff on “all cars that are not made in the United States,” the
latest tariff development to roil the market. Investors — concerned that rising
signs of weakening consumer sentiment are heightening the risk of a slowdown —
are hoping April 2 will bring some much-needed clarity.
“I don’t expect that market volatility is
going to calm until we have more policy [certainty]. And a lot of us are
looking to see if we get that next week,” New York Life Investments’ chief
market strategist Lauren Goodwin said on CNBC on Thursday. “I’m not really
seeing it. I anticipate that this volatility is here to stay with us.”
On the economic front, February’s personal
consumption expenditures price index due Friday could confirm whether
investors should be concerned about sticky inflation, especially after
the Federal Reserve recently
raised its inflation forecast. Economists
polled by Dow Jones see the headline PCE price index reading rising
0.3% in February and 2.5% from 12 months earlier.
As of Thursday’s close, Wall Street was
headed for a second
straight week of gains. The Dow is on track for a 0.8% advance week to
date. The S&P 500 is up 0.5% for the period, while the Nasdaq Composite is
on pace for a 0.1% gain.
Stock
market today: Live updates
In other news.
Canada PM Mark Carney says old relationship with
US 'is over'
27 March 2025
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said
that Canada's old relationship with the United States, "based on deepening
integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is
over".
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa after a
cabinet meeting, Carney said Canadians must "fundamentally reimagine our
economy" in the face of US President Donald Trump's tariffs.
He said Canada would respond with
retaliatory tariffs that will have "maximum impact" on the US.
Trump announced on Wednesday he would
target imported vehicles and vehicle parts with a 25% tax, stating: "This
is permanent."
Carney, the Liberal Party leader, called
the original Canada-US Automotive Products Agreement signed in 1965 the most
important deal in his lifetime.
"That's finished with these
tariffs," he said in French.
He continued that Canada can sustain an
auto industry with the US tariffs provided the government and business
community work to "reimagine" and "retool" the industry.
Canada needs to build an economy Canadians
can control, he said, and that would include rethinking it's trade relationship
with other partners.
It remains to be seen whether Canadians
can have a strong trading relationship with the United States going forward, he
added.
Carney has switched his campaign plans
ahead of next month's general election to confront the latest import duties.
The US has already partially imposed a
blanket 25% tariff on Canadian goods, along with a 25% duty on all aluminium
and steel imports. Canada has so far retaliated with about C$60bn ($42bn;
£32bn) of tariffs on US goods.
The new car tariffs will come into effect
on 2 April, with charges on businesses importing vehicles starting the next
day, the White House said. Taxes on parts are set to start in May or later.
Early on Thursday morning, Trump warned
Canada and the EU against joining forces versus the US in the trade war.
"If the European Union works with
Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger
than currently planned, will be placed on them both," he posted on his
Truth Social platform.
Carney met his ministers in Ottawa on
Thursday morning to "discuss trade options". He had originally been
scheduled to campaign in Quebec.
He said during his press conference that
President Trump had reached out to him last night to schedule a call, and that
it would take place in the "next day or two".
If it takes place, this would be the first
call between the pair.
Pierre Poilievre, leader of the
Conservatives, the main opposition party, called the tariffs "unjustified
and unprovoked".
The NDP, a left-wing party that previously
helped prop up the minority Liberal government of ex-PM Justin Trudeau, also
switched its campaign plans on Thursday.
Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, spent the
day meeting union leaders and car workers in Windsor, Ontario, an auto
manufacturing hub across from Detroit, Michigan.
He said the US tariffs are a
"betrayal" against a close ally, saying that "Donald Trump has
started an illegal trade war with Canada" for "absolutely no
reason".
He said any auto company that moves their
operations out of Canada because of the tariffs should be blocked from selling
cars in the country.
Canadians go to the polls on 28 April.
The US imported about eight million cars
last year - accounting for about $240bn in trade and roughly half of overall
sales.
More
Canada PM Mark Carney
says old relationship with US 'is over' - BBC News
Australia PM calls general election for May 3 amid
cost-of-living crisis, tariff worries
Published Thu, Mar 27 2025 9:10 PM EDT
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
on Friday called a national election for May 3 as the country grapples with
high cost of living and rising U.S. tariffs.
That kicked off a five-week campaign in
the lead up to the ballot day as the center-left government seeks a second
three-year term.
“Our government has chosen to face global
challenges the Australian way — helping people under cost-of-living
pressure, while building for the future,” Albanese told a press conference
after triggering the election.
“Because of the strength and resilience
that our people have shown, Australia is turning the corner. Now on 3
May, you choose the way forward,” he said.
The Labor Party won a majority at the last
federal election in 2022, ending nine years of Liberal-National coalition rule.
Opinion polls indicate the Labor party is currently running neck-and-neck with
the conservative Liberal-National coalition led by Peter Dutton.
Cost-of-living
pressure has been on a rise since Albanese came to office. This is
despite of a
plethora of measures aimed at easing households’ living costs,
including a new round of tax cuts in Tuesday’s budget.
The Reserve Bank of Australia reduced
the benchmark cash rate in February for the first time in over four
years, signaling that the worst of inflationary pressures may have passed.
Among the top issues for voters would be
how to handle relations with U.S. President Donald Trump who has so far ruled
out exemptions for any country on steel and aluminum tariffs.
Albanese said he would continue to lobby
the U.S. administration for a reprieve. During Trump’s first presidential term,
Australia was exempted from U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Earlier this week, Trump announced a 25%
auto tariffs for all cars “not
made in the U.S.” and is expected to unveil a further round of tariffs
on trade partners next week.
The U.S. trade surplus with
Australia was $17.9 billion in 2024, a 1.6% rise over 2023, data from
the U.S. Census Bureau showed.
Australia PM calls general election for May 3 amid cost-of-living crisis, tariff worries
Finally, tariffs galore. I wonder why we abandoned tariffs? More on that in tomorrow’s LIR update.
Trump places 25% tariff on imported autos,
expecting to raise $100 billion in tax revenues
Updated 2:31 AM GMT, March 27, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump
said Wednesday he was placing 25% tariffs on auto
imports,
a move the White House claims would foster domestic
manufacturing but
could also put a financial squeeze on automakers that depend on global supply
chains.
“This will continue to spur growth,” Trump
told reporters. “We’ll effectively be charging a 25% tariff.”
The tariffs, which the White House expects
to raise $100 billion in revenue annually, could be complicated as even U.S. automakers source their
components from around the world. The tax hike starting in April means
automakers could face higher costs and lower sales, though Trump argues that
the tariffs will lead to more factories opening in the United States and the
end of what he judges to be a “ridiculous” supply chain in which auto parts and
finished vehicles are manufactured across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
To underscore his seriousness about the
tariffs directive he signed, Trump said, “This is permanent.”
More
President Trump
announces 25% tariffs on auto imports | AP News
Trump’s Giant New Car and Truck Tax
He’s dead set on remaking the economy on
his import substitution model.
March 27, 2025 5:50 pm ET
So much for the idea that President Trump
views tariffs as a negotiating tool to reduce everyone else’s tariffs. That was
always implausible, and the illusion went poof Wednesday with Mr. Trump’s
executive order imposing 25% tariffs on all imported cars and trucks. He wants
border taxes for their own sake, so get used to it.
“We’re going to charge countries for doing
business in our country and taking our jobs, taking our wealth,” the President
said in unveiling the tariffs. It’s pointless trying to persuade him that
nobody is stealing Americans’ lunch and that trade can be good for both
parties. But readers should know they are about to pay more for their cars and
have less choice to boot.
Mr. Trump justifies his car tariffs as a
“national security” threat under Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act.
As we wrote in 2019 when he tried this gambit, he apparently fears the attack
of the killer Toyotas.
More, subscription required.
Trump’s
Giant New Car and Truck Tax - WSJ
Germany slams Trump’s 25% auto tariffs as
bad news for U.S., EU and global trade
Published Thu, Mar 27 2025 4:44 AM EDT
Germany’s economy minister and auto
industry lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to impose sweeping 25%
tariffs on U.S. car imports, saying the move sends a “fatal signal” to free and
rules-based trade.
Trump on Wednesday said he would implement
tariffs on all vehicles and foreign-made auto parts imported into the U.S., as
part of measures set to come into force from April 2.
The duties, which coincide with an even broader push
on levies starting
next week, represent a major escalation in an already brewing global trade war.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck
called for the European Union to provide a “decisive response” to Trump’s
latest tariff announcement, saying the levies “ultimately harm the US and the
EU, and global trade as a whole.”
“The announcement of high tariffs on cars
and car parts is bad news for German carmakers, for the German economy, for the
EU, but also for the US,” Habeck said Thursday in a Google-translated
statement.
“It is now crucial that the EU delivers a
decisive response to the tariffs – it must be clear that we will not back down
in the face of the US . Strength and self-confidence are required,” he added.
European auto stocks traded sharply lower
on Thursday, tracking auto
losses in Asia overnight.
French car parts supplier Valeo traded down 5.2% at around midday
London time (8 a.m. ET), while Milan-listed Stellantis and
Germany’s Porsche fell over
4%.
“The announced additional US tariffs of
25% on all passenger cars and light commercial vehicles not manufactured in the
US send a fatal signal for free, rules-based trade,” Hildegard Müller,
president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), said in a
statement out Wednesday.
“The tariffs, which are scheduled to take
effect on April 2, will place a significant burden on both companies and the
automotive industry’s closely interwoven global supply chains—with negative
consequences, especially for consumers—including in North America,” Müller
said.
The VDA’s Müller underlined the economic
importance of free and fair trade to both sides of the transatlantic
partnership and called for immediate negotiations between the U.S. and EU on a
bilateral agreement.
“The risk of a global trade conflict –
with negative impacts on the global economy and growth, prosperity, jobs, and
consumer prices – is high on all sides,” Müller said.
‘Unjustified’
Analysts have previously warned Germany’s
auto sector appears to be significantly exposed to U.S. tariffs, noting that
the country was — by some distance — Europe’s largest exporter of passenger
cars to the U.S. in 2023.
Germany’s Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz Group and BMW have all issued profit warnings in
recent months, citing economic weakness and sluggish demand in China, the
world’s largest car market.
More
Auto tariffs:
Germany lashes out at Trump’s levy on U.S. car imports
Trump threatens ‘far larger’ tariffs if EU and
Canada unite to do ‘economic harm’ to the U.S.
Published Thu, Mar 27 2025 3:02 AM EDT
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to
impose “far larger” tariffs on the European Union (EU) and Canada if they work
together to combat trade tariffs.
“If the European Union works with Canada
in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than
currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best
friend that each of those two countries has ever had!,” Trump said in a Truth
Social update on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the White House leader had
announced that he will set a 25% tariff on “all cars that are not made in the
United States” with the levies due to take effect on April 2.
Trump White House aide Will Scharf said
the new duties apply to “foreign-made cars and light trucks” and come in
addition to tariffs that are already in place.
Crucially, the
tariffs will
also apply to car parts including engines, transmission and electrical
components — many of which are shipped to the U.S. from abroad and used in
American car production, although these are set to come into effect in May.
Scharf estimated that the measures will result in “over $100 billion of new
annual revenue” to the U.S.
Global markets were roiled as a new front
opened in the burgeoning global trade war, with shares of U.S. and Asian automakers
falling after
the announcement, and European auto
giants expected to do the same at the market open on Thursday.
Trump has already upended long-established
global trading relationships by imposing import duties on goods coming from
Mexico, Canada and China, as well as levies on all steel and aluminum imports,
because of what he sees as unfair trade deficits that the U.S. has with a
number of its largest trading partners.
---- Cars are ‘so political’
The latest tariffs are grim reading for Europe’s
already-beleaguered car industry, which has been struggling to innovate and
compete with manufacturers in Asia.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’
Association said Thursday that it is “deeply concerned” by the latest tariffs
announcement, which it noted comes “at a watershed moment for our industry’s
transformation and as fierce international competition mounts.”
Ludovic Subran, chief economist and chief
investment officer at Allianz, told CNBC on Thursday that the latest tariffs
announcement and the targeting of European automakers — once the jewel in the
crown of European industry — was not unexpected.
“Cars are so political,” he told CNBC’s
“Squawk Box Europe.”
He added, “You’ve seen the reaction of the
stock markets, the car manufacturers. It comes at a time when there is a lot of
uncertainty about car consumption, the registration of cars has slumped since
the beginning of the year, so it is really another one of these major seismic
waves of the Trump administration and starting with what matters the most, cars
and reviving the rust belt.”
More
Trump threatens
'far larger' tariffs on EU and Canada
The problem of the modern economy is not a failure of a knowledge of economics; it's a failure of a knowledge of history.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Explainer-Stagflation
on the radar for the US economy, but no repeat of the '70s
26
March 2025
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Recent economic projections from Federal Reserve officials had
shades of "Stagflation-lite," in the words of one economist, a
sentiment increasingly echoed among other observers of the U.S. economy and
central bank wondering if the country's outperformance during the pandemic is
about to slide.
So
what is stagflation and why is it suddenly on everyone's mind?
THAT
(BAD) 70s SHOW
Stagflation,
or a period of both high inflation and high joblessness, hit the U.S. notably
in the 1970s, which may have featured the worst U.S. economic leadership since
the Great Depression. Fed officials had their data and their framework wrong,
and elected officials flailed against inflation with price controls and what
now seem quaint public relations efforts, most notoriously the Ford
administration's "Whip Inflation Now (WIN)" button campaign.
As
economists in recent weeks have begun marking down their estimates of economic
growth and marking up estimates of inflation in the face of dramatic economic
policy shifts under President Donald Trump, it has sparked debate about whether
that could be unfolding again now.
In
theory, a weak economy with rising unemployment undercuts inflation, so the two
should not coexist. But as with oil price shocks in the 1970s that drove prices
higher, the tariff shock anticipated from Trump's trade policies now has the
world guessing.
The
Trump administration says the tariffs are part of what they bill as a
transition for the economy that, coupled with other efforts to deregulate
industry and cut taxes, will produce both plentiful jobs and lower inflation.
The
hints of stagflation in current forecasts aren't near as bad as the 1970s, a
decade in a league of its own when a surge in the so-called "misery
index" combining the unemployment and inflation rates still stands out in
charts of postwar economy.
But
the direction of travel for major aspects of the economy has caught economists'
attention. When Fed officials this week assessed the risks they see ahead they
pointed uniformly towards higher inflation and higher unemployment than
previously expected.
"Stagflation-lite,"
is what RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas titled his analysis of the Fed's
meeting last week. Policymakers' forecasts "implied mild stagflation ahead
in the near term as growth slows and inflation increases," he said, noting
the "pervasive uncertainty around the size and magnitude of the trade
shock."
‘NOTHING
MORE UNCOMFORTABLE'
Fed
policymakers last week left interest rates unchanged but still anticipate two
quarter-point cuts by year-end. Their new economic projections, however,
laid bare their conundrum. Growth is anticipated to slow, unemployment to rise
a bit more than expected, and inflation to accelerate in the face of existing
and widening tariffs.
Implied
by their forecasts of rate cuts and higher inflation is a belief that
tariff-triggered price increases would be one-off jumps, the same assumption
the Fed made early in the pandemic when it called rising prices
"transitory" - and was proven wrong.
Things
are different now. Factories and ports are open and goods are flowing.
But
given the scope and breadth of what Trump is planning, officials say the
outcome remains unpredictable.
More
Explainer-Stagflation
on the radar for the US economy, but no repeat of the '70s
Covid-19
Corner
This
section will continue only occasionally when something of interest occurs.
U.S.
Prosecutors Probe Tip About Timing of Pfizer Vaccine
26
March 2025
Soon
after President Trump won the presidential election in November, British
drugmaker GSK brought an unusual claim to federal prosecutors in Manhattan,
according to people familiar with the matter.
A
senior GSK scientist, who formerly worked at rival Pfizer, had told GSK
colleagues that Pfizer delayed announcing the success of its Covid vaccine in
2020 until after that year’s election.
The
scientist disputes that account of what he told colleagues. But prosecutors are
taking a closer look at what GSK shared with them, which is potentially
politically explosive. Trump for years has claimed that Pfizer sat on the
positive results of clinical trials, which could have reflected well on his
management of the pandemic and reassured voters as they headed to the polls.
There has never been evidence to support the accusation, and the development of
the Covid vaccines is widely viewed as
a medical miracle,
coming faster
than any other vaccine in history.
The
U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has interviewed at least two people in
connection with the allegation, including a GSK executive who took notes of a
conversation with the former Pfizer scientist, according to one of the people
familiar with the matter.
The
scientist, Phil Dormitzer, led Pfizer’s viral vaccine research and
development before
moving to GSK in 2021.
He has since left GSK, and his attorney is among those who have spoken to
prosecutors.
Prosecutors
have asked about what Dormitzer said to GSK executives in late 2024 about what
happened at Pfizer in 2020, according to people familiar with the
investigation.
In
a statement, Dormitzer said that Pfizer moved rapidly to get the vaccine
approved and that he didn’t tell his GSK colleagues otherwise. “My Pfizer
colleagues and I did everything we could to get the FDA’s Emergency Use
Authorization at the very first possible moment,” he said. “Any other
interpretation of my comments about the pace of the vaccine’s development would
be incorrect.”
Dormitzer,
61, spent nearly two decades in vaccine research at drug companies after
working in academia. He helped develop Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine and was among
company scientists who appeared in the media discussing the shot and the
pandemic.
Prosecutors
are planning to interview a third person in coming days, some of the people
familiar with the probe said. Pfizer officials haven’t been interviewed.
More
U.S. Prosecutors Probe Tip About Timing of Pfizer Vaccine
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section. Updates as they get reported.
Tiny nuclear
battery could power devices for decades
By Joe Salas March 26, 2025
Researchers
at Korea's Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology have created a
nuclear battery that could turn radiation directly into electricity for decades
– but without all the scary stuff associated with nuclear radiation.
Called
a dye-sensitized betavoltaic cell, this battery uses beta particles, which are
just high-energy electrons. The magic in this battery is the material
carbon-14, a radioactive isotope that emits beta particles. These particles
strike a titanium dioxide semiconductor coated with a ruthenium-based dye,
which knocks electrons loose in the dye, generating an electrical current.
The
half-life for carbon-14 decay is about 5,730 years, meaning the battery could
theoretically still be producing 50% of its original output after nearly six
millennia. However, in the real world, the practical power output would likely
degrade much sooner due to materials breaking down over such a timeframe.
The
prototype battery has a power density of 20.75 nanowatts per square centimeter
per millicurie at 2.86% efficiency. In layman's terms, that's not a lot.
Roughly the size of an aspirin or so, it pumps out about 0.4% of the power
needed to run a basic pocket calculator. You'd need around 240 more of these
little nuclear batteries to start your times tables refresher course.
That
being said, it generates enough power to run medical devices like a pacemaker
pulse circuit or remote environmental sensors for data logging. It could also
power RFID tags or microchips, or trickle charge capacitors for things that
need a bigger burst of quick energy. There are a whole host of ultra-low-power
consuming tech that this type of battery would suit – and it's still in early
development.
Despite
what one might normally think of nuclear radiation, the researchers say this
design is actually quite safe. The beta particles emitted from carbon-14 are
already present in nearly everything, including naturally in the human body.
Shielding for such a battery is as easy as a thin piece of aluminum foil. Even
paper can block carbon-14 beta particles from spreading. Solid state and made
without flammable materials, the little nuclear batteries might be safer than
lithium-ion batteries, which are prone to thermal runaway, venting, and
explosion.
This
isn't the first time atomic batteries have made the news.
The
first radioisotope battery was developed in 1954 by the Atomic Energy
Commission in the US. It used strontium-90 as the radioactive source and
converted energy from beta particles into electricity, similar to today's
betavoltaic cells.
Shortly
thereafter, in the 1960s, Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG) were
being used in space missions, converting energy from alpha-emitting isotopes
like plutonium-238 – which is more potent but still relatively safe when
properly shielded. The very first space mission being a US Navy satellite
called Transit 4A – part of the world's first satellite navigation system and
precursor to modern GPS.
More
Tiny nuclear
battery could power devices for decades
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt
Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
Another weekend and less than a week to Trump’s Great
Tariff Wednesday, global economic shock. The last “normal” weekend of 2025?
In the weekend update, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of
1930 and The Great Depression that came with it. Plus, the long and difficult fight
to abolish slavery in the British Empire, succeeding in 1833.
Have a great weekend everyone.
A
pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.
Oscar
Wilde
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