Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Is Bitcoin A Bubble?

 We have all thought so, with no income and nothing backing it, and it went zooming from nearly nothing to over $19,000, only to fall back hard down to around $3000, where it more or less hung out for a couple of years with the occasional up  to $6000 or so.  But recently it has moved up to over $18,000, near its previous peak, and some other cryptocurrencies have also moved up sharply, with #2 Ethereum essentially doubling in price in the last month or so.  So, is this another round of bubble speculation that will be followed by another crash?

I note that some other non-monetary assets have been moving.  After long sitting around $1200 to $1300 per ounce, with reportedly the Chinese central bank keeping it above $1000 whenever it occasionally headed down in that direction, gold this year has also moved up to near its old high.  It is now over $1800, not far from its previous high of over $1900.

Oil is not anywhere near a high, but just in the last week or so has suddenly been moving up. While hanging our around $40 per barrel for both Brent crude and West Texas crude for a long time, and even down almost to the mid-30s not too long ago, Brent as of today is at $48.70, pushing 50 for the first time in a long time, with WTI a few dollars behind.

Some are saying all this is due to a fear that the US dollar will collapse.  Maybe, although I do not know.  It is not screamingly obvious why that might happen now more than at other times.  Pro Trumpers might push this, but they were pushing the stock market would collapse if Biden won.  And, heck, the announcement of allowing transition to Biden sent the Dow over 30,000 for the first time ever, not exactly a collapse, although Trumpers say this is all due to the vaccine hopes, and all that is due to Trump.  Sure.

Anyway, back to bitcoin in particular, Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution (and I guess in a Bloomberg column also) has suggested there might be an improvement in fundamentals that might be consistent with a more solid upward move in bitcoin's price, even if we see some "correction" ahead. The reason is that a number of entities out there have recently announced that they will accept payments in bitcoin, with this not likely to be reversed.  This suggests that it is not gong to collapse and disappear and also that its use as a medium of exchange may continue to spread.  This would  make it a more seriously established alternative form of quasi-money with more solidity to its longer run price.

Of coures, technically speaking all fiat currencies that are not backed by a commodity are bubbles.  They only have positive value because people think other people think they will be accepted, a sort of giant mass hallucination.  But as long as the belief holds, it works.  These are stable bubbles, not the sort that zoom up and then crash, which is what a lot of people mean when they a particular price movement is a bubble (and this may happen still with btc). This is the argument of the original overlapping generations models due to Allais and Samuelson, that fiat currencies are essentially stable bubbles that can continue because they can passed on to future generations.

Of course fiat currencies, like the USD, have their governments supporting them in a variety of ways, if not with a specific commodity, and bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies do not.  That certainly makes the cryptos a lot shakier than national fiat currencies.  But maybe they, or at least bitcoin, will now have a higher floor for its price than was the case a year ago or so.

Barkley Rosser


125 comments:

  1. Bitcoin is fundamentally limited to processing seven transactions per second.

    Bitcoin bubbles form and burst when a critical mass of people get into Bitcoin as a medium exchange, discover the transaction limit, realize that Bitcoin is useless as a currency, and then bail out.

    This time won't be different.

    ReplyDelete
  2. (Bitcoin is a currency backed by the
    full faith and credit of the
    Winklevoss brothers.)

    Winklevoss twins ride bitcoin surge to become billionaires again

    BNN Bloomberg - November 6

    Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, whose fortunes have been on a roller coaster since they jostled with fellow student Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University more than a decade ago, are once again billionaires thanks to a surge in the price of Bitcoin.

    The twins bought US$11 million worth of Bitcoins in 2013, according to the New York Times, and soon became evangelists, creating crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co. The 39-year-old brothers, who gained widespread fame following the release of the 2010 movie “The Social Network,” briefly became billionaires in 2017 when Bitcoin soared to a record before the volatile currency plummeted.

    Bitcoin has more than doubled this year to US$15,433, partly driven by fears that massive central bank easing and fiscal stimulus will debase currencies. Each of the twins is worth about US$1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. They also own other cryptocurrencies including Ether. ...

    ReplyDelete
  3. ‘Bitcoin is now worth as much as Netflix’

    Satoshi Nakaboto - August 21

    Wikipedia: Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database.

    (Satoshi Nakaboto is presumably a 'bot'.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Barkley,
    Thanks for pointing out that fiat currencies like the USD can be thought of as stable bubbles. For me that was a new way of looking at things. And after you pointed it out, it's one of those things that ought to be blazingly obvious even though it had never occurred to me before.

    ReplyDelete
  5. https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1292129756905910273

    Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

    As Charlie Brown would say if he were an economics wonk, "Aaauuuuggghhh!" No, gold prices aren't rising because investors expect inflation. They don't. Gold is high because bond yields are so low 1/

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/opinion/gold-investment-coronavirus.html

    Why Is Everyone Buying Gold?
    It’s one of the best performing assets in the world this year. That’s not a great sign.

    12:05 PM · Aug 8, 2020

    Here's the 10-year breakeven inflation rate — the rate that would equalize yields on inflation-protected and ordinary bonds — plus the yield on those inflation-protected bonds 2/

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee6RklsXoAUxea4?format=png&name=small

    The implied inflation forecast is actually lower than it was last year; what's happened is a plunge in yields, reflecting economic pessimism. Some weirdness in March, which I'll explain next 3/

    So, in March there was a near-collapse of financial markets, which drove down the price of anything not totally liquid, including inflation-protected bonds. Hence a brief yield spike and fall in apparent inflation expectations. But it was just a blip 4/

    The thing is, we went through exactly this story in 2008-9: rising gold prices without rising inflation expectations bc of falling yields, and even a blip in TIPs prices during the post-Lehman financial disruption. No excuse for being confused now [end wonkish rant]/

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee6Tc_wXYAMvw1r?format=png&name=small

    ReplyDelete
  6. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=tTDp

    January 15, 2018

    Price of Gold and 10-Year Breakeven Inflation Rate, 2017-2018

    ReplyDelete
  7. 2slug,

    You are welcome. This matter of fiat currencies being stable bubbles is an old chestnut, an oldie but goodie. It was to explain them that OLG models were invented for.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Looking more like this has been a short run explosive bubble, possibly now over. BTC dropped over 12% today, down into the $16,000 range. Some are saying this is a "buy on the dip" moment, but more likely it will head down further to that now higher floor.

    Other cryptos also taking it hard, with Ethereum down over 14%. Fun and games.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Of course, technically speaking all fiat currencies that are not backed by a commodity are bubbles. They only have positive value because people think other people think they will be accepted, a sort of giant mass hallucination.

    Quite untrue. Fiat money is typically "backed" by taxation. So it is exactly as bubbly, as hallucinatory as taxation is. I trust Ben Franklin. Death and taxes are inevitable. Gold and bitcoin are bubbles. Death, taxes and dollars are not.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Barkley Rosser:

    After long sitting around $1200 to $1300 per ounce, with reportedly the Chinese central bank keeping it above $1000....

    [ This is assuredly not policy of the Bank of China, rather a rumor repeatedly used by speculators. Bitcoin and the like mining and trading are illegal in China. The central bank however is slowly working on the use of a Chinese constructed digital currency in selected country to country trading, such as in limited trading with Turkey. ]

    ReplyDelete
  11. A.,

    Read what I wrote. You have messed up, overdoing your defense of China. This was about the price of gold, not about the price bitcoins, and the Chinese central bank has been steadily loading up on gold for some time, and reputed to have stepped in especially on a few occasions when the price looked like it was heading towards $1000 per oz.

    To Calgacus,

    It certainly helps give a money credibility if it is used to pay taxes, and the MMT chartalist theory says this is all that matter. But, sorry, being required for paying taxes does not "back up" the money. It remains fiat currency, only having value because the government says it has value without any commodity backing it up.

    Actually my biggest disagreement with MMTers, who are right about a lot of things, is on this matter of defining money and their essentially dogmatic insistence on the chartalist view. It becomes religious doctrine, not economics. Spontaneous commodities used as media of exchange, such as cowrie shells (which were recognized officially for awhile by a few kingdoms in West Africa), are fulfilling functions of money, even if not recognized by governments.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Barkley Rosser:

    After long sitting around $1200 to $1300 per ounce, with reportedly the Chinese central bank keeping it above $1000....

    [ Good grief, this passage was referring to the price of gold. Of course, I do need to read carefully.

    I appreciate the correction.

    The Chinese central bank has been gradually adding to non-dollar reserves. ]

    ReplyDelete
  13. Barkley Rosser:

    Read what I wrote. You have messed up, overdoing your defense of China.

    [ Yes, I made a foolish mistake in reading because I do not care a fig about Bitcoin and thought the post would be uninteresting. I appreciate the correction, however do be sure to be polite to me even when I make a mistake.

    Thank you so much. ]

    ReplyDelete
  14. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=lwgj

    January 30, 2018

    Total Reserves excluding Gold for China, 2007-2018

    ReplyDelete
  15. As of the end of this October, China held $3.1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and another $118 billion in gold:

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-07/China-s-October-foreign-exchange-reserves-fell-to-3-128-trillion-VdTz1KBpQI/index.html

    November 7, 2020

    China's October foreign exchange reserves fell to $3.128 trillion

    ReplyDelete
  16. Barkley Rosser:

    You have messed up, overdoing your defense of China....

    [ Yes, I made a mistake in reading, but do be polite. The mistake is now corrected.

    Thank you for this fine post, which I have carefully reread and reconsidered. ]

    ReplyDelete
  17. 2020 Ig® Nobel Prize Winners

    ECONOMICS PRIZE [UK, POLAND, FRANCE, BRAZIL, CHILE, COLOMBIA, AUSTRALIA, ITALY, NORWAY, ITALY]
    Christopher Watkins, Juan David Leongómez, Jeanne Bovet, Agnieszka Żelaźniewicz, Max Korbmacher, Marco Antônio Corrêa Varella, Ana Maria Fernandez, Danielle Wagstaff, and Samuela Bolgan, for trying to quantify the relationship between different countries’ national income inequality and the average amount of mouth-to-mouth kissing.

    REFERENCE: “National Income Inequality Predicts Cultural Variation in Mouth to Mouth Kissing,” Christopher D. Watkins, Juan David Leongómez, et al., Scientific Reports, vol. 9, article no. 6698, 2019.

    (Totally un-related, but the Open
    Thread post is quite stale.)

    ReplyDelete
  18. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/technology/pushed-by-pandemic-amazon-goes-on-a-hiring-spree-without-equal.html

    November 27, 2020

    Pushed by Pandemic, Amazon Goes on a Hiring Spree Without Equal
    The company has added 427,300 employees in 10 months, bringing its global work force to more than 1.2 million.
    By Karen Weise

    SEATTLE — Amazon has embarked on an extraordinary hiring binge this year, vacuuming up an average of 1,400 new workers a day and solidifying its power as online shopping becomes more entrenched in the coronavirus pandemic.

    The hiring has taken place at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, at its hundreds of warehouses in rural communities and suburbs, and in countries such as India and Italy. Amazon added 427,300 employees between January and October, pushing its work force to more than 1.2 million people globally, up more than 50 percent from a year ago. Its number of workers now approaches the entire population of Dallas.

    The spree has accelerated since the onset of the pandemic, which has turbocharged Amazon’s business and made it a winner of the crisis. Starting in July, the company brought on about 350,000 employees, or 2,800 a day. Most have been warehouse workers, but Amazon has also hired software engineers and hardware specialists to power enterprises such as cloud computing, streaming entertainment and devices, which have boomed in the pandemic….

    ReplyDelete
  19. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/opinion/amazon-new-york.html

    February 14, 2019

    New York Returns 25,000 Jobs to Amazon
    As the company cancels its plans for a major Queens campus, anti-corporate activists got what they wanted at a great cost.

    [ Before the recession, Amazon was looking among cities for another headquarters and New York City was chosen by the company for the geography along with a tax incentive. Thousands of select and routine but importantly stable jobs would have been created by Amazon in New York City. However, there was general union-centered opposition to Amazon and concern about the tax breaks offered and local political figures such as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez successfully fought against gaining the Amazon headquarters. Paul Krugman as well decided Amazon did not matter to New York.

    The decision of Amazon not to locate in New York struck me immediately as a terrible workforce loss to the city. Krugman and AOC were profoundly mistaken. They failed to understand what Amazon was becoming, and what was necessary to secure New York. ]

    ReplyDelete
  20. Why has Massachusetts fared so poorly?

    November 27, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Massachusetts

    Cases   ( 219,252)
    Deaths   ( 10,635)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,543)

    ReplyDelete
  21. November 27, 2020

    Coronavirus

    New York

    Cases   ( 666,642)
    Deaths   ( 34,437)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,770)

    ReplyDelete
  22. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/28/world/middleeast/israel-iran-nuclear-deal.html

    November 28, 2020

    Israel’s Gamble: If Assassination Fails to Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program, Blowing Up Deal Is Easy
    The killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist is likely to impede the country’s military ambitions. Its real purpose may have been to prevent the president-elect from resuming diplomacy with Tehran.
    By David E. Sanger

    WASHINGTON — The assassination of the scientist who led Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon for the past two decades threatens to cripple President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s effort to revive the Iran nuclear deal before he can even begin his diplomacy with Tehran.

    And that may well have been a main goal of the operation.

    Intelligence officials say there is little doubt that Israel was behind the killing — it had all the hallmarks of a precisely-timed operation by Mossad, the country’s spy agency. And the Israelis have done nothing to dispel that view. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long identified Iran as an existential threat, and named the assassinated scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, as national enemy No. 1, capable of building a weapon that could threaten a country of eight million in a single blast.

    But Mr. Netanyahu also has a second agenda....

    ReplyDelete
  23. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-11/26/c_139545044.htm

    November 26, 2020

    Containing sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks the Chinese way

    -- No COVID-19 deaths have been reported in China since April 16, according to the National Health Commission.
    -- The breakthrough in nucleic acid testing is key to turning the tables on sporadic outbreaks, gaining valuable time for containing the virus.
    -- Health authorities and local governments have spared no effort to track patient zero, trace and cut transmission routes, and implement community-based quarantine.
    -- China has been pooling experts and resources to treat every patient.

    By Li Mi, Zhang Xudong and Li Baojie

    BEIJING -- With the coronavirus pandemic far from over and scientists' warning of a winter surge, China has formulated a response to small-scale clusters to secure its success in controlling the disease.

    Applied in Beijing in June, Dalian in July, Qingdao and Kashgar in October, and the current outbreaks in Tianjin, Shanghai and the border city of Manzhouli, mass testing and contact tracing are containing them.

    And it is working. No COVID-19 deaths have been reported in China since April 16, according to the National Health Commission (NHC)....

    ReplyDelete
  24. "Why has Massachusetts fared so poorly?"

    Why Medical Experts Are Concerned

    NBC-10 - November 13

    ... Young people are driving the rise in infections, officials say, unlike in the spring when nursing homes were being ravaged. While younger people are somewhat less likely to get seriously ill or die from the virus, experts say it’s only a question of when it begins spreading again in the older and more vulnerable populations. ...

    ReplyDelete
  25. About Amazon, what may not be properly clear is just how sophisticated the technology of the company is, just how simple and ultimately pleasing the shopping is, just what it means to walk to the door and have what I might need from another computer, to running shows, to all the groceries I realize I was not all that attached to loading in a shopping cart and waiting, waiting, waiting to check and bag and load in the cart again only to unload to the car and unload after...  Good grief, I do appreciate having Amazon as evidently do my neighbors...  I am attached to my Prime Card.

    Seriously, how long has it been since Paul Krugman shopped?  Analysis should mean at least vicariously experiencing what is being analyzed.

    ReplyDelete
  26. https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mass-just-surpassed-10000-covid-deaths-heres-why-medical-experts-are-concerned/2230733/

    Why Medical Experts Are Concerned

    [ I appreciate this article from November 13, when the increase in infections in Massachusetts was evident and being driven by relatively younger cases than months earlier. I would guess the same holds for New York. ]

    ReplyDelete
  27. November 27, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases   ( 13,454,254)
    Deaths   ( 271,026)

    India

    Cases   ( 9,351,224)
    Deaths   ( 136,238)

    France

    Cases   ( 2,196,119)
    Deaths   ( 50,914)

    UK

    Cases   ( 1,589,301)
    Deaths   ( 57,551)

    Mexico

    Cases   ( 1,078,594)
    Deaths   ( 104,242)

    Germany

    Cases   ( 1,027,325)
    Deaths   ( 16,172)

    Canada

    Cases   ( 359,064)
    Deaths   ( 11,894)

    China

    Cases   ( 86,495)
    Deaths   ( 4,634)

    ReplyDelete
  28. November 27, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    UK   ( 838)
    US   ( 817)
    Mexico   ( 805)
    France   ( 795)

    Canada   ( 314)
    Germany   ( 193)
    India   ( 98)
    China   ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.7%, 3.6% and 2.3% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  29. November 27, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    Belgium   ( 1,397)
    Spain   ( 955)
    Italy   ( 888)
    UK   ( 846)

    US   ( 817)
    Mexico   ( 805)
    France   ( 795)
    Sweden   ( 660)

    Netherlands   ( 540)
    Switzerland   ( 527)
    Luxembourg   ( 476)
    Portugal   ( 420)

    Ireland   ( 412)
    Austria   ( 320)
    Canada   ( 314)
    Greece   ( 202)

    Germany   ( 193)
    Denmark   ( 141)
    India   ( 98)
    Finland   ( 71)

    Norway   ( 60)
    Australia   ( 35)
    Japan   ( 16)
    Korea   ( 10)

    China   ( 3)

    ReplyDelete
  30. November 28, 2020

    Chinese mainland reports 6 new COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland on Friday registered 6 new COVID-19 cases, all from overseas, announced the National Health Commission on Saturday.

    A total of 4 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 288 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No COVID-19-related deaths were reported on Friday, and 24 patients were discharged from hospitals.

    As of Friday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has reached 86,501, with 4,634 fatalities.

    [ There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since the beginning of May. Since the beginning of June there have been 7 limited community clusters of infections, each of which was an immediate focus of mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, with each outbreak having been contained. Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are all contact traced and quarantined.

    Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Cold-chain imported food products are also checked. The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent.

    There are now 285 active coronavirus cases in all on the Chinese mainland, 8 of which cases are classed as serious or critical. ]

    ReplyDelete
  31. Massachusetts sadly is faring poorly, indeed:

    November 28, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Massachusetts

    Cases   ( 222,469)
    Deaths   ( 10,676)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,549)

    ReplyDelete
  32. 'Massachusetts sadly is faring poorly, indeed'

    MA could be doing better, however much of the
    data dates back to the early months of 2020
    with rampant nursing home deaths. Recent
    graphs indicate that MA is on the rise
    about the same as the rest of the US.

    ReplyDelete
  33. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-28/China-s-Chang-e-5-lunar-probe-successfully-brakes-for-lunar-orbiting-VNegLaNEha/index.html

    November 29, 2020

    China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe successfully brakes for lunar orbiting

    China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe successfully decelerated near the Moon and entered lunar orbit, the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Saturday.

    The administration said in a statement that a 3,000-newton-thrust engine on the spacecraft was activated at 8:58 pm Beijing time and worked about 17 minutes when the probe reached a position about 400 kilometers above the moon.

    A key orbital control measure for any lunar mission, the braking operation was conducted to reduce the spacecraft's speed to make sure it can be captured by the moon's gravitational field rather than accidentally flying past the celestial body.

    After flying four days towards the Moon, the probe successfully conducted "space braking" and entered an elliptical lunar orbit, said the CNSA....

    ReplyDelete
  34. MA could be doing better, however...

    [ I understand, before is not now even when it is now and older people were and are of no concern and the supposedly elite medical institutions in Massachusetts are uninterested in dealing with actual medical problems and besides blue states no longer matter after the election.

    Rubbish. ]

    ReplyDelete
  35. Let me clarify the matter; the way Massachusetts has fared through the epidemic is awful and disgraceful. New York too.... But actually finding out why is too much to expect. Disgraceful.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Since it was known from January that age was a complicating factor in contracting the coronavirus, I am still trying to understand why in New York nursing homes were "ordered" to accept coronavirus patients from hospitals. Of course, New York Times reporters were continually ridiculing the Chinese experience and demeaning Chinese efforts to treat and contain the coronavirus so learning from the Chinese experience was made sadly difficult.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Nursing home COVID-19 deaths grow to 66% of total in MA

    Worcester Telegram & Gazette - November 7

    WORCESTER — Eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic, testing and caring for patients in nursing homes is still sorely lacking, according to the city's top health official, Dr. Michael P. Hirsh.

    According to Gov. Charlie Baker, the state is doing the best it can.

    On Friday, Baker said that even more effort will be made to address the public health dimension involving nursing homes and the novel coronavirus.

    According to Hirsh, Worcester’s public health medical director, there is no system in place to routinely test for the disease inside long-term care facilities.

    Consequently, there is no way to know who should be quarantined tp protect others from potentially contracting this disease, Hirsh said.

    How to separate infected residents — to protect others, including staff and families going to visit their elderly — is a problem, he said.

    “It is very hard to quarantine” nursing home residents to begin with, and not enough resources have gone into addressing this problem, Hirsh said in an interview Thursday.

    “It is a big challenge, still, to effectively quarantine nursing home patients,” compounded by a lack of testing, in the first place, to determine who should be isolated from other residents, he added.

    Were there an outbreak, it likely would not be discovered until a crisis erupts, because data collection from COVID-19 is not happening with the frequency the situation demands, he said, nor with the urgency required.

    Hirsh said deployment of the Massachusetts National Guard should happen, to widely test nursing home residents to prevent a potential repeat of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home catastrophe, in which nearly 80 died.

    Baker’s statement, released by his office on Friday, said his administration and in particular the Department of Public Health are working to address COVID-19-related gaps in the system involving nursing homes, the administration said.

    The statement did not discuss deployment of the National Guard to test in nursing homes.

    The Baker administration statement says, “Adherence to infection control standards, adequate staffing levels, and continued surveillance testing in nursing homes is more important than ever.

    “The announcements made today will allow for swift intervention by the state to mitigate the spread of this virus in facilities with high-risk factors that pose a threat to the health, safety and welfare of residents and staff.“ ...

    Massachusetts Department of Public Health data published Aug. 1 shows an apparent anomaly related to the number of positive COVID-19 cases for ages 70 to 79 compared to deaths and to other age categories.

    In the 70-79 age category, the state reported 9,841 positive COVID-19 cases and 1,873 deaths, the second-highest death count by age category, only exceeded by age 80 and older. The 80 and above age group shows 5,410 deaths reported as of Aug. 1.

    The apparent anomaly in this data set is 5,078 more COVID-19 cases for those in the 60-69 age group, which total 14,919; and 5,552 more COVID-19 cases in the 80 and over age group, which total 15,393 — both compared to the 70-79 age group total of 9,841 cases.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Nursing home COVID-19 deaths grow to 66% of total in MA

    Worcester Telegram & Gazette - November 7

    WORCESTER — Eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic, testing and caring for patients in nursing homes is still sorely lacking, according to the city's top health official, Dr. Michael P. Hirsh.

    According to Gov. Charlie Baker, the state is doing the best it can....

    [ A so far unending, preventable tragedy. I appreciate the article, but have no idea how health authorities and the Governor in Massachusetts could have overlooked and overseen such a tragedy. I really do not understand what this represents, but it is fearfully important. ]

    ReplyDelete
  39. (Before becoming MA guv'nah, Baker was a healthcare insurance executive.)

    Charlie Baker, a veteran of the health insurance industry, dives into a policy fight

    via @BostonGlobe - March 31, 2019

    Baker: Pandemic underscores need for health care overhaul

    via @BosBizJournal - October 20

    ReplyDelete
  40. OTOH...

    Massachusetts colleges have been the rare success in combatting the
    spread of coronavirus. The state could learn from their extensive testing plans.

    From campus, a lesson in controlling the virus

    via @BostonGlobe - November 28

    The return of tens of thousands of college students to Massachusetts from all corners of the US and world, once feared as a super-spreading provocation, has instead proved to be one of the few successes of the pandemic, thanks to an extensive testing system that could serve as a model for the rest of society.

    The immense undertaking by many New England colleges and universities included testing students when they first arrived on campus, requiring them to wear face masks and limit social gatherings, and, throughout the fall, making everyone on campus undergo a nose swab test for COVID-19 at least once a week — with results usually available within less than 24 hours.

    With several thousand students on many of the state’s college campuses, higher education institutions have conducted more than 2.8 million COVID tests since Aug. 15, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The result is an infection rate among college students that is significantly lower than among the broader population in the state.

    “It is a pretty good miniature blueprint of what we should be doing as a society,” said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Frequent, rapid turnaround testing . . . that should absolutely be replicated at the societal scale.”

    That’s a sharp contrast to the view back in August, when many — neighbors, local officials, and faculty — were dubious of plans by dozens of New England colleges and universities to bring students back to campus amid a global pandemic. Indeed, outbreaks of the virus early in the fall semester, at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Providence College, and among athletes at Boston College, seemed to bear the skeptics out.

    Now, replicating the stout prevention efforts on a broad scale in communities and businesses, specialists say, would take money, planning, and a collective willpower that Massachusetts has yet to harness and deploy. ...

    ReplyDelete
  41. From campus, a lesson in controlling the virus

    via @BostonGlobe - November 28

    [Absolutely and importantly so, and differing from many campus experiences in states other than Massachusetts. ]

    ReplyDelete
  42. https://cepr.net/more-bad-news-about-the-pandemic-recession-longer-hours/

    November 28, 2020

    More Bad News About the Pandemic Recession: Longer Hours
    By Den Baker

    We know that the economy is likely to get worse in the immediate future as the pandemic is spreading out of control in most parts of the country. However, the latest data on average weekly hours indicates we may be facing a longer term issue that has not generally been anticipated....

    ReplyDelete
  43. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-29/China-s-Chang-e-5-lunar-probe-completes-final-brakes-prepares-to-land-VOPRQFUL1S/index.html

    November 29, 2020

    China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe conducts 2nd braking, prepares to land
    By Cao Qingqing

    China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe successfully completed its second braking at 8:23 p.m. Sunday (BJT), entering a circular lunar orbit 200 kilometers above the moon and getting ready for the landing operation, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of China National Space Administration (CNSA).

    This follows its first braking one day earlier, which took place at a position about 400 kilometers above the moon and enabled it to be captured by the moon's gravitational field and fly in an elliptical lunar orbit.

    Read more: China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe successfully brakes for lunar orbiting ...

    ReplyDelete
  44. Congress, in 2011, simply stopped all participation by China in programs of the "International" Space Station.  Now, in 2020, China has already launched and manned a prototype space station, which will soon be followed by a complete International Space Station.  China has a global positioning system.  China has sent an explorer to Mars.  China has a rover which has been exploring the far side of the Moon for more than a year.  China has just launched a set of 4 vehicles to travel to and land on the Moon, to gather surface and subsurface samples and bring them back to Earth.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Sadly disturbing and requiring analysis:

    November 29, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Massachusetts

    Cases   ( 224,964)
    Deaths   ( 10,722)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,556)

    ReplyDelete
  46. November 29, 2020

    Coronavirus

    New York

    Cases   ( 679,111)
    Deaths   ( 34,514)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,774)

    ReplyDelete
  47. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-30/China-s-Chang-e-5-probe-to-execute-soft-landing-on-the-moon-VPBqsJu66k/index.html

    November 30, 2020

    China's Chang'e-5 probe to execute soft landing on the moon

    The Chang'e-5 probe's lander and ascender separated from its orbiter and returner at 4:40 a.m. BJT on Monday, according to an announcement from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on the same day.

    The four modules, including the lander, ascender, orbiter and returner that consist of the lunar probe, have worked in pairs and will have a tight schedule this week.

    The mission team said the lander and ascender are waiting for a perfect timing for a soft landing, while the orbiter and returner will continue to fly around the moon and adjust to a designated orbit, getting ready for the docking with the ascender.

    The landing operation is expected in three days. Once it touches down on the lunar surface, the lander will collect two kilograms of lunar samples.

    It will shovel some surface material, drill a two-meter-deep hole and extract the soil from inside it, which will act as an archive of the moon, with the bottom recording information from a billion years ago, and the top more closely reflecting the present day.

    Once the samples are secured, the ascender will take off from the lunar surface to transfer the moon samples to the re-entry capsule waiting in lunar orbit, which will then carry them back to earth.

    The sampling work and the take-off of the ascender from the lunar surface need to be completed within 48 hours, according to Liu Jiangang, chief of the command team in Beijing.

    Read more:

    China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe conducts 2nd braking, prepares to land

    ReplyDelete
  48. And now the cryptos have bounced back up, with bitcoin over $19,000 and near ita all time max, and Ethereum back over $600. Certainly plenty of volatility in these markets right now, whatever the heck is really going on.

    ReplyDelete
  49. The price of a bitcoin is determined by supply and demand.
    When demand for bitcoins increases, the price increases,
    and when demand falls, the price falls.

    Bitcoin FAQ

    ReplyDelete
  50. A more sophisticated answer may be found here.

    An Introduction To Automated Market Makers

    ... The trade of digital assets from one to another has been heavily reliant on trust. Remember the guy who sold his pizza for 10,000 Bitcoins? He had to ensure the person he was transferring Bitcoins to would not vanish with his coins. One way this used to happen in Bitcoin forums and IRC channels was by trusting the reputation scores of an individual engaging in a trade. This is common in all P2P trading. Factors like the age of the account and frequency of transactions are a core part of platforms like Craiglist and LocalBitcoins. It came with the risk of individuals scamming once the trust was earned. With the arrival of exchanges like Coinbase and Mt Gox, the need for trusting reputation scores vanished. Individuals could deposit on a centralised account and trade with one another. However, custodial risk came along with it. As we saw with Mt Gox, the custodial risk of depositing with a central party is quite high.

    As the number of digital assets in the ecosystem rose with developers increasingly issuing their tokens, centralised exchanges became gate-keepers of liquidity. It used to be common for exchanges to demand over a million dollars to list a token. “Value-added-services” like market-making for the asset or sending e-mails to their user-base used to be sold. The challenge with this is that it put teams with lesser resources at a disadvantageous position. While centralised exchanges have played their role, it became impractical over time to rely on them for go-to-market. As the number of digital assets in our ecosystem increases in the form of NFTs, personal tokens and other representations of value on-chain, it will become necessary to have infrastructure that enables the exchange of one asset to another without a central party. ...

    ReplyDelete
  51. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-01/China-s-Chang-e-5-successfully-lands-on-moon–VSilnSM6J2/index.html

    December 1, 2020

    China’s Chang’e-5 successfully lands on moon to collect samples
    By Cao Qingqing

    The Chang’e-5 probe successfully landed on the near side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Tuesday.

    With the space probe’s ascender on top, its lander made a touchdown at around 11:00 p.m. (Beijing Time), becoming China’s third probe that has successfully made a soft landing on the moon. It has sent back footage of the moment it landed.

    Footage of the landing moment sent back by Chang’e-5

    In the next two days, the lander will collect about two kilograms of lunar samples.

    The Chang’e-5 probe includes a lander, ascender, orbiter, and returner. After the spacecraft entered the circular lunar orbit 200 kilometers above the moon, the lander-and-ascender pair split, descended, and landed at the planned area on the moon.

    The lander will shovel some surface material and also drill a two-meter-deep hole and scoop up the soil from inside it, which will act like an archive of the moon, with the bottom recording information from a billion years ago and the top more closely reflecting the present day.

    The samples will then be stored in the ascender, which will lift off from the lunar surface to transfer the moon samples to the returner and orbiter waiting in the lunar orbit. The unmanned rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit will also be the first such task conducted by China.

    Then, at a proper time, the returner will separate from the orbiter and carry the samples back to Earth, which will finally land in North China’s Inner Mongolia.

    Read more: China’s Chang’e-5 moon mission explained in graphics

    Tech It Out: Chang’e-5, China’s most complex space mission ever

    Once completed, the Chang’e-5 probe will become part of the world’s first unmanned sample return mission from the moon in 40 years, and will make China the third country in the world to bring back lunar samples after the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.

    The Chang’e-5 probe was launched on the early morning of November 24. It’s one of China’s most complicated and challenging space missions so far, which will contribute to scientific studies in fields such as the formation and evolution of the moon.

    Read more: China successfully launches Chang’e-5 to collect moon samples

    ReplyDelete
  52. There is no particular reason, I know, but I am unnerved in looking at coronavirus data in this country now. As a country, many thousands of people are being "discarded" and I do not know what this represents or means.

    ReplyDelete
  53. There have been more than 2,300 deaths recorded so far today. How can this possibly be?

    ReplyDelete
  54. Now we are above 2,600 deaths for this miserable day. This tells us something profound about who we are, but what?

    ReplyDelete
  55. There is much suffering in Massachusetts again; please be ever so careful. Please try to understand how we could come to such a plight, and not dismiss the tragedy as being that of any group we somehow prefer to dismiss. What is America about? What does it mean to have a state such as Massachusetts with supposedly elite institutions, when there is such suffering?

    ReplyDelete
  56. I suppose that when all is thankfully done, this will have meant little if anything beyond the meaning to those grieving:

    December 1, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Massachusetts

    Cases   ( 229,205)
    Deaths   ( 10,778)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,564)

    ReplyDelete
  57. Again, another frightening day. The public health system has failed us.

    ReplyDelete
  58. December 1, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases ( 14,108,490)
    Deaths ( 276,976)

    India

    Cases ( 9,499,710)
    Deaths ( 138,159)

    France

    Cases ( 2,230,571)
    Deaths ( 53,506)

    UK

    Cases ( 1,643,086)
    Deaths ( 59,051)

    Mexico

    Cases ( 1,113,543)
    Deaths ( 105,940)

    Germany

    Cases ( 1,085,661)
    Deaths ( 17,359)

    Canada

    Cases ( 382,812)
    Deaths ( 12,195)

    China

    Cases ( 86,542)
    Deaths ( 4,634)

    ReplyDelete
  59. December 1, 2020

    Coronavirus (Deaths per million)

    UK ( 868)
    US ( 835)
    France ( 819)
    Mexico ( 818)

    Canada ( 322)
    Germany ( 207)
    India ( 100)
    China ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.5%, 3.6% and 2.4% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  60. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-02/Chinese-mainland-reports-9-new-COVID-19-cases-VSWaOOPux2/index.html

    December 2, 2020

    Chinese mainland reports 9 new COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland on Tuesday registered 9 new COVID-19 cases, 2 locally transmitted and 7 from overseas, announced the National Health Commission on Wednesday.

    A total of 3 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 259 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No COVID-19-related deaths were reported on Tuesday, and 18 patients were discharged from hospitals.

    As of Tuesday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,551, with 4,634 fatalities.

    Chinese mainland new locally transmitted cases

    Chinese mainland new imported cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-02/Chinese-mainland-reports-9-new-COVID-19-cases-VSWaOOPux2/img/795eb99816bc4362958a7d0e3d578d57/795eb99816bc4362958a7d0e3d578d57.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-02/Chinese-mainland-reports-9-new-COVID-19-cases-VSWaOOPux2/img/744b64af9fff477682e10c8093ff02a2/744b64af9fff477682e10c8093ff02a2.jpeg

    [ There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since the beginning of May. Since the beginning of June there have been 7 limited community clusters of infections, each of which was an immediate focus of mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, with each outbreak having been contained. Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are all contact traced and quarantined.

    Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Cold-chain imported food products are all checked before distribution. The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent.

    There are now 268 active coronavirus cases in all on the Chinese mainland, 8 of which cases are classed as serious or critical. ]

    ReplyDelete
  61. Blue state misery:

    December 1, 2020

    Coronavirus

    New York

    Cases   ( 694,060)
    Deaths   ( 34,655)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,781)

    ReplyDelete
  62. 190,000 cases so far today, 100,000 in hospital, 2,700 deaths...

    ReplyDelete
  63. 200,000 cases so far today, 100,000 in hospital, 2,800 deaths...

    ReplyDelete
  64. December 2, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases ( 14,313,941)
    Deaths ( 279,865)

    India

    Cases ( 9,533,471)
    Deaths ( 138,657)

    France

    Cases ( 2,244,635)
    Deaths ( 53,816)

    UK

    Cases ( 1,659,256)
    Deaths ( 59,699)

    Mexico

    Cases ( 1,122,362)
    Deaths ( 106,765)

    Germany

    Cases ( 1,105,832)
    Deaths ( 17,812)

    Canada

    Cases ( 389,775)
    Deaths ( 12,325)

    China

    Cases ( 86,551)
    Deaths ( 4,634)

    ReplyDelete
  65. December 2, 2020

    Coronavirus (Deaths per million)

    UK ( 877)
    US ( 843)
    France ( 824)
    Mexico ( 824)

    Canada ( 325)
    Germany ( 212)
    India ( 100)
    China ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.5%, 3.6% and 2.4% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  66. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-03/Chinese-mainland-reports-16-new-COVID-19-cases-VUDeWbCKSQ/index.html

    December 3, 2020

    Chinese mainland reports 16 new COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland on Wednesday registered 16 new COVID-19 cases, all from overseas, announced the National Health Commission on Thursday.

    A total of 6 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 254 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No COVID-19-related deaths were reported on Wednesday, and 18 patients were discharged from hospitals.

    As of Wednesday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,567, with 4,634 fatalities.

    Chinese mainland new imported cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-03/Chinese-mainland-reports-16-new-COVID-19-cases-VUDeWbCKSQ/img/7d5792aa9b2d44c199daf0281fb47710/7d5792aa9b2d44c199daf0281fb47710.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-03/Chinese-mainland-reports-16-new-COVID-19-cases-VUDeWbCKSQ/img/22076b41e02342ba9532fe4a667f0564/22076b41e02342ba9532fe4a667f0564.jpeg

    [ There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since the beginning of May. Since the beginning of June there have been 7 limited community clusters of infections, each of which was an immediate focus of mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, with each outbreak having been contained. Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are all contact traced and quarantined.

    Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine. Cold-chain imported food products are all checked and tracked through distribution. The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent.

    There are now 266 active coronavirus cases in all on the Chinese mainland, 6 of which cases are classed as serious or critical. ]

    ReplyDelete
  67. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-03/China-resettles-9-6-million-people-for-poverty-relief--VUKk6MQZfa/index.html

    December 3, 2020

    More than 9.6 million people resettled as part of China's poverty alleviation drive

    China relocated over 9.6 million people to complete its poverty alleviation relocation plan during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) period, said Zhao Chenxin, secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a briefing in Beijing on Thursday morning.

    About 35,000 centralized resettlement areas – 5,000 urban areas and 30,000 rural sites – were built and about 600 billion yuan ($91.74 billion) was invested in a variety of funds.

    Additionally, more than 6,100 primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, over 12,000 hospitals and community health service centers, some 3,400 elderly service facilities, and at least 40,000 leisure and entertainment venues were newly built or expanded, said Zhao.

    "9.6 million poor people have all moved to new homes, of which more than five million have been resettled in urban areas and about 4.6 million have been resettled in rural areas."

    By the end of 2019, 9.2 million people living in poverty were relocated and lifted out of poverty. The relocation work has been completed this year for the remaining 400,000 and an assessment is underway over the effectiveness of poverty alleviation, he said.

    "The employability of poor people has been significantly improved after their relocation. Relocated families with labor have achieved the employment goal of at least one person, and the income of the relocated people has been significantly improved."

    According to the country's official statistics, the per capita net income of poverty-stricken households nationwide has increased from 4,221 yuan ($645.41) in 2016 to 9,313 yuan ($1,424) in 2019, an average annual increase of 30.2 percent.

    In order to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of the relocation work for poverty alleviation, the National Development and Reform Commission organized a comprehensive evaluation and verification in the second half of this year.

    "The acceptance rate of housing quality and safety for the masses reached 100 percent, the improvement rate of children's schooling conditions and medical conditions reached 99 and 99.87 percent separately, and the satisfaction of relocated people reached 100 percent."he added....

    ReplyDelete
  68. https://twitter.com/CGTNOfficial/status/1334521004052242433

    CGTN @CGTNOfficial

    #BREAKING China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe lifts from the lunar surface and starts its journey back to Earth on Thursday. #ChangE5

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EoUridMU0AAVLXK?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

    10:32 AM · Dec 3, 2020

    ReplyDelete
  69. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-12/03/c_139561730.htm

    December 3, 2020

    Chinese spacecraft takes off from moon with samples

    [ http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-12/03/139561730_16070109287671n.jpg ]

    BEIJING -- A Chinese spacecraft carrying the country's first lunar samples blasted off from the moon late Thursday, the China National Space Administration announced.

    This represented the first-ever Chinese spacecraft to take off from an extraterrestrial body.

    China's Chang'e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, was launched on Nov. 24, and its lander-ascender combination touched down on the north of the Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on Dec. 1.

    After the samples were collected and sealed, the ascender of Chang'e-5 took off from the lunar surface, and is expected to complete unmanned rendezvous and docking with the orbiter-returner in lunar orbit, an unprecedented feat.

    Chang'e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in Chinese aerospace history, as well as the world's first moon-sample mission in more than 40 years.

    ReplyDelete
  70. https://twitter.com/BrankoMilan/status/1334537290010554369

    Branko Milanovic @BrankoMilan

    Thanks, Dmitry.

    It is important to know what's happening in the world.

    Dmitry Pozhidaev @DDPozhidaev

    Mass vaccination in Russia starts on Friday, starting with medical workers, teachers & social workers: https://bfm.ru/news/459667. Mainstream Western media simply don't report about it.

    11:37 AM · Dec 3, 2020

    ReplyDelete
  71. Another terrible, awful day.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Five graphics that help explain the severity of the pandemic right now

    via @BostonGlobe - December 3

    (MA is doing better than other New England states,
    except for Vermont. However...)

    Here in Massachusetts, officials on Wednesday reported the highest single-day number of new cases since the start of the pandemic, at 4,613, while the seven-day average of positive tests approached 5 percent. ...

    ReplyDelete
  73. MA is doing better than other New England states,
    except for Vermont.

    [ Thank you so much for the article, still simply looking to Massachusetts I find the data awfully discouraging. I know there will be an end, but the evident of failure of the public health system in such a state is shocking and distressing and needs to be critically analyzed. ]

    ReplyDelete
  74. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-04/Chinese-scientists-achieve-quantum-computational-advantage-VWi9Y1sMKI/index.html

    December 4, 2020

    Chinese scientists achieve quantum computational advantage

    A research team, including renowned Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei, announced Friday a significant computing breakthrough, achieving a quantum computational advantage.

    Pan is a professor of physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, focusing on quantum information and quantum foundations. As one of the pioneers in experimental quantum information science, he has accomplished a series of profound achievements, which has brought him worldwide fame. Due to his numerous progresses on quantum communication and multi-photon entanglement manipulation, quantum information science has become one of the most rapidly developing fields of physical science in China in recent years.

    The team established a quantum computer prototype, named "Jiuzhang," via which up to 76 photons were detected. The study was published * in Science magazine online.

    With this achievement, China has reached the first milestone on the path to full-scale quantum computing – a quantum computational advantage, also known as "quantum supremacy," which indicates an overwhelming quantum computational speedup.

    No traditional computer can perform the same task in a reasonable amount of time, and the speedup is unlikely to be overturned by classical algorithmic or hardware improvements, according to the team.

    In the study, Gaussian boson sampling (GBS), a classical simulation algorithm, was used to provide a highly efficient way of demonstrating quantum computational speedup in solving some well-defined tasks.

    The average detected photon number by the prototype is 43, while up to 76 output photon-clicks were observed.

    Jiuzhang's quantum computing system can implement large-scale GBS 100 trillion times faster than the world's fastest existing supercomputer.

    The team also said the new prototype processes 10 billion times faster than the 53-qubit quantum computer developed by Google.

    "Quantum computational advantage is like a threshold," said Lu Chaoyang, professor of the University of Science and Technology of China. "It means that, when a new quantum computer prototype's capacity surpasses that of the strongest traditional computer in handling a particular task, it proves that it will possibly make breakthroughs in multiple other areas."

    The breakthrough is the result of 20 years of effort by Pan's team, which conquered several major technological stumbling blocks, including a high-quality photon source.

    "For example, it is easy for us to have one sip of water each time, but it is difficult to drink just a water molecule each time," Pan said. "A high-quality photon source needs to 'release' just one photon each time, and each photon needs to be exactly the same, which is quite a challenge." ...

    * https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/12/02/science.abe8770

    ReplyDelete
  75. December 3, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases   ( 14,535,196)
    Deaths   ( 282,829)

    India

    Cases   ( 9,571,780)
    Deaths   ( 139,227)

    France

    Cases   ( 2,257,331)
    Deaths   ( 54,140)

    UK

    Cases   ( 1,674,134)
    Deaths   ( 60,113)

    Mexico

    Cases   ( 1,133,613)
    Deaths   ( 107,565)

    Germany

    Cases   ( 1,128,742)
    Deaths   ( 18,260)

    Canada

    Cases   ( 396,270)
    Deaths   ( 12,407)

    China

    Cases   ( 86,567)
    Deaths   ( 4,634)

    ReplyDelete
  76. December 3, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    UK   ( 884)
    US   ( 852)
    Mexico   ( 831)
    France   ( 829)

    Canada   ( 328)
    Germany   ( 218)
    India   ( 100)
    China   ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.5%, 3.6% and 2.4% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  77. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-04/Chinese-mainland-reports-17-new-COVID-19-cases-VWgPPbl0vm/index.html

    December 4, 2020

    Chinese mainland reports 17 new COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland on Thursday registered 17 new COVID-19 cases, including 2 locally transmitted cases in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and 15 from overseas, announced the National Health Commission on Friday.

    A total of 12 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 249 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No COVID-19-related deaths were reported on Thursday, and 12 patients were discharged from hospitals.

    As of Thursday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,584, with 4,634 fatalities.

    Chinese mainland new imported cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-04/Chinese-mainland-reports-17-new-COVID-19-cases-VWgPPbl0vm/img/88ad9685d43d4956b532413a0aa47bcb/88ad9685d43d4956b532413a0aa47bcb.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-04/Chinese-mainland-reports-17-new-COVID-19-cases-VWgPPbl0vm/img/833af4bce576462187136383652e57f1/833af4bce576462187136383652e57f1.jpeg

    ReplyDelete
  78. There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since the beginning of May.  Since the beginning of June there have been 7 limited community clusters of infections, each of which was an immediate focus of mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, with each outbreak having been contained.  Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are all contact traced and quarantined.

    Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine.  Cold-chain imported food products are all checked and tracked through distribution.  The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent.

    There are now 271 active coronavirus cases in all on the Chinese mainland, 5 of which cases are classed as serious or critical.

    ReplyDelete
  79. https://www.cepr.net/jobs-2020-12/

    December 4, 2020

    Economy Adds 245,000 Jobs in November, Unemployment Falls to 6.7 Percent
    By DEAN BAKER

    Contrary to normal patterns, the workweek has actually gotten longer in the pandemic recession.

    The rebound slowed sharply in November, with the economy adding just 245,000 jobs. This would ordinarily be a very respectable gain, but with the economy still down almost 10 million jobs from the pre-pandemic level, it is not a pace that gets us back to full employment any time soon. If we need 100,000 jobs a month to keep pace with the growth of the labor market, it would take us more than five and half years to get back to full employment at this rate of job growth.

    The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 6.7 percent in November, however this was entirely due to people leaving the labor force, as employment dropped slightly. The employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) fell by 0.1 percentage points to 57.3 percent.

    The decline was entirely among men, who had a drop in labor force participation rates of 0.4 percentage points. Employment rates for men have actually fallen somewhat more over the course of the downturn than for women, with the EPOP for prime age men down by 4.8 percentage points from their year-ago level, compared to a 3.9 percentage points drop among women.

    The unemployment rate for Black workers fell by 0.5 percentage points to 10.3 percent, while the EPOP rose by 0.4 percentage points to 54.1 percent. The unemployment rate is 4.7 percentage points higher and the EPOP is 4.7 percentage points lower than the year-ago level. The unemployment rate for Asian Americans fell by 0.9 percentage points, but at 6.7 percent, it is still 0.8 percentage points above the rate for whites, reversing the normal pattern.

    Voluntary part-time employment fell by 786,000 in November. It is now 13.5 percent below year-ago levels. This reflects in large part the sharp hit to restaurants and hotels, sectors that employ large numbers of part-time workers.

    However, we are also seeing the length of the average workweek increase across sectors. For example, in retail trade the average workweek is 2.0 percent longer than it was a year ago; in education and health services it is 1.2 percent longer. This reverses the normal pattern in recessions as employers typically cut hours as a way to adjust to reduced labor demand rather than laying off workers. In 2009, the length of the average workweek was 1.5 percent shorter (0.5 hours) than it had been in 2007.

    Consistent with this pattern of rising hours, we again saw a large increase in the number of long-term unemployed (more than 26 weeks) to 3,941,000, the highest level since November of 2013. This indicates that many of the people who lost their jobs during the spring shutdown still have not gotten them back.
    [Graph]

    The share of unemployment due to voluntary quits dropped by 0.3 percentage points to 6.7 percent, while this is above the lows hit in the shutdown months, the worst figure in the Great Recession was 5.5 percent. By contrast, 25.9 percent of the unemployed report being on temporary layoffs, a higher level than any pre-pandemic figure....

    ReplyDelete
  80. Another terrible day.

    ReplyDelete
  81. December 3, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Massachusetts

    Cases   ( 240,907)
    Deaths   ( 10,874)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,578)

    ReplyDelete
  82. December 3, 2020

    Coronavirus

    New York

    Cases   ( 713,587)
    Deaths   ( 34,829)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,790)

    ReplyDelete
  83. December 4, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases   ( 14,772,535)
    Deaths   ( 285,550)

    India

    Cases   ( 9,608,418)
    Deaths   ( 139,736)

    France

    Cases   ( 2,268,552)
    Deaths   ( 54,767)

    UK

    Cases   ( 1,690,432)
    Deaths   ( 60,617)

    Germany

    Cases   ( 1,152,283)
    Deaths   ( 18,691)

    Mexico

    Cases   ( 1,144,643)
    Deaths   ( 108,173)

    Canada

    Cases   ( 402,569)
    Deaths   ( 12,496)

    China

    Cases   ( 86,584)
    Deaths   ( 4,634)

    ReplyDelete
  84. December 4, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    UK   ( 891)
    US   ( 861)
    France   ( 838)
    Mexico   ( 835)

    Canada   ( 330)
    Germany   ( 223)
    India   ( 101)
    China   ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.5%, 3.6% and 2.4% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  85. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-05/Chinese-mainland-reports-17-new-COVID-19-cases-VXV0Y0NU3K/index.html

    December 5, 2020

    Chinese mainland reports 17 new COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland on Friday registered 17 new COVID-19 cases, including 2 locally transmitted cases in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and 15 from overseas, announced the National Health Commission on Saturday.

    A total of 12 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 249 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No COVID-19-related deaths were reported on Friday, and 15 patients were discharged from hospitals.

    As of Friday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,601, with 4,634 fatalities.

    Chinese mainland new imported cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-05/Chinese-mainland-reports-17-new-COVID-19-cases-VXV0Y0NU3K/img/3966c85ee2de4d54b54a4c08ebe5245f/3966c85ee2de4d54b54a4c08ebe5245f.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-05/Chinese-mainland-reports-17-new-COVID-19-cases-VXV0Y0NU3K/img/6f32e09a993249efa76e9aefe8b9ccf5/6f32e09a993249efa76e9aefe8b9ccf5.jpeg

    ReplyDelete
  86. There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since the beginning of May.  Since the beginning of June there have been 7 limited community clusters of infections, each of which was an immediate focus of mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, with each outbreak having been contained.  Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are all contact traced and quarantined.

    Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine.  Cold-chain imported food products are all checked and tracked through distribution.  The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent.

    There are now 273 active coronavirus cases in all on the Chinese mainland, 6 of which cases are classed as serious or critical.

    ReplyDelete
  87. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-05/China-commissions-new-generation-artificial-sun--VYoNnMfuIU/index.html

    December 5, 2020

    China commissions new-generation 'artificial sun'

    The HL-2M Tokamak, China's new-generation "artificial sun," went into operation on Friday and has achieved its first plasma discharge, according to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

    Designed to replicate the natural reactions that occur in the sun using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels, the apparatus in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, will provide clean energy through controlled nuclear fusion, said the CNNC.

    The self-developed device is the country's largest in scale and highest in parameters, with a more advanced structure and control mode than its predecessor, the HL-2A Tokamak.

    It is able to generate plasma hotter than 150 million degrees Celsius and is expected to greatly enhance the research and development of key technologies in plasma physics research in China.

    "The energy confinement time of international tokamak devices is less than one second. The shot discharge duration of the HL-2M is around 10 seconds, with an energy confinement time of a few hundred milliseconds," said Yang Qingwei, chief engineer of the HL-2M at the Southwestern Institute of Physics under the CNNC.

    The artificial sun will provide key technical support for China's participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project and frontier research fields including flow instability and magnetic phenomena of ultra-high temperature plasma, according to Yang.

    ReplyDelete
  88. A student told me yesterday, that in December 1986 the United Nations voted on and passed a Declaration on the Right to Development. * The Right to Development was approved by 146 nations and opposed by 1, that 1 being the United States.

    * https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/righttodevelopment.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  89. The Trump administration is being remarkably active in foreign affairs in these final days; active in ways that will be difficult to undo.  With regard to China, President Trump from the beginning sought to undermine Chinese development by attacking Chinese technology advance.  This was what the "trade war" with China was actually about.  Now there are repeated actions taken against China from severely restricting visas for hundreds of millions of Chinese, to stopping Chinese cultural exchange programs, to sanctioning Chinese companies and prominent Chinese citizens.

    The continual fostering of prejudice against the Chinese, will make reversal of Trump policy by the Biden administration difficult.

    ReplyDelete
  90. December 5, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Dominican Republic

    Cases   ( 147,655)
    Deaths   ( 2,345)

    Deaths per million   ( 215)

    Cuba

    Cases   ( 8,714)
    Deaths   ( 136)

    Deaths per million   ( 12)

    ReplyDelete
  91. Importantly, despite all the United States economic sanctions, Cuba has a well-developed public health system and has fared notably well among Latin American countries through this epidemic period. The Dominican Republic has had the fastest growth in per capita GDP of all countries in the Americas for these last 50 years, however Cuba has a significantly higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate and is faring notably well currently.

    ReplyDelete
  92. December 5, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Israel

    Cases   ( 343,665)
    Deaths   ( 2,901)

    Deaths per million   ( 315)

    ---------------------------

    July 4, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Israel

    Cases ( 29,170)
    Deaths ( 330)

    Deaths per million ( 36)

    ReplyDelete
  93. https://twitter.com/qiaocollective/status/1335043215313883136

    Qiao Collective @qiaocollective

    The US is severely restricting access to visas for all 90 million members of the Communist Party of China AND their family.

    This will impact hundreds of millions of Chinese people.

    This is a race based migration target.

    This is Chinese Exclusion 2.0.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/world/asia/us-visa-china-communist-party.html

    U.S. Tightens Visa Rules for Chinese Communist Party Members
    New guidelines mean that China’s 92 million party members will be limited to one-month, single-entry U.S. permits — if the State Department can figure out who they are.

    9:08 PM · Dec 4, 2020

    ReplyDelete
  94. Only the suffering and those who care for them may think this the matter, but there has been a breakdown of the American public health system this year, a breakdown that must have been long in coming.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Another awful day; day after day.

    ReplyDelete
  96. https://twitter.com/DeanBaker13/status/1335294655504601089

    Dean Baker @DeanBaker13

    I love these articles warning that China is running out of people

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/02/china-population-control-two-child-policy

    Can China recover from its disastrous one-child policy?
    Families are now being urged to have at least two children, but it may be too late to convince parents to embrace the change

    1:47 PM · Dec 5, 2020

    ReplyDelete
  97. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=ymrx

    January 30, 2018

    Age dependency ratios for China, United States, India, Japan and
    Germany, * 2007-2019

    * Older dependents to working age population

    ReplyDelete
  98. https://twitter.com/CGTNOfficial/status/1335347412647485442

    CGTN @CGTNOfficial

    According to China National Space Administration, the Chang'e-5 ascender successfully completed the rendezvous and docking with the orbiter and returner combination. The ascender transferred the sample container to the returner in orbit successfully.

    5:16 PM · Dec 5, 2020

    ReplyDelete
  99. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-06/Chang-e-5-ascender-docks-with-orbital-module-in-lunar-orbit-VZuvG7JXnW/index.html

    December 6, 2020

    Chang'e-5 ascender docks with orbital module in lunar orbit

    The ascender of China's Chang'e-5 probe successfully rendezvoused and docked with the orbiter-returner combination in lunar orbit at 5:42 a.m. BJT on Sunday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has announced.

    It's the first time that a Chinese spacecraft has carried out a rendezvous and docking in a lunar orbit, which also marked the very first human effort in automated lunar orbit rendezvous.

    The samples collected on the moon weighing roughly 2 kilograms have been transferred from the ascender to the returner, said the CNSA.

    Chang'e-5's mission is one of the most complicated in Chinese aerospace history, as well as the world's first moon sampling mission in more than 40 years.

    The Chang'e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner, was launched on November 24, and its lander-ascender combination touched down on the north of the Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the Ocean of Storms, on the near side of the moon on December 1.

    After the samples were collected and sealed, the ascender took off from the lunar surface on December 3.

    The orbiter-returner will next separate from the ascender, and wait for the right time to start its journey back to Earth.

    Read more: Two key technologies safeguarding the docking without human help

    ReplyDelete
  100. December 5, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases   ( 14,983,425)
    Deaths   ( 287,825)

    India

    Cases   ( 9,644,529)
    Deaths   ( 140,216)

    France

    Cases   ( 2,281,475)
    Deaths   ( 54,981)

    UK

    Cases   ( 1,705,971)
    Deaths   ( 61,014)

    Germany

    Cases   ( 1,170,095)
    Deaths   ( 18,975)

    Mexico

    Cases   ( 1,156,770)
    Deaths   ( 108,863)

    Canada

    Cases   ( 408,921)
    Deaths   ( 12,589)

    China

    Cases   ( 86,601)
    Deaths   ( 4,634)

    ReplyDelete
  101. December 5, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    UK   ( 897)
    US   ( 867)
    France   ( 842)
    Mexico   ( 841)

    Canada   ( 332)
    Germany   ( 226)
    India   ( 101)
    China   ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.4%, 3.6% and 2.4% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  102. December 6, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases   ( 15,011,768)
    Deaths   ( 288,017)

    A profound public health failing.

    ReplyDelete
  103. Latin American countries have recorded 4 of the 12 and 6 of the 22 highest number of coronavirus cases among all countries.  Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Chile.  Mexico, with more than 1 million cases recorded, has the 4th highest number of cases among Latin American countries and the 12th highest number of cases among all countries.  Mexico is now the 4th among all countries to have recorded more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths.

    December 5, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    US   ( 867) *

    Brazil   ( 829)
    Argentina   ( 873)
    Colombia   ( 736)

    Mexico   ( 841)
    Peru   ( 1,091)
    Chile   ( 813)

    Ecuador   ( 775)
    Bolivia   ( 765)

    * Descending number of cases

    ReplyDelete
  104. (1/2)
    It certainly helps give a money credibility if it is used to pay taxes, and the MMT chartalist theory says this is all that matter. But, sorry, being required for paying taxes does not "back up" the money. It remains fiat currency, only having value because the government says it has value without any commodity backing it up.

    Actually my biggest disagreement with MMTers, who are right about a lot of things, is on this matter of defining money and their essentially dogmatic insistence on the chartalist view. It becomes religious doctrine, not economics. Spontaneous commodities used as media of exchange, such as cowrie shells (which were recognized officially for awhile by a few kingdoms in West Africa), are fulfilling functions of money, even if not recognized by governments.


    MMTers cannot state their whole theory in blog comments; they aren't going to abandon the most important and central and rock-solid and best-supported part of their theory - the nature of money. The assertion that taxes are basic in today's world is quite correct. They do not say that "this is all the matter". Of course taxation "backs it up" - by making many "commodities" back the taxation. A head tax for instance, commodifies something that people find quite precious - their heads. And thus backs up the money that people use to buy their heads. :-)

    "only having value because the government says it has value without any commodity backing it up."
    This theory is Schumpeter's legal tender chartalism. It doesn't work as a theory. Medieval kings tried it. It didn't work in practice. Even if you're a king, you can't just say "this is valuable". You have to do something to make it valuable. In the modern world, that is basically taxation. Lincoln's Treasury Secretary and later Supreme Court Justice Salmon Chase understood and explained this point very well - maybe even going to far against the "Schumpeterian theory" - and so he understood money far better than 99% of today's economists.

    ReplyDelete
  105. (2/2)

    The more complete version of MMT is that "money is credit and nothing but credit". L. Randall Wray- Credit & State Theories of Money: The Contributions of A. Mitchell Innes- Edward Elgar (2004) is absolutely (and repeatedly imho) required reading. Government fiat money is then nothing but state credit. And the credit theory handily covers money without or before states, meshes with Maussian gift economies etc. The credit theory is like a modern (or ancient) coordinate free approach to geometry or physics, while the state theory based on state money is like using a frame where earth is at rest for 99.9% of the practical physics done on earth.

    So the MMTers are not being dogmatic. For they have produced FAR more verbiage in explanation of the theory than the dogmatic and false mainstream commodity theory. The proper way to discuss it is to take a look at their refutation of the common views people cling to - and try to refute that, not just reassert the commodity theory view, without engaging in the real discussion.

    There are only two theories of money, the commodity theory and the credit theory. The commodity theory treats money fundamentally as a thing, like a rock. The fundamental aspect of the credit theory is that money is not, cannot be a thing, but a relation. Confusing money and commodities is like confusing a wedding ring or a marriage certificate with a marriage. (The transfer of money/credit is much like "giving the bride away" too.)

    This shows the most confusing part (a Bourbakian "dangerous bend" or a Hofstadter "strange loop") comes from the nature of money itself. Money is credit, but it is more particularly negotiable, tradeable, exchangeable credit. That is - money is precisely credit - a relation- which is commodified - made into a thing - by being transferred for credit. So there is a commodity nature to it after all, somewhat explaining the persistence of complete wrong, logically impossible theory of money as a commodity, of mediums of exchange.

    ReplyDelete
  106. December 8, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases   ( 15,591,709)
    Deaths   ( 293,398)

    India

    Cases   ( 9,735,975)
    Deaths   ( 141,398)

    France

    Cases   ( 2,309,621)
    Deaths   ( 56,352)

    UK

    Cases   ( 1,750,241)
    Deaths   ( 62,033)

    Germany

    Cases   ( 1,218,325)
    Deaths   ( 20,161)

    Mexico

    Cases   ( 1,182,249)
    Deaths   ( 110,074)

    Canada

    Cases   ( 428,469)
    Deaths   ( 12,851)

    China

    Cases   ( 86,646)
    Deaths   ( 4,634)

    ReplyDelete
  107. December 8, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    UK   ( 912)
    US   ( 884)
    France   ( 862)
    Mexico   ( 850)

    Canada   ( 339)
    Germany   ( 240)
    India   ( 102)
    China   ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.3%, 3.5% and 2.4% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  108. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-09/Chinese-mainland-reports-15-new-COVID-19-cases-W4yVWZqzPq/index.html

    December 9, 2020

    Chinese mainland reports 15 new COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland recorded 15 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 4 locally transmitted cases in southwest China's Sichuan Province and 11 from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Wednesday.

    One new asymptomatic COVID-19 case was recorded, while 210 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No COVID-19 deaths were reported on Tuesday, while 11 patients were discharged from hospitals.

    The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,661, with 4,634 deaths as of Tuesday.

    Chinese mainland new imported cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-09/Chinese-mainland-reports-15-new-COVID-19-cases-W4yVWZqzPq/img/60bb5aea6db744fcaa26275acafbc2d7/60bb5aea6db744fcaa26275acafbc2d7.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-09/Chinese-mainland-reports-15-new-COVID-19-cases-W4yVWZqzPq/img/5b0eee24974248dbad17c5346427e693/5b0eee24974248dbad17c5346427e693.jpeg

    ReplyDelete
  109. There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since the beginning of May.  Since the beginning of June there have been 7 limited community clusters of infections, each of which was an immediate focus of mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, with each outbreak having been contained.  Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are all contact traced and quarantined.

    Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine.  Cold-chain imported food products are all checked and tracked through distribution.  The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent.

    There are now 284 active coronavirus cases in all on the Chinese mainland, 5 of which cases are classed as serious or critical.

    ReplyDelete
  110. December 8, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Massachusetts

    Cases   ( 263,447)
    Deaths   ( 11,076)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,607)

    ReplyDelete
  111. December 8, 2020

    Coronavirus

    New York

    Cases   ( 761,795)
    Deaths   ( 35,188)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,809)

    ReplyDelete
  112. A terrible, awful, heartbreaking day.

    ReplyDelete
  113. December 8, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    Belgium   ( 1,497)
    Italy   ( 1,014)
    Spain   ( 998)
    UK   ( 912)

    US   ( 884)
    France   ( 862)
    Mexico   ( 850)
    Sweden   ( 711)

    Switzerland   ( 644)
    Luxembourg   ( 585)
    Netherlands   ( 570)
    Portugal   ( 503)

    Austria   ( 443)
    Ireland   ( 423)
    Canada   ( 339)
    Greece   ( 307)

    Germany   ( 240)
    Denmark   ( 155)
    India   ( 102)
    Finland   ( 76)

    Norway   ( 66)
    Australia   ( 35)
    Japan   ( 19)
    Korea   ( 11)

    China   ( 3)

    ReplyDelete
  114. Latin American countries have recorded 4 of the 12 and 6 of the 23 highest number of coronavirus cases among all countries.  Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Chile.  Mexico, with more than 1 million cases recorded, has the 4th highest number of cases among Latin American countries and the 12th highest number of cases among all countries.  Mexico is now the 4th among all countries to have recorded more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths.

    December 8, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    US   ( 884) *

    Brazil   ( 836)
    Argentina   ( 882)
    Colombia   ( 746)

    Mexico   ( 850)
    Peru   ( 1,097)
    Chile   ( 817)

    Ecuador   ( 777)
    Bolivia   ( 766)

    * Descending number of cases

    ReplyDelete
  115. https://cepr.net/beating-up-on-finance/

    December 7, 2020

    Beating Up on Finance
    By DEAN BAKER

    When I do one of my diatribes about how our protectionist barriers allow U.S. doctors to earn twice as much as doctors in other wealthy countries, I invariably get complaints from doctors and their friends asking why I don’t go after the really big bucks people on Wall Street. The answer of course is that I do, but the bloated paychecks on Wall Street are not a reason to pay an extra $100 billion a year ($750 per household) to doctors in the United States. But it is true that I haven’t beaten up on the financial sector for a while, and with Biden now putting together his administration, this would be a great time to take a few shots.

    First, we need some important background. Finance is an intermediate good, like trucking. It does not directly provide value to people like housing or health care. Its value to the economy is allocating capital and facilitating transactions so that the sectors that do provide value are as efficient as possible.

    For this reason, an efficient financial sector is a small financial sector. People need to be able to borrow money to buy a home or start a business, and businesses need to be able to get money to expand, but we want as few resources as possible employed in handing out the money.

    However, rather than getting smaller and more efficient, the financial sector has expanded hugely over the last four decades. This is seen most clearly in the narrow commodities and securities trading sector, which was less than 0.4 percent of GDP in the mid-seventies and is now more than 2 percent of GDP ($400 billion a year). Other parts of finance have exploded also. We now spend over $250 billion a year (1.2 percent of GDP) on the administration of the health insurance industry, $100 billion on life insurance (0.5 percent of GDP) and hundreds of billions more on other financial services....

    ReplyDelete
  116. December 9, 2020

    Coronavirus

    New York

    Cases   ( 772,399)
    Deaths   ( 35,235)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,811)

    ReplyDelete
  117. December 9, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Massachusetts

    Cases   ( 269,412)
    Deaths   ( 11,166)

    Deaths per million   ( 1,620)

    ReplyDelete
  118. December 9, 2020

    Coronavirus

    US

    Cases   ( 15,820,042)
    Deaths   ( 296,698)

    India

    Cases   ( 9,762,326)
    Deaths   ( 141,735)

    France

    Cases   ( 2,324,216)
    Deaths   ( 56,648)

    UK

    Cases   ( 1,766,819)
    Deaths   ( 62,566)

    Germany

    Cases   ( 1,242,253)
    Deaths   ( 20,704)

    Mexico

    Cases   ( 1,193,255)
    Deaths   ( 110,874)

    Canada

    Cases   ( 435,330)
    Deaths   ( 12,983)

    China

    Cases   ( 86,661)
    Deaths   ( 4,634)

    ReplyDelete
  119. December 9, 2020

    Coronavirus   (Deaths per million)

    UK   ( 920)
    US   ( 894)
    France   ( 867)
    Mexico   ( 856)

    Canada   ( 343)
    Germany   ( 247)
    India   ( 102)
    China   ( 3)

    Notice the ratios of deaths to coronavirus cases are 9.3%, 3.5% and 2.4% for Mexico, the United Kingdom and France respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  120. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-10/Chinese-mainland-reports-12-new-COVID-19-cases-W6bcJoFH9e/index.html

    December 10, 2020

    Chinese mainland reports 12 new COVID-19 cases

    The Chinese mainland recorded 12 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, including 1 locally transmitted case in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and 11 from overseas, the National Health Commission announced on Thursday.

    Five new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases were recorded, while 193 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation. No COVID-19 deaths were reported on Wednesday, while 11 patients were discharged from hospitals.

    The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 86,673, with 4,634 deaths as of Wednesday.

    Chinese mainland new imported cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-10/Chinese-mainland-reports-12-new-COVID-19-cases-W6bcJoFH9e/img/8d5e5b2914314179b3df416faea12e07/8d5e5b2914314179b3df416faea12e07.jpeg

    Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases

    https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-12-10/Chinese-mainland-reports-12-new-COVID-19-cases-W6bcJoFH9e/img/2fde181bd47b41c0a8d6af283c838db4/2fde181bd47b41c0a8d6af283c838db4.jpeg

    ReplyDelete
  121. There has been no coronavirus death on the Chinese mainland since the beginning of May.  Since the beginning of June there have been 7 limited community clusters of infections, each of which was an immediate focus of mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine, with each outbreak having been contained.  Symptomatic and asymptomatic cases are all contact traced and quarantined.

    Imported coronavirus cases are caught at entry points with required testing and immediate quarantine.  Cold-chain imported food products are all checked and tracked through distribution.  The flow of imported cases to China is low, but has been persistent.

    There are now 285 active coronavirus cases in all on the Chinese mainland, 5 of which cases are classed as serious or critical.

    ReplyDelete
  122. December 10, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Israel

    Cases   ( 352,079)
    Deaths   ( 2,959)

    Deaths per million   ( 322)

    -----------------------------------

    July 4, 2020

    Coronavirus

    Israel

    Cases ( 29,170)
    Deaths ( 330)

    Deaths per million ( 36)

    ReplyDelete
  123. Having apparently approached a containment of the coronavirus in June, the Israeli government incautiously opened schools and businesses, and the result has been a persistent community infection spread contributing to what are now 352,079 cases in the small country as compared to 86,673 in all through all of mainland China.

    Israel unfortunately has more than four times the number of coronavirus cases in mainland China.  Paul Krugman noticed the Israeli “disaster” on September 14 when there were 160,000 coronavirus cases.  The per capita case rate is startlingly high.  The persisting difficulty in limiting a new spread of infections in so developed a country has become startling to me.  Obviously there is a profound public health infrastructure failing, that shows a development failing and will have to be addressed.

    ReplyDelete
  124. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-morocco-trump.html

    December 10, 2020

    Morocco Joins List of Arab Nations to Begin Normalizing Relations With Israel
    Morocco follows Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates in setting aside generations of hostilities toward the Jewish state, part of a major foreign policy effort of the Trump administration.
    By Lara Jakes, Isabel Kershner and Aida Alami

    WASHINGTON — The White House said on Thursday that Morocco had agreed to begin normalizing relations with Israel, becoming the fourth Arab state this fall to do so and advancing a major foreign goal for President Trump as he nears the end of his administration.

    An announcement also recognized Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara....

    ReplyDelete
  125. Essentially then northern Africa has been remade in a matter of a few months.

    ReplyDelete

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