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Category: economics

Overview global economy.

America has dominated global finance for decades. But could covid-19 tip the balance of financial power in China’s favour?

Further reading:

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter to keep up to date with our latest covid-19 coverage: https://econ.trib.al/YD53WI6

Find The Economist’s most recent coverage of covid-19 here: https://econ.st/2QXX9sJ

Read Matthieu Favas’ special report here: https://econ.st/3fAPKu1

How the pandemic is driving America and China further apart: https://econ.st/2SRk2Pl

Fu Ying: why China and America must co-operate on covid-19: https://econ.st/2YTYhma

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The new coronavirus invades the body through a spike protein that lives on the surface of virus cells. The S protein, as it’s called, binds to a receptor called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on a healthy cell’s surface. Once attached, the cells fuse and the virus is able to infect the healthy cell.

ACE2 receptors are present on cells in many places throughout the body, and especially in the lungs. Cells in the lungs are also some of the first to encounter the virus, since the primary form of transmission is thought to be breathing in droplets after an infected person has coughed or sneezed.

That’s why it was necessary to upgrade Stem Cell Neurotherapy for COVID-19 by adding T-Cells, B-Cells, and Natural Killer Cells to the arsenal. It was not enough to just regenerate new lung cells to replace the lung cells infected by COVID-19, but the COVID-19 Virus Cells had to be attacked and destroyed in order to prevent them from invading and infecting the newly regenerated lung cells.

So, that’s where the idea of using T-Cells, B-Cells, and Natural Killer Cells, usually used in attacking cancer cells, came from.

A patent has been granted by the Ministry of Economy for the development of an innovative and promising treatment for COVID-19 infections using stem cells. The treatment was developed by a team of doctors and researchers at the Abu Dhabi Stem Cell Center, ADSCC, and involves extracting stem cells from the patient’s own blood and reintroducing them after activating them.

The patent was granted for the innovative method in which the stem cells are collected.

The treatment was administered in the UAE to 73 COVID-19 patients who have all been successfully treated and cured of the virus by inhaling the treatment into their lungs after it has been nebulized into a fine mist. It is hypothesized to have its therapeutic effect by regenerating lung cells and modulating the immune response to keep it from overreacting to the COVID-19 infection and causing further damage to healthy cells.

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The choices we make today, and it’s consequences will shape up this decade. Can we break the current pattern, engage with this new financial system and adapt to new realities? #blockchain

As human beings, we are defined by patterns. Our collective pattern defines society. We are empowered with choices – furthering the patterns, or breaking them or creating new ones. In the physical world, these choices could be social, economic, technological, or ecological. Based on the choices we make – good, bad, or ugly, we enjoy or suffer consequences. COVID-19 escalated the macroeconomic situation leading to liquidity, demand, and supply shocks. Can we break the current pattern and embrace digitization, decentralization and sound money? In turn, making choices that will create affirmative consequences for humanity.

Patterns, Choices & Consequences

On the late evening of 5th July 2004, one of our core team members was driving on Mumbai – Pune highway in a Maruti 800, after an offsite monthly sales review in Mumbai (India). He had to be in Pune for an early morning sales leadership training program. It was getting dark and he was trying his best to get out of Mumbai traffic onto the expressway. Once he reached the expressway, he felt it would be a breeze to get to Pune. This was his usual circuit and he was cruising at about 80 km per hour (not high speed or rash driving by any standards). He was ambitious. Past midway the weather conditions suddenly changed and it started pouring with no visibility beyond two feet. He pushed the accelerator trying to overtake a bus. He hadn’t bothered to check that the tyres were worn out and there was mud sludge on the road. He was ill-prepared and complacent. This lethal combination made his car lose control, spinning and toppling and diving next to a waterlogged canal.

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There is an interesting case of a blockchain engineer and a crime in the article.

A district court in China has reportedly ruled that Ethereum’s cryptocurrency is legal property with economic value. This ruling follows a couple of other verdicts on the legality of cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, by various Chinese courts. While cryptocurrency is not legal tender in China, people can hold and transfer them like property.

The Shenzhen Futian District People’s Court in Guangdong Province, China, has ruled that ether is legal property, protected by Chinese law, local media reported last week. This means that the Chinese are not barred from owning or transferring the cryptocurrency, local publication 8btc explained, adding that according to the court ruling:

The crypto assets represented by ETH have economic value and can be traded publicly.

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Renewable sources including solar, wind and hydropower generated more electricity than coal-based plants every single day in April, a new report says.

Analysis shared by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFA), based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), said the finding marks a major “milestone” in an energy transition that is now underway.

The move away from coal for electricity generation in the U.S. accelerated in 2020 due to lower gas prices, warmer weather and a “significant amount” of new renewable capacity being connected to the grid late last year, the report suggested.

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May.01 — Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, warns that U.S. Leadership in reopening the economy is too optimistic because conditions required to return to normalcy have not been met. He cautions that the Fed’s support of highly leveraged companies could be dangerous. He joins host David Westin for an exclusive take on “Bloomberg Wall Street Week.”

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MANITOWOC COUNTY (WLUK) — Fewer drivers on the road, means fewer and fewer people are filling up their tank. “With consumers are staying at home and the economy in troubled waters, I think that’s kind of the best summary. People are just not driving,” said GasBuddy Head Petroleum Analyst Patrick De Haan. At one point Friday morning, the Francis Creek Shell station was selling the cheapest gas in the country at just 75 cents a gallon.

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There is widespread agreement that the only way to safely reopen the economy is through a massive increase in testing. The US needs to test millions of people per day to effectively track and then contain the covid-19 pandemic.

This is a tall order. The country tested only around 210,000 people per day last week, and the pace is not increasing fast enough to get to millions quickly.

The urgency to do better is overwhelmingly bipartisan, with the most recent legislation adding $25 billion for testing a few days ago. Fears are growing, however, that testing might not scale in time to make a difference. As Senators Lamar Alexander and Roy Blunt wrote last week, “We have been talking with experts across the government and the private sector to find anyone who believes that current technology can produce the tens of millions of tests necessary to put this virus behind us. Unfortunately, we have yet to find anyone to do so.”

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