Economy
Taper talk looms over Fed’s (virtual) Jackson Hole conference – Yahoo
Some of the world’s most powerful central bankers will convene virtually this week, with the focus on any commentary suggesting a pullback in pandemic-era easy money policies from the Federal Reserve.
One challenge: the timeline for slowing the central bank’s $120-billion-a-month pace of asset purchases will be different depending on which Federal Open Market Committee member you ask. The divergence on the FOMC will draw attention to the Fed’s Jackson Hole meeting (which was again moved online over COVID-19 concerns), where Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to make a speech on Friday.
Minutes from the FOMC’s late-July meeting showed “most” of the committee’s 18 members seeing the case for announcing a taper before year’s end.
Gold Surges Back Above $1800, Erases Payrolls/Flash-Crash Losses – ZeroHedge
As taper talk battles COVID cases continuing to rise, it appears the brief suppression of gold’s paper price has stalled as Gold Futures jump back above $1800 ahead of this week’s Jackson Hole summit. This has erased all of the payrolls plunge and the flash crash losses from the prior week…
Bitcoin Surges Back Above $50k, Crypto Market Cap Tops $2 Trillion Again – ZeroHedge
On the heels of news that Coinbase will be buying more crypto for its balance sheet (and reinvesting profits going forward), crypto market sentiment also benefited from PayPal’s announcement that it will allow U.K. customers to make crypto transactions, bitcoin is rapidly pushing back towards the $1 trillion market cap level, and is back in 9th position among the largest global assets…
Chip shortage: Toyota to cut global production by 40% – BBC
Toyota is to slash worldwide vehicle production by 40% in September because of the global microchip shortage.
The world’s biggest carmaker had planned to make almost 900,000 cars next month, but has now reduced that to 540,000 vehicles.
Volkswagen, the world’s second-biggest car producer, has warned it may also be forced to cut output further.
The Covid pandemic boosted demand for appliances that use chips, such as phones, TVs and games consoles.
Not enough turkeys for Christmas due to Brexit, poultry producers warn – Guardian
UK poultry producers have warned that serious staff shortages caused by Brexit could mean there are not enough turkeys to go round this Christmas.
This week’s partial closure of the restaurant chain Nando’s, as well as fewer dishes on the menu at KFC, has thrown the consumer spotlight on a labour crisis exacerbated by Covid.
The British Poultry Council (BPC) said its members, which include 2 Sisters Food Group – the country’s largest supplier of supermarket chicken and KellyBronze Turkeys, had told them that one in six jobs were unfilled as a result of EU workers leaving the UK after Brexit.
The council’s chief executive, Richard Griffiths, said the group had written to the home secretary, Priti Patel, this month asking for the government to relax immigration rules but had not yet received a response.
Environment
Algeria’s desperate wildfire fight: Buckets and branches – BBC
The once verdant mountains of the Algerian region of Tizi Ouzou, peppered with olive groves and coniferous trees, were ravaged by more than 100 forest fires over the past fortnight.
Experts are terrible at predicting the falling cost of clean energy – Quartz
Climate scientists are now basing their forecasts for the future on a carefully crafted set of possible socioeconomic scenarios, each with a different outlook for greenhouse gas emissions. We saw this for the first time in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, issued on Aug. 9. One key factor in these scenarios is the cost of clean energy technology; the higher the cost, the longer the economy-wide shift away from fossil fuels will likely take.
But a growing body of research is finding that the cost of clean energy is falling much faster than forecasts by experts, and the extrapolation of past cost curves, suggest.
UN wants to ban more than one bite of meat a day – One Nation
The United Nations is demonising our farmers and trying to send our society back to the stone age by taking 2.4 billion kilos of protein off of the market. Despite the UN wanting to destroy one of Australia’s largest industries supporting life as we know it, the Morrison government still gives them $64 million of our money.
Health
FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine – U.S. FDA
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty (koe-mir’-na-tee), for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older. The vaccine also continues to be available under emergency use authorization (EUA), including for individuals 12 through 15 years of age and for the administration of a third dose in certain immunocompromised individuals.
Covid-19: FDA set to grant full approval to Pfizer vaccine without public discussion of data – BMJ
Transparency advocates have criticised the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision not to hold a formal advisory committee meeting to discuss Pfizer’s application for full approval of its covid-19 vaccine.
Last year the FDA said it was “committed to use an advisory committee composed of independent experts to ensure deliberations about authorisation or licensure are transparent for the public.”1 But in a statement, the FDA told The BMJ that it did not believe a meeting was necessary ahead of the expected granting of full approval.
“The FDA has held numerous meetings of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) related to covid-19 vaccines, including a 22 October 20202 meeting to discuss, in general, the development, authorisation, and licensure of covid-19 vaccines,” an FDA spokesperson said.
Montana becomes the first U.S. state to ban vaccine requirements for employees – Fortune
While many large companies across the U.S. have announced that COVID-19 vaccines will be required for their employees to return to work in-person, there is one state where such requirements are banned: Montana.
Under a new law passed by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature earlier this year, requiring vaccines as a condition for employment is deemed “discrimination” and a violation of the state’s human rights laws.
Montana is the only state in the U.S. with a law like this for private employers, said Hemi Tewarson, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy.
What we know about ZyCoV-D, the world’s first DNA Covid vaccine – Quartz
India has added another homegrown Covid-19 vaccine to its basket—and once again without official trial data.
On Aug. 20, India’s central drugs regulatory authority approved the ZyCoV-D vaccine, developed and manufactured by Zydus Cadila. The company has claimed that the three-dose vaccine, built on the plasmid DNA platform, has 66.6% efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19. It also claims that this vaccine is safe for children over the ages of 12, making it the paediatric option in India.
The vaccine is an innovative leap for India, which has been the first to approve a DNA platform shot for Covid-19 in the world.
France’s long-time vaccine policy chief: Covid policy is “completely stupid” and “unethical” – UK Column
UK Column was recently able to interview top French vaccine expert Professor Christian Perronne on the subject of Covid-19 vaccines.
Despite Professor Perronne’s extensive knowledge and experience of communicable diseases, vaccines and vaccine policy at national and governmental level in France, he was quickly censored for speaking out on the subject of Covid-19 vaccines, their claimed efficacy and their identifiable risks. In short, he was professionally sidelined, his reputation was attacked and his professional opinions were censored.
We are therefore delighted to be able to offer this very brave and highly knowledgeable man the opportunity to express his professional opinions and concerns to our audience both in the UK and worldwide, by means of this crucial video interview.
The post Daily Digest 8/23 — Taper Talk Looms Over Fed’s Conference; FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine… appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
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