Category: Business

America reportedly suffering monkey shortage for COVID-19 vaccine search

By  Natalie Musumeci August 31, 2020 4:41pm

 

This is bananas.

US researchers working frantically to test potential COVID-19 vaccines are facing a critical shortage of one essential resource — monkeys.

“Nationally, there is basically a big shortage,” Koen Van Rompay, an infectious-disease scientist at the California National Primate Research Center, told The Atlantic.

Primate research in the country was already pricey and controversial — but the coronavirus pandemic has been particularly bad for the monkey business.

“We can’t find any rhesus [monkeys] any longer. They’ve completely disappeared,” Mark Lewis, the CEO of contract research firm Bioqual, told the magazine.

Rhesus monkeys are most widely used in research, according to The National Primate Research Centers.

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63% of small business are now on hiring freeze, 10% laying off employees

 

The demand for labor in small businesses in the U.S. hit record-low in August as 63 percent are now putting their hiring on hold because they can’t afford to augment their workforce. Also, 10 percent of small businesses laid off employees last month.

These numbers were based from a recent Alignable Research Center poll. For comparison, 45 percent of small businesses had hiring freeze and four percent fired employees in July.

A total of 5,618 small business employers participated in the poll from Aug. 13 to Sept. 6. About 60 percent of the entrepreneurs said freezing hiring and firing their employees were inevitable as labor costs are at least 50 percent higher than they were pre-Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Twenty-nine percent lamented that payroll costs have doubled. Almost half of the respondents stated that they halted hiring due to economic factors, including general inflation, labor costs and fears of a recession. By state, 75 percent of New York small businesses stopped hiring, 74 percent in Ohio, and 68 percent in Pennsylvania.

Some 66 percent of small business owners say the country “is in a recession for sure,” with 28 percent adding it feels more like a “depression.”

Moreover, only 23 percent of small business owners say they have fully recovered financially from the worst years of COVID, which declined by two percent from July and down 20 percent from December 2021. This recovery rate is the lowest the Alignable Research Center has seen in more than a year. (Related: THANKS, BIDEN: Small businesses struggle as highest inflation in decades wrecks US economy.)

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China’s mega banks lost billions of dollars in profit as bad loans rise during coronavirus pandemic

 

China’s five largest banks reported their biggest profit declines in at least a decade as they brace for further increases in bad loans in an economy weakened by the coronavirus pandemic.

The five lenders — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and Bank of Communications — released their latest financial report cards last week.

All five posted at least 10% year-on-year declines in profit for the first half of 2020 as they set aside more funds for potential loan losses in the coming months — much like many banks around the world.

“The banks have been asked to … perform ‘national service.’ They’ve been asked to support the economy at the expense of their own operational strength,” said Jason Tan, research analyst at CreditSights, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.

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‘A Serious Inflation Problem’: Top Obama Economist Sounds The Alarm Over Prices As White House Celebrates

Former Treasury Secretary and National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers warned on Tuesday that the United States still has a “serious inflation problem.”

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 8.3% between August 2021 and August 2022, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reading marks a decline from the 8.5% year-over-year rate seen in July and the 9.1% year-over-year rate seen in June as gasoline prices continue to fall, although month-over-month prices for food, shelter, and medical services continued to tick upward.

Indeed, core inflation — the price level increase for all items except for food and energy — rose by 0.6% in August, marking a faster rate of increase than July and producing a 6.3% year-over-year rate. Analysts were expecting the measure to rise 0.3%.

“Core inflation is higher this month than for the quarter, higher this quarter than last quarter, higher this half of the year than the previous one, and higher last year than the previous one,” Summers commented on social media.

Summers remarked that median inflation — an alternative metric of core inflation favored by those who once said inflation was “transitory” — rose to “its highest ever reading.” Indeed, median inflation rose from 6.3% in July 2022 to 6.7% in August 2022, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

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“Contingency plans” set in motion as railroad industry prepares for massive labor strike

Norfolk Southern will enact their own “contingency plans” across their network. This will include a “controlled shut down” starting Friday September 16th. This is when the “cooling-off period” expires. The Railway Labor Act was implemented by Biden officials two months ago to prevent a strike. It requires a 30-day cooling period. After September 16, the railroad industry will have to appeal to Congress to reach a deal with the labor unions.

Ten unions have already reached a deal with AAR, but two of the biggest continue to hold out: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the International Association of Sheet Metal Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.

The railroads are moving quickly to secure shipments of hazardous and security-sensitive materials. The AAR warned: “We still do not have a commitment not to strike and [therefore we] must act accordingly.”

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A New American Dollar

 

The gist of this prophecy is that the current US Dollar will be going away, and will be replaced by a new one.  How that’ll happen, and what form it’ll take, is not as yet known.  Three theories that exist are that 1) The dollar will completely collapse and go to zero, forcing it to be replaced by an entirely new currency, 2) the current dollar will be returned to the “gold” standard, with gold and silver backing it, transforming it from its current fiat condition, into sound money, 3) the dollar will completely go away, and be replaced with a North American dollar as part of a North American Union that will form on the backside of this dollar collapse.

Again, these are just some of the theories right now as to exactly how this will play out.  The only common denominator in all this is that the current US Dollar is going to go away, and be replaced by something new.  Again, how that unfolds, and what form it takes, is not known as of yet.

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Breitbart: On Wednesday, Uthmeier took it a step further and announced the state’s formal subpoena.

“Just about an hour or two ago, we issued a formal subpoena to Dr. Fauci, under Florida state law, seeking a breadth of documents ranging to what he knew, when he knew it, his doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that he’s out there promoting, and we’re really focused in on his self-dealing,” Uthmeier said during an interview with Fox News’s John Roberts.

Breitbart: Florida Subpoenas Anthony Fauci, Focusing on His ‘Self-Dealing’ During Pandemic

Florida officially subpoenaed Anthony Fauci and is largely focusing on investigating the allegations of “self-dealing” during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, announced last week the Sunshine State was launching an investigation into the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) chief after he invoked the Fifth Amendment repeatedly during his testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
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Energy cost inflation a major challenge for more than half of Germany’s economy

What was once the economic powerhouse of Europe is rapidly unraveling as business leaders, associations and consumers are finally coming to the realization that Germany is in serious trouble.

In the coming months, energy supplies will dwindle to the point that rationing will more than likely ensue. The resulting energy shortages will further skew prices above and beyond current inflationary levels, eventually leading to a collapse.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) conducted an analysis recently which found that energy cost inflation is a major challenge for 58 percent of German companies, while 34 percent say what happens next will determine their survival.

If prices continue to soar, that 34 percent will be out of business in no time. The domino effect of that loss will probably also yank an even higher percentage down with it.

Some companies are in talks about moving production overseas in order to survive. If that happens on a large enough scale, then Germany will ultimately lose a big chunk of its manufacturing base.

One in 10 German companies has already reduced or even halted all production due to the energy crisis. One in four German companies is now in the process of relocating company shares or parts of production and jobs abroad to countries where energy is more affordable.

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Purse Thief Runs Into Police Arms Aeron Kip – April 11th 2017 A man who stole a woman’s purse runs straight into the long arms of the law, literally

Brian Keith Siemienski, Port St Lucie Police

On Monday, April 10th, 33-year-old Brian Keith Siemienski was arrested after he snatched a woman’s purse in a Denny’s car park, located in Port St Lucie, Florida, he ran away straight into the arms of the law.

At approximately 3:00 pm a Denny’s employee was sitting in her car, whilst the fast food eatery was being cleaned for bugs. Brian approached her vehicle, the employee asked if she could help him, brian replied “Yeah this”, he opened her car door, snatched the Dennys workers handbag.

The pair struggled with the handbag until the handle broke off the purse. Brian ran off with the loot but he ran straight into the arms of a St Lucie Police Sergeant. the police were already in the area.

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