Economy
California Port Pileup Leaves Old Records In The Dust
Labor unrest at West Coast ports in 2015 was a landmark event for U.S. importers. Massive congestion amid contentious contract negotiations with the dockworkers union convinced some importers to shift business to East and Gulf Coast ports and diversify supply chains. But despite its lasting impact, what happened in 2015 pales in comparison to what’s unfolding at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2021.
Data on the number of ships at anchor in San Pedro Bay is compiled by the Marine Exchange of Southern California. American Shipper compared the Marine Exchange’s 2015 numbers to congestion figures for 2020-21, measuring from the time anchorages started to fill in each case.
Many ‘Long Covid’ Patients Had No Symptoms From Their Initial Infection
Many people who experience long-term symptoms from the coronavirus did not feel sick at all when they were initially infected, according to a new study that adds compelling information to the increasingly important issue of the lasting health impact of Covid-19.
The study, one of the first to focus exclusively on people who never needed to be hospitalized when they were infected, analyzed electronic medical records of 1,407 people in California who tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 60 days after their infection, 27 percent, or 382 people, were struggling with post-Covid symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pain, cough or abdominal pain.
Airline industry pushes US to standardize health papers
Leading airline and business groups are asking the Biden administration to develop temporary credentials that would let travelers show they have been tested and vaccinated for COVID-19, a step that the airline industry believes will help revive travel.
Various groups and countries are working on developing so-called vaccine passports aimed at allowing more travel. But airlines fear that a smattering of regional credentials will cause confusion and none will be widely accepted.
Blockbuster report delivers jaw-dropping revelations about potential origin of COVID-19
New reporting from journalist Josh Rogin adds more evidence to the theory that the novel coronavirus actually escaped containment from a lab in Wuhan, China, where it was being studied.
Politico has published a new excerpt from Rogin’s upcoming book — titled Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century — in which the journalist cites United States State Department cables sent in 2018 warning that scientists were conducting risky coronavirus experiments in a Wuhan lab that was not equipped to contain the virus.
John McAfee charged with fraud over cryptocurrency
Businessman John McAfee, creator of the McAfee anti-virus software, has been charged in the US with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.
Mr McAfee and his bodyguard Jimmy Gale Watson Jr are accused of promoting cryptocurrencies to Mr McAfee’s large Twitter following to inflate prices.
Retail stock investors don’t need big government interfering: Sen. Toomey
Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey says Congress should avoid imposing unnecessary restrictions on investors as a result of the stock-market volatility that occurred in January in the wake of the short squeeze in GameStop Corp shares.
The comments come as members of Congress and regulators are reviewing zero-commission trading and the “gamification” of stock-market investing through the use of mobile apps.
Value Is Subjective: Neither Gold Nor Crypto Have “Real Value”
A major hurdle to the adoption of bitcoin is that while the average person may be at least open to the idea that fiat money is not the ideal, they still struggle to see a difference between fiat money and cryptocurrency. And this lumping together is not just held to the average adopter but includes many brilliant household names such as Peter Schiff and Elon Musk. This widespread conflation of cryptocurrency and fiat currency comes from two vital misunderstandings: a lack of an understanding of what exactly fiat is and a lack of understanding of value’s subjectivity.
Hackers Breach Thousands of Security Cameras, Exposing Tesla, Jails, Hospitals
A group of hackers say they breached a massive trove of security-camera data collected by Silicon Valley startup Verkada Inc., gaining access to live feeds of 150,000 surveillance cameras inside hospitals, companies, police departments, prisons and schools.
Companies whose footage was exposed include carmaker Tesla Inc. and software provider Cloudflare Inc. In addition, hackers were able to view video from inside women’s health clinics, psychiatric hospitals and the offices of Verkada itself. Some of the cameras, including in hospitals, use facial-recognition technology to identify and categorize people captured on the footage. The hackers say they also have access to the full video archive of all Verkada customers.
‘It just sucks’: America’s jobless owe thousands of dollars in taxes on their unemployment
Unemployment compensation is taxable. Many are just figuring this out as they sit down to do their 2020 taxes, even though they remain out of work.
For people who have been without a job for nearly a year, finding money to pay their tax bills is yet another financial burden coming at a fraught time. Advocates for the poor as well as some Democratic lawmakers are trying to get these tax bills waived entirely — or at least reduced.
Gold & Silver
Click to read the PM Daily Market Commentary
Provided daily by the Peak Prosperity Gold & Silver Group
Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to [email protected]. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the “3 Es.”
