GDP crash

U.S. gross domestic product plunged at a 32.9% annualized rate in the second quarter of 2020, showing the depth of the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the health of the American economy.

Graphics by Travis Hartman

PUBLISHED JULY 30, 2020

Gross domestic product is the broadest measure of everything produced by U.S. workers, private capital and the government. In 2019 that came to about $19.2 trillion adjusted for inflation. In 2020, that number has fallen enormously because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the largest drop in history during the second quarter.

Three large aspects of the economy are particularly reflective of the pandemic’s impact. Overall consumer spending has suffered with millions of people out of work, government spending has soared because of the CARES act and business investment has languished with companies so unsure of the future.

Consumer spending

Consumer spending has historically been the driving force behind GDP, accounting for roughly two thirds of the total. The pandemic has had a big effect on how consumers spend their money. Spending on goods has remained relatively buoyant as people stocked up on food and other essentials, while stay-at-home orders and restaurant and bar shutdowns hit the service sector quite hard.

Consumer spending since 2002

Total consumer spending

Services

Goods

Note: Grey bars denote recession

Government spending

The U.S. government has spent money at an unprecedented pace to cushion the blow to households and businesses from the pandemic. That is most reflected in a nearly 40% increase in non-defense government spending during the second quarter. This massive bump in spending fueled a range of crisis relief programs, including a $1200 check to all qualifying Americans, enhanced unemployment benefits of $600/week on top of normal state programs, and a range of programs targeted at supporting businesses from airlines to pizza shops.

Non-defense government spending since 2002

Q2 2011

$471.6 billion

Note: Grey bars denote recession

Business investment

Business spending also retreated sharply as many companies are canceling capital spending projects due to overall insecurity.

Business investment since 2002

Note: Grey bars denote recession

Note

Headline chart is real GDP, percent change from preceding period, quarterly, seasonally adjusted annualized rate

Editing by Dan Burns

Source

U.S. Commerce Departme

Nippon Steel to appeal South Korea ruling allowing seizure of assets

FILE PHOTO: The logos of Nippon Steel Corp. are didplayed at the company headquarters in Tokyo, Japan March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Yuka Obayashi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T) said on Tuesday it will appeal a South Korean court ruling that allows for the company’s assets in that country to be seized and sold as compensation for forced wartime labour.

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The ruling followed a South Korean Supreme Court decision in 2018 that Nippon Steel should pay 100 million won ($83,836.35) to each of four South Koreans as compensation for forced labor during World War II.


A lower court there approved in 2019 the seizure of part of the domestic assets of Nippon Steel, and Yonhap News Agency said the Daegu District Court in June set a Tuesday deadline for the process to begin.

“We will continue to take appropriate measures based on the diplomatic negotiations between the two nations and other situations,” a Nippon Steel spokeswoman said on Tuesday. “We will immediately make an appeal against procedures for seizure of assets which took effect at midnight on Aug. 4.”


At stake are 81,075 shares Nippon Steel holds in PNR, a Korea-based joint venture with steelmaker POSCO, worth about 400 million won by face value, according to Yonhap.

Nippon Steel has until the end of Sunday to file the appeal before, Yonhap said.

Japan has held that all matters concerning wartime reparations must be settled under a 1965 treaty that normalised relations between the countries.

Fed policymakers call for fiscal support to save U.S. economy

Evans, in an uncharacteristically passionate outburst during his call with reporters, said that the virus’ unequal toll was an “indictment” of unequal access to U.S. healthcare. “The state of equal healthcare in this country is abysmal,” he said.

Ann Saphir, Lindsay Dunsmuir


(Reuters) - The U.S. economy, battered by a resurgence in the spread of COVID-19, needs increased government spending to tide over households and businesses and broader use of masks to better control the virus, U.S. central bankers said on Monday.


FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington, U.S., March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

The calls for increased government intervention came as U.S. lawmakers and the White House resumed talks on a new government relief package, including a possible extension of unemployment benefits that expired on Friday.

“The ball is in Congress’ court,” Chicago Fed President Charles Evans told reporters on a call. “Fiscal policy is fundamental to a better baseline outlook, to a stronger recovery and getting the unemployment rate down, people back to work safely, and ultimately reopening the schools safely.”

Without more government aid, Evans said, “aggregate demand trouble is brewing.” Translated for non-economists: people could stop spending and the bottom could really fall out of the economy.

Or, as Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin put it, “quickly pulling away the support that consumers and businesses are receiving would be a pretty traumatic move for what’s happening in the economy.”

The full court Fed press for more government spending came as Republicans appeared reluctant to spend much more than the $3 trillion Congress had already committed to bolstering the economy in the face of the virus. But things have gotten worse since then, Barkin said.

“Four months ago, when we did the first stimulus, we thought the economy faced a pothole and the stimulus put a plate over it so we could navigate,” he told the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce. “Now escalation of the virus may be making that pothole into a sinkhole and creating a need for a longer plate.”

Echoing those sentiments in slightly different terms were Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard. Kaplan pushed back on the notion that the extra $600 weekly benefits to the unemployed had made it harder for businesses to hire, while Bullard said earlier efforts to keep businesses and households whole through the crisis have paid off so far.

“We’ve looked at a number of studies, we’ve done our own work: we don’t see it as much in the data but I can tell you I’m hearing it from business people,” Kaplan told Bloomberg TV earlier Monday when asked about whether the enhanced jobless aid was deterring people from returning to work.


“While it may have made it hard for certain individual businesses to hire, it has helped create jobs, because it has helped bolster consumer spending, so the net effect still has probably been positive for the economy for employment.”

Kaplan also said he did not agree with his colleague, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who at the weekend said he thought the U.S. economy should shut back down again for four to six weeks to suppress spread of COVID-19.

Instead, Kaplan said, universal mask-wearing could substantially mute transmission of the virus without a widespread lockdown. “I think we are going to have to learn to live with this virus. We are going to have to learn to re-engage in our daily activities but still control the virus,” he said. “Widespread mask-wearing is essential to that.”

Bullard, too, emphasized mask-wearing as a significant risk-management tool, especially as he does not expect health officials to be able to reduce disease transmissions to zero because it is so contagious. He also warned against placing too much emphasis on the development of a successful vaccine.

“If you put too much emphasis on the idea that a vaccine is going to come and save us, and someone’s going to crack a very difficult scientific problem ... then you get people not doing anything and sitting around waiting for the vaccine,” Bullard said in a presentation during an online event hosted by the bank’s Memphis, Tennessee, branch. “So if you do that, you do risk a depression because you could get a lot of business failures while you’re waiting, potentially a very long time for a vaccine to come and save the day.”

The regional bank presidents’ comments came just days after the Fed’s latest two-day policy meeting, at which officials repeated their pledge to do all in their power to help the economy weather the recession that began in February as the outbreak began ricocheting around the globe. The U.S. central bank has slashed interest rates to near zero - where they are expected to remain for years - and has rolled out roughly a dozen emergency programs to backstop financial markets and support businesses.

Bullard also said he expects that economic growth has resumed in the current third quarter, but that after a better-than-expected start to the rebound in May and June, the rebound slowed in July with the resurgence in infections in many areas of the country.

“We shouldn’t expect a completely smooth transition as you go forward because this is a crisis and there’s going to be ups and downs,” Bullard said.

Those swings were on display Monday, as U.S. manufacturing activity rose even as factory job losses persisted. California - the most populous U.S. state - reported a decline in hospitalizations and cases, but the state’s farmbelt has a severe outbreak, concentrated among Latinos.

Evans, in an uncharacteristically passionate outburst during his call with reporters, said that the virus’ unequal toll was an “indictment” of unequal access to U.S. healthcare.
“The state of equal healthcare in this country is abysmal,” he said.

(Open tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser for a Reuters interactive)


Reporting by Ann Saphir and Lindsay Dunsmuir; Additional reporting by Jonnelle Marte; Editing by Dan Burns and Lisa Shumaker

L.A. teachers reach deal with school district on remote education
Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles teachers union and local education officials on Monday agreed to a plan for resuming online-only classes later this month in the nation’s second-largest school district amid the coronavirus pandemic.


Protesters participate in a caravan protest during a national day of resistance to demand a safe, scientific, racially just and fully funded approach to reopening schools during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., August 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake - RC2K6I952GYL

The deal encompasses new standards and work rules governing how the 30,000 teachers of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will provide instruction to 700,000 students remaining at home when the new academic year begins on Aug. 18.

The plan, hammered out during two weeks of negotiations between the district and United Teachers Los Angeles union, is designed to avoid the chaos that ensued when the worsening COVID-19 outbreak forced schools to abruptly switch to remote learning in March.

“We have all learned from our experiences with distance learning since March, and we’ve applied what we learned to this agreement,” LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner said in a statement.

Under the plan, age-appropriate class schedules have been created for all grade levels, from kindergarten to high school, including daily “synchronous” instruction by teachers — real-time lectures through video conferencing.


Teachers will also use “asynchronous” instructional materials and assignments posted online for students to complete independently, a joint statement from LAUSD and the union said.

While the plan gives teachers the option to work from their regular classrooms, students will remain at home, with daily attendance taken for each class session.

The plan also calls for:

- small-group instruction, teacher-guided “peer-to-peer” learning, and individual tutoring as necessary.

- guidance counselors and other non-teaching staff to follow a weekly schedule of services and office hours.


- special staff training and professional development.

Announcing its decision last month to proceed with online-only instruction, LAUSD cited “skyrocketing” coronavirus infection rates and a lack of adequate safeguards to ensure student and staff safety in classrooms.

Monday’s online-learning pact came as teachers at more than 35 other U.S. school districts staged protests over plans to resume in-class instruction while COVID-19 is surging in much of the country.


Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Aurora Ellis

U.N. chief warns world facing 'generational catastrophe' on education

Michelle Nichols


FILE PHOTO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is seen on a video screen during a virtual climate summit, known as the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, in Berlin on April 28, 2020. Michael Kappeler/Pool via REUTERS

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday that the world faces a “generational catastrophe” because of school closures amid the coronavirus pandemic and said that getting students safely back to the classroom must be “a top priority.”

Guterres said that as of mid-July schools were closed in some 160 countries, affecting more than 1 billion students, while at least 40 million children have missed out on pre-school.

This came on top of more than 250 million children already being out of school before the pandemic and only a quarter of secondary school students in developing countries leaving with basic skills, he said in a video statement.


“Now we face a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” said Guterres as he launched a U.N. “Save our Future” campaign.

“Once local transmission of COVID-19 is under control, getting students back into schools and learning institutions as safely as possible must be a top priority,” he said. “Consultation with parents, carers, teachers and young people is fundamental.”

The U.N. recommendations for getting global education back on track come as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for schools to reopen in the face of opposition from some teachers and parents while COVID-19 is surging in many parts of the country.


The coronavirus, which first appeared in China late last year, has infected 4.6 million people in the United States and killed more than 155,000 Americans since February, according to a Reuters tally. Deaths rose by over 25,000 in July and cases doubled in 19 states during the month.

Globally the coronavirus has infected at least 18.1 million people and there have been more than 689,000 known deaths worldwide, according to the Reuters tally.

U.S. teachers protest school reopenings, coronavirus cases down in South, West

Brendan O'Brien, Dan Whitcomb


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Teachers at dozens of school districts protested from their cars on Monday over plans by some U.S. governors to resume in-class instruction during the coronavirus pandemic, while Arizona, Florida, California and Texas saw declines in new cases.


People participate in a caravan protest during a national day of resistance to demand a safe, scientific, racially just and fully funded approach to reopening schools during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., August 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake - RC2K6I98ZD1X

The teachers, who painted messages on their cars and formed caravans with other school employees, want instruction conducted online until testing shows that classrooms are safe and districts hire more nurses and counselors.

The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, the union representing public school teachers statewide, posted pictures on Twitter of protesters making cardboard gravestones with messages such as “Here lies a third grade student from Green Bay who caught COVID at school” and “RIP Grandma caught COVID helping grand kids with homework.”

Teachers in Chicago, Milwaukee and Philadelphia honked their horns in car protests. Demonstrators rallied outside the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce building, and in Connecticut about 400 formed a car march that passed Governor Ned Lamont’s home.

“I do not want to put my students or myself in harm’s way. I do not want to be an experiment,” Chicago elementary school teacher Andrea Parker told reporters.

More than 155,000 people have died nationwide from COVID-19 since the virus was first identified in the United States in January. Cases nationally fell for a second week in a row but rose week-over-week in 20 states, including Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma.

Deaths in the United States rose for a fourth week in a row to more than 8,500 people in the seven days ended Aug. 2, a Reuters analysis found.

CASES TREND DOWN IN SUNBELT STATES

Arizona, California, Florida and Texas, U.S. states with some of the largest populations, saw fewer cases and hospitalizations.

Californian Governor Gavin Newsom said intensive care unit admissions were also down in his state but it was too early to celebrate.

“This virus is not going away,” Newsom said at a briefing. “It’s not going to take Labor Day weekend off or Halloween off or the holidays off. Until we have a vaccine, we are going to be living with this virus.”

The governor said the decline was not enough to merit a change in his order that Californian schools begin the August term with online learning.

The Los Angeles teachers union and education officials on Monday agreed to a plan for resuming online-only classes later this month in the nation’s second-largest school district. [L1N2F52C4]

Schools are at the center of negotiations between Democrats in Congress and the administration of President Donald Trump over a coronavirus economic relief bill. Democratic leaders and White House negotiators both said on Monday they had made progress in those talks, though the administration said Trump could act alone if no deal is reached. [L1N2F50O6]

With Democrat Joe Biden leading in polls ahead of the November presidential election, Trump, a Republican, has made school reopenings part of his re-election campaign.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, said in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association on Monday that states with spiraling case numbers should consider re-imposing lockdown restrictions on residents and businesses.

But Fauci told a news conference with Connecticut’s Lamont that he favored getting students back in class, citing negative psychological impacts of keeping them home as well as the role schools play in feeding children.

“The default position should be to try as best as you possibly can to open up the schools for in-person learning,” Fauci said.


Previously hard-hit parts of New York and New Jersey with dense populations have seen an increase in new cases in recent days, prompting New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to reduce indoor limits to 25 people per room from 100.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would announce later this week whether to reopen schools in his state, which has recorded by far the greatest number of COVID-19 deaths, more than 32,000.


Reporting by Brendan O'Brien and Lisa Shumaker in Chicago, Gabriella Borter and Maria Caspani in New York and Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; writing by Grant McCool and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Howard Goller and Stephen Coates
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Manhattan district attorney raises scope of Trump probe

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WOT ME WORRY THE GRIFTER IN CHIEF

Europe cushions workforce as U.S. lifeline runs threadbare

SOCIAL DEMOCRACY VS DOG EAT DOG CAPITALISM

Tom Sims, Norma Galeana


FRANKFURT/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - - While millions of U.S. workers thrown into unemployment by the coronavirus pandemic fret about feeding their families, idled German airline purser Marco Todte is mainly concerned about his next vacation.



FILE PHOTO: Hundreds of people line up outside a Kentucky Career Center hoping to find assistance with their unemployment claim in Frankfort, Kentucky, U.S. June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston

Todte, 41, hasn’t flown for work since April. But Germany’s state-subsidized “Kurzarbeit” furlough scheme and a top-up from employer Lufthansa means he is getting 90% of his regular income and has the cash to explore what few leisure options there are in an economy still emerging from lockdown.

“It is hard to go to the cinema or to go out in the evenings. I had planned on a cruise but that was cancelled,” Todte complained. “It’s not a question of money - more a question of what there is to do with it.”

That’s a problem that Juan Ruiz, a 56-year-old billing agent who lost his job at a Los Angeles forklift company in March when he contracted COVID-19, would love to have.

The failure of Congress to agree on replacing the $600-a-week extra unemployment benefit before its expiry on Friday means his family’s finances are now in jeopardy.

Ruiz used his first benefit cheques to pay down his debts but still has a mortgage to cover and says the new proposal of just $200-a-week on the table when talks resume on Monday is nowhere near enough.

“We have a lot of bills, we need to pay the house, taxes, everything,” Ruiz, still struggling with his breathing as a result of the disease, told Reuters at his home.

“We desperately need that help.”

Nothing illustrates the contrasting economic responses of the United States and Europe to the pandemic more clearly than how they are dealing with the devastation it has brought to their jobs markets.

The extra U.S. weekly benefit was an attempt to cushion the short-term blow to households as over 30 million people became jobless. It is based on the assumption that they will be able to return to the workforce as soon as the economy recovers.

The European approach, building on schemes like “Kurzarbeit” already in existence, has been to use costly state subsidies to keep workers on company payrolls with wages near regular levels even when they work part-time or not at all.

At the most generous end of the spectrum, the Dutch “NOW” programme retains workers on 100% of their income even when they work zero hours. For those laid off, the baseline Dutch dole programme is worth around $1,000 a month.

WHEN TO WIND DOWN?

Advocates of furloughs argue that, by maintaining the link between worker and employer, they make it easier for a company to ramp up activity quickly when demand returns.

Critics say they keep many non-viable jobs alive when it would be better for them to be replaced by new positions in healthier sectors.

The recent resurgence of new coronavirus cases in the United States and Europe has raised fresh questions about the timing of any recovery and how long either approach can be maintained.


But for now, it is clear the European way is alleviating more pain.

By the end of May, an estimated 45 million workers in Britain and the four largest euro zone economies - Germany, France, Italy and Spain - were registered in furlough schemes. For the euro zone, that has kept the jobless rate at just under 8%, barely a point higher than its pre-lockdown level.

That approach has been lauded by the European Central Bank (ECB) for supporting consumer morale and buffering household income, seen by many economists as key to the recovery.

Data on Friday showed French consumer spending for example shot back to its pre-pandemic level in June even as the overall economy shrank by 13.8% in the second quarter. Consumer morale in Germany is also strong.

“(The system) stabilizes the income of households so that they still consume,” said Sebastian Link, labour expert at the Ifo economic institute, which estimates some 42% of German firms still had workers on Kurzarbeit in July.

June data show consumer spending in the United States has held up but households have had to bite into savings as income levels have fallen. The wealth squeeze will only get worse if the expiring jobless benefit is not replaced.

While the immediate challenge for U.S. policymakers is to come up with new support to ensure millions are not thrown into poverty, European governments face hard questions about how long they can sustain their furloughs.

Britain is planning from October to wind down its scheme, which has supported 9.5 million jobs at a cost of $41 billion so far, despite predictions that would cause unemployment to more than double to 10% by year-end.

Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings, said he expected other job subsidy schemes across Europe to be removed gradually, with the timing dependent on a recovery which in turn could be threatened by future spikes in infections.


“A lot of it was predicated on this being short-term. If the recovery process is slower then it becomes tricky,” he said.

(Graphic: European furlough schemes link: here)



Reporting by Tom Sims and Norma Galeana; Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; Writing and additional reporting by Mark John in London; Editing by Hugh Lawson

Scientists inspired by 'Star Wars' create artificial skin able to feel

Joseph Campbell




SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore researchers have developed “electronic skin” capable of recreating a sense of touch, an innovation they hope will allow people with prosthetic limbs to detect objects, as well as feel texture, or even temperature and pain.


FILE PHOTO: Dr. Benjamin Tee, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS), demonstrates how his device can detect the texture of a soft stress ball at a lab in NUS, Singapore July 27, 2020. REUTERS/Joseph Campbell

The device, dubbed ACES, or Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin, is made up of 100 small sensors and is about 1 sq cm (0.16 square inch) in size.

The researchers at the National University of Singapore say it can process information faster than the human nervous system, is able to recognise 20 to 30 different textures and can read Braille letters with more than 90% accuracy.

“So humans need to slide to feel texture, but in this case the skin, with just a single touch, is able to detect textures of different roughness,” said research team leader Benjamin Tee, adding that AI algorithms let the device learn quickly.


A demonstration showed the device could detect that a squishy stress ball was soft, and determine that a solid plastic ball was hard.

“When you lose your sense of touch, you essentially become numb... and prosthetic users face that problem,” said Tee.

“So by recreating an artificial version of the skin, for their prosthetic devices, they can hold a hand and feel the warmth and feel that it is soft, how hard are they holding the hand,” said Tee.

Tee said the concept was inspired by a scene from the “Star Wars” movie trilogy in which the character Luke Skywalker loses his right hand and it is replaced by a robotic one, seemingly able to experience touch sensations again.


The technology is still in the experimental stage, but there had been “tremendous interest”, especially from the medical community, Tee added.

Similar patents developed by his team include a transparent skin that can repair itself when torn and a light-emitting material for wearable electronic devices, Tee said.


Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

Next big COVID-19 treatment may be manufactured antibodies

Deena Beasley

(Reuters) - As the world awaits a COVID-19 vaccine, the next big advance in battling the pandemic could come from a class of biotech therapies widely used against cancer and other disorders - antibodies designed specifically to attack this new virus.



FILE PHOTO: A Lab technician works at Sorrento Therapeutics where efforts are underway to develop an antibody, STI-1499, to help in prevention of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in San Diego, California, U.S., May 22, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Development of monoclonal antibodies to target the virus has been endorsed by leading scientists. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, called them “almost a sure bet” against COVID-19.

When a virus gets past the body’s initial defenses, a more specific response kicks in, triggering production of cells that target the invader. These include antibodies that recognize and lock onto a virus, preventing the infection from spreading.

Monoclonal antibodies - grown in bioreactor vats - are copies of these naturally-occurring proteins.

Scientists are still working out the exact role of neutralizing antibodies in recovery from COVID-19, but drugmakers are confident that the right antibodies or a combination can alter the course of the disease that has claimed more than 675,000 lives globally.

“Antibodies can block infectivity. That is a fact,” Regeneron Pharmaceuticals executive Christos Kyratsous told Reuters.

Regeneron is testing a two-antibody cocktail, which it believes limits the ability of the virus’ to escape better than one, with data on its efficacy expected by late summer or early fall. “Protection will wane over time. Dosing is something we don’t know yet,” said Kyratsous.

The U.S. government in June awarded Regeneron a $450 million supply contract. The company said it can immediately begin production at its U.S. plant if regulators approve the treatment.

Eli Lilly and Co
Even with that unusual cooperation among rivals, manufacturing these medicines is complex and capacity is limited. There is also a debate over whether a single antibody will be powerful enough to stop COVID-19.

AstraZeneca said it plans to start human trials of its dual-antibody combination within weeks.

Lilly, which began human testing in June of two antibody candidates in separate trials, is focusing on a one-drug approach.

“If you need a higher dosage or more antibodies, fewer people can be treated,” Lilly Chief Scientific Officer Dan Skovronsky said.

‘INSTANT IMMUNITY’

Unlike vaccines, which activate the body’s own immune system, the impact of infused antibodies eventually dissipates.

Still, drugmakers say monoclonal antibodies could temporarily prevent infection in at-risk people such as medical workers and the elderly. They could also be used as a therapeutic bridge until vaccines become widely available.

“In a prophylactic setting we think we may achieve coverage for up to six months,” said Phil Pang, chief medical officer of Vir Biotechnology, which aims to start testing an antibody in non-hospitalized patients next month with partner GSK.

“The advantage of an antibody is that it is basically instant immunity,” said Mark Brunswick, senior vice president at Sorrento Therapeutics, which aims to begin human trials next month of a single antibody candidate.

Safety risks for monoclonal antibodies are considered low, but their cost can be quite high. These type of drugs for cancer can cost over $100,000 a year.

There is also concern that the coronavirus could become resistant to specific antibodies. Researchers are already at work on second-generation compounds with targets other than the crown-like spikes the virus uses to invade cells.

“We are trying to develop something that is complementary,” Amgen research chief David Reese said. Amgen is working with Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp.

Researchers in a recent paper published in the journal Nature said they had discovered several new, very potent, antibodies directed to an area where the virus attaches to human cells and to a region of the spike that has not attracted attention.

“To avoid development of resistance you want to target different sites,” study author and Columbia University professor David Ho told Reuters.

There are also questions about when in the course of the illness it might be best to employ these new weapons.

“Giving an antibody later on after infection might not be that helpful, said Florian Krammer, microbiology professor at New York’s Icahn School of Medicine. “Given early, they probably work well.”

EV GIVEN BLANK CHEQUE
EV maker Lordstown Motors to go public by merging with blank check firm


(Reuters) - Lordstown Motors has agreed to go public through a merger with blank-check company DiamondPeak Holdings in a deal that values the electric pickup truck start-up at $1.6 billion, the companies said on Monday.

The combined company will be called Lordstown Motors Corp following the closure of the deal in the fourth quarter and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “RIDE,” the companies said.

A blank-check company is a shell company that raises money through an initial public offering to buy an operating entity, typically within two years.

A bunch of electric vehicle makers including Nikola Corp and Fisker have either gone public or are planning to list their shares through mergers with blank-check companies this year.

“Lordstown ... has a transformational product and business plan in what are two of the most valuable areas of focus and tremendous opportunity in the auto sector - electric vehicles and light duty trucks,” DiamondPeak Chief Executive David Hamamoto said on a conference call. “Lordstown has attracted a clear lane of customers in the commercial fleet segment of the market.”

Lordstown has been working on a new full-size electric pickup truck called Endurance and last year hired Rich Schmidt, a former director of manufacturing at Tesla Inc, as chief production officer.

The company said the truck is aimed at the U.S. commercial fleet market, with initial production expected in the second half of 2021. The Endurance will have an electric driving range of 250 miles and a price tag of $45,000 net of a federal tax credit, Lordstown CEO Steve Burns said on the call.


Lordstown expects to receive about $675 million of gross proceeds from the deal and will use the funds for the production of the new truck, which has secured $1.4 billion worth of pre-orders, the company said.

The deal includes investments by General Motors and institutional investors, including Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC, Wellington Management Company LLP, Federated Hermes Kaufmann Small Cap Fund, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, among others, Lordstown said

Reconstructing Political Economy 

The Econ tribe occupies a vast territory within the far North. Their land appears bleak and dismal to the outsider, and travelling through it makes tough sledding; but the Econ, through a long period of adoption, have learned to wrest a living of sorts from it. They are not without some genuine and sometimes even fierce attachment to their ancestral ground,and their young are brought up to feel contempt for the softer living in the warm lands of their neighbours, such as the Polscis and the Socios.Despite a common genetic heritage, relations with these tribes are strained the distrust and contempt that the average Econ feels for these neighbours being heartily reciprocated by the latter—and social intercoursewith them is inhibited by numerous taboos. The extreme clannishness,not to say xenophobia, of the Econ makes life among them difficult and perhaps even dangerous for the outsider. This probably accounts for the fact that the Econ have so far not been systematically studied.

(Leijonhufvud 1973:347)


Contents
1 The two cultures in economics 1

2 Of dialogic debates and the uncertain embrace 17

3 Contestation and canonicity: the Adam Smith problem 32

4 The legacies of classical political economy 53

5 Marx and the long run 75

6 The neoclassical (counter) revolution 91

7 Heterodoxy and holism 111

8 Keynes and the world turned upside down 132

9The last half-century in the mainstream 154

10 Theorizing economic growth 177

11 From equilibrium into history 203

Reconstructing Political Economy
offers an original perspective on the questions the great economists have asked and looks at their significance for today’s world.Written in a provocative and accessible style, it examines how the diverse traditions of political economy have conceptualized economic issues, events and theory. Going beyond the orthodoxies of mainstream economics, it shows the relevance of political economy to debates on the economic meaning today.This book is a timely and thought provoking contribution to a political economy for our time. In this light, it offers fresh insights into such issues as modern theories of growth, the historic relations between state and market, and the significance of globalization for modern societies.
Reconstructing Political Economy
will be of great interest to economists, political scientists, and historians of economic thought.
William K.Tabb
is Professor of Economics and Political Science at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of
The Japanese System: Cultural Economy and Economic Transformation, The Political Economy of the Black Ghetto;
and co-editor of
Instability and Change in the World Economy
.Contemporary Political Economy series

Edited by Jonathan Michie, Birkbeck College, University of London

https://www.academia.edu/10366550/Reconstructing_Political_Economy_The_Great_Divide_in_Economic_Thought_Routledge_1999_See_link_to_download

NEW Ideas from Dead Economists

https://www.academia.edu/7099629/NEw_Ideas_from_Dead_Economists

 

 

2

Table

 

of 

 

Contents

 

Title

 

Page

 

Copyright

 

Page

 

Foreword

 

Preface

 

to

 

the

 

Revised

 

Edition

 

Acknowledgements

 

CHAPTER

 

I

 ‐

Introduction:

 

The

 

Plight

 

of 

 

the

 

Economist

 

CHAPTER

 

II

 ‐

The

 

Second

 

Coming

 

of 

 

Adam

 

Smith

 

CHAPTER

 

III

 ‐

Malthus:

 

Prophet

 

of 

 

Doom

 

and

 

Population

 

Boom

 

CHAPTER

 

IV

 ‐

David

 

Ricardo

 

and

 

the

 

Cry

 

for

 

Free

 

Trade

 

CHAPTER

 

V

 ‐

The

 

Stormy

 

Mind

 

of 

 

John

 

Stuart

 

Mill

 

CHAPTER

 

VI

 ‐

The

 

Angry

 

Oracle

 

Called

 

Karl

 

Marx

 

CHAPTER

 

VII

 ‐

Alfred

 

Marshall

 

and

 

the

 

Marginalist

 

Mind

 

CHAPTER

 

VIII

 ‐

Old

 

and

 

New

 

Institutionalists

 

CHAPTER

 

IX

 ‐

Keynes:

 

Bon

 

Vivant

 

as

 

Savior

 

CHAPTER

 

X

 ‐

Milton

 

Friedman

 

and

 

the

 

Monetarist

 

Battle

 

Against

 

Keynes

 

CHAPTER

 

XI

 ‐

The

 

Public

 

Choice

 

School:

 

Politics

 

as

 

a

 

Business

 

CHAPTER

 

XII

 ‐

The

 

Wild

 

World

 

of 

 

Rational

 

Expectations

 

and

 

Behavioral

 

Economics

 

CHAPTER

 

XIII

 ‐

Dark

 

Clouds,

 

Silver

 

Linings

 

Notes

 

Index