Parliamentarians unite to block NDP wealth tax supported by supermajority of Canadians

More than three-quarters of Canadians support a tax on the very wealthy

Christo Aivalis / November 17, 2020 CANADIAN DIMENSION


Illustration by Canadian Dimension

Yesterday was an indictment of Canadian politics. The Liberal Party, Conservative Party, and Bloc Québécois united to oppose a New Democratic Party motion which would have created a one percent tax on an individual’s wealth over $20 million. It would have also provided for an excess profits tax aimed at those who have enriched themselves while millions of Canadians suffer during the COVID-19 pandemic. These three parties (the Greens voted in favour) all opposed this common-sense motion even though the vast majority of Canadians support taxing billionaires and multi-millionaires on their obscene wealth.

As noted by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and MPs like Peter Julian, Canada is a society riddled with inequality, and while the coronavirus did not create such disparity between the rich and the rest, it has exacerbated it. As Singh put it:
To pay for the programs, the help that people need… it should not be families, and people, and workers, and small businesses who have struggled… It should be those who have profited off the pandemic, it should be the ultra-wealthy that contribute their fair share.

Indeed, the most wealthy and powerful Canadians have gotten richer during the pandemic, even as regular people face poverty and uncertainty. It is a given that, if we want to build a better Canada out of the ashes of this crisis—and if we want to address glaring omissions in our social safety net like pharmacare and dental care—then asking the very wealthiest to pay their fair share is a logical starting point. And nearly all Canadians agree with this approach.

As noted in recent polling, 76 percent of Canadians support the NDP’s one percent wealth tax plan, with a near majority (48 percent) strongly supporting it. More impressively, however, is how support is universally strong across party lines. Unsurprisingly, 91 percent of NDP voters support such a plan, but so do 70 percent of Conservatives (in fact, only 17 percent of Conservative voters actively oppose it). With every party giving at least two-thirds majority support to the idea of taxing wealth, why is it that not a single MP from Canada’s three biggest caucuses stood with the NDP on the motion? Why would the Liberals, Conservatives, and Bloc brazenly disregard the will of their supporters?

Put simply, it is because those parties do not exist to reflect the will of the population, nor even their own base, but rather the interests of the rich, wealthy, and well-connected. Even going back to the days following the 2019 federal election, Abacus Data polled Canadians about policies the Liberals might implement with the support of the NDP alone (given that those two parties form a majority of the seats in the current minority parliament). What they found was not only a similar (77 percent) level of support for a wealth tax and closing tax loopholes, but majority support for the entirety of the NDP’s key platform pieces. Policies like electoral reform had a slim majority of support (54 percent), while eliminating student loan interest, building 500,000 affordable housing units, dental care, pharmacare, and a Green New Deal had support ranging from 64 to 78 percent. For all but one of these policies, Conservative supporters also gave majority support

The @NDP proposed a new tax on the super rich and pandemic profiteers like Amazon and Walmart.
292 of the people’s representatives voted against it. https://t.co/RhaVfSKejK— simon black (@_SimonBlack) November 16, 2020


Clearly, the Liberals and Conservatives—the only two parties to ever form government at the federal level—require the support of regular Canadians to rule and wield power. But once in power, the will of those regular Canadians goes by the wayside more often than not. There are many reasons for this. One is the nature of our first-past-the-post system, which can give near autocratic levels of power to one political party for five years with as little as 35 to 40 percent of the vote. This system also breeds negative voting, where the vast majority of Liberal and Conservative voters are actually voting to prevent something rather than achieve it, according to a recent Angus Reid survey of the 2019 election. This means that while these parties upon victory claim a broad mandate to implement their platform, in reality their power is derived from a popular revulsion to the other principal party. In many ways, Canadians are trapped by this state of affairs.

But even under a proportional system where the NDP and Greens would have a bigger say within Parliament, it is still possible that the Liberals and Conservatives would hold a majority of seats and votes between them, even if reduced in both counts. Canadians must realize that whatever the promises of these parties during elections to represent hardworking middle class families, they govern on behalf of the richest Canadians, and the most powerful multinational corporations.





It should be said in closing that, if anything, the NDP’s wealth and excess tax proposals are too modest. While the one percent tax starts at a lower level of wealth than that proposed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the United States, their provisions raise the wealth tax gradually on the uber wealthy who hold hundreds of millions and billions of dollars. Sanders’ wealth tax, for example, would tax all wealth above $1 billion at a minimum of five percent. Sanders, along with Senators Ed Markey and Kirsten Gillibrand, also released a 60 percent excess profits proposal that is more detailed than the one tabled by the NDP. The point here is that the NDP plan was already a compromise designed to work with the neoliberal capitalist parties on a basis that would have ironclad support from the voters of those parties. And they still rejected it.

Canadians like to pride themselves on having a government that is progressive and responsive to their needs. But as long as 90 percent of Parliament votes against policies supported by 76 percent of Canadians, that can’t be the case. There are no shortcuts: if Canadians want a government that taxes the rich—who have profited handsomely while many suffer—to pay for the basic necessities all Canadians deserve, they must lend their vote to parties that will deliver. That will never happen under a Conservative or Liberal government, or with the Bloc holding a substantial amount of Quebec seats.

Christo Aivalis is political writer and commentator with a PhD in History. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, and Passage. He can be found daily on YouTube.

Canada should release Meng Wanzhou

—and pursue an independent foreign policy

John Price and Margaret McGregor / November 23, 2020 CANADIAN DIMENSION


Illustration by Canadian Dimension

The current hearings on the extradition of Meng Wanzhou are a tangled web of legal arguments that obscure a simple truth: the Canadian government is enabling a witch hunt on the part of a right-wing Trump administration against a Chinese capitalist rival—the telecommunications giant, Huawei.

This is putting Canada in the crosshairs of the US and China, aligning us closer than ever to wayward American foreign policy, and jeopardizing the safety and security of all.

We are adding our voices to the growing campaign to demand an end to the extradition process and release Meng.

Why?

For those who have not followed the case, Meng Wanzhou is the Huawei executive who was arrested at the Vancouver airport on December 1, 2018 in response to an extradition request from the US charging her with fraud for violating sanctions against Iran.

From the outset the case seemed far-fetched and part of the Trump administration’s anti-China campaign, and we hesitated to speak out. Meng is a rich and powerful figure, vice-chair of one of the largest corporations in the world, engaged in a tit-for-tat battle with US corporations. Why get involved?

Meng also owns luxury properties in Vancouver, an emblematic target for those who indiscriminately blame “the Chinese” for the city’s housing crisis, setting the stage for the Sinophobic racism associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then the Chinese government arrested Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig on charges of allegedly “endangering state security.” Suddenly, we entered into an ‘us vs. them’ scenario, and a destructive discourse on hostage taking.

As anti-war and social justice activists who have built long-term friendships with people in China, we refuse to be caught in the crosshairs of those who would recklessly demonize an emerging economic superpower.

The growing chorus of voices demanding the release of Meng has prompted us to take a closer look at what’s been going on, particularly in the extradition hearings currently taking place in the BC Supreme Court.

And we don’t like what we see.

The US charges seem hardly supportable given that Canada does not have sanctions against Iran and the alleged crimes took place in Hong Kong, not in Canada or the US.

So how did we get here?

Canada’s Justice Holmes and the Iran sanctions

In 2015, the Obama administration waived any sanctions aimed at Iran as part of an international agreement that saw Iran limit its nuclear development program in exchange for the withdrawal of sanctions. However, when Trump assumed power, he unilaterally withdrew from the deal and re-imposed sanctions against Iran to the astonishment of most countries and the United Nations.

The Canadian government did not follow Trump’s lead and has not imposed sanctions against Iran. The decision to arrest Meng and subject her to the extradition hearings now taking place should have been a non-starter since the allegation, breaking US sanctions, is not a crime in Canada.

Meng’s lawyers have argued exactly that. In response, the judge in the extradition hearings, Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes, has shifted the focus of the deliberations away from Iran. In a ruling on the importance of Canada not having sanctions (United States v. Meng, BCSC 2020, 785), Justice Holmes came to the curious conclusion that, though she recognized that US sanction laws are not part of Canadian law, “they are also not fundamentally contrary to Canadian values as in the way that slavery laws would be, for example.”

Justice Holmes’ historical reference to slavery laws as the bottom line in Canadian values is breathtaking. It sets a bar so low that it belittles the long history of struggle for justice in this country, not to mention the fight for an independent Canadian foreign policy.

In a letter beseeching the Canadian government to release Meng, 17 prominent Canadians including former justice minister Alan Rock, former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, and former NDP leader Ed Broadbent stated that releasing Meng would not be the first time that Canada has parted ways with the US, “including on much more momentous issues, such as refusing to join in their invasion of Iraq.”

Having participated in 2003 with hundreds of thousands of other people across Canada and in Quebec in demonstrations against the proposed invasion of Iraq, we agree that it was a momentous occasion, one that reflects how Canadians value their independence despite the country being allied with the US. The failure of Justice Holmes to recognize that Canadian non-participation in sanctions against Iran is—like our refusal to join in the invasion of Iraq—an integral part of Canadian values is distressing.

Meng Wanzhou is the deputy chair of the board and chief financial officer of telecom giant and China’s largest privately held company, Huawei, founded by her father Ren Zhengfei. Photo by Matti Blume.

An illegal interrogation and arrest?

Upon accepting the US extradition request, Canada’s Department of Justice and the RCMP obtained a warrant for the “immediate arrest” of Meng for December 1, 2018 when she was scheduled to pass through Vancouver on her way to Mexico.

But instead of arresting Meng, Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) officers detained and interrogated her for over two hours, telling her the scrutiny was necessary to enter Canada–even though Meng was en route to Mexico.

Knowing that Meng would soon be arrested but failing to disclose this to her, CBSA agents seized her goods including her phones. When asked to surrender the pass codes for the devices she did so, but only after being assured it was part of immigration procedure.

A CBSA officer then wrote the pass codes in his notebook and on a separate piece of paper that was then inserted with the telephones in a designated bag. An RCMP officer’s notes from that day indicate that the seizure and placement in mylar bags was “as per FBI request.”

After detaining and grilling Meng for two hours, the CBSA suspended their interrogation, led Meng to another room, and RCMP officers arrested her. They read Meng her rights and took her to jail. The CBSA then handed the phones and passcodes over to the RCMP.

According to the notes of an RCMP officer introduced as evidence, another officer, Brett Chang subsequently emailed the serial numbers of the devices, SIM cards and international mobile identity numbers to the FBI. Chang initially denied that he had done this but now, after seeking legal advice, he is refusing to testify in court.

There is more. CBSA officers admitted that they, together with RCMP officers, schemed to delay the arrest and oblige her to go through immigration screening, supposedly because the CBSA had its own suspicions that Meng represented a “national security” risk.

Meng had entered the country 52 times without a problem yet somehow, on this particular trip with the RCMP waiting with an arrest warrant in their pocket, the CBSA suddenly discovered Meng was a national security risk?

The CBSA admitted in court that not “one iota” of evidence of her being a national security risk was found during their screening. And now Scott Kirkland, the CBSA agent has admitted that handing over Meng’s personal security codes to the RCMP was improper, that it was “heart-wrenching to realize I made that mistake.”

The hearings reveal a judiciary obliged to denigrate Canadian law, and law enforcement agencies bending the rules, if not breaking them, to find evidence for a Trump administration that, even now on its way out, is seriously considering bombing Iran according to the New York Times. This has shades of Iraq in 2003 when the US, without sanction from the UN, invaded that country because the Bush administration believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. As we now know, there were no such weapons, and US intelligence had made it up.

50 years ago, Justin Trudeau’s father was prime minister and he had the foresight to open diplomatic relations with China. He believed in keeping US foreign policy at arm’s length. As China’s power in the world grows, Pierre Trudeau’s approach is all the more relevant as the US government strives to do what George Bush did prior to the invasion of Iraq—bypass the UN and divide the world into “coalition of the willing” against an “axis of evil.”

Canadians rejected that approach then and we should do the same today. Justin Trudeau, however, does not seem to get that. That is why Canadian protests surrounding the Meng affair are growing.

Protests growing

Nearly a year ago, former prime minister Jean Chrétien called for an end to the Meng extradition to facilitate the release of Kovrig and Spavor. Now, many others are doing the same.

Vina Nadjibulla, the spouse of Michael Kovrig, took matters into her own hands this summer and called for the release of Meng. She, with former minister of justice Rock and former supreme court justice Louise Arbour, commissioned a legal opinion by Edward Greenspan that details how Canada’s minister of justice would be fully within his legal rights to intervene at any time to release Meng.

“The Minister of Justice, acting in that capacity, should immediately accept the responsibility under the Extradition Act and exercise the authority he has under that statute to end the Meng extradition proceeding,” states the letter signed by Rock, Arbour as well as a 17 others including Broadbent and Axworthy.

In July, the Green Party of Canada echoed the sentiments of that letter. Their parliamentary leader, Elizabeth May, argued that the US has abused Canada’s friendship, trust and the extradition treaty. “It’s time for the Canadian government to stand up to the US administration and demand that it drop the criminal charges and extradition request against Meng so that we can release her,” she stated in a press release.

A month later, the Globe and Mail reported that over 100 former Canadian diplomats had also called on Trudeau to stop extradition proceedings against Meng, allow her to return to China, and arrange a swap for Kovrig and Spavor.

Professor Charles Burton, considered a hawk on China, complained that he was not contacted to sign the letter even though he did a stint at Canada’s embassy in Beijing. He argues that to end the extradition would embolden China.

This view is contested by others such as professor emerita Wendy Dobson, one of the 19 signatories to the letter to Justin Trudeau and author of Living with China: A Middle Power Finds Its Way.

Now, MP Niki Ashton has sponsored a parliamentary petition calling for Meng’s release. A national day of action to back up the demand is planned for December 1.

With Trump on his way out, there is no time like the present to break the impasse by ending the extradition hearings and releasing Meng. This does not in any way imply aligning ourselves with the Chinese government. It is a message that we will not be bullied—full stop.

To do otherwise is to allow the world to be cleaved into hostile camps and to court disaster in the face of the two global crises of our time: the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency.

John Price is professor emeritus of transpacific history at the University of Victoria and author of Orienting Canada: Race, Empire and the Transpacific and A Woman in Between: Searching for Dr. Victoria Chung.

Margaret McGregor is a family physician in Vancouver. She lived in Beijing for two years as part of the first Canada-China student exchange (1973-1975).

The COVID-19 vaccine and its discontents
Canada’s vaccine strategy and approach to global health puts private profit over human need

Jennifer Cole / December 2, 2020  CANADIAN DIMENSION

The global race for a COVID-19 vaccine is nearing an end, with more than 200 treatments either developed or in the works. Despite massive levels of public funding to support the research, Big Pharma stands to make record profits. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

On November 6, the prime minister, together with Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, confirmed that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer had developed a COVID-19 vaccine. Ten days later, American biotechnology company Moderna announced its vaccine was 94 percent effective against the virus.

This was followed by the release of encouraging preliminary results by British drug maker AstraZeneca of its experimental COVID shot. All three, if approved by Health Canada, could be available in the early part of next year.

That’s where the good news ends.

Dr. Tam has warned that there will be a limited vaccine supply to begin with. This will increase as production picks up, but she wasn’t pulling any punches.

“While that supply will continue to increase over time,” she said, “it does mean that federal, provincial and territorial governments will have to make important decisions about how to use the initial vaccine supply.”

In an ideal world, Canada would not be dependent upon companies like Pfizer or Moderna to manufacture a vaccine at scale. Indeed, once upon a time, Canada was less beholden to the dictates of private manufacturers taking advantage of a global health emergency to charge monopoly prices.

In the 1950s, Toronto’s Connaught Labs helped develop a vaccine against polio, and played an important role in the global eradication of smallpox. The lab was profitable throughout its history, but was eventually sold off to French giant Sanofi Pasteur during Brian Mulroney’s program of privatization in the 1990s.

In Montreal, the Institut Armand Frappier manufactured a multitude of vaccines including one for tuberculosis. It was later sold to British multinational GlaxoSmithKline.

Both of these facilities were unique because their focus was on human need, not profit.

Imagine if they were still around today. With their robust manufacturing capacity, Canada’s vaccine deployment could rapidly focus on protecting the most vulnerable. Under the current model, we hang our hopes on a pharmaceutical industry that is often unwilling to intervene when the situation is insufficiently profitable.

Instead, the federal government’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), founded to research and obtain COVID-19 vaccines, has produced a report with recommendations on who will eventually receive the coveted early doses.

Along with providing its own recommendations, NACI conducted internal surveys among stakeholders including the Public Health Agency of Canada, as well as the general population. Canada’s COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring Study (COSMO Canada), in collaboration with the Public Opinion Research Team within the Privy Council Office, collected data from 2,000 Canadians asking who they felt should get the first vaccines. Angus Reid polled 1,500 Canadians asking the same question.

There was a consensus.

No Canadian will disagree that elders in long term care be among the first group to receive the vaccine. This is only right considering all they have endured over the past year. After that there’s agreement that health care workers, persons over 65 and those with underlying health issues be inoculated.

NACI recommends vulnerable groups such as the unhoused and Indigenous populations who have limited access to health care or live in remote communities should also be among the early recipients. Subsequently, vaccines would be available for those deemed necessary to the running of the country.

To help determine who is classed as “essential,” Public Safety Canada has compiled a document titled “Guidance on Essential Services and Functions in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” It lists those considered indispensable to keeping Canada chugging along and includes first responders, postal workers, teachers, grocery store workers, and politicians.

The advisory committee is also tasked with vaccine procurement. To restart economies in haste governments are aiming for herd immunity as the holy grail. When enough people have built up resistance to COVID-19 through inoculation the theory is that this could suppress the pandemic altogether.

Many estimates conclude that between 60 to 70 percent of the population need to achieve herd immunity for it to be effective, but this is contingent upon how much the virus is being transmitted—the “R value,” or reproduction rate.

This all sounds fair enough, but on the international stage, Canada’s coordination with other wealthy jurisdictions including the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Australia shows that we are moving away from global solidarity towards what has been called “vaccine nationalism.”

Last week, at a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, the world’s wealthiest nations—including Canada—opposed waiving intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines until the end of the pandemic. By refusing to temporarily lift patent protections, WTO members have ensured that pharmaceutical corporations like Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca will retain “control over key decisions including who gets the vaccines, when they get them, how much they get, and how much they pay.”

Without the ability to dictate what private manufacturers can charge for a new vaccine, we allow the pursuit of profit to triumph over human need. This threatens to exacerbate existing inequalities and disparities between the Global South and Global North.

In a recent interview on the CBC’s Sunday Edition, Matthew Herder, director of the Public Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University, said “We need different incentives, different reward structures to encourage companies and university researchers to develop vaccines to address these kinds of health problems… Patent rights don’t correspond to public health needs. They correspond to things that you can get predictable returns in the marketplace for.”

The confluence of vaccine nationalism and the privileging of private profit over human need calls for a radical change in our approach to public (and global) health.

One way to solve Canada’s domestic production woes is to develop a bold and ambitious industrial strategy that brings the public and private sectors together to build plants and labs to undertake vital research for the public good. This would enable the government to step in under certain circumstances to streamline production, distribution and administration of needed medications and vaccines. Such a model would move us away from simply commercializing the most profitable or expedient scientific discoveries towards an ecosystem that privileges knowledge production to respond to major social, economic and health challenges.

While universities and publicly funded labs across Canada are doing groundbreaking research, they are currently dependent upon pharmaceutical companies to co-ordinate large clinical trials, get regulatory approval in multiple countries and manufacture vaccines. The search for an Ebola cure exemplifies this.

In the early 2000s, government researchers discovered an effective Ebola vaccine at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg where it sat and gathered dust without any private sector interest. It was only when the virus became a nightly news story that pharmaceutical giant Merck took interest, saw its profit potential, got approval and started mass producing a treatment.

There has also been publicly funded Canadian research on coronavirus vaccines since the SARS outbreak of 2003, but similarly little interest from the pharmaceutical giants.

Indeed, without domestic vaccine production capabilities Canada will remain behind the proverbial eight ball. What’s more, as long as we pledge our support for a global power hierarchy in which poorer nations are asked to “take the leftovers,” the international community will be less prepared for future pandemics and outbreaks.

In a perfect world, rapid inoculation would be available to all nations, rich or poor, and free at the point of delivery. Yet, nothing about this virus, nor the dictates of global capital, is fair or equitable—even the cure.

Jennifer Cole is a Vancouver based writer with a BA in history from Simon Fraser University.

Elliot Page’s Wife, Emma Portner, Calls Him a True Gift 

After He Shared That He’s Trans

“Shine on sweet E. Love you so much,” she wrote. 😭❤️

by STARR BOWENBANK COSMOPOLITAN DEC 2, 2020


GETTY IMAGES

Elliot Page shared that he is trans yesterday in a letter posted on Twitter and Instagram.
His wife, Emma Portner, shared her joy at Elliot’s coming out and called him a gift.

Yesterday was a major day for Juno and Umbrella Academy star Elliot Page—in a moving letter posted to his Twitter and Instagram accounts, he shared that he is trans, his name is Elliot, and he goes by “he” and “they” pronouns.

“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived at this place in my life. I feel overwhelming gratitude for the incredible people who have supported me along this journey. I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self. I’ve been endlessly inspired by so many in the trans community. Thank you for your courage, your generosity and ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place. I will offer whatever support I can and continue to strive for a more loving and equal society.”

After Elliot received an outpouring of support from celebrity friends and fans alike, his wife—New York City–based dance teacher Emma Portner—took to Instagram to share how proud she is of her man for being his most authentic self.

“I am so proud of @ElliotPage. Trans, queer, and non-binary people are a gift to this world. I also ask for patience & privacy but that you join me in the fervent support of trans life every single day. Elliot’s existence is a gift in and of itself. Shine on sweet E. Love you so much,” she wrote along with a screenshot of his letter.

Much love to Elliot and Emma in this incredibly special time in their relationship!

This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

CRYPTO LIBERTARIAN ECONOMICS

Why Ethereum and Bitcoin Are Very Different Investments
Dec 3, 2020 

Ethereum art(CoinDesk archives)

Muyao Shen

Why Ethereum and Bitcoin Are Very Different Investments

Those new to crypto, such as the institutional investors recently buying into bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative, might now be looking around for the next big thing.

With the long-anticipated arrival of phase 0 of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade launching on Dec. 1, that could be the network’s native token, ether (ETH). But analysts say ether should be judged on its own merits and not as a bitcoin replacement.

“I’ve always thought this digital asset space is huge – and it’s not just bitcoin – because there are going to be different applications for different things,” Raoul Pal, CEO and co-founder of financial media group Real Vision, said in Real Vision’s documentary “Ethereum – An Investigation,” which was released on Nov. 30. “I think of the two [bitcoin and ether] as having a very nice combined asset allocation.”

For Pal, an early bitcoin investor, the rationale seems even more plausible these days: As bitcoin’s price hits a new all-time high, the number one cryptocurrency by market capitalization is now more expensive and thus potentially a riskier bet for new investors.

It can be expected investors are looking for a new opportunity in crypto at affordable prices. Given that ether is trading roughly 59% below its all-time high of $1,432.88, it is tempting to believe there’s a bargain to be had. What’s more, the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade to increase the network’s scalability, security and energy efficiency has generated a lot of hype.

Read more: Investment Giant AllianceBernstein Now Says Bitcoin Has Role in Investors’ Portfolios

However, at least for now, analysts and traders who spoke with CoinDesk don’t think ether will replace the FOMO over bitcoin.

“For institutional investors, they are buying BTC for the digital gold narrative,” Ryan Watkins, senior research analyst at Messari, told CoinDesk. “ETH just isn’t in that conversation yet.”

Ether “benefits from spillover and likely has more conversation around it from crypto-natives,” Vishal Shah, founder of derivatives exchange Alpha5, told CoinDesk. “For the uninitiated, [it is] hard to see how bitcoin is not the sole on-ramp.”

Weakening correlation between bitcoin and ether

Some analysts say that as more institutions pour money into bitcoin and push up its price, ether and other cryptocurrencies will gradually decouple from bitcoin.

Indeed, while bitcoin this week logged a record high price, ether isn’t even close to its all-time high of $1,448.18. Data from CoinDesk shows the 90-day correlation coefficient between the prices of the top two cryptocurrencies, while still strong, has gradually weakened a bit since the summer from as high as 0.93 to nearly 0.7 at the beginning of December.



Source: CoinDesk Research

“The thing about correlation is it can disappear at any time,” Ashwath Balakrishnan, research analyst at digital asset research firm Delphi Digital, told CoinDesk. “In that case, you want to understand the core fundamentals of what you hold because if you hold ether as a proxy [to your] bitcoin exposure, and [when] prices decouple, you are now exposed to something very different.”

Bitcoin has been used by many investors this year as a hedge against a drop in the purchasing power of U.S. dollars. Ether is considered the currency of “the world computer,” which aims to build an ecosystem of decentralized applications.

The close historical correlation between bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may be due to how tiny the digital-asset ecosystem is relative to the global economy. The total market capitalization of crypto assets is estimated at $562 billion, a mere 1.7% of the S&P 500 stock index’s combined market cap of $32.2 trillion. With almost every crypto asset built on different fundamentals, non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies may be trending with bitcoin prices simply because the nascent market is still so small and insular.

Read more: Volume Surge Brings 25% Turnover to ‘CoinDesk 20’

Correlation data doesn’t tell the whole story. Prices may move in tandem but the degree to which that happens is another matter. When the explosive decentralized finance (DeFi) boom hit the market during the summer, ether’s price rallied to its highest in more than two years because most DeFi projects are built on the Ethereum blockchain. At the time, bitcoin was struggling to break a similar two-year record.

What Ethereum 2.0 could mean for investors

The market will have to wait and see what kind of real impact the ongoing Ethereum upgrade could have on its native currency because the final phase of the process is scheduled to be completed in 2023. But a major fundamental upgrade on the network underpinning ether could lead its price to move on its own fundamentals, instead of merely following bitcoin’s price.


“The heart of ETH 2.0, which makes the entire system possible, is ether,” according to a report by Messari. “ETH will not only be Ethereum’s native store of value asset and fuel for transactions, but will also be Ethereum’s ultimate source of security from its role in the [proof-of-stake] system.”

Thus, while bitcoin can be seen as somewhere between a store of value and a commodity on the “asset superclass triangle,” ether could ultimately become the first asset to be a combination of all three classes of assets: capital assets, commodities and stores of value.

“When ether’s price starts to be driven by its own catalysts, holding it as a proxy to having BTC exposure will not work as expected,” Balakrishnan added.

READ MORE ABOUT...EthereumBitcoinEthereum 2.0

DISCLOSURE

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

CRIMINAL CYBER-CAPITALI$M

Stolen Bitcoin worth $100 Million Moved from Bitfinex

Author: Sherlock Gomes
Last Updated: 02 December 2020

About $100 million in Bitcoin, stolen from crypto exchange Bitfinex, were recently moved by the hackers. The total funds stolen in 2016 are now worth $2.3 billion. This is the first time since August that the stolen funds have moved.

Unknown hackers move the coins

Funds stolen from the crypto exchange Bitfinex move occasionally. On Monday, the unknown hackers moved around 5,000 Bitcoins from 14 wallets. The exact figure is 5045.48 coins worth around $98.3 million. These Bitcoins haven’t moved from the wallets since the 2016 hack.

The exchange was hacked in 2016 after its multi-signature wallets faced issues. Several users lost their Bitcoin even after using 2-factor authentication. The hack caused the price of Bitcoin to drop by 20% from $600 to $400. Bitfinex had to offer a 36% haircut to all their customers following the hack. They were also given a BFX token that could be redeemed for shares in its parent company iFinex.

The Bitcoin stolen from the exchange is worth $2.3 billion according to current prices. In August, the hackers moved stolen coins worth $5.6 million.

Awakening of Bitcoin

Some Bitcoin wallets have been sleeping with Bitcoin for years. When Bitcoins from these wallets move, it is called ‘awakening.’ Some of this Bitcoin is also “Satoshi-era” which means that it was mined when Satoshi Nakamoto had not gone in hiding.

While such a big movement of Bitcoin is not uncommon, Monday’s shifting is connected to hacking. Bitfinex has even offered a $400 million reward to anyone who can help it contact the hackers. The exchange noted at the time,

“This incident is a dark chapter in our exchange’s history, and we are pleased to offer this reward as further evidence of our determination to obtain the lost property.”

The exchange even offered hackers to keep 25% of the stolen funds, offering 5% to anyone connecting with the hackers. The identity of the hackers is not known to date.

Air pollution spikes linked to lower test scores for Salt Lake County third graders

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

Research News

 

IMAGE: SALT LAKE COUNTY CASE STUDY AREA MAP SHOWING THE LOCATIONS OF 156 SALT LAKE COUNTY PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS AND FIVE SCHOOL DISTRICTS. view more 

CREDIT: MULLEN AT AL. (2020) INT. JOURNAL OF ENVIRO RES AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the tiny particles responsible for hazy air pollution, are detrimental to children's health even inside the classroom. Mounting evidence has linked chronic exposure with poor academic performance in K-12 students. Until now, no research had examined the impact of "peak" air pollution events, the 24-hour spikes of extremely high PM2.5 levels. For students in Salt Lake County, Utah, these episodes are a dangerous reality--the county's largest city, Salt Lake City, was among the top 10 most polluted American cities for short-term particle pollution in the latest American Lung Association report.

In a new study, University of Utah researchers found that more frequent peak air pollution exposure was associated with reduced math and English language arts (ELA) test scores for third graders in all primary public schools in Salt Lake County during the 2016-2017 year. The minimum peak pollution levels in this study are below what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determines are "safe" levels of PM2.5. The results stress the need for legislators to enact policies that reduce the number of peak pollution days, and to advocate for lower federal pollution standards.

"The huge takeaway is that this isn't about school location--it's not just the schools in the most polluted parts of the city. Everyone is impacted by peak pollution," said lead author Casey Mullen, doctoral student in sociology at the University of Utah.

The study highlights the environmental injustice of Salt Lake County's air pollution problem-- schools with a higher proportion of students of color and from households experiencing poverty were exposed to higher mean concentrations of fine particulates and more peak pollution days than were schools serving middle- to upper- class and predominately white students. Though peak exposures had a stronger effect on lower math proficiency in more socially advantaged schools.

"There are so many studies showing us that air pollution damages our brain's cognitive processing ability," said co-author Sara Grineski, professor of sociology at the University of Utah. "Utah has made great strides to lower pollution in the past decades, but we need to keep pushing forward policies to reduce pollution. We already know it will improve Utahns respiratory health, but it also can help kids do a little bit better in schools."

The paper published online on Sept. 22, 2020, in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. This research was funded by the Interdisciplinary Exchange for Utah Science at the University of Utah.

Air quality impacts test scores

The researchers looked at the Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence (SAGE) math and ELA scores of third graders in 156 primary public schools in Salt Lake County in 2017. They focused on the percentage of students whose scores were lower than grade-level expectations.

In order to ensure that air pollution was the only variable affecting test scores, the researchers created a school disadvantage variable that took into account Title I school status; Hispanic students; the percentage of non-Hispanic minority students who were Black, Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American/Alaska Native; and the percentage of students on free and/or reduce-priced meals. They also accounted for the school's neighborhood context.

"It is important to account for social disadvantage since social factors are tightly linked with standardized test scores. Students from low-income families have additional struggles that don't tend to affect more affluent students, such as food insecurity. Students from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds often have unequal educational experiences in the U.S. In some cases, they are immigrants themselves or the children of immigrants, and they might still be learning English," said Grineski. "These factors influence standardized test scores."

Then, they evaluated each school's chronic and peak air pollution concentrations. For chronic air pollution levels, they analyzed the daily PM2.5concentrations for each school using daily concentrations in the census tract housing each school from the U.S. EPA's Downscaler data. On average, schools had chronic PM2.5 levels of just over 8 micrograms per cubic meter. To establish peak air pollution episodes, the researchers identified the number of days each school was exposed to PM2.5 levels in the 95th percentile of PM2.5 concentrations for the year, which was 23 micrograms per cubic meter. The U.S. EPA's unhealthy air standard is 35 micrograms per cubic meter.

While chronic pollution exposure was associated with lower test scores, the effect disappeared when researchers controlled for the social disadvantage factors. In contrast, the frequency of peak pollution exposure was associated with a higher percentage of students who tested below grade proficiency in math and ELA, even after controlling for social disadvantage.

"Research shows that air pollution is associated with brain cell inflammation. That is well-established," said Mullen. "With that in mind, our study findings suggest that future research should examine if repeated peak exposures to concentrations of fine particulate matter might be more damaging to children's brain functioning than chronic exposures."

Reduce air pollution

The authors suggest that legislators could advance public health initiatives that protect children's exposure to air pollution. The researchers have consulted with urban planners about creating cleaner air routes for children to move around their communities. For the future, the state could improve regulations that would prevent schools from being built in high pollution areas. For now, investing in better air filtration systems in classrooms could help mitigate the poor air quality already exists. In the face of growing evidence that even low PM2.5 concentrations does damage to the human body, legislators should advocate for lower federal air pollution standards.

"Here, with constant air quality issues throughout the seasons, we need to increase awareness about air pollution exposures," Mullen said. "This is a conversation everyone should be having--people need to be informed about what's at stake."

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Other University of Utah scientists who contributed of the study include Timothy Collins of the Department of Geography/Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Daniel Mendoza of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences/City & Metropolitan Planning. Find the full study online.

#ARACHNOPHOBIA TRIGGER

Study finds false widow spiders bite can transmit harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria

  

MAGE: NOBEL FALSE WIDOW SPIDER. view more 

CREDIT: NUI GALWAY

NUI Galway study, published in the international journal Scientific Reports, confirms that spiders carry harmful bacteria and that they can be transmitted when a spider uses its fangs to bite

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND GALWAY

Research News

 

A team of zoologists and microbiologists from NUI Galway have published a new study showing that common house spiders carry bacteria susceptible to infect people, with the Noble False Widow spiders also carrying harmful strains resistant to common antibiotic treatments.

This new research, published in the international journal Scientific Reports, confirms a theory which has been debated among spider and healthcare specialists for many years, and explains a range of symptoms experienced by victims bitten by the invasive noble false widow spider in Ireland and Britain over the past decade.

Australian Black Widows or Funnel Web spiders are well known for their potentially deadly venom, but rare "skin-eating" conditions following seemingly harmless European and North American spider bites were thought to be the result of secondary infections caused by the victim scratching and probing the bite site with contaminated fingers. This new study shows that not only do spiders carry harmful bacteria, but those germs can be transmitted when a spider uses its fangs to bite.

Furthermore, many spiders have been shown to have venom with antibacterial activity and it is often debated as to whether the venom would neutralise bacteria at the bite site, but this also demonstrates, at least for the Noble False Widow, that the venom does not inhibit bacteria.

Dr Aoife Boyd, Director of the Pathogenic Mechanisms Group at NUI Galway's School of Natural Sciences, and senior author of the study, said: "The diversity of microbes never ceases to amaze me. The power to survive and thrive in every environment is shown here by the presence of antimicrobial resistance bacteria even in spider venom. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an urgent and growing problem worldwide. A One Health approach interconnecting human, animal and environmental health is the only way to tackle the problem."

Dr John Dunbar, Zoologist at the Ryan Institute's Venom System Lab in NUI Galway, said: "About 10 species of spiders common in North-western Europe have fangs strong enough to pierce human skin and deliver venom, but only one of them, the recent invasive noble false widow spider, is considered of medical importance. Most of the time, a spider bite results in some redness and pain.

"In some cases, however, victims seem to develop long lasting infections for which strong antibiotic treatment - and sometimes a hospital stay - are necessary. It is this increasing range expansion and massive rise in dense populations of false widow spiders around urbanised areas across Ireland and Britain that has seen a rise in bites with some severe envenomation symptoms but also infections, which in some cases proved even difficult to treat with antibiotics."

Neyaz Kahn, co-lead author of the study and PhD student at the Pathogenic Mechanisms Group in NUI Galway's School of Natural Sciences, said: "Our study demonstrates that spiders are not just venomous but are also carriers of dangerous bacteria capable of producing severe infections. The biggest threat is that some of these bacteria are multi-drug resistant, making them particularly difficult to treat with regular medicine. This is something that health care professionals should consider from now on."

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The full study in Scientific Reports is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77839-9 after 10am on Tuesday, 1 December.

Pets, touch and COVID-19: 

why our furry friends are lifesavers

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Research News

 

IMAGE: PETS HAVE LITERALLY BEEN LIFESAVERS IN 2020, AS COVID-19 HS FORCED PEOPLE INTO LOCKDOWN AND SOCIAL ISOLATION. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Lockdowns, job losses and social isolation have been the hallmarks of 2020 as COVID-19 tightens its grip on the world, not only infecting millions and leaving a mounting death toll, but also denying humans the most basic sense - touch.

In the absence of human-to-human contact, in millions of households worldwide, animals have stepped into the breach for many people, providing much-needed comfort via cuddles, pats and a constant physical presence.

A new study published by University of South Australia researchers points to the lifesaving role that pets have played in 2020 and why governments need to sit up and take notice.

The Journal of Behavioural Economics for Policy (JBEP) paper outlines how pets have a crucial role to play in an era where human-human contact can be life endangering.

Lead author Dr Janette Young says physical touch is a sense that has been taken for granted - even overlooked - until COVID-19 visited our door earlier this year.

"In a year when human contact has been so limited and people have been deprived of touch, the health impacts on our quality of life have been enormous," Dr Young says.

"To fill the void of loneliness and provide a buffer against stress, there has been a global upsurge in people adopting dogs and cats from animal shelters during lockdowns. Breeders have also been inundated, with demands for puppies quadrupling some waiting lists."

Spending on pets was already hitting record levels, topping $13 billion in Australia and in the region of US$260 billion globally in 2020, but this is bound to be surpassed.

It is estimated that more than half the global population share their lives with one or more pets. The health benefits have been widely reported, but little data exists regarding the specific benefits that pets bring to humans in terms of touch.

"Pets seem to be particularly important when people are socially isolated or excluded, providing comfort, companionship and a sense of self-worth," Dr Young says.

"Touch is an understudied sense, but existing evidence indicates it is crucial for growth, development and health, as well as reducing the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the body. It is also thought that touch may be particularly important for older people as other senses decline."

In interviews with 32 people, more than 90 per cent said touching their pets both comforted and relaxed them - and the pets seemed to need it as well.

Examples of dogs and cats touching their owners when the latter were distressed, sad, or traumatised were cited.

Many people referenced pets' innate ability to just "know" when their human counterparts weren't feeling well and to want to get physically close to them.

"The feedback we received was that pets themselves seem to get just as much pleasure from the tactile interaction as humans," Dr Young says.

Not just dogs and cats either. Interviewees mentioned birds, sheep, horses and even reptiles who reciprocate touch.

"Animals, like people, are living, breathing others, with individual interests, styles and preferences. While culturally, animals are not seen as 'human', they are still seen as individuals with likes and dislikes.

"In the era of COVID-19, social distancing, sudden lockdowns and societal upheaval, our pets may be the only living beings that many people are able to touch and draw comfort from.

"Humans have an innate need to connect with others but in the absence of human touch, pets are helping to fill this void. They need to be considered from a policy angle, therefore, to help mitigate some of the mental and physical stressors that people are experiencing during this time."

Dr Young says hospitals, hospices and aged care facilities should be encouraging pet connections with residents.

"Residential aged care is yet to recognise the value of human-animal relationships. Had more pets being living with their owners in aged care when COVID-19 restrictions were applied, it could have helped people immea

Engaging family caregivers key to coordinated home health care

MU researcher identifies resources to support overburdened family caregivers

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

Research News

 

IMAGE: DR. JO-ANA CHASE IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN THE MU SINCLAIR SCHOOL OF NURSING. view more 

CREDIT: MU SINCLAIR SCHOOL OF NURSING

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- After Jo-Ana Chase heard her mother had successful heart surgery, she was relieved when her mom was finally discharged from the hospital and sent home to be cared for by her brother. However, Chase quickly learned from her brother that he felt lost on the best ways to care for their mom due to confusing discharge instructions from the hospital and logistical challenges related to home health care services like wound care and medication management.

Motivated by her own family's struggles navigating the often complicated American health care system, Chase, an associate professor in the University of Missouri's Sinclair School of Nursing, is working with clinicians and health care providers to better engage family caregivers in providing coordinated care after a loved one is discharged home from the hospital. In a recent study, she sought to better understand the resources family caregivers currently use to help health care providers identify gaps in coverage and recommend resources to assist overburdened caregivers and ultimately improve and better coordinate care.

"The American health care system has been very patient-focused; however, we also need to remember that patients often rely on family for help with their care," Chase said. "Now that we are starting to recognize how impactful the work is that family caregivers provide, my goal is to better engage these family caregivers and help them access the resources they need to better support the loved ones they care for."

In her study, Chase interviewed family caregivers about the medical and nursing tasks they completed for a loved one after a hospital-to-home transition, such as treating wounds or giving medication. She found that family caregivers often struggle with these tasks and in navigating the complex health care system; and resources like home health care nurses or aides can serve as a central point-of-contact to improve coordinated care.

"After a patient is discharged from the hospital, a home health care nurse will often come to the patient's home periodically to check in, make sure the medications are right, evaluate the home for safety, check the patient's vital signs and assess wounds," Chase said. "This is an excellent opportunity for the clinicians to work with caregivers to address any questions, challenges, or concerns family caregivers may be having."

Chase added that while caregivers may receive discharge instructions for providing care after a patient leaves the hospital, the instructions may fail to consider caregivers' preparedness and various environmental factors, such as what equipment is needed, or which room in a house is best for administering a specific task like changing a bandage. In addition to home health care nurses, primary care providers, social workers, nearby community centers and respite services can also help support and take the load off of overburdened caregivers.

"At some point in our lives, most of us will become a caregiver for someone, whether it is a child, spouse, parent or relative," Chase said. "So, encouraging the health care system to effectively engage caregivers benefits us all. I hope one day when I am sick and someone has to take care of me, my caregiver doesn't experience the same challenges my brother did caring for my mom."

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"Family caregivers managing medical and nursing tasks in the post-acute home health care setting" was recently published in the Journal of Applied Gerontology. Funding for the study was provided by the Eugenie and Joseph Doyle Research Partnership Fund of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agency.