Friday, January 22, 2021
Why Biden Wants to Win the Fight for $15 Federal Minimum Wage / Politics / Wages
By: Patrick_Watson
President Joe Biden's pandemic relief plan proposes direct cash payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, vaccine funding, and help for state and local governments.
But Biden’s wish list has one unexpected item: a $15 federal minimum wage.
Labor advocates have been asking for this for years, and it’s no surprise a Democratic administration would try now. After all, the coronavirus has spread partly because so many low-wage workers have had to keep working in high-contact environments.
Raising the minimum wage won’t immediately fix that problem, so Congress might reject that part.
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Friday, January 22, 2021
Here’s Why Gold Recently Moved Up / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2021
By: P_Radomski_CFA
Gold moved higher as the USD Index moved lower in today’s pre-market trading. Before providing you with my thoughts on why that happened and what the implications are, let’s see exactly what transpired.
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Friday, January 22, 2021
US Dollar Decline creates New Sector Opportunities to Trade / Currencies / US Dollar
By: Chris_Vermeulen
The weakness in the US Dollar, which initiated after the Covid-19 peak in March 2020, has entered an extended downward price trend which is nearing a key support level near 88.33. One key factor related to this trend is a weakness in the US Dollar, which means other foreign currencies become comparatively stronger. This transitional currency valuation phase creates an environment where localized foreign investments may become much more opportunistic than the US stock market/sectors if this US Dollar decline continues. Simply put, foreign investors will suddenly start to realize they are losing alpha in US Dollar based investments compared to stronger, foreign currency-based investments over time and move their capital to profit from the US Dollar’s decline.
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Friday, January 22, 2021
Sandisk Extreme Micro SDXC Memory Card Read Write Speed Test Actual vs Sales Pitch / Personal_Finance / Computing
By: HGR
Here we test the actual speed of the Sandisk Extreme 128 GB micro SDXC A2 V30 Memory Card vs the sales pitch of delivering up 160mb/s read and 90 mb/s write speeds.
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Friday, January 22, 2021
NHS Recommends Oximeter Oxygen Sensor Monitors for Everyone 10 Months Late! / Politics / Coronavirus 2021
By: N_Walayat
To illustrate how incompetent Britain's government healthcare system, the NHS response to the chinese coronavirus pandemic has been is the fact that only now in late January 2021 is the NHS recommending that people who suspect they have coronavirus monitor their oxygen levels at home before becoming more seriously ill and calling an ambulance to take them to hospital. This is shocking, as something which was obvious from the outset that an respiratory illness demands that one monitors their oxygen levels which is why I and I presume many others bought such devices for less than £30 from Amazon some 10 months ago in March 2020. Rather than wait for medical establishment to give their go ahead some 10 months late in the final stages of the pandemic as this video illustrates.
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Friday, January 22, 2021
DoorDash Has All the Makings of the “Next Amazon” / Companies / Tech Stocks
By: Stephen_McBride
Can Amazon Make It? That was the headline plastered on the front page of BusinessWeek magazine in July 2000.
Amazon’s future looked bleak after the tech bubble burst earlier that year. The online shopping pioneer was hemorrhaging cash, forcing it to cut 15% of its workforce. Top fund managers cut Amazon from their portfolios. And over the following year, its stock price sank from $105 to $5.
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Friday, January 22, 2021
How to Survive a Silver-Gold Sucker Punch / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2021
By: MoneyMetals
Anyone who owns precious metals, mining shares or metals' ETFs knows the drill.
First, gold and silver begin to establish an uptrend on the charts. Analysts (like us) start writing about how prices are getting ready to make an upside run.
Then "out of nowhere" thousands of highly margined futures contracts hit the market on the short side, "re-painting" the charts, sending terror into the hearts of stackers and those who believe in "honest money."
The reality is that honest money is being manipulated for personal gain by dishonest traders, enabled by "regulators" who, to put it charitably, look the other way.
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Friday, January 22, 2021
2021: The Year of the Gripping Hand / Economics / Coronavirus Depression
By: John_Mauldin
Harry Truman famously asked for a one-handed economist so he could stop hearing, “On the one hand, but then on the other hand.”
But what if we had three hands?
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's 1974 book, "The Mote in God’s Eye," features an alien species with three arms. It has two “normal” hands and a stronger, but less dexterous one called the “gripping hand.”
Friday, January 22, 2021
Technology Minerals appoints ex-BP Petrochemicals CEO as Advisor / Companies / Corporate News
By: Submissions
The ex-CEO of BP’s global petrochemicals business will work with the UK’s first end-to-end battery recycling group
In continued efforts to secure a greener future in the battery metals industry, Technology Minerals is pleased to welcome Nick Elmslie as an
Advisor to the Board.
Elmslie has extensive experience in the chemicals industry. His financial expertise will offer a unique opinion to allow better decision making for Technology Minerals; a company determined to secure a greener future for the battery industry. This latest appointment will contribute towards a more sustainable future.
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Thursday, January 21, 2021
Gold Price Drops Amid Stimulus and Poor Data / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2021
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
The price of gold has declined further amid incoming U.S. President Joe Biden’s fiscal stimulus and poor economic data, which is a bearish sign.The weakness in the gold market continued last week. As the chart below shows, the London P.M. Fix declined below $1,840 last Friday (the price of the yellow metal later declined even further, i.e., below $1,830).
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Thursday, January 21, 2021
Protecting the Vulnerable 2021 / Personal_Finance / Gambling
By: Submissions
The shift in players moving online gaming during 2020 saw sites like www.swankybingo.com quickly growing in popularity as increased traffic of both new and existing players visited to enjoy a few games whilst catching up with family and friends. In fact, online bingo has taken over in popularity from its land-based counterpart in a big way with people of all ages now enjoying their games as well as making new contacts online.
We are all well aware that choice is a great thing for consumers but the migration online by many people highlighted issues with the existing legislation with the 2005 Gambling Act being described as ‘weak’ and ‘sluggish’ especially when covering the problem of problem gambling.
Not only was the 2005 Gambling Act shown to be insufficient, as businesses actually struggled to remain compliant. This fact was proven with the online gambling firms of Caesars Entertainment UK and Betway paying in excess of £10 million for breaching problem gambling and ALM laws.
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Thursday, January 21, 2021
How To Play The Next Stage Of The Marijuana Boom / Commodities / Cannabis
By: OilPrice_Com
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Thursday, January 21, 2021
UK Schools Lockdown 2021 Covid Education Crisis - Home Learning Routine / Politics / Coronavirus 2021
By: N_Walayat
Here's what it's like for infants, junior and secondary school pupils trying to learn at home during lockdown 2.0. The incompetent and negligent mismanagement of the Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in chaos and disorder at every corner of the failure of the education system to respond to the pandemic. First we have the 6 month lockdown from March to September 2020, as the schools FAILED to reopen in June, despite there being little or not risk of infection from the virus during the summer months. That at the start of 2021 was followed by the catastrophic third wave as the UK government once more lost control of the virus resulting in the panic shutdown of all schools, which whilst necessary to bring the pandemic under control nevertheless is once more doing huge damage the life prospects of Britain's school children as this vide of what the children of Sheffield's schools are experiencing (Dobcroft example), as lockdown 2.0 could continue until after EASTER 2021!
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Wednesday, January 20, 2021
General Artificial Intelligence Was BORN in 2020! GPT-3, Deep Mind / Companies / AI
By: Nadeem_Walayat
During 2020 the fictional general artificial intelligence of the movies to some degree become reality in the form of GPT-3 that performs exponentially better than AI that preceded it as the following graph illustrates,
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Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Bitcoin Price Crash: FCA Warning Was a Slap in the Face. But Not the Cause / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: EWI
See what 'allowed' for a turn down in the immediate future
In case you blinked over the last two days, bitcoin bulls had their hat abruptly handed to them when the cryptocurrency plummeted a jarring 26% in 48 hours.
The grisly details (or, here's how this bearish opportunity unfolded, for the few traders who were ready):
- The selloff was the market's worst two-day decline since the start of the coronavirus in March 2020.
- The crash took prices $10,000 down from their all-time high near $42,000 set on Friday, January 8.
- And, all told, the move erased nearly $185 billion from bitcoin's value (Jan. 11 Bloomberg); for reference, that's the entire net worth of the richest man on Earth, Elon Musk.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
US Coronavirus Pandemic 2021 - We’re Going to Need More Than a Vaccine / Politics / Coronavirus 2021
By: Patrick_Watson
Houston, we have a problem,” said the Apollo 13 crew.
Half a century later, Houston is a problem as some of its largest hospitals reach 100% ICU occupancy. Ditto for many other cities around the US.
This is a problem and it’s getting worse.
Meanwhile, the same pandemic that is filling hospitals is also killing jobs. The latest employment report showed the US lost 140,000 jobs in December. We are still down almost 10 million jobs since last winter.
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Wednesday, January 20, 2021
The Biggest Biotech Story Of 2021? / Companies / BioTech
By: OilPrice_Com
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Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Biden Bailout, Democrat Takeover to Drive Americans into Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2021
By: MoneyMetals
As investors await the incoming Biden administration and the uncertainties that a transition of power may bring, precious metals markets regained some ground through Thursday’s close but have pulled back again on Friday, especially silver and platinum.
Precious metals prices and financial markets have seemingly been unaffected by recent political turmoil. Investors have been nonchalant in the face of Capitol unrest and a second impeachment of President Donald Trump – not to mention fresh new records in daily COVID deaths.
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Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Pandemic 2020 Is Gone! Will 2021 Be Better for Gold? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2021
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
Hurray! The disastrous year of 2020, which brought about the COVID-19 pandemic , the Great Lockdown , and the economic crisis , is over! Now, the question is what will 2021 be like – both for the U.S. economy and the gold market.
To provide an answer, below I analyze the most important economic trends for the next year and their implications for the yellow metal.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Trump and Coronavirus Pandemic Final US Catastrophe 2021 / Politics / Coronavirus 2021
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The number of US daily covid deaths now exceeds 4000 as the US explodes into it's fourth higher covid peak prompting vaccine centres to now vaccinate anyone who walks through their doors given the slow roll out of the vaccines that currently numbers just 6.2 million doses administered against a target of about 30 million.
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