COVID survivors’ long-term health issues: https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-missouri-carthage-2909285039504ab5c61de4fd193ac11a . In addition to the physical damage, PTSD may result from the experience of being in the ICU. PTSD may show up not only in the survivor, but in family members as well.
Blood viscosity raises COVID mortality risk: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2022-07-18/high-blood-thickness-ups-death-risk-few-problems-with-flu-covid-shots-together .
Fauci expects to retire by end of President Biden’s first term: https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-health/fauci-expects-to-retire-by-end-of-bidens-current-term/ .
WSJ: GlaxoSmithKline spins off consumer products unit: https://www.wsj.com/articles/gsk-spins-off-36-billion-consumer-healthcare-business-haleon-11658135866 . The new company is known as Haleon. By the way, the old company now goes by GSK.
Tianjin closes some business in another “dynamic Zero COVID” failure: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-07-19/chinas-tianjin-halts-some-businesses-in-fresh-covid-curbs . Saving face continues to be an ongoing embarrassment for China and Xi.
WSJ: Yellen calls for global trade reorientation to “friend-shoring”: https://www.wsj.com/articles/yellen-calls-for-friend-shoring-trade-to-diversify-from-china-11658200959 . As this news letter has commented for some time, world trade will step back from full-on globalization to trade in two axes: The US, Europe, and their allies and friends; and China, Russia and the countries in between.
WSJ: US economy shows conflicting jobs data: https://www.wsj.com/articles/diverging-jobs-data-raise-questions-about-labor-market-health-11658136600 . The article gives us a very strong clue about how to resolve the conflict: the initial payroll estimates tend to overstate job creation in a downturn.
Hiring problems at state and local governments: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/why-hasn-t-u-s-recovered-all-the-jobs-lost-during-covid-19-because-local-governments-can-t-attract-workers/ar-AAZHwHt?cvid=56a6971b0a6e444a93727023987fd5ec . This article flags an important problem. While US private sector employment has recovered from the pandemic, state and local hiring remains down by a staggering 599,000, or 4% below the pre-pandemic levels. The article points out that wages lag the private sector while benefits have been cut from their previous generous levels to private sector levels.
While of course the situation differs by locality and type of job, the overall result is still there. Traditionally, of course, governments have had lower wages and higher benefits than the private sector. But as people now switch jobs much more frequently in their careers, the “better benefits” model has lost its draw. And, as the article points out, many governments have reduced pension and health benefits.
However, pension benefits are typically cut for new hires and not the current workforce. This has to do with legal protections of benefits for current employees. This has created a “perfect storm” of departures. It is a challenging time to be a police officer. So obtaining qualified new recruits is tough.
Additionally, an officer can often switch from a difficult city position to a suburban or rural position and retain their state pension coverage, as is true here in Oregon. And public safety positions often have generous early retirement provisions, so that officers can retire comfortably with as little as 20 years of service.
Police and fire wage scales frequently increase as employment time increases. One partial solution is to reduce the tilt by raising wages for new employees and those with shorter length of service. This makes the wage increase more affordable while focusing on the positions where recruitment and retention is most challenging.
Will President Biden declare a climate emergency?: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-could-declare-climate-emergency-as-soon-as-this-week-sources-say/ar-AAZI1HV?cvid=7513e36692894a6d9f830a4650c0bb19 . He should. Now that half the US and much of Europe is melting under triple-digit temperatures, it’s well past time to do so. What we are witnessing is not “weather”, it is global warming which is in danger of becoming an unrepairable feedback loop.
In my view, the world should embark on a crash program to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while working on intense study on how to return the planet to the weather patterns of the 1950’s. Just slowing the rate of increase in global temperatures (the current plan, which we are failing to follow) is nowhere near enough to save the environment. Politicians, as a group, are idiots.
Mall shooter killed by armed citizen: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62217263 . If, this saved lives, that’s a good thing. However, this needs to not happen in the future. In a country with 400 million guns, I do not want public spaces turned into shooting galleries.
WSJ: Jury selection proceeds in Bannon contempt trial: https://www.wsj.com/articles/steve-bannons-contempt-trial-set-to-begin-11658146489 .
Texas power grid looks increasingly shaky – again: https://www.tellmebest.com/texas-total-grid-power-collapse/ . We need national coordination and upgrade of our three power grids (east, west, and Texas). That likely means the state government should no longer control the Texas power grid. They’ve killed too many people already.
FBI raids Chinese-owned Michigan wheel manufacturer: https://www.autoblog.com/2022/07/18/dicastal-fbi-raid/ . Well, who knows why, right? My guess is that there is an industrial espionage issue, perhaps associated with EV (electric vehicle) technology.
WSJ: Russia orders forces to target Western weapons in Ukraine: https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-orders-troops-to-target-ukraines-western-supplied-weapons-11658144358 . The Ukrainians remain the more motivated fighting force.
The Market eats The Mooch’s lunch: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/scaramucci-halts-withdrawals-in-a-fund-after-stock-crypto-swoon/ar-AAZIwqA?cvid=7513e36692894a6d9f830a4650c0bb19 . But Anthony still has nice suits …
Maryland elections are Tuesday, but final results will be delayed by a state law not allowing mail-in ballots to be opened until Thursday. Who thought this was a good idea? The primary consequence will be to increase distrust in elections.
Webb telescope operational glitch: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/james-webb-telescope-glitch-had-nasa-engineers-completely-freaking-out-it-was-very-serious-065054444.html . As it turns out, the glitch was in the switch to notify NASA of deployment, not the actual deployment itself. Still, the telescope had 344 critical failure points, meaning if any one failed, the telescope would not have deployed properly. However, the Webb telescope has been damaged by a micrometeorite: https://gizmodo.com/space-pebble-that-hit-webb-telescope-caused-significant-1849190867 . This damage has occurred so soon after deployment that you have to wonder about the frequency of future hits. Due to the telescope’s location (1 million miles from Earth), repair is impractical.