November 26, 2020 Edition.
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The pandemic seems to have overwhelmed the
USA and all we can do, it seems, is watch in horror as the virus spreads and
Trump sulks. Truly an awful and sch a dreadfully sad situation. Biden is still
being obstructed in the transition and had to see how this will all end.
In the UK the virus lock-down seems to have
started to work – in patches – and we can only hope that the success spreads.
Otherwise there seems to be some chance of a reasonable outcome to Brexit. Only
a few weeks to go!
In OZ we have a quarantining PM and pressures
on the Government from the Brereton Report and China. Fortunately the virus
seems to be under control here – for now!
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Major Issues.
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https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/australia-should-heed-the-lessons-of-the-us-elections-20201112-p56e65
Australia should heed the lessons
of the US elections
Australians are unlikely to support as crude
a figure as Donald Trump. But we still must guard against the
hyper-partisanship and identity politics that have bitterly split America.
Alexander Downer Columnist
Nov 15, 2020 – 12.38pm
Are there any lessons for
Australia coming from the recent US elections? Plenty of commentators think
there might be, and they are probably right.
The Australian media has
followed the US elections in granular detail. And why not? The US is central to
the stability of the Indo-Pacific region; it is the largest foreign investor in
Australia and the primary destination of Australian offshore investments. It’s
also our second biggest trading partner. What happens there affects all 26
million of us.
There are three lessons for
us coming out of the US elections.
First, there is the
corrosion of underlying social cohesion. As Robert Putnam has argued in his
latest book, The Upswing,
America is going through an unusually difficult period.
There has been a growing
partisanship which has reached almost hysterical levels and is now at its worst
since the Civil War in the 1860s. That may be a function of the polarisation of
the media, both social and traditional. Partisanship has been growing in the US
since its low point in the late 1960s.
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https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal-finance/why-it-s-better-to-stay-invested-20201115-p56eqg
Why it's better to stay invested
A panic move to cash after the start of the pandemic would have
left you out on the sidelines, while a diversified portfolio smoothed the highs
and lows and outperformed equities.
Scott
Haslem Contributor
Nov 16, 2020 – 12.00am
Everyone, at some point in
their life, finds themselves with their investment
portfolio
or superannuation savings sitting largely in cash rather than invested in
the market. This is usually because they are moving between superannuation
funds, changing wealth managers or just starting the investment journey in the
wake of selling a business.
Being in cash brings its
own challenges. While it can be stressful to experience the shorter-term ebbs
and flows of markets when fully invested, it’s also stressful to watch markets
rise (and fall) while you are considering how to re-engage your portfolio or
invest for the first time. Thankfully, while it can be challenging, there are
sensible ways to implement portfolios in a timely and diversified manner to
minimise re-investment risk.
However, there are also
times investors find themselves in cash because they have made an active choice
to exit the market. This may reflect an emotional decision brought on by
volatility, concern about whether the risk embedded in their portfolio is
appropriate, or an inability to garner visibility of the future. Of course,
building portfolios is not about knowing the future but building in defences
that can deliver the targeted return over time through an ever-changing cycle.
As 2020 draws to a close,
it’s hard to find a year that better highlights the rewards of leaning on the
discipline of a diversified portfolio, and not panicking into cash when
uncertainties arrive. The past year has delivered a one-in-100-year pandemic, a global recession, a tumultuous US election that unseated a first-term
president, and accelerating climate events.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/allies-sold-cipher-machines-that-let-them-spy-on-friend-and-foe/news-story/f64d1c6b3cfb796c2aec165ec893ddff
Allies sold cipher machines that
let them spy on friend and foe
·
By Oliver
Moody
·
The Times
·
7:55PM November 15, 2020
Months
after the end of the Second World War, an American master code-cracker
travelled to the Swiss lakeside town of Steinhausen to visit a Swedish
cipher-smith whose devices had rivalled the Nazis’ Enigma machines.
William
Friedman and Boris Hagelin got along famously. “I had (an) almost tearful
farewell with the Hagelins,” Friedman wrote in his diary. “They are such
charming people.”
This
friendship went on to become the foundation of a global espionage ring that
altered the course of the 20th century, the full story of which is only now
emerging. Codenamed Operation Rubicon, it rendered half of the world’s most
secret communications transparent to the US, West Germany and a handful of
their closest allies.
It
has been described as the intelligence coup of the century. It allowed a Dutch
cryptology technician to give Britain the key to unlocking Argentina’s codes,
possibly leading to the sinking of the warship General Belgrano, in its defence
of the Falklands. It turned West Germany into an intelligence superpower,
influenced the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and enabled the US to broker peace
between Egypt and Israel in the 1978 Camp David accords.
-----
https://www.afr.com/wealth/investing/how-to-supercharge-your-portfolio-20201116-p56ev0
How to supercharge your portfolio
Investors
need more than just traditional bonds and equities as rates hover around zero.
They should focus on dynamics, innovation and returns.
James
Wright Contributor
Nov 17, 2020 – 9.35am
It is time to rethink your
portfolio status quo. Cash rates are next to zero and won't rise for years.
The capital in other defensive asset classes is also failing to keep pace with
inflation and offer any correlation benefits against volatility.
With bond yields anchored
near zero and bound by central banks, and while trend economic
growth is moderating due to population dynamics and productivity issues,
portfolios will need to pivot away from traditional bonds and
equities.
Income is still likely to
be generated from large, stable, listed equities and higher weights to
investment grade credit portfolios.
-----
https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/monday-s-market-outage-a-global-embarrassment-20201116-p56f2k
Monday's market outage a global
embarrassment
The
closure of share trading on the ASX during the strongest bull market ever seen
in the month of November reflects a failure to learn from the major outage in
2016.
Nov 17, 2020 – 12.00am
The ASX compounded its
failure to keep the country's primary equity capital market open by failing to
ensure a seamless transition to the alternative market, Chi-X.
What makes this failure by
the ASX even worse is that the market operator appears to have snubbed its nose
at the recommendations made by the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission following the last major outage in 2016.
Also, its actions went
against what it said it would do in response to the 2016 outage.
Surprisingly, ASIC responded to Monday's market outage with a media
statement full of motherhood comments which, in effect, amount to less than a slap on the wrist
for ASX.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/exclusives/the-abc-doesnt-need-redemption/news-story/b9eae3ee14101094885b9b95485bf645
Why the ABC does not need
redemption
The
national broadcaster is frequently criticised and sometimes for good reason.
But ABC board member Joseph Gersh says calls to defund Aunty are nonsense.
By JOSEPH GERSH
·
17 November, 2020
Chris
Kenny has been a vigorous critic of the ABC while previously “resisting calls
for its privatisation or abolition”, but after last week’s Four Corners, Media
Watch and QandA he has asserted that it now
“is beyond redemption”.
This
follows similar calls from the Institute of Public Affairs and other respected
organisations.
I
cannot agree. I declare my centre-right bias; a long-time reader of The
Australian, I was appointed to the ABC board by Turnbull government
communications minister Mitch Fifield.
The
ABC is frequently criticised and sometimes for good reason. Even the most
passionate friend of the ABC could not argue that Aunty is beyond criticism.
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https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wealth/asset-management-is-in-turmoil-so-does-value-investing-still-work/news-story/f59609d217493292ede4b2ec98e1b3e6
Asset
management is in turmoil. So does value investing still work?
THE ECONOMIST
·
1:53PM November 15, 2020
For
a moment this week investors could afford to ignore stockmarket superstars like
Amazon and Alibaba. As news of a vaccine broke, a motley crew of more jaded
firms led Wall Street higher, with the shares of airlines, banks and oil firms
soaring on hopes of a recovery. The bounce has been a long time coming.
So-called value stocks, typically asset-heavy firms in stodgy industries, have
had a decade from hell, lagging behind America’s stockmarket by over 90
percentage points. This has led to a crisis of confidence among some fund
managers, who wonder if their framework for assessing firms works in the
digital age. They are right to worry: it needs upgrading to reflect an economy
in which intangibles and externalities count for more.
For
almost a century the dominant ideology in finance has been value investing. It
has evolved over time but typically takes a conservative view of firms, placing
more weight on their assets, cashflows and record, and less on their investment
plans or trajectory. The creed has its roots in the 1930s and 1940s, when
Benjamin Graham argued that investors needed to move on from the pre-1914 era,
during which capital markets were dominated by railway bonds and
insider-dealing. Instead he proposed a scientific approach of evaluating firms’
balance-sheets and identifying mispriced securities. His disciple, Warren
Buffett, popularised and updated these ideas as the economy shifted towards
consumer firms and finance in the late 20th century. Today measures of value
are plugged into computers which hunt for “factors” that boost returns and
there are investors in Shanghai loosely inspired by a doctrine born in
Depression-era New York.
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https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/sas-20201118-p56fud
Profound betrayal: 19 soldiers
should face murder charges
Andrew Tillett Political
correspondent
Nov
19, 2020 – 11.20am
Nineteen special forces soldiers
should be referred to the Federal Police to be prosecuted for war crimes
including murder for the death of 39 Afghan prisoners or civilians and the
mistreatment of two prisoners, an explosive inquiry into Australia’s elite
military fighting units has found.
In what he labelled as a
“disgraceful and profound betrayal” of professional standards,
Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Paul Brereton has squarely
laid the blame on a clique of non-commissioned officers who demanded junior
soldiers “blood” themselves by killing unarmed prisoners, planted weapons to
cover up their crimes and misled their superiors.
He said none of the killings
happened in the heat of battle and condemned a "warrior culture" that
had been fostered within the Special Air Services Regiment.
He also said the entire Special
Operations Task Group should be stripped of its unit honours because of the
stain, while individual soldiers who won medals should have them reviewed.
Mr Brereton said the government
should also compensate victims’ families even in the absence of a successful
prosecution.
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https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/if-you-make-china-the-enemy-china-will-be-the-enemy-beijing-s-fresh-threat-to-australia-20201118-p56fqs.html
'If you make China the enemy,
China will be the enemy': Beijing's fresh threat to Australia
November 18, 2020 — 6.10pm
Beijing has issued an
extraordinary attack on the Australian government, accusing it of
"poisoning bilateral relations" in a deliberately leaked document
that threatens to escalate tensions between the two countries.
The government document goes
further than any public statements made by the Chinese Communist Party,
accusing the Morrison government of attempting "to torpedo"
Victoria’s Belt and Road deal, and blaming Canberra for "unfriendly or
antagonistic" reports on China by independent Australian media.
"China is angry. If you make
China the enemy, China will be the enemy," a Chinese government official
said in a briefing with a reporter in Canberra on Tuesday.
The dossier of 14 disputes was
handed over by the Chinese embassy in Canberra to Nine News, The Sydney
Morning Herald and The Age in a diplomatic play that appears aimed at
pressuring the Morrison government to reverse Australia’s position on key
policies.
-----
https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/how-bank-data-is-used-to-catch-crooks-and-stamp-out-sex-crimes-20201119-p56g8z
How bank data is used to catch
crooks and stamp out sex crimes
James Frost Financial
services writer
Nov
20, 2020 – 9.43am
An unusual alliance between law
enforcement agencies and financial services companies that share information
about criminal methods and bank data has contributed to and supported dozens of
arrests for money laundering, fraud and drug trafficking and other more
sinister crimes over the last 12 months alone.
The small but growing group which
includes regulators and banks but is headed up by AUSTRAC known as the Fintel
Alliance is having an especially powerful impact on the detection of hideous
crimes with its efforts contributing to a 945 per cent increase in the
reporting of suspected child related offences since it was established in 2017.
AUSTRAC CEO Nicole Rose said
alliance’s public-private partnership model was regarded as world leading,
enabling it to distribute intelligence quickly and dismantle criminal networks
around the globe.
“The Fintel Alliance has
transformed our capability to tackle a broad range of threats to the Australian
community, including terrorism financing, money laundering, drug trafficking,
child exploitation, fraud, and other serious and organised crime,” Ms Rose
said.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/wealth-inequality-had-stabilised-before-covid-19-crisis-20201119-p56g4w
Wealth inequality had stabilised
before COVID-19 crisis
David Marin-Guzman Workplace
correspondent
Nov
20, 2020 – 12.00am
Wealth inequality had largely
stabilised and even declined slightly before the coronavirus crisis hit, while
income inequality barely changed in almost two decades, new data shows.
The latest Household, Income and
Labour Dynamics Australia survey revealed that while the wealthiest
became much richer early last decade, increasing the gap with the poor, since 2006 until 2018 there had
been little change in wealth inequality.
Average wealth grew strongly from
2014 to 2018, rising from $788,018 to $934,025, and median wealth increased
from $428,973 to $503,563.
Older Australians had also seen
the largest increases in wealth, particularly older couples, whose average
household wealth was now over $1 million.
But because the wealth in
low-wealth households also increased strongly, growing 38 per cent for the
bottom 10 percentile, wealth inequality fell slightly between 2014 and 2018.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/robodebt-was-a-scott-morrison-fiasco-at-every-stage/news-story/de8c2b8152ac9ee0b8e423ff99e8d8d5
Robodebt
was a Scott Morrison fiasco at every stage
Peter van Onselen
·
12:00AM November 21, 2020
With
summer just around the corner, this week’s $1.2bn settlement of the robodebt
class action has shone a light on government failings.
Scott
Morrison and his team have been coated in Teflon since the pandemic struck. A
grateful nation has given its incumbent leaders the benefit of the doubt as we
look around the world and see abject failure in handling the coronavirus
elsewhere.
But
such positivity shouldn’t blind us to poor conduct, and the robodebt disaster
is without doubt the worst example of maladministration and callous
indifference to vulnerable Australians since the Coalition took office in 2013.
The
Coalition is a certainty to win the next election despite a long list of
deficiencies across the policy and political spectrum. Among them: the sports
rorts scandal; Angus Taylor’s still unexplained use of a forged document to
attack Sydney City Council; water buybacks along the Murray-Darling Basin that
simply don’t pass the pub test; a $30m taxpayer purchase of land for Sydney’s
second airport at 10 times the official valuation, bought from a Liberal Party
donor no less.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/bad-policy-on-war-led-to-horror-in-the-field/news-story/6a80fd0074dde31983b61639d54d8628
Bad policy on war led to horror in
the field
Greg Sheridan
- 11:53AM
November 20, 2020
This day of grievous shame and regret, not
only for the Australian Defence Force but for the whole Australian nation, has
its origin not in culture but in policy.
It has its origin in the wretchedly
ill-advised way Australia goes to war.
The Howard government, for all its strengths,
went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq and decided that the only people who would
seek out direct combat were the special forces.
We didn’t want to risk casualties, so instead
we have apparently encompassed atrocities, and risked the moral support of the
Australian people for the ADF at a time when this has never been more
important.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/modern-monetary-theory-is-here-to-stay/news-story/80997b3c7b5f87caf44d4baff62d6438
Modern
Monetary Theory is here to stay
Alan
Kohler
·
6:48PM November 20, 2020
Reserve
Bank governor Philip Lowe tipped another bucket on Modern Monetary Theory this
week during the Q&A after a CEDA dinner speech, reminding his audience that
there’s no such thing as a free lunch and that someone always has to pay, most
likely through an “inflation tax”.
He
had just finished saying that inflation comes from the balance between supply
and demand, and that he had been having trouble getting inflation up to the
RBA’s target because globalisation and technology had changed the way the
labour market operated.
“Even
when unemployment is low, wages don’t rise, which results in low inflation,” he
said.
So
let’s call the notion of a future “inflation tax” from too much money printing
OMT (old monetary theory). Supply and demand inflation, apparently, is his new
experience.
-----
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/inside-the-warrior-culture-that-shamed-australia-20201120-p56gc9
Inside the warrior culture that
shamed Australia
A
groundbreaking report into war crimes allegedly committed by Special Forces
soldiers in Afghanistan has shocked the country and will be carried by a
generation of soldiers.
Andrew Tillett Political
correspondent
Nov
21, 2020 – 12.00am
When Julia Gillard visited
Australian troops in Afghanistan in October 2012, she was cautiously optimistic
the end was finally in sight.
The transition in handing over
responsibility for security in Oruzgan province, where Australian forces were
based, had already started. Morale was still good among the soldiers, despite
recent casualties, including insider attacks by Afghan soldiers.
"Two-thousand-and-twelve has
brought important progress in Afghanistan," Gillard told Parliament upon
her return home.
But as Australians and the world
have learnt this week, 2012 was the zenith of shocking atrocities allegedly committed by Special Forces soldiers, including the execution of
prisoners and innocent civilians, and mistreatment of detainees.
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Asset testing expensive homes for
pension could reduce overspending: Income review
November 20, 2020 — 5.51pm
Penalising pensioners with
expensive homes could stop overspending on housing, says a wide-ranging review
into the retirement system that also casts doubt on already-legislated
increases to the superannuation guarantee.
Superannuation is set to rise 0.5
per cent a year above its current 9.5 per cent rate from July 2021, but the
Retirement Income Review released on Friday found cancelling the increases
would hand the budget billions of dollars more in tax revenue by 2030.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the
family home would not be means tested, but the government has yet to respond in
detail to the observations about the system raised in the 638-page report.
The family home is currently
exempt from the age pension assets test, and renters are allowed to have more
assets than homeowners to qualify.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/national/too-much-self-interest-why-the-super-system-is-broken-20201120-p56gk7.html
Too much self-interest: why the
super system is broken
Contributor
November 22, 2020 — 12.05am
The super system has been let down
by both sides of politics for too long. I know because before I entered Parliament
I was at the coalface of the business sector at the Business Council of
Australia.
I could see the major finance
players had too much influence over Liberal Party. They argued that more super
was always a good thing. Too many vested interests were putting their own
interests ahead of workers and the nation. And getting the policy settings they
wanted.
The Federal Government is
considering canning already-legislated increases to the superannuation
guarantee following an independent review into Australia's retirement income
system.
Today, I see the union/super fund
influence over the Labor Party which demands more super so the
funds can funnel more money to a dwindling union base. Finally, we have an
independent report which has my side of politics looking more critically at
super for the first time in 30 years.
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Coronavirus And Impacts.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/coronavirus-agedcare-influx-led-to-huge-health-worker-cluster/news-story/26c962df6eedb88dff1898a851689a25
Coronavirus: aged-care influx ‘led
to huge health worker cluster’
Rachel Baxendale
·
1:21AM November 16, 2020
A
large, sudden influx of coronavirus-positive aged-care residents contributed to
Australia’s biggest health worker cluster of 262 cases of coronavirus among
Royal Melbourne Hospital staff in July and August, according to the authors of
a paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday.
The
authors, led by RMH infectious diseases physician Kirsty Buising, found the
hospital “rapidly controlled” the spread of coronavirus by adapting measures to
target settings and demographics within the facility.
Of
262 staff identified as having the virus between July 1 and August 31, 15 (5.7
per cent) required inpatient care and 13 (4.9 per cent) received care via a
“hospital in the home” service, while two were admitted to intensive care. None
died.
-----
Daniel Andrews pledges $5.3bn for
public housing a boost to vulnerable and jobs
Rachel Baxendale
·
11:22AM November 15, 2020
The
Andrews government has announced an unprecedented $5.3bn investment in public
and affordable housing, pledging to build more than 12,000 dwellings over the
next four years, creating approximately 10,000 jobs over that period.
The
announcement comes after decades of underfunding of public housing in a state
where Labor has been in power for 16 of the past 20 years, with Victoria until
now having the lowest proportion of public housing per capita compared to other
Australian states and territories, and one of the lowest in the OECD.
Productivity
Commission figures show that since the Andrews government came to power in
2014, recurrent net expenditure on public housing fell annually until the
2018-19 financial year, when $11 million was added to 2014 levels.
Last
financial year Victoria spent $75 per person on public housing, compared to
$135 in NSW and $341 in the Northern Territory, with public housing making up
1.9 per cent of Victoria’s housing stock, compared with a 4.6 per cent average
across the OECD.
-----
https://www.afr.com/markets/debt-markets/this-pandemic-will-make-a-large-proportion-of-the-population-richer-20201115-p56eoe
This pandemic will make a large
proportion of the population richer
This RBA has flooded the system with cash and the next effect will
be a property boom. Equities looks good too with the highs from February within
our sights.
Vimal Gor
Nov 16, 2020 – 7.46am
This has been a recession
like no other.
Financially, most
recessions have many losers and very few winners. This time around the picture
is far more mixed. Some have been hit very hard. But many have emerged
massively better off.
Tragically, small
businesses, particularly in hospitality, where people get off their arses and
create their own living, have felt the full impact. Public servants and most
employees in big business, cashing their guaranteed pay cheques, have actually
got richer.
Most super funds are back
to levels of a year ago and real estate prices are actually higher in many places. Hardly a standard
recession.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/this-is-what-catching-covid19-actually-feels-like/news-story/5a30ebeb3177a14e670b15d8ba7919d5
This
is what catching COVID-19 actually feels like
Hugo Rifkind
·
The Times
·
10:00AM November 17, 2020
For
us, Covid started while we were walking the dog. We bicker, my wife and I,
because she likes to walk very quickly and I don’t and, look, don’t judge us,
we’ve been together since we were students and we’ve got to talk about
something. This time, though, she was lagging. “Bit breathy,” she said, and we
both knew at once, although not really. The next morning she was worse, so we
took her for a test.
The
rules are clear-cut, but reality never is. You think you’ll know when it comes.
You’ll have the textbook symptoms and you’ll pull the kids out of school,
cancel everything, call everybody you’ve seen, batten down the hatches.
What,
though, if it’s not like that? What if you just feel a bit … rubbish? Do you
cause all that disruption every time? As a diligent hypochondriac, I’ve
personally been crying wolf at myself since March. As a result, like some
special sort of madman, I have learned to roll my eyes at myself, however bad I
feel, and assume I’m only pretending.
Her test, though, came back positive, and her
fever spiked, and she took to her bed. “No more school for a bit,” we told the
kids, and they cried, miserably, because they remember the grim house arrest of
spring.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/what-can-the-new-vaccines-deliver-20201117-p56f73
What can the new vaccines deliver?
The
world is relieved at new inoculations against COVID-19. They will fix the
symptoms – but can they stop its spread?
Christopher
Goodnow Contributor
Nov
17, 2020 – 3.05pm
The reports of 90 per cent
protection against COVID-19 in the Pfizer-BioNtech
vaccine clinical trial, and 94 percent protection in the Moderna
trial, provide reasons to celebrate medical science. The coronavirus war is
turning our way, but we’ve a long way to go.
How long before physical
distancing measures relax and international travel opens up? That question
hinges upon what kind of “protection” is conferred by these vaccines.
Our immune system can protect us
from getting sick with COVID-19, and it can stop us from transmitting the virus
to others. These two measures of immunity are separate things – having one does
not imply having the other.
The many asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2
virus spreaders make that point loud and clear, and are the reason why this bat
coronavirus has infected millions of people whereas the last one – SARS – was
contained at 8098 people.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/sweden-realises-that-its-not-a-nation-apart-after-all/news-story/19ec891bfb7b96be545228ec252fdc2d
Sweden realises that it’s not a
nation apart after all
·
By Oliver Moody
·
The Times
·
November 20, 2020
Alarm
is rising in Sweden that its light touch approach to Covid-19 has failed as its
per capita infection rate rises above Britain’s, with the number of hospital
admissions almost doubling each week.
“The
situation is serious,” Goran Hansson, a cardiology professor at the Karolinska
Institute and head of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, said.
“Intensive
care units are not at maximum capacity but may become full soon if the trend is
not broken.”
Source
- World Health Organization, Australian Government, AAP, Reuters, Johns
Hopkins, other media.
Since
the start of the pandemic the Swedish “experiment” has raised profound
questions about the best way to overcome the disease and the nature of the
state’s duties to its citizens.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/insurers-play-hardball-on-covid-related-claims-of-billions-of-dollars-20201120-p56gja.html
Insurers play hardball on
COVID-related claims of billions of dollars
November 21, 2020 — 12.01am
Josephine Woodberry refuses to go
away. After running a dance and performing arts school for more than 20 years
and pouring everything into it, she is battling to get her insurance company to
make good on her claim.
Woodberry had a business
interruption insurance policy with AXA XL, which she took out through her
insurance broker, to cover her if things went wrong in her dance business,
located in Preston, just north of Melbourne’s CBD.
When the dance studio for
3-18-year-old children was closed for seven months due to the COVID-19 related
lockdown, she rang her broker to lodge a claim. She was told her policy didn’t
cover the global pandemic.
"The financial impact for me
has been astronomical," said Woodberry, a single mother of two. "I
have accrued significant debts and the associated stress and uncertainty of
dealing with the insurer and having to get lawyers involved has taken a
significant toll on my wellbeing."
-----
Climate Change
-----
https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/agl-plans-huge-battery-in-south-australia-20201114-p56em6
AGL plans huge battery in South
Australia
Angela Macdonald-Smith Senior resources writer
Nov 15, 2020 – 4.01pm
AGL
Energy
has unveiled ambitions to build a huge new battery at its Adelaide power
generation site as part of the next stage of its strategy to roll out 850
megawatts of storage across the National Electricity Market by 2023-24.
The system is to be
installed at the site of the Torrens Island power station and built in stages
up to a capacity of 250 MW, with storage of up to four hours. A final go-ahead
to build remains subject to finalising contracts and approvals.
The battery is the latest
mega-storage project announced in Australia in recent weeks, after French player Neoen
announced
its Victorian Big Battery that will have output of 300 MW and 450 MWh of
storage, and NSW grid owner TransGrid
flagged
a storage project in Sydney's west involving 50 MW and 75 MWh.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/no-future-in-cheap-gas-led-recovery-20201112-p56e61
No future in cheap gas-led
recovery
Draining
low-cost supplies and abating climate change will makes gas an expensive energy
choice, so the best thing for manufacturing is government support for a
transition to low-emission replacement technologies.
Tony Wood Contributor
Nov 16, 2020 – 12.00am
Science and economics mean
that the way we use natural gas must begin to fundamentally change. Accepting
the change and dealing with its consequences will be hard for the gas industry, its customers and for governments.
A hard-headed analysis of gas supply on the east coast
of Australia
shows that gas prices are unlikely ever to return to the levels of previous
decades. Gas has become an expensive energy choice as we have run down the
sources of low-cost supplies. And gas is a fossil fuel, the production and use
of which contributes almost 20 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas
emissions. The implicit cost of gas in a low-emissions future will only rise in coming
decades.
In a new Grattan Institute
report, Flame out: the future of natural gas, we dissect these
challenges and provide recommendations on how they should be addressed.
Many gas producers envisage
an ongoing, long-term role for their product. Gas network businesses hold
assets whose value could decline steeply if gas usage declines; gas-intensive
manufacturers depend on gas as an essential feedstock or as an important
business input; and households and small businesses value gas as a choice for
cooking and heating. It is unsurprising that denial and resistance present
governments with a wall of concerns.
There is widespread business support
for policy action on climate change. There is far less agreement on what form this should take.
In the case of gas, while there are low-emission alternatives, the economics of
the options and the best timing for change are far from clear and vary by
sub-sector.
-----
Royal Commissions And The Like.
-----
https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/super-trustees-told-don-t-hug-the-index-20201118-p56fsc
Super trustees told: 'don't hug
the index'
After
sowing confusion among fund managers and superannuation trustees with the
release of new super fund performance benchmarks, the federal government is, in
effect, urging trustees to adopt more risky investment strategies.
Nov
19, 2020 – 12.00am
Australia's superannuation
trustees have been told in no uncertain terms by the federal government not to
hug the passive benchmark indices that will be used by regulators to "name
and shame" underperforming super funds.
Also, trustees have been urged not
to abandon the environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles that have
underpinned sustainable investment strategies and are the drawcard for
Millennial super fund flows.
This long overdue message to trustees
responsible for $2.9 trillion in super assets was delivered by the Assistant
Minister for Superannuation, Jane Hume, during The Australian Financial Review
Banking and Wealth Summit
on Wednesday.
-----
National Budget Issues.
-----
https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/philip-lowe-shares-a-big-worry-with-mmt-hero-20201117-p56fa6
Philip Lowe shares a big worry
with MMT hero
RBA
governor Philip Lowe scoffs at Modern Monetary Theory. But he shares concerns
about how to get economies moving again with a key proponent of the radical
theory.
Nov 17, 2020 – 11.40am
Reserve Bank of Australia
governor Philip Lowe and Modern Monetary Theory proponent Pavlina
Tcherneva are poles apart on how economies should operate.
But on Tuesday morning, as
Tcherneva addressed the UBS Australasia conference just 12 hours after Lowe
delivered a major speech on the economy, it seemed the pair's big worry about
the COVID-19 recovery is actually pretty similar.
Lowe has little time for
Modern Monetary Theory, and he’s not afraid to show it.
“It’s called Modern
Monetary Theory, but there's actually not much monetary, not much modern and
not much theory,” Lowe quipped on Monday night at the annual CEDA dinner. “It's
really a theory about a series of propositions about fiscal policy.”
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/time-of-reckoning-loan-deferrals-falling-but-warnings-worst-to-come-20201117-p56fb7.html
'Time of reckoning': Loan
deferrals falling but warnings worst to come
November 18, 2020 — 12.00am
Australian Banking Association
chief executive Anna Bligh says home and business owners will have to make
tough choices next year as loan deferral plans and government stimulus packages
come to an end.
New data from the ABA shows the
total number of deferred loans has fallen by almost 70 per cent to around $86
billion, down from a peak of $250 billion in June.
Deferred business loans at the
country's seven largest banks have fallen by 68 per cent to 72,909 and
mortgages have fallen by 66 per cent to 169,677, according to ABA data up to
November 4.
Ms Bligh said it was an
"encouraging sign" that the majority of customers had started making
repayments but acknowledged many were still struggling. "There are still a
lot of people in these numbers who are not yet back on making their
payments," she said. "There is a time of reckoning ahead."
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/how-a-resilient-financial-system-supports-the-recovery-20201117-p56f83
How a resilient financial system
supports the recovery
The
federal government is pursuing structural financial reforms that will boost the
post-virus economy and bring better consumer outcomes.
Josh Frydenberg Treasurer
Nov
18, 2020 – 12.00am
COVID-19 has been a stress test
for the global economy.
Monetary policy, fiscal policy,
supply chains and national institutions have all come under the spotlight and,
in many cases, been found wanting.
However, Australia has fared
better than most.
Our health and economic response has seen the virus suppressed and the economic recovery under way.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/unemployment-creeps-up-to-7-in-october-but-underemployment-drops-sharply/news-story/3d34190aa70d040b652cb62b30eb9f29
Unemployment creeps up to 7% in
October but underemployment drops sharply
Patrick Commins
November 19, 2020
The unemployment rate inched higher from 6.9
per cent to 7 per cent in October as the economy added 178,800 jobs, with
Victoria accounting for close to half of the month’s lift in employment as the
state emerged from lockdown.
Nationally, there were 97,000 full-time jobs
gained in the month, while part-time employment rose by 81,800, according to
seasonally adjusted data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis
said the “strong increase” in jobs and hours worked “reflects a large flow of
people from outside the labour force back into employment”. Employment levels
in October were only 1.7 per cent below pre-pandemic levels in March, Mr Jarvis
said.
The participation rate lifted by a solid 0.9
percentage points to 65.8 per cent, and the increase in the workforce accounted
for the increase in the jobless rate even as the economy added jobs.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/financial-services/who-would-be-a-financial-regulator-as-criticism-builds-from-all-corners/news-story/90c1ca17359b626b58e7ae8a6303b957
Who
would be a financial regulator, as criticism builds from all corners?
John
Durie
·
2:29PM November 18, 2020
Who
would be a financial regulator? The politicians blame you when corporates play
up and then blame you when the recovery isn’t happening as it should.
Case
in point being Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s attack on ASIC as putting too much red
tape in the way of banks trying
to get on with lending money to consumers and business.
Ask
any of the big banks and they will unequivocally say the problem with lending
is lack
of demand not
red tape.
Some
will admit to being a little cautious to explain loss of market share but the
reality is there are not a lot of demands for new credit amid the present
uncertainty.
The
good news is the economy is actually responding better than predicted and banks
are upgrading their economic forecasts accordingly.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/rba-could-have-to-expand-qe-beyond-100b-20201113-p56eh0
NSW debt burden may force RBA's
hand
Matthew Cranston Economics
correspondent
Nov
19, 2020 – 11.34am
The Reserve Bank might have to
increase its $100 billion quantitative easing program, especially to state governments,
after the NSW budget revealed a bigger debt burden than expected and borrowing costs
for governments have drifted up again.
The RBA has committed to buying
about $20 billion of state government bonds, known as semis, as part of the new
formal $100 billion bond-buying program. It had been buying semis before
the latest QE announcement.
However, the NSW government debt
manager TCorp announced on Tuesday that a total funding requirement of $36
billion would be needed, rather than the expected $25 billion.
NAB's senior fixed income
strategist, Ken Crompton, said the debt burden now affected pricing.
"The program is bigger than
expected and has triggered a material repricing of semis from most issuers,
with TCorp slightly harder hit," he said.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/callaghan-opens-new-front-in-raging-super-wars-20201119-p56g82
Callaghan opens new front in
raging super wars
The
retirement income review has handed the Morrison government the ammunition to
freeze compulsory super rises not just during the pandemic, but indefinitely.
Aleks Vickovich Wealth editor
Nov
19, 2020 – 10.30pm
The long-awaited retirement income
review chaired by Treasury official Mike Callaghan will not spark a total
overhaul of Australia's $3 trillion pension system, but it may put a dent in
Big Super's once-invincible stranglehold over it.
The review concludes that without
compulsory superannuation, many workers would fall short in retirement and that
the system is broadly effective and sustainable.
That is probably about where any
nodding agreement from readers in the superannuation industry, federal
opposition and labour movement will end.
Early extracts from the report conjure
a vision for Australia's retirement system taken straight from the minutes of a
suburban Liberal branch meeting: the supremacy of home ownership in wealth
creation, importance of voluntary savings and diminished role for mandatory
superannuation contributions by employers.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/tax-minimisation-strategy-90b-stashed-in-richest-funds-20201120-p56gf9
'Tax minimisation strategy': $90b
stashed in richest funds
Michael Roddan
Senior companies reporter
Nov 20, 2020 – 12.10pm
The wealthiest superannuation savers with
balances over $5 million have tucked away more than $90 billion in their
accounts and are receiving more government support than low income households,
in concessions deemed “not required” and a “tax minimisation strategy” by the government’s retirement income review.
The review has suggested the government
should reform the billions in concessions flowing to the wealthiest savers,
finding that the provision of tax concessions for very large superannuation
balances “are not required for retirement income purposes, as they are unlikely
to encourage additional saving”.
“It appears that large balances are held in
the superannuation system mainly as a tax minimisation strategy, separate to
any retirement income goals,” Treasury’s Retirement Income Review says.
“The impact of earnings tax concessions means
higher-income earners receive more lifetime government support in dollar terms
than lower- and middle-income earners.”
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/retirees-ignoring-potential-of-dipping-into-home-equity-income-review-20201119-p56fz8.html
Retirees ignoring potential of
dipping into home equity: income review
November 19, 2020 — 10.30pm
Cash-poor retirees living in
expensive properties are not tapping into their housing equity to fund their
older years, despite the family home representing the biggest share of net
wealth for those aged over 65.
Getting homeowners to consider
schemes like reverse mortgages to fund their retirements has been highlighted
in a briefing note by the federal government as a major finding from a 600-page
Retirement Income Review set to be unveiled on Friday.
It said accessing home equity
could have a "bigger impact on improving retirement income than increasing
the superannuation guarantee".
The full review has not been
publicly released, and does not make recommendations, but some of the findings
could threaten the legislated superannuation guarantee rises to 12 per cent by
2025. The first of the 0.5 per cent increases is due next year.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/the-battle-for-your-retirement-20201120-p56gbh
Super wars: The battle for your
retirement
The
superannuation review could be a turning point in how Australians fund their
lives.
Aaron Patrick and Aleks Vickovich
Nov
20, 2020 – 12.53pm
Voters, get ready for the
upside-down world of superannuation politics. A Liberal government has embarked on a titanic battle with capital over your retirement
savings.
On the side of themselves, the
Coalition would have you believe, are millionaire fund managers, super
trustees, stock brokers, asset consultants, lobbyists and other highly paid
members of the superannuation industry, alongside their clandestine if unlikely
fellow-travellers in the trade union movement.
Standing up for working
Australians, according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, is a government that looks
eager to end what was previously regarded as the inexorable growth of
state-mandated savings.
The stakes are huge. Cancelling the gradual
increases in the superannuation guarantee from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent in
2025 would deprive the industry of some $45 billion by 2025.
A web of interests that controls close to $3
trillion and stretches from bank boardrooms via trade union headquarters to the
Labor shadow cabinet is going to use its considerable resources and
institutional leverage to kill the plan, first in the court of the public
opinion, and second, in the Senate.
-----
https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/super-review-s-booby-traps-20201120-p56ghi
Super review's booby traps
The
long-awaited review of the $3 trillion retirement income system gives it many ticks
of approval. It also contains some unpleasant surprises for the Morrison
government.
Nov
21, 2020 – 12.00am
In some respects the Morrison
government got exactly what it wanted from Mike Callaghan's Retirement Income Review – a nail in the coffin of a higher superannuation guarantee
charge.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison,
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and assistant superannuation minister Jane Hume now
have the independent "proof" they need to claim higher compulsory
super will be at the expense of wages growth.
The counter factual, of course, is
that when prime minister Tony Abbott delayed the introduction of an increase in
the super guarantee in 2014 (with the helped of Clive Palmer), wages growth
stagnated.
Economists can argue until the
cows come home about the likely future effects of policy changes and, in doing
so, plug in whatever assumptions suit their case.
-https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/getting-people-to-spend-their-retirement-savings-is-the-main-game-20201120-p56ghp.html
Getting people to spend their
retirement savings is the main game
By Shane
Wright
November 20, 2020 — 7.00pm
One of the first things people getting
financial advice are told is to read the fine print.
Those thinking that holding the
superannuation guarantee at 9.5 per cent will be a salve for all the problems
around wages and retirement income need to look carefully at everything in the
638-page report dropped by the federal government on Friday.
The income review report sets out many of the
issues bedevilling the retirement income system.
Most attention, especially within the
backbench of the Morrison government, has been on the legislated increase in
the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent by 2025.
The report goes into a large amount of
much-needed analysis of this policy, which has been a key part of retirement
incomes and the broader economy since its introduction by the Keating
government.
-----
Health Issues.
-----
Top doctor resigns TGA role over
concerns with policing of fringe medicine
November 16, 2020 — 11.30pm
A leading medical
campaigner has resigned from the medical watchdog's advertising committee, citing
years of frustration over its kid-glove treatment of complementary medicines.
The Therapeutic Goods
Administration received 1468 complaints in 2018-19 about
advertisements for drugs and devices, many of them alleging herbal supplements,
fat burners and hangover cures were being sold with wild and unsupported claims
about their effectiveness.
Nearly all the complaints
were upheld. But despite having the power to issue penalties, in most cases the
TGA opted to send only an advisory letter, according to a study led by Associate Professor
Ken Harvey and published in the Australian Health Review.
In 2018 federal Health
Minister Greg Hunt appointed Dr Harvey as the representative of consumer
organisation and magazine Choice to the TGA's advertising consultative
committee, a panel of industry, media and consumer representatives who work
with it on advertising compliance.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/medical-schools-tithed-for-regions/news-story/57e88636e612180ed1cc7fb57bcb2cf6
Medical schools tithed for regions
Jill Rowbotham
·
4:26AM November 18, 2020
Established
medical schools stand to lose up to 160 commonwealth-supported places over the
next five years under a scheme that will feed them into a new medical school at
Orange, 250km west of Sydney.
The
move has left the medical deans’ peak body frustrated with the federal
government and revealed uncertainties in the medical workforce strategy
exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.
While
five of 37 places at the joint Charles Sturt University-Western Sydney
University medical school due to open in February are new, the rest have been
tithed from universities with more than 100 medical places, Medical Deans of
Australia and New Zealand vice-president Michelle Leech said. “I think most of
the universities are losing between one and four of their CSP medical places
over up to five years and that obviously adds up,” Professor Leech said.
Although
the deans were aware the federal government was looking for the places among
the current CSP allocation, the 1 per cent idea was not among three options put
to them last year in a discussion paper, and on which they provided feedback.
-----
https://www.theage.com.au/national/we-have-not-delivered-dozens-of-australian-covid-trials-fail-to-learn-anything-new-20201120-p56ghk.html
'We have not delivered': Dozens of
Australian COVID trials fail to learn anything new
November 20, 2020 — 11.45pm
Millions of taxpayer dollars have
been spent on dozens of Australian COVID-19 clinical treatment trials that have
so far largely failed to produce any new scientific knowledge.
Researchers said a lack of
national leadership meant far too many clinical trials were set up for a range
of potential COVID-19 drugs and that they had competed with each other for a
limited pool of patients.
Hospitals often found themselves
with multiple patients on different trials. And hospital administrators often
took more than three months to approve trials, meaning the epidemic had died
down by the time scientists were ready to enrol patients.
"We have not delivered for
the community. We still don't have a therapeutic to treat people with, even
though we have the best research minds in the country and a lot of
resources," said Professor Jennifer Martin, chair of clinical pharmacology
at the University of Newcastle and an investigator on the CLARITY study.
-----
International Issues.
-----
https://www.afr.com/markets/currencies/the-rbnz-has-shredded-its-credibility-20201115-p56eps
The RBNZ has shredded its
credibility
The
Reserve Bank of New Zealand has authored the most activist monetary policy on
the planet, while ignoring the facts on the ground.
Grant
Wilson Contributor
Nov 15, 2020 – 1.07pm
Way back in May we
highlighted that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand was putting its credibility on
the line
with its aggressive second round response to COVID-19.
We described the expansion
of the Large Scale Asset Purchase (LSAP) program as unnecessary and untimely.
Local bond market
conditions had already normalised from the disruption seen in late March, and
the prospect of a V-shaped recovery was showing through in various datasets as
a function of New Zealand having successfully pursued an elimination strategy
for COVID-19.
We also raised concern that
the RBNZ was moving beyond the traditional level of co-operation with Treasury,
in rolling out LSAP program in close conjunction with the annual Budget
announcement.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/us-needs-a-lesson-in-how-to-overcome-its-other-identity-divide-20201116-p56evw
America's central problem is class
not race
A dash less contempt for those with less education, plainer speech
and more traditional views might be a way to start bridging the empathy gap
that has pushed voters towards Donald Trump.
Rana
Foroohar Contributor
Nov 16, 2020 – 9.59am
Race is often a central
issue in American political life. But, as the 2020 presidential
election has just shown us,
class is a topic that matters just as much, perhaps even more, at least in
terms of votes.
While the Republican
incumbent, Donald Trump, won a majority of small towns and rural areas, his
Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, took communities that represent a whopping 70
per cent of the US economy, according to Brookings Institution data.
No matter where voters were
in the country, if they lived in an economic growth hub, it’s likely that they
voted for Mr Biden.
This tells us some
important things about America. First, that wealth and power are concentrated
in just a few places. When you look at an electoral map of the US, it is
overwhelmingly red, except on the coasts and a
few inland urban areas.
More than two-thirds of US
job growth since 2007 has been concentrated in 25 cities and regional hubs,
according to the McKinsey Global Institute.
------
https://www.smh.com.au/national/china-s-new-wolf-warrior-diplomacy-is-a-maoist-resurrection-20201111-p56dln.html
China's new wolf warrior diplomacy
is a Maoist resurrection
By Anne-Marie Brady
November 16, 2020 — 12.10am
Last Friday, China’s
foreign ministry threatened counter-measures against Australia for speaking up
on its crackdown against democracy in Hong Kong. On the same day, China’s
Ministry of Culture and Tourism launched a pro-Australia tourism campaign aimed
at bringing the two countries closer together. Over the past two weeks, China
has gaslighted the Australian government with a series of contradictory
statements on trade, as well as the overall relationship.
China is following a
belligerent foreign policy which singles out countries such as Australia for
punishment, as examples to other governments. Australia’s "offence"?
Simply put: passing laws aimed at protecting the political system against
Chinese Communist Party interference, launching freedom of navigation exercises
in the international waters of the South China Sea through which the bulk of
Australian shipping passes and daring to ask the Xi government to examine the
origins of the COVID-19 outbreak that unleashed the devastating global
pandemic.
Mao Zedong told China’s
first diplomats: “Diplomatic work is a political struggle; you don’t engage in
a war of weapons, you engage in a war of words.” Xi-era foreign affairs is
engaged in a war on almost all fronts as well as a war of words. The CCP
leadership evidently believes it is in a position of strength vis-a-vis the
United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia and other Western
governments.
Soon after to coming to
power in 2012, President Xi Jinping introduced a reset in China’s foreign
affairs policy. The CCP government’s approach to foreign affairs includes a detailed
foreigner management strategy. Putting pressure on individuals as substitutes
for their governments is one of the first signs of a deterioration in the
relationship, as Australia’s China journalists and China analysts have now experienced first
hand. Two Australians, several Canadians, and at least one American have been
arrested on spying charges. Scores of foreign teachers in China have also been
arrested on sometimes spurious allegations.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/governors-plead-for-action-as-us-passes-11m-virus-cases-20201116-p56exj
Governors plead for action as US
passes 11m virus cases
Paulina Firozi and Hannah
Knowles
Nov 16, 2020 – 11.16am
Washington | Coronavirus cases in the
United States passed 11 million on Sunday (Monday AEDT) as the nation shattered records for
hospitalisations and daily new infections and leaders turned to new
restrictions to stem the pandemic's long-predicted surge.
The milestone came a week
after US hit 10 million cases, a testament to how rapidly the virus is
spreading – the first 1 million cases took three months. This new wave has
pushed COVID-19 hospitalisations past the peaks seen in April and July,
straining healthcare systems and pushing some reluctant Republican governors to
enact state-wide mask mandates for the first time.
Other states are re-enacting
stay-at-home orders and store closures. Washington's Democratic
governor, Jay Inslee on
Sunday announced a slew of new rules, including a halt to indoor operations at
restaurants, bars and gyms and a ban on indoor social gatherings with people
outside one's household.
Speaking to reporters, Mr
Inslee acknowledged that slowing the virus would come at a steep price for
struggling businesses even as the state works to distribute millions more in
aid.
-----
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/new-world-orders-what-biden-means-for-the-rest-of-us-20201110-p56dbn.html
New world orders: What Biden means
for the rest of us
By Eryk
Bagshaw, Bevan
Shields, James
Massola, Maher
Mughrabi, Lia
Timson, Chris
Zappone and Matt Wade
November 16, 2020
In his Delaware victory speech,
President-elect Joe Biden declared that "this is the time to heal in
America". But bitter partisan conflict, rising racism and nativism,
misinformation and fears for democracy and human rights aren't just a problem
for the United States but for the whole world.
Since World War II, nations in every corner
of the world have either looked hopefully to the US for leadership in tackling
major global and regional challenges or been forced to reckon with Washington's
interventions.
On climate change, global trade, immigration
and a host of other issues, Biden has pledged that leadership will come
"not only by the example of our power but by the power of our
example".
Can the new administration return Washington
to its place at the head of the international table as a guarantor of the
"rules-based order"? Or will the Biden administration be forced to
contend with a new multipolar reality in which nations tend to their own
patches?
-----
https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/investors-caught-in-cold-war-ii-crossfire-20201116-p56eus
Investors caught in Cold War II
crossfire
Robert Guy Senior Writer
Nov 16, 2020 – 3.50pm
Renowned economic historian
Niall Ferguson says China is making an example of Australia to highlight the
dangers to other Asian economies of challenging its power, underscoring the
need to cement relations with the incoming Biden administration to ensure
Canberra isn't isolated amid deepening trade
tensions.
He warned that what he
terms Cold War II will not end with the exit of US President Donald Trump from
the White House, warning the election of Joe Biden will not lead to a
wholesale reversal of the more assertive approach to dealing with China's rise
as an economic and military challenger to the US.
"Joe Biden's national
security team is not going to try and turn the clock back to 2016," Mr
Ferguson told the UBS Australasia conference.
"So nobody should
expect a reset that takes us back in time to the later Obama years. That isn't
an option."
He said likely appointments
such as former Obama staffer Michèle Flournoy as defence secretary or Kurt
Campbell, who may play a role in China policy, had become
"significantly" more hawkish on US China relations.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/europe/why-europe-faces-a-long-slow-convalescence-from-coronavirus-20201114-p56ek1
Why Europe faces a long, slow
convalescence from coronavirus
Hans
van Leeuwen Europe correspondent
Nov 16, 2020 – 1.44pm
London | The locked-down
centre of London is not a pretty sight just now. The streets are eerily
deserted: Covent Garden, Oxford Street and Regent Street have their Christmas
lights up, but the pavements are bereft of the traditional seasonal throng of
shoppers.
Security guards in high-vis
jackets are everywhere, keeping the shuttered shops safe. In almost the only
sign of normalcy, a few men in hard hats are digging up London's roads, as
usual.
Beyond the city's ring
road, though, factories are still pumping and office workers are Zooming from
their spare bedrooms. But the world of shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars,
nail and beauty salons, hairdressers and hotels is a largely silent one.
The economic pain from the
second COVID-19 lockdown won't match the first: it's only supposed to
last until early December; businesses are better prepared; e-commerce is taking
up some slack; and construction and manufacturing are ploughing on.
But the ubiquitous
"Closed" signs on so many service-sector doors tell us that although
the second dip will be shallower, the climb out of this economic hole could be
long and arduous.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/when-a-leader-just-won-t-go-20201116-p56ey0
When a leader just won’t go
Donald
Trump may need to be nudged out, as he has chosen a time warp of alternative
reality, where he will continue to be in office even after being voted out.
Sarah Lyall
Nov 16, 2020 – 12.53pm
As America ponders the
awkward case of Donald Trump, a president who will not admit that he has been
fired, it is helpful to consider him through the experiences of other people,
fictional and otherwise, who have been unable to accept the arrival of
unwelcome developments in their personal and professional lives.
Is Trump like King Lear,
raging naked on the heath and desperately hanging on to the increasingly
diminished trappings of power even as they are stripped from him? Or is he more
like Bartleby the Scrivener, the inscrutable model of passive resistance in
Herman Melville's short story of that name who one day declines to do any more
work or indeed leave the building, declaring: "I would prefer not
to?"
Is he like Nellie, the
character in The
Office who installs herself at the desk of the regional manager
when he is out of town and unilaterally appoints herself boss? Or how about
George from Seinfeld,
who quits one of his many jobs in a huff, unsuccessfully tries to get it back
and reports to work anyway, as if nothing had happened?
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-national-security-adviser-says-it-looks-like-biden-has-won-20201117-p56f5v.html
Trump national security adviser
says it looks like Biden has won
November 17, 2020 — 4.27am
Washington: US President Donald
Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, says he will ensure a
professional transition to the team led by Democrat Joe Biden if Biden is
deemed the winner of the 2020 presidential election and "obviously things
look like that now".
Trump has insisted without
evidence that the November 3 election was "rigged" and that he will
be declared the winner after a series of legal challenges in several states.
Speaking to the Global
Security Forum, O'Brien said that while he hoped Trump would turn out to have
won a second four-year term, he would work with a new administration headed by
Biden and his vice-presidential running mate, Kamala Harris.
"If there is a new
administration, look, they deserve some time to come in and implement their
policies," O'Brien said.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/do-your-duty-sweden-rolls-out-new-restrictions-to-combat-spread-of-covid19/news-story/b23a693d5eaf3dce0a8c734a65dc70b4
‘Do your duty’: Sweden rolls out
new restrictions to combat spread of COVID-19
Jacquelin Magnay
·
5:41AM November 17, 2020
Sweden’s
prime minister warned the country the spread of coronavirus was “going to get
worse” as he introduced fresh laws limiting the numbers of people being able to
gather.
From
next week Sweden, only eight people will be permitted to gather at public
events, with officials strongly encouraged people to adopt the same limit in
private.
Prime
Minister Stefan Löfven said the new limits were part of the Public Order Act
and would apply for four weeks.
“It’s
going to get worse,” he told a press conference on Monday. “Do your duty and
take responsibility to stop the spread of infection.”
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/biden-s-flawed-plan-for-global-leadership-20201117-p56f7c
Biden’s flawed plan for global
leadership
The
president-elect will find it hard to persuade Americans that the US can benefit
from international engagement, without automatically taking the leadership
role.
Gideon Rachman Columnist
Nov
17, 2020 – 9.11am
Governments all over the world are
studying an article that appeared last January headlined – “Why America Must
Lead Again”. The author is one Joe Biden.
Mr Biden’s essay for Foreign Affairs
laments that the Trump administration has “abdicated American leadership”. It
promises that “the Biden foreign policy agenda will place the United States
back at the head of the table”.
But it is much easier for the
President-elect to talk about re-establishing American leadership than actually
to deliver.
The US is not as powerful as it
once was. Simply rejoining international groups – the World Health Organisation
or the Paris climate accord – does not put America “at the head of the table”.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/biden-warns-more-people-may-die-urges-trump-to-co-operate-20201117-p56f8a
American 'dark winter' looms as
states brace for surge
Jacob Greber United States
correspondent
Updated
Nov 17, 2020 – 3.57pm, first published at 9.43am
Washington | America is rapidly accelerating
towards its biggest COVID-19 disaster to date as a wave of infections threaten
to overwhelm hospitals, forcing states from California, Oregon, Washington and
New Jersey to scrap reopening plans and impose restrictions.
As new cases surged by the most
since the pandemic began at the start of the year, President-elect Joe Biden
warned that "more people may die" if departing President Donald Trump keeps blocking a transition of power.
President-Elect
Joe Biden has urged the US to work together in combating the pandemic.
The worsening outcome comes after
almost two weeks of daily COVID cases leaping up by more than 100,000, and a
death-toll fast closing in on a quarter of a million people.
Even as Mr Biden met with business
and labour leaders on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) – including the chief executives of
General Motors, Microsoft, Target and the Gap – much of their focus was on how
to keep manufacturing going safely amid the potential for new lockdowns.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/us-announces-gulf-troop-draw-down-just-days-from-biden-s-inauguration-20201118-p56fis
US announces Gulf troop draw down
just days from Biden's inauguration
Jacob Greber United States
correspondent
Nov
18, 2020 – 6.48am
Washington | Donald Trump's hastily
appointed acting Pentagon chief has announced a drawdown of US troops in Iraq
and Afghanistan to take effect five days before Joe Biden takes office,
throwing fresh doubts of Australia's involvement in the region.
Acting secretary of defence
Christopher Miller said the order would reduce the number of troops in
Afghanistan in January from about 4500 to 2500, and in Iraq by about 500 to
2500.
The announcement was made in
defiance of warnings from one of Mr Trump's closest allies in Congress – Senate
majority leader Mitch McConnell, who likened it to America's
"humiliating" departure from Saigon in 1975.
"The consequences of a
premature American exit" from Afghanistan "would likely be even worse
than President Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq back in 2011, which fuelled the
rise of ISIS and a new round of global terrorism", Senator McConnell said.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/trump-s-controversial-ploy-that-would-snooker-biden-is-running-out-of-time-20201118-p56fn5.html
Trump's controversial ploy that
would snooker Biden is running out of time
Senior business columnist
November 18, 2020 — 11.32am
Donald Trump’s attempt to appoint
an ardent supporter and Federal Reserve Board sceptic to a seat on the board of the
world’s most powerful central bank, snookering the incoming Biden administration in the process, is
faltering.
On Tuesday (US time), Republicans
weren’t able to secure sufficient votes in the Senate to confirm Judy Shelton’s
nomination for a seat on the Fed’s board of governors.
That doesn’t completely rule her
out – her nomination can be brought before the Senate again – but time is
rapidly running out to install the controversial former Trump adviser to one of
the two vacant seats on the board. The other is likely to be filled by the less
controversial and well-credentialled Christopher Waller, an economist with the
St Louis Fed.
Time is running out because, with
three Republican senators already opposed to her candidacy and Democrat Mark
Kelly, who won a special election in Arizona earlier this month, likely to join
the Senate on November 30, the window for a majority in favour of her appointment
is closing. The Republicans currently hold 53 of the 100 Senate seats, with
Vice President Mike Pence having a casting vote in the event of a tie.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/walking-dead-america-s-zombie-companies-have-racked-up-1-9-trillion-of-debt-20201118-p56fkw.html
Walking dead: America's 'zombie'
companies have racked up $1.9 trillion of debt
By Lisa Lee
and Tom Contiliano
November 18, 2020 — 10.06am
They were once America's corporate
titans. Beloved household names. Case studies in success.
But now, they're increasingly
looking like something else -- zombies. And their numbers are swelling.
From Boeing, Carnival and Delta
Air Lines to Exxon Mobil and Macy's, many of the nation's most iconic companies
aren't earning enough to cover their interest expenses (a key criterion, as
most market experts define it, for zombie status).
Almost 200 corporations have
joined the ranks of so-called zombie firms since the onset of the pandemic,
according to a Bloomberg analysis of financial data from 3000 of the country's
largest publicly traded companies. In fact, zombies now account for nearly 20
per cent of those firms. Even more stark, they've added almost $US1 trillion
($1.4 trillion) of debt to their balance sheets in the span, bringing total
obligations to $1.36 trillion ($1.9 trillion).
That's more than double the
roughly $US500 billion zombie companies owed at the peak of the financial
crisis.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/why-inflation-could-be-on-the-way-back-20201118-p56fle
Why inflation could be on the way
back
The
global economy may be shifting as it did four decades ago.
Martin Wolf Columnist
Nov
18, 2020 – 11.15am
Are we about to move into a new
era of unexpectedly high inflation, rather than the below-target inflation we
are used to? Many dismiss this view. But the boy who cried wolf was right the
last time. A book just out is crying wolf insistently.
Notably, it states that, as a
result of today’s fiscal and monetary largesse, “as in the aftermath of many
wars, there will be a surge in inflation, quite likely more than 5 per cent, or
even on the order of 10 per cent in 2021”. That would change everything.
The prediction comes from Charles
Goodhart, a respected academic, and Manoj Pradhan, formerly at Morgan Stanley.
Its prophecy of imminent inflationary doom is in fact less significant than its
analytical framework.
These authors argue that the world
economy is about to shift regimes. The last time this happened was the 1980s.
The big shifts four decades ago were not so much the desire to bring inflation
under control, but globalisation and the entry of China into the world
economy.
That era, they argue, which was one of low inflation and high, rising
indebtedness, is now ending. Its inverse will soon follow.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/trumps-tantrum-gives-americas-foes-opportunity-for-mischief/news-story/a10b3dada41f3e556534d12db619d00a
Trump’s tantrum gives America’s
foes opportunity for mischief
Roger Boyes
- The
Times
- November
18, 2020
Shifting power between outgoing and incoming
American presidents is a delicate operation, like carrying a Ming vase across a
busy road. Drop this particular bit of political crockery, though, and you do
more than expensively embarrass yourself. You invite America’s foes to jostle
for advantage and you make Washington, already exhausted by a bruising election
campaign, look enfeebled and distracted.
With just over two months to go before Joe
Biden’s inauguration, Donald Trump seems to be pursuing a scorched earth
policy. He has sacked Mark Esper as defence secretary and a cluster of senior
Pentagon officials because they oppose Trump’s plan to bring home thousands of
US troops from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia before the handover. That would
honour an election pledge but, perhaps more importantly, hand Biden a foreign
policy crisis in his first weeks in office. Accelerating the removal of most of
the 4,500 troops in Afghanistan might just be possible by January but it would
be physically impossible to extract the heavy military kit. And it would
immediately become impossible to monitor a key part of Trump’s deal - to
separate the Taliban from al-Qaeda.
Biden doesn’t want to be handed a
Vietnam-style humiliation: the looting of abandoned American equipment and
Taliban crowing over the fickleness of American power. But that’s the
consequence of the menu being prepared for him in the twilight White House. So,
too, is the proposal to list Yemen’s Houthi rebels as terrorists, putting paid
to any swift peace deal there. New sanctions seem to be on the cards for the
Iranian regime. Biden’s advisers interpret this as a Trump ploy to anger
Tehran, harden its anti-American stance and thus kick into the long grass any
chance of reviving the agreement that curbs Iran’s nuclear programme.
-----
https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/defence-pact-confirms-japan-s-forward-lean-into-regional-partnership-20201118-p56fkf
Defence pact confirms Japan's
forward lean into regional partnership
The
united front between Japan and Australia shows both countries are on the same
strategic page about maintaining order and preventing Chinese domination in the
Indo-Pacific region.
Rory Medcalf Contributor
Nov
18, 2020 – 4.41pm
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s visit this week to Tokyo neatly bookends the Trump years in our Indo-Pacific region.
How so? Japan and Australia have
deepened their security ties, enabling them to present a united front to engage
America’s incoming Biden administration.
This augments another regional
pillar, the India-Japan partnership affirmed when Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi journeyed to Tokyo in November 2016.
Now in elegant symmetry, the four
democracies this week have joined forces for the Malabar naval exercise in the Indian Ocean. Grey hulls arrayed in the sea lanes make a
starker statement of quadrilateral solidarity than any euphemism-laden joint
communique.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/the-fault-lines-in-china-s-economy-have-been-exposed-20201119-p56g0a.html
The fault lines in China's economy
have been exposed
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Senior business columnist
November 19, 2020 — 11.41am
There has been a spate of Chinese
companies defaulting on their bond repayments in the past few weeks, sending
anxious ripples through the market that have even touched China’s sovereign
bond yields and caused its central bank to pump liquidity into its bond market
to try to calm it.
While there’s something of a focus
of concern on the coal mining sector, which was hit hard by the impact of the
coronavirus on demand, it isn’t confined to that sector.
On Monday chip maker Tsinghua
Group (also known as Unigroup) – a state-backed entity controlled by Tsinghua
University and regarded as one of the stars of Beijing’s push to reduce its
reliance on imported semiconductors – defaulted on a 1.3 billion yuan ($270
million) bond redemption that was due that day.
Last week state-owned Yongcheng
Coal & Electricity Holding Group was unable to repay a 1 billion yuan bond,
which sent shudders through the entire sector, tanking bond prices, and
triggered an investigation by the bond market regulator into its disclosures.
Other coal companies cancelled planned bond issues or shrunk the size of their
offerings.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/a-very-dangerous-situation-covid-restrictions-spread-across-us-20201119-p56fy4.html
'A very dangerous situation':
COVID restrictions spread across US
November 19, 2020 — 11.43am
Washington: State and city leaders across the
US are rapidly introducing new restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19 as
infections and hospitalisations spike nationwide.
The head of New York City's
education system announced that all schools there would close from Friday
(AEDT) and resume online-only learning after the city's test positivity rate
hit three per cent.
With 1800 schools and 1.1 million
students, New York's school system is easily the biggest in the country.
The announcement sparked immediate
anger among parents given restaurants and gyms remain open for business in the
city, albeit at reduced capacity.
New York's decision to close all
schools is strikingly different to the approach in many European countries.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom have ordered many businesses to close
but have made it a priority to keep schools open.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-lets-his-isolationist-instincts-run-free-with-troop-withdrawals-20201118-p56fn3.html
Trump lets his isolationist
instincts run free with troop withdrawals
November 18, 2020 — 1.07pm
Washington: When Donald Trump first ran for
president in 2016, his isolationist foreign policy approach set him apart from
his Republican opponents.
While calling for military
spending to be increased, Trump also demanded an end to America's involvement
in "ridiculous endless foreign" wars and for the government to bring
home US troops stationed in the Middle East.
This went against the grain in a
party that had been dominated by military hawks like George W Bush and John
McCain. In fact, it was more common to hear these sentiments from the anti-war
left of the Democratic Party. But Trump tapped into a growing sense of fatigue
among Americans — including military veterans — about the country's role as a
"global policeman".
Now, in the dying days of his
presidency, Trump is working to fulfil a central campaign promise to be a
commander-in-chief who dramatically reduces America's overseas military
presence.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/china-doesnt-like-our-japan-deal-bad-luck/news-story/94909a7abfc50002e04e4f06aaabae78
China
doesn’t like our Japan deal? Bad luck
Peter
van Onselen
·
November 19, 2020
So
China doesn’t like
Australia’s forward leaning posture, having signed a new
strategic defence agreement with the United States and Japan. Bad luck. It says if we treat it
like an enemy it will be an enemy. Fine.
It
is the duty of democracies the world over to treat non-democracies with extreme
caution. Especially non-democracies like China, which have shown an increased
preparedness to expand their sphere of influence, twist arms internationally
and defy basic international norms. The rise of authoritarian states is
something to be fearful of, not something to tolerate.
To
be sure, we are not dealing with a benevolent super power here. The rise of
China is the world’s biggest security threat. Forget the skirmishes in the
Middle East, or the craziness in places like North Korea. These are micro
problems. China is a macro problem.
Its
willingness to walk all over the rule of law and due process is something to be
feared. The fact that we are so economically reliant on China doesn’t change
that. If anything, it heightens the fear and the worry Australians should feel.
Hearing China – in full knowledge of the power it wields – amplify its rhetoric
when we do deals with our like-minded allies only serves to confirm the value
of Australia tightening its defence and strategic alliances as China continues
to rise.
-----
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/us-2020-election-its-like-a-horror-movie-that-never-ends/news-story/804123089557a41286b245d8680dde34
US
2020 election: ‘It’s like a horror movie that never ends’
JACK
THE INSIDER
·
2:17PM November 18, 2020
Donald
Trump’s graceless and disgraceful denial of an election he lost by the length
of the straight amounts to the biggest dummy spit in US electoral history. The
toys have been thrown out of the cot and caps set to lock so he can whine to
the world on Twitter.
The
oddest part about it is the man clinging to power by his manicured fingernails,
appears to have no interest in leading the country.
The
Covid pandemic is raging in the US. One million new cases have been diagnosed
in the last six days. Deaths are running at 1300 a day across the country. A
week ago, they were at 1000.
Besides
a press conference on Saturday announcing a partnership with Pfizer whose
vaccination has concluded clinical testing with impressive results, Trump has
not said a word about the pandemic.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/put-up-or-shut-up-rove-tells-giuliani-over-nutty-conspiracy-rant-20201120-p56gaz
Put up or shut up, Rove tells
Giuliani over nutty conspiracy rant
Jacob Greber United States
correspondent
Nov
20, 2020 – 7.19am
Washington | Rudi Giuliani, Donald Trump's
personal lawyer, is coming under mounting pressure by leading Republicans to
prove in court an extraordinary series of claims that he says are enough to
overturn the election.
At a dramatic and often-bizarre
press conference on Thursday (Friday AEDT), the former New York Mayor promoted
a conspiracy-like theory that billionaire George Soros and Hillary Clinton
effectively engaged in an effort with the long-dead dictator of Venezuela, Hugo
Chavez, and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, to undermine the US electoral
process.
"These are serious, I think,
somewhat strange accusations," said Karl Rove, the former White House
deputy chief of staff to president George W. Bush, who said Mr Giuliani and his
co-accusers have an obligation to the American public to prove their claims or
withdraw them.
"These [claims] are
questioning the fundamental fairness of our presidential election and alleging
that there are conspirators who worked in major cities in an organised effort
to engage in widespread voter fraud and that foreign agents and powerful
Americans, namely Soros and the Clinton Foundation were involved," Mr Rove
said on Fox moments after the 90-plus-minute press conference ended.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/the-dow-jones-doesn-t-tell-you-the-real-story-of-the-sharemarket-20201119-p56fyn.html
The Dow Jones doesn't tell you the
real story of the sharemarket
By Allan
Sloan
November 20, 2020 — 8.02am
Lots of people are making lots of
fuss about the Dow Jones industrial average flirting with a nice new benchmark:
30,000. Watching the Dow is a terrific spectator sport, and you can be sure
that more than a few bottles of champagne will be uncorked when we get a 30,000
Dow.
But let's remember the market
indicator that really matters: the S&P 500 index. And let's take a closer
look at the handful of stocks that are powering its rise.
The S&P is lots more important
than the Dow because there's $US5 trillion ($6.9 trillion) or so of investor
money indexed to it. That's more than 150 times as much as is tied to the Dow.
What's really striking about the
S&P, which has risen sharply this month, is how much of its return so far
this year comes from a mere half-dozen tech stocks that represent barely 1 per
cent of the 505-stock index.
As of Monday's close in the US,
the Big Six, as I call them - Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and the two
share classes of Google owner Alphabet - accounted for almost three quarters of
the S&P's return for the year.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/unmistakable-threat-china-gives-up-the-charade-on-trade-dispute-with-australia-20201117-p56f96.html
Unmistakable threat: China gives
up the charade on trade dispute with Australia
China correspondent
November 20, 2020 — 11.30am
This week any pretence was
dropped. For months, the trade dispute between Australia and China that has plagued
2020 was put down to infringements: incorrect labelling on beef, elevated metal
levels in lobster, pests found it timber.
The matters were unrelated,
Beijing insisted, these were customs issues that had nothing to do with the
spiralling bilateral relationship that threatened up to $20 billion in
Australian exports. The media was left to connect the dots: the trade hits came
after Australia banned Chinese telecoms equipment supplier Huawei in
2018 then accelerated after the Morrison government called for an independent
coronavirus inquiry. It was implicit not explicit.
At Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel on
Tuesday afternoon the Chinese embassy gave up the charade.
The two embassy officials were
uncharacteristically late. Between tables of spring diners picking their way
through high tea, they delivered a message.
Unprompted, one official reached
into her large blue purse and unfolded a list of Beijing’s 14 grievances. She
followed it up with a warning: "China is angry,” she told Nine News
reporter Jonathan Kearsley. “If you make China the enemy, China will be the
enemy”.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/pole-watcher-trump-s-election-lawsuits-plagued-by-elementary-errors-20201120-p56gca.html
'Pole watcher': Trump's election
lawsuits plagued by elementary errors
By Nomaan
Merchant
November 20, 2020 — 8.45am
Washington: When President Donald Trump sends
lawyers to court, it seems he’s not sending his best.
Fighting to challenge an election
he lost to President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has launched a barrage of lawsuits
across the country. Top Republicans have stood behind him and said they will
wait for those cases to be resolved before officially recognising the winner, a
standard that has no modern precedent.
But his attorneys have repeatedly
made elementary errors in those high-profile cases: misspelling “poll watcher”
as “pole watcher,” forgetting the name of the presiding judge during a hearing,
inadvertently filing a Michigan lawsuit before an obscure court in Washington
and having to refile complaints after erasing entire arguments they’re using to
challenge results.
-----
https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/us-death-toll-poised-to-rise-significantly-higher-20201121-p56gmy
US death toll poised to rise
significantly higher
Timothy Moore Online editor
Nov
21, 2020 – 9.27am
More than 2000 Americans died in
the last 24 hours because of the coronavirus and the overall toll is poised to
march significantly higher over the next several months.
The approaching Thanksgiving break
could prove to be a critical inflection point with top US health officials
urging Americans not to travel at what usually is the busiest holiday of the
year.
The virus is currently spreading
at will across the US, as it has for several weeks. New daily cases are
expanding in 47 out of 50 states, according to Morgan Stanley, with the test
positivity rate greater than 10 per cent in 27 states.
"The level of spread right
now remains alarming, both for the magnitude of cases and the geographic
pervasiveness of the virus," Amherst Pierpont's Stephen Stanley said in a
note.
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/china-threatens-to-poke-the-eyes-of-five-eyes-nations-over-hk-20201120-p56gep.html
China threatens to 'poke the eyes'
of Five Eyes nations over HK
November 20, 2020 — 12.28pm
China has hit back at a joint
statement from Five Eyes partners condemning its actions in Hong Kong, accusing
the security alliance of threatening its internal affairs.
The Five Eyes foreign ministers
from Australia, Canada, the US, Britain and New Zealand on Thursday said
opposition MPs who were disqualified by Beijing from Hong Kong's legislature
for not being patriotic enough should be immediately reinstated.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian on Thursday night said China would not flinch if trouble came its
way.
"No matter how many eyes they
have, five or 10 or whatever, should anyone dare to undermine China's
sovereignty, security and development interests, be careful not to get poked in
the eye," he said.
"It is only natural that
those who love the country and Hong Kong should govern Hong Kong, while those
anti-China disrupters who stir up troubles in Hong Kong should be knocked
out."
-----
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/a-tragic-farce-trump-s-ignominious-white-house-exit-20201121-p56gn9.html
A tragic farce: Trump's
ignominious White House exit
November 21, 2020 — 11.50am
Washington: Karl Marx famously wrote that
archetypal figures appear twice in history: first in the form of tragedy, and
again as farce. In the period following the November 3 US presidential
election, Donald Trump has managed to achieve both.
Trump’s attempts to cling to power
despite his clear loss to Joe Biden are growing increasingly farcical and have
next to no realistic prospect of success. But he is a tragic figure too because
of the damage he is inflicting on America's democratic traditions as he heads
out the door.
On Saturday (AEDT) Trump hosted a delegation of
senior Republican Michigan legislators at the White House. The meeting had only one
ostensible aim: to convince them to override the will of their state’s voters
and award Michigan’s 16 Electoral College votes to Trump rather than Biden.
It represents a disturbing
escalation from Trump’s previous efforts to challenge the election results in
various states through the legal system.
As much as it may make him look like
a bad loser, Trump is entitled to make his case before the courts where
hearings are held in public and the rules of evidence apply.
-----
I
look forward to comments on all this!
-----
David.