LyrArc Article Gist
India plans to convert 500 railway carraiges into places to keep coronavirus patients in Delhi.  Daily new cases now are over 12,000, with total confirmed cases of 320,000, deaths at 9195. Delhi bed capacity in private and government hospitals  for coronavirus is 9698 wit 4248 beds vacant. Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal says he expects a surge and is preparing for this as the economy reopens. Delhi, Tamilnadu, and Maharashtra are the worst hit states. The lockdown of March 25 has been lifted and markets are crowded. Many businesses and workplaces are now open. And local flights have resumed.

LyrArc Article Gist
Macron is keen on making this trip to Britain his first overseas after the pandemic. Earlier during the pandemic Macron on May 17 visited a battlefield in northern France for a battle in which De Gaulle took part. On this trip he will go to Clarence House, home of Prince Charles, to commemorate the June 18, 1940 speech given by De Gaulle, a moment which gave birth to the French resistance.

Macron is eager to associate his presidency with memories of De Gaulle, the resistance and France during wartime, as it recovers from the pandemic. This also coincides with his meeting with Merkel, the German chancellor, after Germany announced the 500 billion euros grants to small and medium sized businesses in Europe as a show of solidarity and faith in the vision for Europe.

 

LyrArc Article Gist
Research on the experience with online learning during the pandemic shows the importance of blended learning. Having a mentor or someone to help the student taking online classes considerably improves the learning process. Without this online learning does not do as well as regular classroom instruction by teachers.

LyrArc Article Gist
In a corner of Wales known for its coastline and scenic beauty, a biology teacher Mr. Barry Rees sets up a homemade contact tracing system that worked. He is the director of Ceredigion county council. It is the safest county in mainland Britain with only 45 recorded cases in the last week for 75,000 residents. Early on in the coronavirus epidemic Mr. Rees decided to take up contact tracing with whatever resources were on hand and start quickly. This was was happening in German states which were also following low tech, get started quickly approach, but Rees was not aware of what was already happening in Germany. He knew about South Korea and Singapore efforts in contact tracing which put a lot of emphasis on human skills in calling and tracing and getting started immediately. Rees started with the people calling in sick of the 4000 people who worked for the county administration, as he had no testing resources. He started tracing these people and their contacts, and even though some were defensive the majority supported intervention to isolate. At the time there were fears of 200 deaths in the county so that there was no time to lose.  By April the area was facing an influx of people from Aberystwyth University and tourists visiting its sandy beaches, another reason for taking on the task with a homemade system. Today it has one tenth the cases in the rest of Wales.  The hidden fear in the country is that word can get out and lead to more visitors from outside the county. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This interview in the Times with Boris Johnson's father Stanley Johnson, provides some glimpses of life in the family, and where Boris Johnson comes from. Stanley Johnson is a writer who has also worked in other careers including the World Bank and Brussels EU office. Stanley has a book out on the virus. He is interviewed at the family home in rural Somerset. Boris Johnson must have experienced many moves as Stanley Johnson moved many times during periods when he switched careers. From 1974 to 1979 Stanley Johnson was head of the Pollution Division at the European Commission. From 1979 to 1984 he represented Britain at the European Parliament for Wight and Hampshire East. Writing and the classics remain a passion within the family with Stanley and Boris both educated at Oxford.  Boris read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, and was president of Oxford Union 1986. He started his career in journalism with The Times, later becoming the Brussels correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, and for 1994-99 as Assistant Editor. It is at the Daily Telegraph that Boris Johnson set the tone for eurosceptic sentiment that later turned into Brexit. His father Stanley had earlier in written a column for the Guardian, though he wrote on topics related to the environment. Stanley stood for the Remain campaign during the Referendum on Brexit. He later switched sides, supporting his son Boris Johnson. Another note to the family's time in Brussels- Boris actually attended the European school in Brussels. This gave Boris a closer insight into Brussels than would otherwise appear.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
All you need is this article in the WSJ of Sept 16, 2015, showing forecasts of rapid growth of coffee consumption for an aspirational western lifestyle consumer in China, and a small mobile app investment to attract investors in a startup -if you refashion the coffee retail outlets as a tech company by selling coffee for delivery and takeout by mobile app. Luckin Coffee in China shown in the podcast in today's articles did this and attracted billions of dollars in investment from investors, including large banks and financial companies in Europe, U.S. and China, only to collapse in 2 years with losses and investigations in China and the U.S. Luckin Coffee soared after its NASDAQ stock exchange listing in 2018 only 1 year after its founding. WSJ calls it "brazen" the effort to add tech hype to a coffee company and have it listed on NASDAQ in just over a year, only to see its sales and value collapse just as quickly. For U.S. investors the problem is that Chinese companies can list on the NASDAQ or other stock exchanges in the U.S., but U.S. investors cannot look at financial records of companies in China. Yet there are basic questions- why is it a tech company? Why are investors like big banks and other large financial investors pushing so much money into such places when there is so much that needs to be done in health and infrastructure investment, and real tech investment? 5G or 6G? Health systems? Ocean Grounds has a coffee store in Shanghai, Pacific Store has coffee retail outlets in China, and Starbucks is still in the business with retail outlets - remember none of these companies are tech companies. In 2017 Luckin Coffee started by making it look techy with a mobile app and refashioned itself as a tech company.  What is so big about a mobile app as there are hundreds of millions of apps. The rest came from making it look like Starbucks, right down to baristas, fancy coffee machines, and opening stores near Starbucks, according to the Podcast in the WSJ.The difference between Starbucks and Luckin Coffee - the price Luckin Coffee would sell for about $2 compared to about $4 for a Starbucks latte. Yet do this by pricing at closer to Starbucks and issuing promotions discounts constantly on the mobile app, that would bring the price to about $2. That is all it takes to make a tech company nowadays. No scientific research, no science and technology, no technical experience, nothing of the kind that led to the invention of the computer chip or the vaccines that are now being developed, or research activity of any sort. Banks, financial companies are willing to channel huge amounts of money into these places and lose it, as they did in We Work, and are doing at companies such as ride sharing app companies, as well as other app companies without any core technological component or value added such as infrastructure or health products. At the same time as investments in much needed infrastructure and health, education, services that really matter to us as a society, are neglected and starved of capital.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Grocery delivery by supermarkets has become popular during the pandemic. Yet grocery supermarkets are having difficulty turning a profit on delivery sales.

LyrArc Article Gist
This podcast in the WSJ takes up a Chinese startup Luckin Coffee that had major investors in the U.S. and China, including big banks in the U.S. and Europe.  The idea is simple- sell coffee in China to aspirational coffee drinkers following western lifestyles using mobile app. It is the story of huge investments and losses, and collapse of a NASDAQ listed company with what the WSJ investigation calls fabricated sales. Why are infrastructure and health, education products starved of capital left high and dry, while billions are poured into such investments with huge losses. All you need is this article in the WSJ of Sept 16, 2015, shown in today's articles. Showing forecasts of rapid growth of coffee consumption for an aspirational western lifestyle consumer in China, and a small mobile app investment to attract investors in a startup -if you refashion the coffee retail outlets as a tech company by selling coffee for delivery/takeout by mobile app. Luckin Coffee in China shown in the podcast in today's articles did this and attracted billions of dollars in investment from investors, including large banks and financial companies in Europe, U.S. and China, only to collapse in 2 years with losses and investigations in China and the U.S. Luckin Coffee soared after its NASDAQ stock exchange listing in 2018 only 1 year after its founding. WSJ calls it "brazen" the effort to add tech hype to a coffee company and have it listed on NASDAQ in just over a year, only to see its sales and value collapse just as quickly. $400 million in convertible bonds losing 90% of their value, the stock losing most of its value and NASDAQ delisting the stock after $311 million in fabricated sales were found as reported in the South China Morning Post. For U.S. investors the problem is that Chinese companies can list on the NASDAQ or other stock exchanges in the U.S., but U.S. investors cannot look at financial records of companies in China. Yet there are basic questions- why is it a tech company? Why are investors like big banks and other large financial investors pushing so much money into such places when there is so much that needs to be done in health and infrastructure investment, and real tech investment? 5G or 6G? Health systems? Ocean Grounds has a coffee store in Shanghai, Pacific Store has coffee retail outlets in China, and Starbucks is still in the business with retail outlets - remember none of these companies are tech companies. In 2017 Luckin Coffee started by making it look techy with a mobile app and refashioned itself as a tech company.  What is so big about a mobile app as there are hundreds of millions of apps. The rest came from making it look like Starbucks, right down to baristas, fancy coffee machines, and opening stores near Starbucks, according to the Podcast in the WSJ.The difference between Starbucks and Luckin Coffee - the price Luckin Coffee would sell for about $2 compared to about $4 for a Starbucks latte. Yet do this by pricing at closer to Starbucks and issuing promotions discounts constantly on the mobile app, that would bring the price to about $2. That is all it takes to make a tech company nowadays. No scientific research, no science and technology, no technical experience, nothing of the kind that led to the invention of the computer chip or the vaccines that are now being developed, or research activity of any sort. Banks, financial companies are willing to channel huge amounts of money into these places and lose it, as they did in We Work, and are doing at companies such as ride sharing app companies, as well as other app companies without any core technological component or value added such as infrastructure or health products. Only it is not the bank's money but the people's money and savings that are deposited at banks and channeled into investments. At the same time as investments in much needed infrastructure and health, education, services that really matter to us as a society, are neglected and starved of capital.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
China auto sales were up 14.5% in May over the previous year, as sales make a recovery. April's 4% increase ended a 21 month decline.

LyrArc Article Gist
Argentina's government of president Alberto Fernandes is making a state takeover of Vicentin, a soyabean exporter which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and is in ongoing court proceedings. Mr. Fernandes says he is doing this to rescue the century old agricultural firm to protect Vicentin workers, and 2600 farmers who sell crops to the company. Vicentin is Argentina's top exporter of soy meal and soy cooking oil. Mr. Fernandez says the company is a very important asset for the entire Argentine economy. Argentina's farm exports are its main source of earnings in dollars.  A drought in Argentina's farm sector in April 2018 led to a drop in export revenues and worsened Argentina's financial position leading to the 2020 default on Argentine debt. In 2018 the farm sector lost a third of its crop value and 1.5% of GDP. Growth in 2017 was 3% but declined to 1% in 2018. A number of other factors including overborrowing using dollar denominated debt led to the economic crisis in 2020 right in the middle of the pandemic in May 2020. Fernandez is a moderate compared to the previous Kirchner administrations and was elected in 2019 to get Argentina out of the debt crisis after confidence in president Mauricio Macri declined. Fernandez has tackled the coronavirus crisis with an early lockdown compared to neighboring Brazil which has not taken decisive action making Brazil the second largest after the U.S. in cases. This gives Argentina some room to tackle the debt crisis and negotiations with the IMF, lenders. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This review of Acemoglu and Robinson in the MIT News is relevant to the situation faced today. The two professors at MIT and University of Chicago, have provided two books relevant to today's crises, the first "When Nations Fail" in 2012 about the need for inclusive nations, and the second "The Narrow Corridor" about the importance of the role of individual and society in sustaining democracy. Their point in the first book "When Nations Fail" in 2012 coming after the financial crisis caused by banking excesses stated that the nations fail when they are not inclusive.  In practice it is about " the system being rigged" to favor some groups as the Republican party and Mr. Trump say has happened. The banks and lobbyists, pharmaceutical industry and lobbyists, tech industry and lobbyists, leading to a system where individual and society are pushed into a corner. Social theorist and economists fail to look at things in practice such as profit seeking behaviours and unethical behaviour that goes unchecked, which continued after the financial crisis into the election of 2016, with charges of rigged systems.  This week Germany's DW.com oped pages covered New York with the statement that treatment in New York costs $15,000 for coronavirus infection illness yet many New York residents in the worst affected neighborhoods would find a $500 expense difficult to bear. Early closing of schools to control infection rate was resisted by Mayor De Blasio of New York because many parents depended on schools for lunches for their kids. The situation had been allowed to deteriorate to that level.  In their second book the MIT authors are saying that the role of the individual and society are important to check that of the state (for example if it is perceived as being rigged by the influence of lobbying of legislators and politicians as the Republican party and Mr. Trump have maintained). It is only when it is checked and there is some tension is there the possibility of democracy and democratic processes, say the two MIT authors. In the absence of this the states and elites of politicians and business interests supporting the leaders and their common behaviours, become a perpetual state, in effect a one party rule of two parties with similar behaviours and interests in the state. A situation that allowed the outshoring of American manufacturing and European manufacturing to China including critical infrastructure, essential infrastructure over 2 decades even over the protests of Mr. Lighthizer since 2010. As the twin crises evolved in Europe of austerity policies after banking excesses in Europe, and the migration crisis of migrants coming from North Africa and the wars in the Middle East, a similar situation began to develop in Europe as the political elites entrenched in Germany, France, and Spain faced new voices. The tensions that arose were constructive bringing in the role of society and individual that the MIT authors say are so necessary for the narrow corridor of democratic process to function. New parties emerged in France with Macron's La Republique En Marche, Podemos and Ciudadanos in Spain, and in Germany with the SPD and CDU shrinking till the revival of Merkel for her handling of the pandemic. Coming from an intuitive way born from experience in East Germany, Germany's recent president Joachim Gauck, civil rights activist  came up with the same ideas. He is a Lutheran pastor in former East Germany who struggled against the government of the German Democratic Republic (former communist East Germany) for a role for individual and society against the state. We profiled and quoted him in "The Way Forward"  column in Lyrarc.com. Gauck's point was that  having diverse groups in the conversation is important, not excluding others from outside in the conversation is important. Gauck called  debate "the oxygen of democracy,"  that needed to be maintained.  Genuine democratic process is hard to sustain, it happens only when the role of individual and society is given prominence, so that only a narrow corridor exists for democracy, a narrow space in which can be sustained only if the effort is there, the goodwill is there, and the grace of Divine Providence.  It is fragile and it is critical to sustain.   In this sense the sometimes heated debate in the U.S. and Europe, Asia and Latin America about words such as- austerity, community, solidarity, migration, New York Mayor De Blasio's choice between school lunches and infections, about infrastructure, pharmaceutical prices, infrastructure, outshoring, jobs sent overseas, manufacturing locally, made in USA or made in India or made in France, Atmannirbhar Bharat, misallocation of capital starving health and public services, are all relevant and essential for democracy. This includes the discussion to avoid use of the military in protests in American cities in the middle of a pandemic which just crossed the 2 million mark in cases in the U.S., that was taken up by Defense Secretary Esper. In it lies the hope for democracy and many voices. Der Spiegel recent look at the pandemic how it happened in China, closes with the line- you need more than one voice in society. A constant reminder that many voices be heard, counseling patience, but also that wise choices be made with divine providence.           ...

LyrArc Article Gist
A coronavirus outbreak at a housing complex in Gottingen has led to a lockdown of the city as Germany reopens.

LyrArc Article Gist
This graphical presentation, a fascinating look in the NYT shows how the different epidemics, natural disasters and other events compare over the world over the last century. It shows that using a normal mortality rate for a city the worst was Philadelphia in the 1918 spanish flu epidemic. How does this one compare with today's coronavirus pandemic would be a reader question. New York is shown at 5.8 X, Bergamo in Italy at 6.7 X and Philadelphia at 7.3 X. This means New York suffered about 6 times the deaths compared to a normal year. Fifteen thousand people lost their lives in Philadelphia in 1918. As one can see New York went through a lot. The race riots and curfews added to the difficulties the city has faced. When you get past 5.0 X it is only when there is famine or war that one sees this level of deaths. Bergamo in Italy suffered the worst in Europe. Madrid was hit hard at 4.6 X. 14,000 people died in Madrid in the month between mid March to mid April, with a normal deaths in the city at 3000 for a month. In Latin America Lima, Peru, did worse in the coronavirus at 3.99 X, that exceeded New York city in the Spanish flu virus of 1918 at 3.97 X. For New York city this means the coronavirus was at 5.8 X a bigger impact on the city for the mid March to mid April period compared to October 1918. More than 8000 people died in Lima compared to a normal 3000.  Guayaquil, Ecuador is at 5.50 X hit very hard. In Europe Paris is at 2.6 X, and London at 3.0 X, Barcelona at 3.0 X.  By comparison Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and it is at 2.4 X showing that what these cities in Europe went through was like a hurricane going through the cities.  ...