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<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Childcare Subsidies Friendly Budget Women Australia [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Australia to Boost Childcare Subsidies in Women-Friendly Budget. Short_description: Australia May Boost Childcare Subsidies in Women-Friendly Budget. Description: , The Australian government is considering boosting childcare subsidies in next month’s budget to encourage workforce participation and increase its popularity among female voters, the Australian Financial Review reported., Getting more women into work, taking on more hours and completing skills training are key priorities, the newspaper cited Senator Jane Hume, the newly appointed Minister for Women’s Economic Security, as saying in an interview., “You can’t undo every inequality or tear down every barrier or make right every wrong in one budget,” Hume told the newspaper. “But we can make significant inroads and we can also signal we mean business and there is more to do.”, Options include removing the A$10,560 ($8,172) annual per-child cap on the subsidy, the newspaper said, without saying where it obtained the information. The Sun-Herald newspaper said the budget will also contain new policies to bolster pension savings and tackle domestic violence., Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government has pledged a female-friendly budget on May 11, as it seeks to shore up support among women voters amid a backlash over its handling of sexual assault allegations in parliament. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken part in rallies across the nation demanding greater female representation in parliament and tough action against sexual violence and discrimination., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ed Johnson. Date Created: 24 Apr 2021, 7:14 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Protester Assault Suit Appeals Court trump [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Trump Must Testify in Protester Assault Suit, Appeals Court Says. Short_description: Trump Must Testify in Protester Assault Suit, Appeals Court Says. Description: Former President Donald Trump has to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit by a group of human-rights activists who say his security team assaulted them during a 2015 protest outside Trump Tower, a New York appeals court ruled., A state court judge in the Bronx in 2019 ordered Trump to answer questions under oath in the case, but the then-president argued on appeal that he could not be compelled to testify. On Tuesday, the appellate panel , the challenge as moot because Trump is no longer president., The plaintiffs claim Trump’s guards attacked them in September 2015 while they were demonstrating against his remarks about Mexican immigrants and the Black Lives Matter movement. Trump launched his White House bid in the lobby of Trump Tower three month earlier with a speech decrying the influx of Mexican “rapists” and drug smugglers into the U.S., A spokesperson for Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s lawyer on the appeal, didn’t have an immediate comment on the decision., Trump managed to stall many lawsuits against him while he was president but now faces the prospect of being forced to testify in a number of them. Two women who claim he sexually assaulted them are both seeking to depose Trump in defamation suits they filed after he said they were lying., The case is Galicia v. Trump, 24973/2015E, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Bronx., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Chris Dolmetsch. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 2:42 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Fresh effort era debt Cuba Creditor Castro [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Cuba Creditor Makes Fresh Effort to Settle Castro-Era Debts. Short_description: Cuba Creditor Makes Fresh Effort to Settle Castro-Era Debts. Description: An investment firm holding loans the Cuban government defaulted on decades ago is offering a deal it says would help the island return to international debt markets., CRF I Ltd., the largest holder of Cuban debt in the London Club of private creditors, offered to convert about $1.4 billion of the securities into a zero-coupon loan with no payments until 2026, according to a copy of a letter seen by Bloomberg News. It’s addressed to President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who recently expanded his power by taking over as head of the Communist party, and Cuban diplomats., CRF has held Cuban debt since 2009 has made repeated attempts to reach a settlement, including an offer in early 2018, to which it got no response. The firm said its latest proposal would allow Cuba to start to restore its image abroad and move away from its legacy as a serial defaulter, and said other London Club creditors would be likely to strike similar accords. The group holds about $4 billion of loans and other securities Cuba stopped paying when the late Fidel Castro was in power from 1959 to 2008., “Cuba can move from being in arrears with the commercial creditors to regaining access to willing lenders in the global financial markets,” David Charters, the firm’s chairman, wrote in the letter., CRF, which , Cuba for nonpayment in a London court in February 2020 in a case that’s still being heard, declined to comment. The authenticity of the March 18 letter was confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of its content. Messages to Cuban diplomats and the president’s office weren’t returned., The offer would represent a 60% writedown on the net present value of the securities, according to the letter. It was sent ahead of last week’s Communist Party congress in which Raul Castro ceded power to Diaz-Canel, a 61-year-old seen as being more open to reforms than his predecessors., Cuba has made efforts to clear old obligations in recent years, most notably in 2015 when it settled with members of the Paris Club of wealthy nations, in a deal in which $8.5 billion was forgiven., However, with its economic slide worsening over the past two years and shortages of basic goods growing, Cuba missed payments under the Paris Club deal in 2019. Last year, the two sides agreed to suspend payments for the year., Cuba’s defaulted commercial paper, such as the securities held by CRF, had rallied as high as 36 cents on the dollar in late 2016 at the tail end of the presidency of Barack Obama, who had reached a historic agreement with Raul Castro to re-establish diplomatic relations. But as optimism for Cuba’s future has diminished, the loans, which are rarely traded, are now quoted for about 10 cents on the dollar., If Cuba accepts CRF’s offer, it could provide a signal to other investors and the administration of U.S. President Joseph Biden that Diaz-Canel is open to change., While Biden is considered more open than his predecessor to easing restrictions on Cuba, a White House spokeswoman has said a shift in Cuba policy isn’t a top priority for the administration., “We urge you not to let this historic moment slip by again and , for a positive response and engagement from your side,” CRF’s letter said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ezra Fieser. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 8:24 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to opening plan Hospital pressure french Macron [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Macron Outlines French Re-Opening Plan Despite Hospital Pressure. Short_description: Macron Outlines French Re-Opening Plan Despite Hospital Pressure. Description: President Emmanuel Macron said restrictions on businesses and a nationwide curfew will be relaxed from May 19 as he outlines steps to reopen France amid an accelerating vaccination campaign., With his job on the line in elections in just a year, Macron is under pressure to ease curbs. Yet while that will bring some relief to a pandemic-weary country, it’s also a gamble. Hospitals remain under intense strain and France is still trailing the U.K. and , in the number of vaccine doses administered., Here’s how Macron plans to progressively phase out Covid curbs, according to an , with Le Parisien published on Thursday:, From June 30, restrictions will be almost completely lifted, including the curfew, though clubs will remain closed, according to Le Parisien., While Germany has implemented a tough new lockdown that could last until June, France joins Austria, the U.K. and Italy in planning to ease restrictions because of progress made in protecting their people against the disease., France reported around 27,000 new infections a day on average in the past week, down from a peak of around 40,000 at the beginning of April. Hospitalizations are finally on the decline., But Macron’s strategy could prove risky as:, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ania Nussbaum. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 6:55 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Vaccine Passport Plan U.K. Joins France travel [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: U.K. Joins France With Vaccine Passport Plan to Lift Travel. Short_description: U.K. Follows France in Turning Health App Into Vaccine Passport. Description: Britain is working on a digital Covid-19 vaccine passport as the move to restart travel in Europe gathers pace., The U.K. initiative, disclosed Wednesday by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, is based on an existing National Health Service app, which will be adapted to help travelers prove they’ve had a jab or tested negative for the virus. The announcement comes a day after France started to trial short flights with a tracing app updated to host records of shots and tests, on short flights., “In terms of vaccine certification, I can confirm we are working on an NHS application,” Shapps told Sky News. “It will be the NHS app that is used for people when they book appointments with the NHS and so on.”, Vaccine passports are emerging as a key plank of efforts to jump-start European tourism in time for the summer peak. Britain had previously said that they were under consideration ahead of a planned reopening on May 17, while the European Union aims to introduce digital passes by June after governments reached a deal on technical standards earlier his month., In virtual talks Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang discussed the use of vaccine certificates as a way to boost travel, as well as , to ease the impact of the pandemic, according to a German government statement., While Britain needs to remain cautious and protect the gains of its vaccine rollout, current data “does continue to look good” for reopening travel, Shapps said., The minister told Times Radio that he will chair a meeting of Britain’s G-7 counterparts next week to discuss international co-ordination on the recognition of vaccine passports., Within Europe, Greece has already started easing travel with some countries including its fellow EU members, with a full lifting of restrictions for international tourists set for May 15., Britain, which along with Germany is the biggest source of visitors to Mediterranean sun spots, is set to announce a Green List of countries to which leisure travel will be permitted early next month., Spanish tourism minister Fernando Valdes Verelst told The Sun newspaper on Wednesday that Britons will be allowed back in from June once an agreement on mutual recognition of vaccine passports is in place., Shapps said he couldn’t comment specifically on Spain before May’s planned announcements., Following government approval for the EU’s plans on April 14, the European Parliament is set to adopt a position on the European Commission proposals Wednesday. Further negotiations will follow before an agreement on the final wording of rules is hatched sometime next month., Didier Reynders, the EU’s justice commissioner, said in a speech to the Parliament that lawmakers should move quickly to allow travel across the bloc to resume for summer, warning against rigid rules for vaccine passes or delays to gage the impact of jabs on new Covid variants., France’s transport minister, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, said Tuesday that the country’s fledgling vaccine passport, which already has about 15 million users as a Covid-tracing app, is being deployed on services between Paris and the Mediterranean island of Corsica., The trial will be extended to flights by Air France-KLM’s French unit to overseas territories next week and then to some neighboring countries. Talks have also been held with the U.K. on bilateral travel arrangements and discussions with the U.S. will be next, he said., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Kitty Donaldson. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 2:08 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Cashless Place Digital money step world [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: World’s Most Cashless Place Takes Next Step Toward Digital Money. Short_description: World’s Most Cashless Place Takes Next Step Toward Digital Money. Description: , The central bank of Norway, where old-fashioned cash is now used less than anywhere else in the world, says it’s time to take the next step in exploring the introduction of a digital currency., Norges Bank Governor Oystein Olsen, who in the past has seemed less enthusiastic about central bank digital currencies than his peers, says the case for looking into their feasibility now “has been strengthened.” The bank plans to spend the next two years building its knowledge of the area, and doing “experimental testing of technical solutions” to make sure it understands the “purpose and consequences” of introducing a CBDC, he said in a report published on Thursday., The bank has already spent four years on preliminary research, but has remained on the fence on the subject as others move ahead. Central banks globally are racing to respond to widespread cashlessness by developing their own digital currencies, spurred by the embrace of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, as well as private initiatives including Diem, which is backed by Facebook Inc., Only 3-4% of transactions in Norway are conducted with bank notes and coins, according to Norges Bank, which estimates that’s the lowest level of cash usage in the world. The rate is 9% in neighboring Sweden, which is among the most advanced nations when it comes to developing a CBDC, according to the McKinsey Global Payments , ., “A few key points explain the accelerating interest (in central bank digital currencies). The Covid-19 crisis has propelled a drop in cash demand as more people shop online. Also, private digital money such as Facebook’s Diem is spurring policy makers to explore options of their own and finally - as large economies such as the U.S. and the euro area look into the issue, others are more likely to follow.”, --Johanna Jeansson, economist for the Nordic region, “A possible introduction of digital central bank money will still be some way off,” Olsen said. The timeline published on Thursday “reflects that Norges Bank has so far not seen an immediate need for the introduction of such money,” he said., Olsen also said that any decision on introducing a CBDC will require political involvement and potential changes to Norwegian legislation., Meanwhile, Sweden may have a digital central bank currency within five years, Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves recently said. But Sweden has tended to push back its timeline for a CBDC, and recently acknowledged that the task is more complex and time-consuming than initially anticipated., Norges Bank will now spend the next two years testing different models for a CBDC before deciding which version to settle on for a pilot project., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ott Ummelas. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 4:54 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Market Meltdown Stock Plunge December Fed [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Diagnosing a Market Meltdown: What the Fed Said About December’s Stock Plunge. Short_description: Diagnosing a Market Meltdown: What the Fed Said About December. Description: (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve officials turned into market analysts at , in the minutes of their January meeting., Policy makers offered a laundry list of reasons why U.S. equities came under severe pressure at the end of 2018, nearly falling into a bear market., Here’s what the Fed thinks caused the damage:, “A variety of factors -- including FOMC communications, weaker-than-expected data, trade policy uncertainties, the partial federal government shutdown, and concerns about the outlook for corporate earnings -- were cited by market participants as contributing to a deterioration in risk sentiment early in the period.”, “Some other investors reportedly held firmly to the belief that the runoff of the Federal Reserve’s securities holdings was a factor putting significant downward pressure on risky asset prices, and the investment decisions of these investors, particularly in thin market conditions around the year-end, might have had an outsized effect on market prices for a time.”, “Some investors might have interpreted previous communications as indicating that a very high threshold would have to be met before the Committee would be willing to adjust its balance sheet normalization plans.”, “December FOMC communications were reportedly perceived by market participants as not fully appreciating the implications of tighter financial conditions and softening global data over recent months for the U.S. economic outlook. Subsequent communications from FOMC participants were interpreted as suggesting that the FOMC would be patient in assessing the implications of recent economic and financial developments.”, “The increase in volatility in financial markets in December was viewed as substantial and as likely exacerbated by thin year-end liquidity, among other factors.”, “A couple of participants highlighted the role that decreased liquidity at the end of the year appeared to play in exacerbating changes in financial market conditions. They emphasized the need to monitor financial market structures or practices that may contribute to strained liquidity conditions.”, “A couple of participants noted that the strain in financial markets might have persisted or spread if it had occurred during a period of less favorable macroeconomic conditions.”, ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Luke Kawa. Date Created: 21 Feb 2019, 2:03 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Covid Treatments stock earth [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Stocks That Soared on Covid Treatments Are Coming Back to Earth. Short_description: Stocks That Soared on Covid Treatments Are Coming Back to Earth. Description: Covid-19 case numbers are , and health authorities are getting increasingly , about coronavirus variants, yet investors are growing less optimistic about many of the companies that are trying to develop treatments for the infection., Many of the stocks that skyrocketed in 2020 -- including Tiziana Life Sciences Plc and Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. -- have fallen from their highs amid mounting expectations that the pandemic can be suppressed through vaccination. At the same time, some biotechs such as France’s Abivax SA have abandoned trials for drugs to fight infection with the coronavirus., “If share prices of these companies implicitly assume that many, many people will be treated every year then they’re clearly overvalued,” said Adam Barker, an analyst at Shore Capital., To be sure, , in countries such as India shows that treatments will still be needed as new strains of the disease emerge that can escape first-generation immunity. It’s just turning out to be harder to develop effective drugs than the most optimistic investors expected., There are hundreds of drugs in development for Covid-19. Ten have been approved for , by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and only one, Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir antiviral, has won , ., That drug hasn’t been shown to reduce deaths from the virus, only to reduce the time needed to recover from it. A , of the product hasn’t helped the stock price: Gilead is up about 8% since winning regulatory backing, underperforming an index of health-care stocks in the U.S., Here’s a roundup of some of the Covid treatment stocks and where they stand more than a year on from the onset of the pandemic., Tiziana peaked in July when it sought a U.S. patent for its monoclonal antibody TZLS-501 in the treatment of Covid-19. The company launched its first clinical trial for the nasally administered treatment in November, with positive results reported at the start of February. It’s planning to begin larger trials on both outpatients and inpatients, said Howard Weiner, a scientific , for Tiziana. The shares have fallen 7.1% this year. , Humanigen shares soared 618% last year. Preliminary data last month from a late-stage trial showed that its lenzilumab drug increased survival of hospitalized patients without the need for ventilation. The company has shared the results with regulators worldwide and plans to apply for approval, Chief Executive Officer Cameron Durrant said by email. Analysts are still bullish: Six of the seven tracked by Bloomberg have buy or equivalent ratings on the stock., Vir more than doubled last year and then surged anew early in 2021, causing losses for short sellers who had bet on the stock declining. Late-stage trial data subsequently showed the U.S. company’s VIR-7831 antibody, developed with GlaxoSmithKline Plc, led to a , of hospitalization and death. The companies applied for emergency-use clearance in the U.S. on March 26 and the drug is being reviewed by the European Union. The stock has pulled back to below $49 as a , in the most-shorted names cooled down. Analysts are mostly bullish on Vir, though their price targets range from $33 to $135, reflecting a wide range of possible outcomes. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the lone bear on the stock, says, “Valuation is a concern.”, Synairgen’s 2,520% gain last year was the biggest in the FTSE AIM All Share Index. In a clinical trial, SNG001, the company’s formulation of the human protein interferon beta, , of patients developing the worst symptoms of Covid-19. Now Synairgen has begun dosing in a late-stage trial of hospitalized patients and begun a mid-stage study in people not requiring hospitalization., “Synairgen has shown early proof-of-concept data that suggest their medicine could provide a profound benefit to patients, potentially materially better than anything we have seen to date from some of the higher-profile companies,” said David Pinniger, lead manager of the Polar Capital Biotechnology Fund, who owns the stock., The shares surged in May 2020 and again in August after the San Diego-based company said it discovered an antibody that could protect against Covid-19, only to have skeptical short sellers pile in to bet against it. It still ended 2020 up more than 100%. Early-stage data from a handful of Covid-19 patients sent the shares higher again in January, though they have since dropped off. The company said last week it plans a bigger study. Sorrento is studying experimental treatments for other illnesses as well that may pay off, said Raghuram Selvaraju, an analyst at H.C. Wainwright & Co. “Sorrento’s antibody pipeline is broad and diverse, while also rapidly advancing in maturity,” he wrote in a report this week, reiterating his buy recommendation., Celltrion shares more than doubled last year. The company received conditional approval from South Korea in February for its antibody treatment, regdanvimab, in high-risk patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 symptoms. The EU regulator in March said the product can be used in some high-risk adult patients, though data from an ongoing study wasn’t robust enough to reach a firm conclusion on the medicine’s benefits. Celltrion is working on its Phase 3 clinical trial on about 1,300 people and plans to get results by the end of June, a spokesman said., The French drugmaker’s stock jumped 53% last year. In March the company ended trials of its anti-inflammatory drug ABX464 in Covid-19 patients after it showed no signs of efficacy. The shares fell the most in almost five years, despite analysts stressing the drug’s potential in other uses such as for ulcerative colitis and inflammatory bowel disease. The six analysts tracked by Bloomberg who cover Abivax see about 65% upside, on average, for the stock., The Norwegian company’s stock almost doubled through mid-May last year, only to give up half the gains after the U.K. pulled funding in July for a study in which its bemcentinib was the lead drug candidate to be tested. Short interest has climbed as investors await data from a mid-stage trial in hospitalized Covid-19 patients. Preliminary data released this month showed the drug was well-tolerated with no safety issues, while more detailed data is expected in May., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Morwenna Coniam. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 9:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Credit Suisse Cannabis Dealings Clamps [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Credit Suisse Clamps Down on Its Cannabis Dealings. Short_description: Credit Suisse Clamps Down on Its Cannabis Dealings. Description: Credit Suisse Group AG has clamped down on its dealings with cannabis-related securities as part of an ongoing risk management review following a series of scandals at the bank., The bank has put in place a formal cannabis policy and alerted some clients to the measure in March, according to a person familiar with the matter. The policy for the first time included a list of companies that Credit Suisse would not service, such as most of the large U.S., state operators, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter., The bank is still participating with some cannabis-related investments, such as cannabis ETFs, and Canadian licensed producers including Canopy Growth Corp., Aurora Cannabis Inc. and Tilray Inc. were not on the list, indicating that the bank can continue to operate with them, the person said., A representative for Credit Suisse declined to comment., The articulation of a conservative cannabis policy comes amid a de-risking effort by the bank following its troubles with Archegos Capital Management, a family office set , manage the fortune of trader Bill Hwang whose implosion caused the bank a $5.5 billion hit. It also comes at a time when cannabis stocks have taken a turn for the worse since early February., Ascend Wellness Holdings Inc., a U.S. cannabis company operating in five states, closed an initial public offering this week -- the first to do so since the Credit Suisse change, according to its chief executive officer, Abner Kurtin. The Credit Suisse policy had seemed to spook the market, he said, affecting the ability of some shareholders to purchase cannabis stocks more broadly., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tiffany Kary &. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 1:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to EU Approves Sale Human Consumption Mealworm [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: EU Approves Sale of Mealworm for Human Consumption. Short_description: EU Approves Sale of Mealworm for Human Consumption. Description: Frog legs rolled in worm flour could be the next culinary delight for European haute cuisine after the European Union gave its blessing for the first time for an insect food., Dried yellow mealworm can now be sold across the 27-nation bloc after a Monday decision from EU governments and a food safety assessment, the European Commission said on Tuesday., EU officials suggest it could be used as a protein boost for cookies, pasta or baked goods, as they try to reassure fussy eaters that millions of people around the world already eat insects. It’s also a more environmentally friendly alternative to rearing cattle and other larger sources of protein. The market for edible insects is set to reach $4.6 billion by 2027, according to one , earlier this year., Some 11 other insect foods are waiting for food safety evaluations from the EU., “It is , consumers to decide whether they want to eat insects or not,” the EU said on its , . “The use of insects as an alternate source of protein is not new.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Aoife White. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 4:51 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Birkin Bag Maker Hermes Sales Soar Resilience [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Hermes Sales Soar as Birkin Bag Maker Shows Resilience. Short_description: Hermes Sales Soar as Birkin Maker Shows Resilience. Description: Hermes International shares rose to a record after the maker of the iconic Birkin bag joined other luxury-goods companies in reporting a surge in sales as key markets in Asia recover from the pandemic., Revenue soared 44% at constant exchange rates in the first quarter, Hermes said in a statement Thursday. Analysts expected growth of 27%. , Hermes’ limited supply of goods, from silk scarves to leather handbags, has typically helped the French brand’s mystique and pricing power. With much of Europe mired in lockdowns since the start of the year, Hermes relied on the appetite of consumers in Asia, where sales jumped 74%. The company opened a store in Tokyo in the period, contributing to the upbeat performance of the Japanese market., While the pandemic makes trends difficult to predict, the luxury company confirmed an “ambitious goal” for revenue growth in the medium-term. Chief Financial Officer Eric du Halgouet pointed notably to , in Japan amid a rise in infections there. After increasing the prices of its goods by around 1% last year, Hermes plans a 1.4% increase this year, he added., Hermes shares rose as much as 3% to a record 1,057 euros in Paris trading. The stock surpassed 1,000 euros ($1,204) last week for the first time., Hermes at Record After 1Q ‘Smashes’ Consensus Estimates, The sales results reflect “the strength of the brand driving continued polarization between winners and losers” among luxury houses, as well as a “return to normal levels of leather goods production and deliveries,” Thomas Chauvet, a Citigroup analyst, wrote in a note., Hermes’ production capacity was hurt a year ago with the first lockdown in France, where its goods are made., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Angelina Rascouet. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 11:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Tackle Labor Shortage Montana Unemployed [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Montana Offers $1,200 to Unemployed to Tackle Labor Shortage. Short_description: Montana Offers $1,200 to Unemployed to Tackle Labor Shortage. Description: Montana Governor Greg Gianforte is seeking to lure residents back into the workforce with a $1,200 payment, blaming an expansion of unemployment benefits for a labor shortage in the state., On Tuesday, the Republican governor announced a plan to give people the one-time stipend if they give up unemployment benefits and work for at least four weeks, his office said in a , . In late June, the , of about 1.1 million people will also stop issuing the $300 in supplemental unemployment benefits that have been provided during the pandemic., The $1,200 incentive will be funded by the aid the state receives from the American Rescue Plan Act. Montana’s plan shows the variety of economic-development initiatives that the relief funds could finance on the state and local level. A shortage of workers is affecting industries across Montana, including the health care, construction, and hospitality and leisure industries, Gianforte said., “The vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good,” Gianforte said. “We need to incentivize Montanans to reenter the workforce. Our return-to-work bonus and the return to pre-pandemic unemployment programs will help get more Montanans back to work.”, U.S. governors are starting to unveil their plans for the $195 billion of aid , for states under President Joe Biden’s rescue plan. They can use that money for a range of purposes, including aid to households or businesses, , to the Treasury Department. The agency has , it will provide additional guidance on how governments can use funds in the coming weeks., Other governors are also looking to devote some of their federal aid to bolster their labor force. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat, last week , using some of the state’s $2.6 billion of federal aid for workforce development programs, like a short-term job-training series that his office says could teach more than 9,000 residents. He said that will help some of the state’s more than 140,000 residents who are still unemployed., Montana has an unemployment rate of just 3.8%, tied with two other states for the ninth-lowest rate in the country, , to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Still, the state’s Department of Labor and Industry , Montana’s labor force is 10,000 workers smaller than it was before the pandemic., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Amanda Albright. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 1:18 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Reopening Quarantine Thailand [/INST] OnWeb news. Title: Thailand Plans to Halve Quarantine as Reopening Seen Delayed. Short_description: Thailand Plans to Halve Quarantine as Reopening Seen Delayed. Description: Tourism-reliant Thailand is planning to slash a mandatory quarantine period for vaccinated international travelers to seven days to boost its economy as a wider reopening is seen delayed by a low vaccination rate., The reduction in quarantine from the current 14 days will help boost Thailand’s economy and tourism, according to Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control. If a shorter isolation period is approved by the nation’s Covid-19 task force, it could be effective from October 1, he said., Under the proposed rules, international travelers with vaccine certificates will still need to be tested for Covid-19 upon arrival and before leaving the quarantine, according to Opas. Visitors without jab certificates arriving by air will be subjected to a 10-day quarantine, while those arriving by land will have to complete a 14-day quarantine. , Thailand Eyes More Tourists as Cases Slump With More Jabs: Chart, Thai officials have signaled a delay to previously , to scrap the quarantine for visitors to several provinces, including Bangkok and Chiang Mai from Oct. 1, citing their failure to meet the 70% vaccination threshold for local residents. Some tourist destinations, including the resort island of , , already allow inoculated visitors to enter without quarantine. , Thailand is betting on the return of foreign tourists to revive its economy as the sector generated more than $60 billion from about 40 million visitors in 2019. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Randy Thanthong-Knight. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 12:18 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Global Oil Recovery Covid Crisis India [/INST] Opinion news. Title: India’s Covid Crisis Threatens a Global Oil Recovery. Short_description: The world’s biggest oil producers may now have to rethink their deal to ease output cuts.. Description: India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer behind the U.S. and China, was meant to be a major driver of oil’s demand recovery as economies reopened. But the country’s devastating health crisis has made that impossible. Everyone from oil traders to the world’s biggest producers are panicking., Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing , over a surge in coronavirus cases that began shortly after his government declared the country was “in the endgame of the Covid-19 pandemic,” allowed large election rallies and gave the go-ahead to the , religious festival that attracted an estimated 3.5 million devotees., As my Bloomberg Opinion colleague David Fickling , , the current situation in India means Covid will probably kill more people in 2021 than it did last year. The pandemic death toll in the country is likely to be , than official figures suggest., The record number of new coronavirus cases in India is a human tragedy. It also has serious implications for the global oil industry., India was one of the bright spots for oil demand growth, alongside China, where the pandemic appears to have been controlled, and the U.S. and U.K., where widespread vaccination has allowed economic activity and leisure travel to resume slowly. Demand for oil in the world’s third-largest oil market was expected to be above, or close to, pre-pandemic levels this year. Those forecasts now look certain to be revised lower. , My Bloomberg News colleagues Debjit Chakraborty and Saket Sundria ,  that the combined consumption of diesel and gasoline in India this month is poised to plunge by as much as 20% from March, as streets in major cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai become eerily quiet., Stay-at-home advisories are likely to hit motor fuels, which until now had been supported by a mass switch from public transport to private cars and motorbikes. Restrictions have also hit trucking and buses, halving their business, according to the , ., Refinery runs are ,  in response to the contraction in demand, leading to a build-up in crude stockpiles that will weigh on future purchases even after the situation improves. Crude purchases by India’s refineries will almost certainly fall if the outbreak and associated restrictions persist., But the impact won’t be limited to the South Asian nation. Countries from the U.K. to Canada are starting to ban air travel from India and that will hit international jet fuel demand, which is still languishing., The world’s biggest oil producers are starting to fret too. The OPEC+ group, which unites countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, had been counting on a surge in demand to support crude oil prices and an easing of record output cuts. It may now have to think again., Ministers are due to hold their next monthly meeting later this week. When they met at the start of the month, they agreed to a schedule for relaxing some of their output cuts in May, June and July. Those plans might have to be revised before they’re brought into effect., The group intended to add 2.14 million barrels a day to global supplies between May and July and was considering , the forthcoming meeting to just a technical session that would monitor members’ progress. This may no longer be possible., The producers in the Middle East may be most at risk. It takes five to six days to ship a cargo of crude from the Persian Gulf to India, compared with five to six weeks to ship from the Gulf of Mexico. A decision by India to cut purchases from U.S. producers wouldn’t be felt in reduced volumes arriving into its storage tanks until June. A similar decision taken on Middle Eastern supplies could be felt before the end of April., India was already , to Saudi Arabian crude, as relations between the two countries soured over prices. A demand collapse will only accelerate that process., Having delayed the planned easing of output cuts from January, the OPEC+ group was hoping to get things back on track by July. A slump in India’s oil demand will make that more difficult, forcing them either to delay opening the taps once again or risk undermining crude prices. None of them wants that., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Julian Lee is an oil strategist for Bloomberg. Previously he worked as a senior analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Julian Lee. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 10:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Global Warming market [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Mobilize the Market to Fight Global Warming. Short_description: Capital markets are an extraordinarily powerful tool in the fight against climate change.. Description: Capital markets are an extraordinarily powerful tool in the fight against climate change. Government action is certainly critical. But ultimately, reducing emissions globally depends on the private sector recognizing the commercial opportunities that sustainability presents. That’s the inspiration behind a new partnership we are announcing today., Together, Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Goldman Sachs will make a meaningful contribution to the transition to net zero emissions by helping more businesses and investors capitalize on the opportunities that come with the move to clean energy. We’ll do this using two tools that are core to our organizations: capital and data., First, we will harness investor demand to direct more capital toward climate transition investments where the need is most acute: in developing markets. By marshaling more capital to finance clean-energy projects, we will be able to support nations and their utilities in their transition from fossil fuels to renewable power. This will both help build a more resilient economy and improve public health., Developing markets are especially critical because the global pandemic has set back clean-energy investment there, as the , of the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative shows. While green energy investment in high-income markets increased by more than 20% last year, in developing markets it , by more than 20% — and there was hardly any to begin with, Lower-middle-income and low-income countries that account for half the world’s population receive just 5% and .3%, respectively, of global clean-energy investment., To change this, our partnership will help launch an innovation fund that will deploy capital to energy transition projects across developing markets, with a special focus on South and Southeast Asia. The need is huge. In Indonesia, for example, jump-starting renewable energy development by 2025 will require up to $90 billion. And in India, the government has set an ambitious renewable energy target for 2030 that requires $500 billion in investment., We will help these nations and others find the capital to meet their goals, in part by identifying potential financing sources, from sovereign wealth funds to pension funds to private banks. We will also work alongside the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other regional partners to spur greater investment in mass transit, green buildings, sustainable agriculture and other sectors that have large carbon footprints. As ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa has noted, “We can no longer take a business-as-usual approach to climate change. We need to put ambitious climate actions at the center of development.”, As part of this effort, Bloomberg will also develop tools that will help investors align their portfolios with the transition to net zero emissions and the need to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. These tools will include indices and other offerings that will help investors assess climate risks, rebalance portfolios, and reallocate capital to be aligned with the climate protection goals of the Paris Agreement., The timing is right for this new partnership, because investors increasingly have access to better, more complete information about climate risks and opportunities, thanks to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, which has been welcomed by the U.S. Treasury, and will be used as a foundation for the European Commission’s work on global climate reporting standards. So it is now possible to provide mainstream investors with greater transparency into how their portfolios are aligned with the climate transition — and we will help do exactly that., To help achieve our two overarching goals — driving more capital to developing markets to accelerate their climate transition, and developing new climate-friendly tools for all investors — Bloomberg Philanthropies will expand its global research and policy work, which is aimed at creating the market conditions to scale up clean-energy industries. And this work will complement Goldman’s existing efforts to accelerate the movement of capital to climate solutions, including through the Restore Fund it recently created with Apple and Conservation International., The challenge of climate change is too large for national governments to tackle alone. Close collaboration with the private sector can allow nations to make progress regardless of which way the political winds blow. And the more that we can show private-sector investors and government officials that growing economies and fighting climate change go hand in hand, the faster we will be able to move to a clean-energy economy., Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, and UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions., David M. Solomon is the chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michael R. Bloomberg &. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Physics Garfield Lazy [/INST] Opinion news. Title: The Physics of Being Lazy, as Garfield Turns 40. Short_description: As the fat, lazy, orange cat Garfield turns 38, here’s how the world berates laziness.. Description: “He’s furry, he’s fat — he’s a cool, orange cat.”, If you have ever come across , by TS Eliot, or watched Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical , , you would know that “he” is nothing like Macavity — the mysterious yet irresistibly debonair feline — or the badass thieves Rumpelteazer and Mungojerrie. In fact, “his” persona is completely antipodal to any of theirs., Yet no one defines ‘cool’ like him. A lazy, fat, orange cat who hates Mondays (not like he leads a salaried life, and hence has to go to work during the week) — yes, we are indeed talking about Garfield. And he said hello to us for the first time on this day, 40 years ago., During the 1970s, artist Jim Davis was looking to create a “good, marketable character”. And he did. Nothing captures the everydayness of the “marketed” American life as Garfield —a fat cat who glorifies consumption, and is the epitome of indolence and indifference., The world’s most syndicated comic strip, the , franchise now includes a massive range of merchandise, besides films and television shows., If you think about it, thematically, , is about nothing in particular. At the best it is a story of laziness. I am sure you have been taught all your life that an idle (read lazy) mind is the devil’s workshop., So how come a celebration of laziness be so popular? Hence, today, on the 40th anniversary of its publication, we are not going to take the oft-tread path and bombard you with history and chronology. Instead we will talk about that horrible vice known to man(and cat)kind as laziness., Not only is Garfield lazy, but he is also the only creature who works hard to be lazy. While I was growing up during the early ’90s in Kolkata, my father would often take me to Free School Street — a haven for old books and LPs. It was there that I first picked up my first two copies of the , comics-series., In of the first strips I read, a disgruntled Garfield can be seen battling with finding the perfect reclining position to watch the television. The next panels show him rushing out, and coming back with a tool kit. What the lazy cat goes on to do is nail the television up on the ceiling, so that he can watch it while lying on his back from the comfort of his cot., Garfield may be the ultimate laggard, but is clearly the wittiest pet around. Think about Odie, the other pet in Jon’s household, Garfield’s owner — the mindless dog who is the classic idiot. Garfield is manipulative, and his relationship with Jon thrives on manipulation, with both of them trying their best to ply each other to attain desirable results., The American conveyer belt economy is just this — the manufacturer who is ever manipulating you to consume their product, and you, who are fooled into thinking that your feedback, and choice to buy or not buy, is compelling them to better suit your needs. But Garfield is allowed to be lazy, though much to the chagrin of his owner., But then there are others who are not fortunate enough to have the luxury of being lazy., Think about it this way — Garfield and Jon also, at the very best, share a proprietary relationship. Jon ‘owns’ Garfield, but our smart cat hardly ever seems to embody that ownership. It’s like an employer and his employee. But employees cannot be lazy, can they? That would be antithetical. Workers are supposed to be productive, not some lazy bums. Why pay them otherwise? This brings us to two questions: What counts as laziness? And, who is allowed to be lazy?, Thomas De Quincey’s , , among other things, concerned the very idea of ‘being productive’. In a letter, collected in his biographical sketches, Quincey writes about cotton mill labourers under the influence of opium, and the problem their employers had with their addiction., What appears from Quincey’s correspondence is that the workers’ wages were lowered because the employers thought their opium-eating made them less productive, and sluggish. Given that their normal wages could never afford them the luxury of ale, opium was probably the only accessible intoxicant. But what is of importance to us in this context is Quincey’s next observation., He goes on to note that for a person like him, who has once been exposed to the sweet intoxication of opium, alcohol becomes a “gross” and “mortal” entity. By ridiculing the choice inebriant of the rich, Quincey exposes a rather unfair dichotomy. Alcohol and opium are both intoxicants, inducing the same ‘laze’ in rich and poor (employer and worker) alike. It’s only because the former is more expensive, and preferred by the elite, that the laziness it induces is absolved of all sins., During my childhood, I never remember my mother not being angry at the sight of me sitting down with a comic book. After all, what can be a greater indicator of being completely unproductive than sitting down with a comic book in hand? Comics are not ‘serious’ reading, they are just fun flippant stuff. You don’t see kids, or adults reading comic books anymore. It’s a fast-paced, production-oriented world after all., Cartoons have history of being political, owing to their deployment in the print media. But comics? They only feature in a lazy person’s arsenal. Then what about those ‘comic books’ that have ingeniously, and (most importantly) humorously got back at regressive conventions, orthodox practices and politics? Think about Art Spiegelman’s , , or MarjaneSatrapi’s , , or Joe Sacco’s , — all graphic novels which evolved from comic strips., But just like any art form, comics and cartoons can also be used for propaganda. About 50 years ago today, a cartoonist named Bal Thackeray, who would later go on to become the undeclared ruler Mumbai, founded a party called the Shiv Sena. Today is also writer Salman Rushdie’s birthday. A large part of his book, , , concerns the fascinating images that the protagonist Moraes Zogoiby’s mother created. Though there are no illustrations, the visual permeates the verbal in Rushdie’s book, much to the effect of a ‘lazy’ comic book. Incidentally, Rushdie also chose to lampoon Thackeray in the book by creating a character akin to him, Raman Fielding, nicknamed , , the frog king., The war of images and words can be fought, lost, or won. But what about laziness? Imagine a situation where you could have stood up for someone, but decided to keep tapping at our mobile. Weren’t you being lazy? A lazy world is not hell, but a selectively lazy one is.. Publisher: Abhirup Dam. Date Created: 19 Jun 2015, 8:46 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Uniform Civil Code Engender Reforms Personal Laws view [/INST] Opinion news. Title: View: Uniform Civil Code Could Engender Reforms in Personal Laws. Short_description: The Supreme Court recently hinted it favoured a Uniform Civil Code on which is hinged the issue of gender equality. . Description: In a recent judgment the Supreme Court decided that an unwed Christian mother, who had challenged a Delhi High Court order directing her to reveal the name of the child’s father when she sought guardianship, can be the sole guardian. While ruling in her favour, the court made an observation in favour of the need to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). This has once again focused political attention on the UCC., There is agreement that religious personal laws are discriminatory towards women and must therefore change. There are, however, disagreements over the means to achieve this objective, whether through a state-sponsored civil code or community-based internal reform. There is also disagreement whether such a code would be a UCC or a gender-just common civil code., The Sangh Parivar is the strongest advocate of a UCC while Muslim conservatives are among its strongest opponents. After the Shah Bano controversy resulted in the 1986 Muslim Women’s (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, which denied divorced Muslim women the same rights to maintenance as other Indian women under the Criminal Procedure Code, Hindu organisations stepped up their advocacy of uniform laws, primarily as a means of eradicating the ‘privileges’ of minority men., In 1998, the BJP promised to institute a UCC if it came to power. Until then, the party had raised the UCC issue principally to embarrass the Congress which was reluctant to change the status quo in the face of Muslim opposition to it. To its way of thinking, leaving Muslim personal law untouched implies unequal and asymmetrical treatment. This asymmetry has formed the basis for the charge that secularism, especially secular practice, implies pandering to Muslims for electoral gains. The Muslim leadership, on the other hand, fears that such laws would inevitably lead to uniform cultural practices and alien customs being foisted upon them., Over the last three decades, the UCC has run into considerable opposition resulting in most political parties and women’s organisations distancing themselves from it., The decisive shift occurred in the wake of the Ayodhya conflict and the dramatic growth of Hindu nationalism which increased Muslim fears of the imposition of a ‘Hindu’ code. This led to the move away from the long term goal of homogenisation of family law to the reform of group specific personal laws. The strategic change from demanding a UCC to personal law reform was particularly significant for women’s organisations as they were wary that the BJP’s real interest is in imposing a Hindu code., Aware that legal change cannot be isolated from wider political conflicts, women’s groups had pressed for greater advances in women’s rights. Earlier they believed that UCC was the optimal path to women’s empowerment in family law, now they support a more nuanced position which combines the options of reform from within personal laws with the formulation of gender-just laws deriving from the concept of a common civil code., From the outset, the problem with the UCC debate was its gratuitous emphasis on uniformity which found its reflection in terming it a UCC. The UCC issue has largely ignored matters related to equality and revolved around uniformity of civil codes thought to be essential for national integrity, while plural systems of law undermine it. , Hindu nationalists underpinned their calls for a UCC with criticisms of gender-unequal features of Muslim personal law, but not similar infirmities in Hindu law. But despite considerable disparagement of secular parties for opposing a UCC, the BJP did not devise proposals to advance this project when it was in power in a coalition from 1998 to 2004. It remains to be seen whether the Modi government with a majority in the Lok Sabha can go beyond the rhetoric of reviling Muslims for their refusal to embrace a UCC., A number of proposals have been mooted by women’s groups to enlarge the scope of gender justice on grounds of equality. One is to devise secular laws and encourage people to opt for them. Such an idea was advanced as early as 1945 when it was suggested that the UCC be made optional. India already has optional civil code in the form of the Special Marriages Act, 1954. This Act read with other similar Acts such as the Indian Succession Act, 1925, provides a legal framework for matters concerning marriage, divorce, maintenance and succession for those who wish to avoid religion-based laws. , However, successive governments failed to create the machinery for implementing an optional code. Had they done so, it may well have expanded the ground of secular laws, besides building up pressure for reform of community laws. Such options would result in the regime of personal laws becoming voluntary., (, ), Here’s Nishtha Gautam’s Counter-view on the same topic, . Publisher: Zoya Hasan. Date Created: 16 Jul 2015, 6:52 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Covid Nightmare Big Question India way [/INST] Opinion news. Title: The Big Question: Can India Find a Way Out of Its Covid Nightmare?. Short_description: A Q&A with virologist Shahid Jameel on the causes of India’s devastating second wave and what the world should learn from it.  . Description: , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and Africa., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bobby Ghosh. Date Created: 02 May 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Mamata Banerjee Vs Arvind Kejriwal Winner [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Mamata Banerjee Vs Arvind Kejriwal: And The Winner Is…. Short_description: Mamata only has to co-opt Gandhis & ex-Congressmen, while Arvind has to destroy the Congress, to have a shot at the top slot.. Description: India’s regional parties are ‘cursed’ by a peculiar voodoo. In the , of this argument, I have written how the electoral footprint of a regional party stops dead at the border of the state in which its patriarch (or matriarch) is domiciled. But then I have postulated that two stormy petrels and current chief ministers — viz, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal — are exerting every sinew to break this voodoo and emerge as the ‘first among equals’ in an opposition cohort that hopes to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024., Mamata Banerjee scores on seniority and political heft. She is a contemporary political colossus in a large state of nearly 100 million people. She is a battle-scarred veteran with relationships across the spectrum, especially among India’s ‘swivel politicians’, i.e. those regional titans who can run with the hare (BJP) and also hunt with the hound (opposition). Who, you ask? Well, imagine a podium of Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), K Chandrashekar Rao (Telangana), YS Jagan Mohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh), Gowdas (Karnataka), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Chautalas (Haryana), and now even the Badals (Punjab). These are ‘swivel politicians’ who could happily support Banerjee in case she is able to cobble enough numbers in Lok Sabha., Arvind Kejriwal, on the other hand, is a ‘junior’, relatively light-weight opposition politician. His bailiwick in the ‘state’ of Delhi has barely got 30 million people with a mere handful of members in parliament. He hardly commands any currency with the ‘swivel group’. But he is young and popular with urban youth, perhaps the most vocal constituency in India’s emerging politics. His IIT creds add to his popularity, Against Mamata Banerjee’s ‘hard secularism or pro-minority-ism’, Arvind Kejriwal is comfortable mimicking the ‘soft-secularism plus sleeve-nationalism’ pitch, a bit like the BJP. Arguably, Kejriwal’s political heft is an active work in progress that is accreting with each passing day., But for now, on sheer political chutzpah, it’s advantage Banerjee. Witness how she can wrest BJP heavyweights, including Babul Supriyo, Prime Minister Modi’s recent cabinet colleague, a feat that is , for any other opposition politician. In fact, while Banerjee held her own against Modi in parliament elections in West Bengal in 2019, Kejriwal was routed in his Delhi stronghold., However, Arvind Kejriwal enjoys a stronger halo of perception that is so cardinal in politics. Delhi is not a ‘region’ but a ‘microcosm’ of India. The city-state does not have a native ethnicity or language. Every Indian can identify with the capital. Nobody is barred, excluded, or isolated. This has freed Arvind Kejriwal from the boundaries of a particular state. His political personality is free to roam the full diversity of India. He speaks in English and Hindi, which again gives him reach across most parts of the country. , On the contrary, Mamata Banerjee is seen as a towering ‘Bengali politician’ by the rest of India. She can rouse the rabble in Bengal but is clearly hobbled in creating a similar resonance in the cow belt. She is much more susceptible to the curse of the voodoo – i.e., incarceration within her state’s boundaries – than Arvind Kejriwal. She will need to do something dramatic to acquire a seamless national profile. Perhaps become as fluent in Hindi as she is in her native Bengali? And ‘do a Modi’ by contesting from Lucknow or New Delhi. Both these are tall asks in the three years left until 2024., Delhi hands over another ace to Arvind Kejriwal. By ruling over the capital city, he enjoys a higher-than-proportionate presence in national media. He can use Delhi’s surplus budget to splash himself across newspaper ads, television, and digital screens in the power capital. On the other hand, Banerjee can’t justify spending the Bengali taxpayers’ money with the same profligacy in Delhi. Kejriwal also gets to geo-tag big political events – for example, by hosting visiting foreign dignitaries, where he can play a ‘mini Modi’. But Banerjee is closeted in an eastern corner of India for much of the year., Now that we’ve catalogued the natural strengths and weaknesses of Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal, let’s pivot to their contrasting electoral strategies. Banerjee seems to be acutely aware of the voodoo. This is why she is taking aggressive steps to expand her Bengali outreach in Assam and Tripura, trying to ‘catch out’ the Congress in the east while playing footsie with it elsewhere. It’s a practical and intelligent pan-regional, and not a pan-national, strategy. This will give her higher parliamentary numbers, i.e. more chips at the table when (and if) it comes to jostling for the top job in a coalition national government., As against this, Kejriwal is ‘spraying’ himself in an ‘everywhere contest’ against the Congress – Punjab, Goa, Gujarat, Uttarakhand. It’s an audacious (or desperate?) attempt to usurp the Congress’s dwindling national space, especially since he does not allow powerful regional colleagues to step out of his shadow. But Arvind Kejriwal is also an equal anathema to the BJP. That of course is as much of an advantage as a disadvantage. While he can pick up disgruntled votes from both, he also has to fight a two-front war. So, at the current reckoning, Kejriwal may not pick up enough votes to cross the threshold but will be accused of playing the ‘spoiler’ against the Congress and a united opposition., This is where we inject the , differentiator, i.e. the stance of the Congress party and the Gandhi family. While they are implacably opposed to Arvind Kejriwal, they see a frenemy in Mamata Banerjee. She still enjoys a rapport with Sonia Gandhi, and if push comes to shove, can rely on her support. Curiously, Banerjee is also pally with the G-23, ie the rebel group of 23 Congress letter-writers. Or even someone like the 24th or 25th rebels (perhaps aka Amarinder Singh and Bhupesh Baghel). Finally, she’s got a line open with ex-Congressmen like Sharad Pawar and Jagan Reddy, who may feel far more comfortable dealing with her than an unknown maverick like Arvind Kejriwal., Ultimately, she will only need a dexterous act of deal-making; but he will have to undertake the monumental task of creatively destroying the Grand Old Party., Of course, all of this could be a much-wasted labour of love, because hey, who sez there’s a vacancy in the Prime Minister’s Office in 2024?. Publisher: Raghav Bahl. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 8:27 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Modi rival India [/INST] Opinion news. Title: India Needs Modi to Work With His Rivals. Short_description: After a drubbing in state elections, the prime minister must cooperate with local leaders to beat back the pandemic. . Description: As anyone who has tried to invest in India can tell you, India’s states are as distinct from each other as European countries. Every now and then, India’s politicians are reminded of this as well. Prime Minister Narendra Modi certainly was earlier this week, when his all-conquering Bharatiya Janata Party fell short of expectations in , ., Of the four large states that had gone to the polls, Modi’s BJP was already in power in Assam and had made major inroads in West Bengal, where it was expecting a win. But the party lost heavily there as well as in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala — stopped in its tracks by three powerful contenders from regional parties whose politics emphasized their states’ local identities. In Bengal, for example, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ran a campaign designed around the , “Bengal wants its own daughter,” a not-so-subtle dig at the BJP for its roster of carpetbaggers from north and west India., Modi remains tremendously popular in most of the country and won re-election emphatically just two years ago. But he and his party know that regional satraps such as Banerjee pose the main threat to their power. The ugly and dispiriting campaign, which featured , and the mobilization of various , against the BJP’s rivals, showed just how serious they are about stamping out sub-nationalism., This tension between Modi and powerful local leaders is reflected in and sharpens conflicts between the central government and opposition-ruled states. In the recent past, for example, they have had major , over tax-sharing. Nor is this simply a question of personalities and clashing egos: The political divisions between the BJP’s heartland and these other states map imprecisely onto cultural and demographic cleavages as well. Tamil Nadu is far richer than the north, Kerala better governed and West Bengal proud of its cultural uniqueness., Federalism is now the primary axis of Indian politics — and the location of the biggest crises of Indian governance. Nothing illustrates this better than India’s crushing second wave of Covid-19., The federal government has, over the past few months, tried hard to , to the states for its own failures, which have led to oxygen shortages, a stumbling vaccine rollout and an exponential growth in cases and deaths. As in the U.S. under former President Donald Trump, India’s state leaders have been left largely on their own, provided with no overall strategy and minimal federal support., The Modi government’s failures and evasions have harmed his image as an efficient administrator and the poll results , they reduced his party’s appeal as an alternative in Bengal. Nor have some BJP chief ministers, such as the priest-turned-politician Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh, distinguished themselves in this crisis. The BJP tried to present Adityanath as an exemplar of governance at its rallies; it isn’t surprising that voters refused to allow their states to descend into the kind of anarchy that characterizes UP today., Meanwhile, a few opposition-led states have differentiated themselves by managing the crisis better. Maharashtra, home of the financial center of Mumbai, had to face the initial force of India’s second wave on its own. But, through relatively skillful administration, it seems to have escaped the tragic chaos that Delhi and UP are currently experiencing., There’s a lesson here for Modi, if he cares to listen. His personal popularity may keep in him power. But it will never completely overcome India’s federal pressures. Regionalism and sub-nationalism need to be accommodated in India’s politics and its policies, not denied., For example, New Delhi has refused even to explain how it is , vaccines across various states. Given the supply crunch, this is going to lead to tension unless a transparent formula is agreed upon with regional leaders. Already India’s leading vaccine manufacturer is complaining about , from various politicians demanding their states get priority., Federal and state leaders also need to resolve conflicts over the allocation of medical oxygen, pandemic-related borrowing and a myriad of other issues. In a recent interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci , that India needs to “put together a crisis group that would meet and start getting things organized.” Modi and state leaders will have to set aside their disagreements and create a joint mechanism to address these issues., The way federal spending, expertise and manpower has righted the U.S. pandemic response in the past 100 days is an example of what a federal government that works with states, rather than against them, can do. Modi should realize he can’t simply beat back his regional rivals. Now India needs him to show he can make federalism work for all Indians., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Mihir Swarup Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and head of its Economy and Growth Programme. He is the author of "Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy," and co-editor of "What the Economy Needs Now." , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Mihir Sharma. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 6:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Ralegan Siddhi Anna Hazare Story Gandhi [/INST] Opinion news. Title: The Story of Ralegan Siddhi – Anna Hazare is No Gandhi. Short_description: Anna Hazare’s village Ralegan Siddhi is a reflection of him. Is it a Gandhian paradise or a regressive dystopia? . Description: The moral high ground has been a force in India’s public and political life from Gandhi, to Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash Narayan. Anna Hazare became an inheritor of that tradition. Never entering the complicated world of electoral politics, Anna has still managed to have an immense influence on it, most obviously with the Aam Aadmi Party., But Anna’s political career and practice did not begin in Delhi or even Mumbai. It began in his native village, Ralegan Siddhi. It is in this hamlet that we can see what Anna Hazare’s worldview and politics stand for and like the man himself, it is not an uncomplicated story., Anna is a self-confessed admirer and follower of Gandhi. One of the pillars of Gandhi’s philosophy was a deep suspicion of modernity, best articulated in his 1909 monograph , For Gandhi, the best possible future for India lay in autonomous village republics governed by ‘tradition’. , On the face of it, Anna has tried to make Ralegan Siddhi a paradise in the Gandhian mould. In fact, his trust in the village is called the Hind Swaraj trust., With hardly any water, Ralegan Siddhi was parched and far from prosperous. With consistent campaigning and eventual support from the administration, Anna managed to begin a watershed development programme in the parched village. , Nearly 1,000 acres of additional land was brought under cultivation, moving the village out of poverty. , The village also has good schools and a bank, which function well. Anna also campaigned against untouchability and Dalits were given the right to draw water from the village well., These successful experiments and movements got Anna many honours, including the Padma Bhushan., highlights all these achievements. It also focuses on another set of goals though – the eradication of ‘social evils’ like liquor and tobacco from Ralegan Siddhi., And that shows us a different side of Anna Hazare., By all accounts, alcoholism was a major problem in Ralegan Siddhi till Anna’s reformation programme began. , According to a report in the , , Anna’s battle against alcoholism and tobacco used violence and intimidation. Anna himself admitted to beating ‘drunkards’ who had flouted his ban on liquor consumption. This was not an isolated incident, rather part of a systematic approach., While alcohol can be toxic, extra-judicial punishments by unelected, unconstitutional authorities, reminiscent of Khap Panchayats are just as disturbing., And unfortunately, the paternalism and vigilantism that Anna displayed in Ralegan Siddhi was something that marked many of his statements even when arrived on the national stage., Anna Hazare has borrowed quite a bit from Gandhi. The ideal of the village, a suspicion of modern life and institutions. He also uses many of Gandhi’s techniques, most often the hunger strike to rally public opinion and put pressure on the government. , But there is enough about Anna that Gandhi would not have liked., In 2012, Anna said that those found guilty of corruption should be hanged. While defending the statement in an interview to what was then , he said, “That is why I have said that, today, in many things, along with Gandhi we have to look towards Shivaji.”, In 2011, Anna has said “When a man’s power of tolerance runs out, then whoever is in front of you, if a slap is given, then the brain is put back in place. That is the only road open now.”, One of the pillars of Gandhi’s thought was non-violence, which is clearly something Anna lacks. , Gandhi was also a man of nuance and understanding. Going by his simplistic understanding of ‘corruption’ and the way he thinks the problem should be dealt with, Anna does not share those qualities., Perhaps that is why Gandhi handed over the reins of the Congress and India to Nehru, who established democratic institutions and practices. And Gandhi did so willingly and with grace., Arvind Kejriwal continued what Anna began in Delhi, and like his mentor, he doesn’t seem to understand the importance of institutions.. Publisher: Aakash Joshi. Date Created: 15 Jun 2015, 7:09 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Disaster Movie Goodwill Hunting China [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Goodwill Hunting Is a Disaster Movie in China. Short_description: Goodwill Hunting Is a Disaster Movie in China. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- An interstellar spectacular is currently keeping China's moviegoers entertained. Behind the scenes, the film also has a minor role in the stock market's next disaster epic., “The Wandering Earth,” a ,  released ahead of the Lunar New Year on Feb. 5, has become the second-highest grossing film in Chinese history in just two weeks. Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism Co., which made the movie, has said it , 73 million yuan to 83 million yuan ($10.9 million to $12.3 million) from the first six days of showings alone. That’s equal to more than 5 percent of its total 2018 revenue., Yet Beijing Culture’s shares got only a one-day pop when markets opened after the holiday, and have since failed to share in the Shenzhen stock exchange’s post-new year rally., The lukewarm response stands in sharp contrast to Beijing Culture’s previous hits. Its 2017 release “, ,” the second episode in a Rambo-like franchise, topped the box office with 5.7 billion yuan in gross sales. The film accounted for more than 20 percent of the company’s revenue that year. Last year, medical drama “Dying to Survive” , . Both times, Beijing Culture’s shares got a more sustained lift., While investors may be giving the stock the cold shoulder partly because of a history of unseemly selling by insiders, what they fear most is potential writedowns. About a quarter of Beijing Culture’s total assets are goodwill, which represents the amount paid in excess of a target’s book value in acquisitions., Goodwill is a ticking time bomb for Chinese companies. In mid-November, ahead of the 2018 full-year earnings season, the China Securities Regulatory Commission warned that all firms must ,  at least once a year, as part of an effort to crack down on inflated values., Mainland-listed companies held 1.3 trillion yuan of goodwill on their balance sheets as of the third quarter of 2018. Roughly half is on the books of smaller private enterprises, which last year set off one of the world’s worst stock market routs after pledged-share loans triggered , . Goodwill averages 21 percent of net assets for companies on the ChiNext Index, versus only 4.4 percent for Shanghai’s main board., Already, 58 firms have issued profit warnings involving goodwill impairments, only one month into the full-year earnings season for A shares, according to CICC Research. New economy sectors such as media, software, and health care have the highest goodwill-to-asset ratios, data compiled by Bloomberg show. This fact alone will cap how much of a rebound we can expect from the technology-heavy Shenzhen exchange this year., A-share companies started to accumulate goodwill assets in 2015, as looser monetary conditions made it easy for China Inc. to finance acquisitions with debt. Between 2015 and 2016, domestic credit grew by more than 20 percent., The takeover spree picked up after China’s securities regulator shut the IPO window again in 2016. If an entrepreneur wants equity financing and can’t list, an obvious way is to sell the company to a peer that already has a ticker on the Shanghai or Shenzhen exchange. , The government knows that firms with too many intangible assets often spell trouble., Wintime Energy Co. is a good example. One of China’s largest defaulters last year, the coal miner again ,  when it missed payments earlier this month. Over the years, Wintime has amassed 60 billion yuan of net debt, backed by 100 billion worth of long-term assets, over half of which is in the form of intangibles such as goodwill and coal-mining rights. With solar panel makers perceived as , and the , for new projects over coal withering, how much are Wintime’s assets really worth? Had the company been forced to write down assets earlier, it might not have been able to raise so much debt. , Earnings season will go into full swing next month. Impairments and profit warnings won’t make for pleasant viewing. But it’s a show that Beijing is willing to sit through., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. She previously wrote on markets for Barron's, following a career as an investment banker, and is a CFA charterholder., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Shuli Ren. Date Created: 21 Feb 2019, 4:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Uniform Civil Code India foot [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Why Is India Dragging Its Feet on the Uniform Civil Code?. Short_description: The Supreme Court’s advice has major implications for India’s notion of secularism.. Description: The Supreme Court on Monday gave the government three weeks to take a quick decision on a uniform civil code (UCC) to end the confusion over personal laws. With remarkable alacrity Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda said on Tuesday that a UCC was the “need of the hour and in national interest” and “a step should be taken in that direction.” A UCC has been a part of BJP manifestos and is a part of their creed, even if it is mostly inspired to belabour the Muslims over their personal laws., The Supreme Court’s advice has major implications for India’s notion of secularism. The 42nd Amendment of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976 asserted that India is a secular nation. However, the constitution and laws do not define the relationship between religion and state. The laws implicitly require the state and its institutions to recognise and accept all religions, and enforce various religious laws. Thus, secularism in India has come to just mean tolerance of every community’s practices, instead of skepticism of religious beliefs and practices. This is in direct contrast to the universal notion of secularism of the state being immune to religious considerations., The legal argument by those in favour of the existing system of separate personal laws derives from the premise that “personal laws” are part and parcel of the freedom of religion guaranteed by Article 25 of the Constitution of India. This is despite the fact that Clause 2 of the same article specifically saves secular activities associated with religious practices from the guarantee of religious freedom. In this connection, it might be pertinent to recall the retort of Lord William Bentick, Governor General to some Calcutta notables, protesting the enactment of The Bengal Sati Regulation or Regulation XVII, A. D. 1829 of the Bengal Code. When he was told that sati was a time-honoured Hindu tradition, he replied “in my country we call it murder and have a tradition of hanging murderers. My tradition is better than yours and it is a better law.”, According to Article 13 of the Constitution “all laws in force in the territory of India immediately before the commencement of this Constitution, in so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of this Part, shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void.” Article 14 enshrines fundamental rights and equality of all. If personal laws were tested against the doctrine of equality under law, it will be found that a large number of them are unjust, arbitrary, and unconstitutional. Yet in matters of law in modern India the applicable code of law is unequal, and India’s personal laws - on matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, alimony - vary with an individual’s religion., Most of those who oppose a uniform civil code do so on the grounds that this is not the time as minorities, especially the Muslim community, are not ready for it. A “theological” argument has also been advanced, that these existing laws are God-given and, therefore, cannot be tampered with. The rationality of such an argument, and of the persons who advance them does not deserve any serious attention in this day and age. This is the same logic that wants us to suspend reason and believe that a particular God was born at a particular spot just because it is commonly believed so., All laws, even the eternal ones, are man made, and reflect the level of thinking and advancement of human knowledge and civilisation at that moment of time. If we have to accept what lawgivers like Manu evolved in the period before the Gupta Empire or in medieval Arabia as sacrosanct, then we will forever be condemned to be governed by archaic, unequal and unjust laws. In the age of reason, the demand that people obey laws must be rooted in reason and not sentiment. , The cornerstone of a democratic society is equality. Without equality, there can be no justice, just as without justice there can be no equality. True justice cannot be based on unjust laws, though it is possible to have a law-abiding society with the most unjust laws in place. Just laws are a pre-requisite for a democratic society and, therefore a just and orderly society., The task of modernisation entails the destabilisation of many institutions. Our founding fathers, Hindus and Muslims alike, in the process of seeking to modernise India, had destabilised and uprooted many traditional institutions. For instance they destabilised the hierarchy of castes. They also outlawed many discriminatory practices, apparently ordained by Hindu religion and custom. , The traditional objections of a uniform civil code hark back to the argument posed when the matter was debated in the Constituent Assembly. The two main objections then were that it would infringe on the fundamental right to freedom of religion guaranteed by Article 25, and that it would constitute tyranny of the majority. The first objection is misconceived because the directive in Article 44 does not infringe the religious practices as stated under Article 25., This objection would be valid, if the laws of one community were made incumbent on the rest. However, if a common set of laws for inheritance, marriage, divorce, custody, adoption and guardianship were to be framed with a special emphasis on gender equality, which neither resembled any existing personal law nor sought to impose any one personal law on the rest, it would simply be a common and secular civil code., It is this more equal society that all religious obscurantists fear most. Unfortunately, the political parties that profess to be secular and those who profess to oppose pseudo-secularism pander equally to obscurantism the most. That is the real problem.. Publisher: Mohan Guruswamy. Date Created: 15 Oct 2015, 5:01 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Uniform Civil Code Justice Delivery counterview [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Counterview: Uniform Civil Code will Simplify Justice Delivery. Short_description: Judiciary has reaffirmed its faith in a Uniform Civil Code, but it’s for the Centre to act, writes Nishtha Gautam.. Description: On September 27, 1951, BR Ambedkar resigned from government as an act of protest against what he perceived as Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s inertia on the Hindu Code Bill. The bill aimed at social reform which Ambedkar saw as the greatest responsibility of the lawmakers of an independent India. An astute advocate of uniformity in civil law, he had been provoking extreme reactions from not only the religion based bodies like the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS and Muslim members but also the Congress stalwarts. The Hindu personal Law was the first to get codified in an attempt to achieve uniform civil code for the citizens of a new born democracy., Six decades hence, the endeavours “to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India” are still afoot meeting similar kind of socio-political resistance. The debate has merely shifted in spatio-temporal and technological terms from the Constituent Assembly to the Parliament as well as social media., In a charming turn of history, Bhartiya Janta Party- progeny of the same Jan Sangh that fulminated against the Hindu Code bills- has espoused the cause of Uniform Civil Code while Congress decries it now. It is the judiciary that has remained unequivocal in its commitment towards this goal and the recent Supreme Court ruling in favour of an unwed Christian mother demonstrates it. , Over the past few years, INC has repeatedly accused the BJP of using Uniform Civil Code as a tool to bolster its rally towards Hindutva majoritarianism. With the resounding success of BJP in 2014 polls, this view seems to be gaining currency among sceptics and fence-sitters. At the same time, BJP supporters have begun to flash UCC as the righteous means of ‘sorting out’ the privileged minorities. The debate has sadly been reduced to being a spectacle of jubilant chest-thumping and mournful chest-beating in the political arena while the integrating and empowering aspects of UCC languish in the background. , As conceptualised by Ambedkar, the UCC, in principle, aims at stratifying a set of gender-neutral laws wherein no individual is denied of his/her fundamental rights in the name of religious diktats. In a culturally diverse country like India, caste and religious councils wield enormous powers over the lives of individuals and often their decrees override the constitutional mandates. The UCC also seeks to simplify the process of delivering justice by establishing common reference points for all the citizens., Resistance to UCC, from Hindus earlier and now mostly Muslims, is entrenched in the idea of treating family as a sacrosanct institution, precluding any scope for reforms in its internal transactions. In most communities, unfortunately, it is the women of the family who are often short-changed when it comes to basic rights. , As many legal experts, women’s rights groups and social commentators have noticed, UCC is one of the ways of reinforcing equal status of women that our constitution grants them. However, any law is only as good as its implementation. For instance, Goa has a common family law and yet its gender balanced nature remains a matter of theory and not praxis., Can reforms in the existing personal laws for different communities, coupled with the existing provisions in the Special Marriages Act, 1954 and Indian Succession Act, 1925, become the reconciliatory ground? Perhaps yes, albeit such a scenario does nothing to help an overburdened judiciary of this country. , If the government is serious about the empowering aspects of the UCC, it is imperative that the minority scepticism is assuaged. Clubbed together with contentious issues like Ram Mandir and abrogation of Article 370, and in the absence of a draft, the UCC merely becomes another road-roller fantasy for the Hindus and nightmare for the minorities, especially Muslims. , Yet, in all likelihood, the minorities will embrace a just UCC. Is the government willing to offer them that? Prime Minister Narendra Modi had categorically remarked before assuming office that the UCC is not a Hindu code. Let a sensitively conceptualised draft reflect the same.. Publisher: Nishtha Gautam. Date Created: 16 Jul 2015, 6:47 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Global Vaccine Crisis test capitalism [/INST] Opinion news. Title: The Global Vaccine Crisis Is a Test of Capitalism. Short_description: Unless governments act soon, capitalism itself could face a crisis of credibility due to the vaccine crisis.. Description: The 2008 crash tested financial globalization. In 2020, the chaos of the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic led many to question the world’s dependence on complex global supply chains. These last few months, however, as vaccination programmes have taken off in some parts of the world and stalled in others, have raised even deeper doubts about globalization and the capitalist system. Unless governments act soon, capitalism itself could face a crisis of credibility., The greatest argument in favor of regulated markets is that they manage production better than any other system. Done properly, regulated market capitalism is supposed to match supply and demand, and provide the right incentives. Productive capacity is built, not wasted. Buyers and sellers are connected. Innovation thrives and benefits everyone., But, right now, that’s not the case. This isn’t about inequality, which we always knew capitalism could create. It’s about inefficiency, which capitalism is supposed to avoid., When it comes to desperately needed Covid-19 vaccines, capacity is being wasted and innovation isn’t benefiting everyone. Twelve billion vaccine doses could be produced this year, if all current projections are , . But we’re nowhere close to that in actuality. And the doses that are available have largely been gobbled up by rich countries., Can more be produced? In many developing nations, pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity is being under-utilized. One Bangladeshi company , it could churn out 600 to 800 million doses annually if granted the appropriate licenses and know-how. Even if that’s an overestimate, too many such factories stand idle, waiting for a nod from regulators and patent-holders. The 41 , of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network alone produce between three and four billion shots of other vaccines every year., It isn’t surprising, therefore, that multiple countries have demanded intellectual property rights essentially be suspended for the duration of the pandemic for Covid-related drugs and vaccines. That sounds like a tempting — even satisfying — solution. But, as my colleague David Fickling has , , if getting new vaccines out the door was as simple as ignoring IPR rules, then we would see developing countries doing just that by issuing what are called “compulsory licenses.” They haven’t., True, some countries may fear retaliation if they issue such licenses; a broad IPR waiver would get around that problem. But the larger issue is that something as complex as a Covid-19 vaccine cannot be easily reverse-engineered. Simply telling companies they’re free to try won’t do much good., In other words, we need Big Pharma to cooperate and license its technology to as many manufacturers at possible. Somewhat to my surprise, the vaccine industry seems already to be working unusually hard at this. While the usual timeline for technology transfer is years, one study looked at over 70 such outsourcing and partnership deals during the pandemic and , that the typical time between the transfer and the start of manufacturing had shrunk to six months., But the disincentives for Big Pharma to expand production even further are considerable. It isn’t that all of them are greedy capitalists worried that they’ll lose a bit of cash, in spite of what you may have read in that angry post on Facebook. Some have, after all, agreed to give up on profit-making while the pandemic rages — so it’s in their interest to ensure that Covid-19 switches from pandemic to endemic as soon as possible., More likely, the binding constraint is that they’re already really stretched internally; every new licensee that they sign up would add another location they’d need to carefully scrutinize to ensure that it meets good manufacturing practices. As Rajeev Venkayya of Takeda Vaccines Inc. , on Twitter, “every aspect of vaccine manufacturing is tightly controlled,” “70% of manufacturing time is spent on quality control,” and “all of these challenges carry over to manufacturing partnerships for capacity expansion.”, Even so, these can’t be seen as insurmountable obstacles, not when the situation is so dire. Several prominent figures associated with global public health and the World Health Organization issued an , last month in the British Medical Journal for companies to “voluntarily step up with licensing and share their knowledge with multiple producers — moving from a limited set of contract manufacturers to a coordinated effort with multiple producers.”, If that is to happen, governments will have to help. Rich-country governments should, in particular, consider how to pay for the renovation and expansion of facilities in the developing world to prepare them to make vaccines under license. Developing-country governments should strengthen their own commitment to regulation and to intellectual property, in order to ensure that their own manufacturers look attractive as licensing partners., If both sides don’t meet this challenge, then across the world people are going to wonder if a system that leads to wasted capacity and market failure even during a global pandemic is all it’s cracked up to be. Global trading rules, basic respect for intellectual property and much else hangs in the balance. Unless we can scale up our response soon, capitalism’s reputation could take a bigger hit in 2021 than 2008, or 1929., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Mihir Swarup Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and head of its Economy and Growth Programme. He is the author of "Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy," and co-editor of "What the Economy Needs Now." , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Mihir Sharma. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 3:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Fed Minutes Highlight Global Economic Challenges [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Fed Minutes Highlight Global Economic Challenges. Short_description: The central bank is eager to avoid a repeat of the market-roiling flip-flop of January, but miscommunication remains a threat.. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- , The Fed will hope that a series of upcoming appearances by policy makers, together with intervening data (including the monthly jobs report for February), will help reduce the risk of another communication failure involving the central bank and markets. If not, it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise if the Fed decided to let the markets’ interpretation run for a while lest attempts at moderating it end up by causing renewed and potentially disruptive financial instability., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Mohamed A. El-Erian is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, the parent company of Pimco, where he served as CEO and co-CIO. His books include “The Only Game in Town” and “When Markets Collide.” , ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Mohamed A. El-Erian . Date Created: 21 Feb 2019, 5:04 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to year Imagined Liberation [/INST] Opinion news. Title: 45 Years of Liberation, Is B’desh Still Insufficiently Imagined?. Short_description: B’desh is still a young nation which adheres to rituals of venerating a nation state founded on liberation ideals.. Description: , Like Salman Rushdie’s portrayal of Pakistan in Shame, Bangladesh may be characterised as a place “insufficiently imagined”. As Bangladesh celebrates its liberation from Pakistan, at a time when the country is gripped by frenzy over the hanging of “traitors and collaborators of 1971”, a question assumes salience – is India’s eastern neighbour more Bengali or more Muslim?, This question, surrounding labels of national identity, has bedevilled not just scholars, but also ordinary Bangladeshis. The struggle to come to terms with these two competing identities has brought to the fore other contentious and vexed issues of nationalist politics and nationalism. , There is little disagreement that Bangladesh emerged as a sovereign state in 1971, riding the crest of a language movement politically backed by an equally, if not more, powerful demand for autonomy, and finally secession from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. , But events since Bangladesh’s liberation and the new state’s tortured and blood-soaked history point to the adoption of a different ideology that has defined its national identity, which is in stark opposition to the secular principles of the freedom struggle., By adamantly sticking to her position that the martyrs of 1971 must get justice – no matter whether it is retributive – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sought to fuel a second revolution that seeks to transform Bangladesh’s socio-political landscape with ethno-linguistic and ethno-cultural nationalism: a bloody, but just reiteration that Bangladeshis are Bengali first, and the murder of secularist bloggers in recent times – an attempt by resurgent Islamists to defeat the principles of the liberation war. , While Bangladesh continues to represent the “distinctive splendours and menaces of nationalism,” there is no denying that today’s clash of cultures is a reflection of “two economies” – one urban, the other rural. The former is represented by the city-bred, educated, employed elite for whom religious bigotry is anathema to their existence, and the latter represented by the poor peasantry from whom Islamist organisations such as the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Hifazat Andolan draw their foot soldiers., The economic transformation of Bangladesh over the last decade has changed the status of various occupations and other social groups in ways which have implications for nationalism, as nationalists attract followers from groups which are losing, or seeking to gain social status., Bangladesh is still a young nation and therefore continues to adhere to the rituals of venerating a nation state founded on the ideals of liberation; a regular reinvention of the past, if you will. , Bangladesh’s national consciousness consists of “two things”, to borrow from 19th century French scholar Ernst Renan: “One lies in the past, the other in the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories, the other is present-day consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value of heritage […] The nation, like the individual, is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice and devotion.” , In a curious sense, the recent hangings in Bangladesh reflect the war waged in 1971, as the Awami League’s second struggle to dissociate itself from, or “forget” Bengali Muslims’ collaboration with the Pakistani state, identified with violence and cruelty. , Hence it becomes necessary to resurrect “evil figures” (Salauddin Qader Chaudhury, Golam Azam, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid). And in a world ruled by social media, Bangladesh’s young secular bloggers diffused their cultural narratives through new technologies of communication, creating in the process imagined communities through the agency of students., It is this secular conception of the nation that Hasina has sought to recapture when Bangladesh, since the beginning of her second innings as Prime Minister, plunged into a conflict within the majority community. , In her attempt to marginalise and outbid the Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which has worked persistently to strengthen the place of Islam, the politically wily Hasina has sought to unify large sections of Muslims and the minorities with the call that the common bond of Islam is an insufficient basis to secure the success of a nation, for which her father and most of her family gave their lives. And just like her father, she has given a call – by her determined and uncompromising stand on the hangings and the hunting down of the killers of the bloggers – for the protection of the national culture., Whether her stand will fetch political dividend two years from now when Bangladesh goes to the polls is uncertain. Hasina has used the secular credentials of the liberation movement as a national ideology to conscript people to the idea of another nationhood, not unknown, repackaged in a way that would be appealing for large sections of Muslims and Bangladeshi minorities., But it also holds the danger of consolidating the Islamists, especially because Bangladesh has historically represented a dual-nation – the secular Bengali and the revivalist Islamist – whose identity is mutable and manipulable. Politics after all has the power to bend social and cultural membership to serve its purpose.. Publisher: Chandan Nandy. Date Created: 16 Dec 2015, 4:09 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Profit Motive Pandemic India [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Why the Profit Motive Can’t Defeat the Pandemic in India. Short_description: The idea that a private health system focused on profit could adequately attend to almost 18% of the world is ludicrous.. Description: India has never been prepared for a public health emergency of the scale of Covid-19. No country has. But the government’s dislocated priorities have left the nation particularly vulnerable. It is now running short of basic infrastructure including oxygen tanks, ventilators, antiviral medication and hospital beds, with hundreds of thousands of new infections being recorded every day. On Thursday, the country added 314,835 cases, the highest daily tally in the world since the pandemic began., Public health , of India’s gross domestic product. The country ranks 179th out 189 when it comes to prioritization of healthcare in the government budget. It spends as much as donor-dependent nations like Sierra Leone on a per capita basis. The country’s medical facilities are so inadequate that , for the sick are among the lowest in the world: 3% to 4%, compared to an average 8% to 9% in middle income countries and even higher elsewhere., The country has never quite focused on its public healthcare infrastructure — which is perpetually on the brink, making its apparent success holding down infection numbers last year remarkable. But the country is having no such luck with the enormous numbers emerging right now., Prime Minister Narendra Modi ,  the growth of private hospitals by providing them with land and , , creating a healthcare market expected to be worth $133 billion by 2022. Most Indians now depend on , . The problem, of course, is that the financial burden ends up being shouldered by households: India’s health-related, out-of-pocket expenses are some of the highest in the world, and continue to rise., A significant amount of the government’s health budget is spent on subsidies for private service providers, which does little to build out the country’s medical infrastructure needs or further its healthcare goals. Private hospitals are built to make money without outwardly committing to outcomes like lowering mortality rates or disease., Fundamental health infrastructure doesn’t even make it onto the political agenda. The public investment necessary to effect change has limited returns for ambitious politicians over the short-term. The Modi government enables this abdication of responsibility. The country’s latest economic survey noted that “better health infrastructure is no guarantee that a country would be able to deal better with devastating pandemics like Covid-19” because the next one could be different., As an example, the government will probably point to Brazil. The Latin American nation has been posting tens of thousands of new cases a day and has one of the highest virus-related death numbers in the world. Its population is around the same as that of India’s largest state; and the country spends over 16 times the amount India does on a per capita basis on health care. Yet , . , But that’s exactly why India should be worried now. If India falters, its failure will be many times the disaster in Brazil., So here we are, a year on from the beginning of the pandemic. Countless infected people in India have been denied a chance to recover because the government hasn’t built a system that will get them the medical supplies they need., A country of 1.4 billion people needs a system to support their most basic need: survival. The idea that a private health system focused on profit could adequately attend to almost 18% of the world is ludicrous. A real healthcare apparatus would’ve ensured the populace understood risks, remained vigilant and received care. , Instead, overwhelmed hospitals have just hours of oxygen supplies available, antiviral medications are hard to find and intensive care units , . Ad hoc measures may well help India slowly make its way out but it won’t guarantee things stay that way. Just as they didn’t when the country thought it had miraculously fought off the virus., India’s paltry public healthcare spending isn’t guided by holistic, national-level priorities. Spending varies by state and each ends up funding far more than the central government does, leading to unequal outcomes for people in different regions. The differences have become political as federal and provincial governments do battle over who is responsible for specific needs., All this means India isn’t set up to survive the Covid-19 waves that are bound to follow as they have elsewhere in the world. Blame who or what you want, the reality is India needs to assess how prepared it is for future surges. The Modi administration will have to do far more than just invoke unity, as the prime minister did in his Tuesday night national address., Negligence – individual to bureaucratic — is being blamed for the latest wave. That is true. It’ll be even truer if India doesn't start to go back to the basics of building out its healthcare infrastructure. It’s pointless being the pharmacy of the world when you can’t heal your own people., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Asia. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anjani Trivedi. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 3:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Fraught question Vaccine [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Which Vaccine Did You Get? It’s a Fraught Question. Short_description: Which Vaccine Did You Get? It’s a Fraught Question. Description: In matters of human affairs, there is little stranger than our tendency to draw fine distinctions of style and status where none are needed. We do it with hats, with indie rock groups, with preschool programs and, now, with vaccines., I have observed a growing divergence of perceptions for what is essentially a mundane scientific and medical device. As I resume my in-person social life, I have been struck by how often the question arises: “So which vaccine did you get?”, My survey of the cultural vaccine landscape in the U.S. includes the four major vaccines — from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson., Pfizer, distributed by one of the largest U.S. pharmaceutical firms, is the establishment vaccine. Since it , had a significant “cold chain” requirement, it was given out at established institutions such as big hospitals and public-health centers with large freezers. It is plentiful, highly effective and largely uncontroversial., Moderna — the very name suggests something new — is the intellectual vaccine. The company had no product or major revenue source until the vaccine itself, so it is harder to link Moderna to “Big Pharma,” which gives it a kind of anti-establishment vibe. Note also that the last three letters of Moderna are “rna,” referring to the mRNA technology that makes the vaccine work. It is the vaccine for people in the know., Moderna was also, for a while anyway, the American vaccine. It was available primarily in the U.S. at a time when Pfizer was being handed out liberally in the U.K. and Israel. As a recipient of two Moderna doses myself, I feel just a wee bit special for this reason. , . Yes, the European Union had also approved it, but it failed to procure it in a timely manner. So the availability of Moderna reflects the greater wealth and efficiency of the U.S., Then there are the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines., AstraZeneca, for better or worse — mostly worse — has become the forbidden vaccine, or at least the exotic vaccine. It has not received an emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and maybe never will, in part because it has been associated with some incidents of blood clotting in women. Yet for most people it is entirely safe and effective., If you got it, you can claim to be daring and cosmopolitan, since you were and maybe still are living abroad. Just as a character in a Henry James novel might have superior knowledge of Venice, you know things about the world that most Americans don’t., That leaves Johnson & Johnson, whose place in the cultural vaccine landscape is shifting. At first, getting the J&J shot showed you were serious but also nonchalant about the pandemic: One and done. It was something you could do on your lunch hour, a bit like running to the CVS to buy extra shampoo. Getting the J&J vaccine was just taking care of business., The brand itself — best known for baby powder — suggests something normal, not panicky. Eventually, J&J became a socially responsible version of a subtle form of Covid denialism. You weren’t making a big deal of things, but at the same time you were ensuring you were not endangering your loved ones., All that changed last week, when the FDA recommended that the use of the J&J vaccine be suspended following the development of blood clots in a few (very few) recipients. Its reputation probably will never recover, even if use is resumed soon, as currently seems , ., So J&J may evolve into the outlaw vaccine: Not outright prohibited in the U.S., like the AstraZeneca, but like that vaccine associated with toughness and daring. Maybe, if more men and fewer women take it, it will become the manly vaccine., which team they want to join. Even more fundamentally, it is not clear that these distinctions do us any good., The more culturally complicated the vaccine decision, the easier it will be to find reasons not to get a vaccine. As it currently stands, more than 40% of Republicans , they do not wish to be vaccinated, and Black Americans are hesitant as well. To the extent vaccines turn into markers for a cultural club, vaccine hesitancy may persist., It might be better, all things considered, if vaccines were viewed more like paper clips — that is, a useful and even necessary product entirely shorn of cultural significance. Few people refuse to deploy paper clips in order to “own the libs” or because they do not trust the establishment. They are just a way to hold two pieces of paper together., To be clear, the primary blame here lies with those who hesitate to get vaccinated. But behind big mistakes are many small ones — and we vaccinated Americans, with our all-too-human tendency to create hierarchies for everything, are surely contributing to the mess., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of economics at George Mason University and writes for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include "Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero.", ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tyler Cowen. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 6:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to New Vaccine Strategy Bad economic India [/INST] Opinion news. Title: India’s New Vaccine Strategy Is Bad Economics. Short_description: Putting a price on vaccines could lead to unjust, lopsided distribution. The cost to the consumer should be zero.. Description: After a tightly centralized vaccination drive that has delivered the required two shots to less than 2% of the population, India is opening up its inoculation strategy in the middle of a raging pandemic. Can the new approach flatten the curve?, Expanding the campaign to all adults ,  starting next month is a late but welcome move. India’s daily infection rate of ,  is the worst any country has experienced. Even then, shifting a big part of the financial burden to 28 state governments and letting private hospitals buy shots at , to , rupees ($8 to $16) apiece — and sell them to patients at even higher prices — are both wrong., In a nation riddled with inequalities and swelling with ,  after last year’s coronavirus lockdown, putting a price on any part of limited vaccine supplies could lead to unjust, lopsided distribution. Free, universal access, with New Delhi negotiating prices with at least four or five suppliers globally, could prepare India better for a third Covid-19 resurgence. Until herd immunity is achieved, private hospitals must continue acting as agents of the state, and impose only a limited markup on the stock they’re given free from the national pool., It was a mistake to restrict the drive to just two Made-in-India vaccines: Covishield, the AstraZeneca Plc shot manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India Ltd., and Covaxin, an indigenously developed shot produced by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltd. New Delhi managed to negotiate a competitive price of 150 rupees per shot, and then set out to distribute them free of charge — first to healthcare and other frontline workers and then to those older than 60. Only this month, the age restriction was lowered to 45. Covishield has accounted for roughly 90% of the , administered so far. Nowhere near enough for a population of almost 1.4 billion., The second wave has exposed the inadequacy of the tightfisted approach. A , is causing the healthcare system to collapse, forcing authorities to change tack: State governments and private hospitals can directly order up to 50% of Serum and Bharat’s supplies to inoculate the younger population, while New Delhi will buy the other half to complete free vaccination of those above 45. Serum has announced a price of 400 rupees for states, and 600 rupees for private hospitals. Bharat’s rates are 600 and 1200 rupees, respectively.  , Maharashtra, the state most severely affected by the second wave, might join a growing number that have announced free vaccination for all adults, according to , . Suppose that all states — even the most resource-strapped ones — somehow find the money. The supply of vaccines is constrained. For a given 1 million doses, who will decide the allocation among states, and between those governments and a private hospital? When the antiviral remdesivir is selling on the , , risk of profiteering is very real., The only correct consumer price is zero. After last year’s national lockdown, the urban poor are once again facing the brunt of lost livelihoods from localized curfews and all-pervasive fear. The world’s biggest democracy can’t shut anyone out of the market for vaccines. That may well happen if a state’s purchase order goes unfilled — even as doses are available at private hospitals at a price the poor can’t afford., Maybe the supply crunch will ease. Russia’s Sputnik V, initially imported and then made locally, should be available by the end of next month. Other homemade options might take longer. Hyderabad-based Biological E Ltd., which is conducting clinical trials in India for an antigen developed by Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, ,  to ramp up production capacity to 1 billion doses in India by the end of this year. States can also import shots in use globally at prices preset by their manufacturers. But given the worldwide supply constraints, it’s safe to assume that Serum’s hold isn’t going to reduce meaningfully soon. Introducing the logic of free markets into a situation that’s anything but makes no sense. , Without getting into a fruitless debate over what is a reasonable profit margin to spur production, three things should be clear. One, it’s the Indian government, with its , , that should be inoculating everyone. Free of charge., Two, while states don’t have any bargaining power against vaccine producers, New Delhi has plenty of carrots and sticks at its disposal. Bharat Biotech’s product has resulted from publicly funded research; it was authorized for emergency use , . The government, albeit belatedly, is giving both Serum and Bharat financial assistance to ramp up production. Serum has also been subjected to export restrictions to help tide over a domestic shortage. Had the Modi administration put in large, confirmed orders with Serum — as well as with Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc., and later, Johnson & Johnson — it could have held the blended price close to the originally negotiated 150 rupees apiece. Or at least closer than it would be now., Finally, cutting corners on a subsidy that will cost less than , could lead to output (and tax losses) many times higher. Daily fatalities are nearing 3,000 — and that’s a gross underestimate. After the current spike has peaked, people will still need to be inoculated at a rapid pace to flatten the curve and avert a third buildup. And that’s when the folly of charging $8 or $16 for a life-saving vaccine, in a country where the working class was struggling to buy ,  even before the pandemic, may become clear.  , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services. He previously was a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews. He has also worked for the Straits Times, ET NOW and Bloomberg News., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Andy Mukherjee. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 3:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Tactical Trap Pulwama [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Pulwama – Avoiding The Tactical Trap. Short_description: Recognise the difference between tactical and strategic victories and plan retribution that is meaningful and long-lasting. . Description: The fundamental difference between tactics and strategy is the perspective of time and span of the canvas. No matter how euphoric, by themselves, tactical victories seldom add up to strategic successes., War, as the cliché goes, is an extension of politics by other means. While the essence of all war is to control resources, it needs a rallying narrative. So political, ideological, religious, patriotic and other narratives are developed to unite the populace against an enemy, legitimise their annihilation, glorify own righteousness and extol the sacrifice of an individual for the greater whole. Every country’s storyline portrays them as pacifists being forced into war by an unreasonable enemy. But regardless of the narrative, wars are not waged to establish victory by body counts. Instead, they are fought to exert coercion on another nation by damaging them economically., Hence while tactical leaders measure victory in terms of captured territory, high octane strikes, prisoners of war tallies or body counts, strategic leaders focus on the real scorecards of long-term economics and post-war power positions. The key being, ‘long-term’., For instance, despite winning every metric of tactical operations against Vietnam, the United States lost strategically. In the 20-year war, that left millions dead in its wake, the Vietcong did not conclusively defeat the U.S. troops even once. Yet, not only did the U.S. ‘lose’ the war, it faced a humiliating withdrawal, and struggled for decades in the aftermath, while Vietnam went on to become a successful economy., The Soviet Union suffered a worse fate in Afghanistan. Despite deploying its military might, the USSR dismembered in the aftermath of a decade long war with the Mujahid militia., Closer home, Kargil is a great example of how a tactical defeat can be a strategic victory. True, the Indian army ejected Pakistani intruders from their occupied strongpoints and Kargil did end in a tactical defeat for the Pakistani army, but that wasn’t Musharraf’s strategic fallout. The backdrop to Kargil was the peace accord signed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif earlier that year. If successful, the Pakistan Army would have been sidelined and lost relevance in the Pakistani domestic power equation. Sharif would have gone down in Pakistani history as the democratic leader who brokered peace between two nuclear powers and rightsized the relevance of the army in Pakistan. That was an existential crisis for the Pakistani Army., Not only did the Lahore peace talks fail, but Musharraf ousted Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup within months after Kargil. And while India deservedly celebrated victory and valor of her soldiers, a strategic opportunity of creating a democratic counterweight to the army in Pakistan was lost., Similarly, tactically successful operations can add up to strategic disasters and they often do, because the winner’s hubris typically ends with defeating the enemy; not ending the enmity. That is the paradoxical relationship between tactics and strategy., To analyse Pulwama in its strategic context, it is important to appreciate this nuance and work our way to its tactical and strategic implications., Regardless of historical claims over Kashmir, Pakistan initiated the military hand with an armed incursion using irregular soldiers in October 1947 and came within a whisker of seizing Srinagar. By the time United Nations-brokered ceasefire, Kashmir was thrust into “conflict in perpetuity”, becoming the battleground for two bellicose nations which continued the low-intensity conflict, erupting to three full-blown wars and several near-misses over the years., Sure, it affects Pakistan too, but that is not a consolation and ironically, because of its weaker position, Pakistan’s power centres have less to lose in case of a war with India. Pakistan can afford to do this because its populace is far weaker relative to India with respect to its power centres – the army, the deep state, and the politicians. In the eventuality of war, Pakistan will be pushed deeper into economic crisis but theirs is a dole-based economy anyway. On the other hand, India’s growth trajectory will be severely hampered. China, which stands to gain from a weak India, will encourage belligerence from Pakistan confident of controlling the nuclear threshold, and expanding its own regional influence, post-war., To win strategically, we must build the foundations for a strong economy, social structure, and defence preparedness. By definition, this is a long-term process which even on a war footing, will take time. But we have demonstrated the ability to do so in the intervening years between the debacle of 1962 and the vindication of the same army in 1971. Not only did we rebuild a demoralised force into a juggernaut that liberated a nation, but also created foreign operations expertise in the form of the Research & Analysis Wing with formidable capabilities, which has and can pay rich dividends in an asymmetric war., There is a pressing need to re-haul our national security doctrine and implementation processes and give it independent planning and execution horizons of at least a decade, instead of the piecemeal sporadic acquisitions that are stitched together into undermanned, cannablised and disjointed battle formations with logistical nightmares. Our defence establishments and ancillary institutions must be made transparent and accountable. This also involves integration and synchronisation of economic, manufacturing, education and defence indigenisation policies. We must pay special emphasis on creating a disciplined, knowledgeable and a reflective social environment. We must call out the hypocrisy of a section of the citizenry that demands compulsory military service but doesn’t send its own children to the National Cadet Corps., Anything short of this scope, timeframe and focus will continue to emphasise tactical successes rather than strategic capacity building., So, ironically, the best response to Pulwama would be to recognise the difference between tactical and strategic victories and plan retribution that is meaningful and long-lasting. However, it takes ‘out of the box’ thinking, sustained resolve and statesmanship across the political spectrum to channelise vengeance into reducing the threat permanently, rather than punishing the enemy temporarily. Most importantly, it requires leaders with the vision and resolve to choose the unpopular strategic course, over the cathartic tactical one.. Publisher: Raghu Raman. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 2:35 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Surprise Guest tv Drama private Equity [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Private Equity Could Be Surprise Guest in TV Drama. Short_description: Private Equity Could Be Surprise Guest in TV Drama. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Trying to convince investors to buy into your strategy is hard enough. When your own employees don’t like it, you have serious problems., And in the case of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, an activist investor or private equity firm might eye that discontent and sense an opportunity to target a firm which still generates healthy returns, even if they’re in decline., That’s the issue facing Chief Executive Officer Max Conze. The stock has fallen 26 percent since he unveiled his vision for the German broadcaster in November, which involves a focus on ramping up production of German language content and extending the investments in new digital offerings that were started by his predecessor. On Tuesday, the firm announced the departure of the finance and commercial chiefs, adding to a slew of recent resignations from the top ranks., Manager Magazin attributed the exodus , over Conze’s approach, saying his management style has riled both employees and the Hollywood studios with whom good relationships are essential – one manager described him as “bumbling” – to the point that outgoing Chief Financial Officer Jan Kemper asked the board to oust his boss because of concerns over the way he was running the company., Replacing the chief commercial officer, who manages the relationship with advertisers, is particularly worrying at a time when ad revenue is already declining. Brands will seek to exploit any weakness to negotiate better terms, and a management change is just such an opportunity. , With the broadcaster already trading at a discount to its peers, it looks extremely vulnerable to an approach by an interloper spying a better sum-of-the-parts valuation than the current market capitalization suggests. There is value in the studio operations, which produce hit shows such as the Amazon Prime drama Bosch and Showtime’s documentary series The Circus, and digital arm., Even though the studios produce less than 10 percent of revenue, the importance of original content is only growing. It’s meanwhile unclear how successfully synergies can be generated from digital operations which include price comparison, dating and e-commerce sites. Yet divesting those arms would leave behind a broadcasting business that will still have to fight the onslaught of streaming services and declining ad sales. Conze needs to start delivering, and soon. Income from those digital ventures has yet to outpace the drop in ad revenues – profit is set to decline this year., But some responsibility must also lie with Chairman Werner Brandt. Shareholder returns have fallen by an average of 11 percent a year under his five-year stewardship, underperforming peers. He appointed Conze, former CEO of Dyson Ltd., when other executives with a deeper understanding of the industry were available, and it looks like this is feeding the turmoil in which the company now finds itself. Those missteps have made him an easy target for an activist ahead of the May annual general meeting., Conze already had a tough task when he took the job, given the vicissitudes of the television industry. The recent upheavals might make ProSiebenSat more attractive to an investor who thinks a better management team could turn it around., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Alex Webb. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 5:11 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Rainbow Wings India ready [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Is India Ready to Spread Its Rainbow Wings?. Short_description: While people around the globe, and in India are celebrating the SCOTUS ruling, are we really ready for change?. Description: The United States of America just recognised marriage equality by legalising same-sex marriage — a monumental step by all means; a legislation to look up to, and to be proud of, the world over. And we Indians are proud, as demonstrated by my Facebook feed, one rainbow brighter than the other., But behind our rainbow veils, deep down, are we really ready for marriage-equality in this country? Are we ready to respect someone else’s preferences as theirs, without plaguing it with our own? As much as we pride ourselves with a liberal “yes”, I’m starting to think not., I recently started to intern at a Film Production House in Mumbai, testing waters of the Bollywood world I have loved ever since I danced along with Kajol and Shahrukh flashing on my TV screen. My work, among a lot of other miscellaneous stuff, was to help out with the casting of an upcoming feature film. It is a coming-of-age film, in which one major character, a college boy, during the course of his first year at college, realises he might be gay. An innocent, honest, raw character., To get a call for an audition, the person on the other side of the line is over-joyed, and understandably so. But somehow, very few of the prospective actors manage to maintain the same level of enthusiasm post reading the character sketch. Why? Because clearly, being gay is a disease — something to be rectified because GAY is a bad word., I even had the father of a prospective actor call me back, to let me know that he disapproved of the role. “Since the character is gay, my son will not be auditioning for this role”, he told me. “If the gay can be removed, then he will be there”. It’s time India understood that ‘the gay’ cannot be caused or removed. ‘The gay’ is, in fact, inherent — a fact so often overlooked. ‘The gay’ is inherent, not to be created or destroyed. The gay is only ONE very crucial aspect of who someone is. The world does not stop if your son or your brother is gay. He may be gay and a spectacular human being. Why has it become an either/or? ‘The gay’ is not an experiment to undo., Another thing that this encounter has taught me is India and its battle with stereotypes. One prospective actor, who was ‘brave enough’ to audition for the character, called to ask if he were to act animatedly ‘gay’ or ‘normal’. Is gay not ‘normal’ then, India? What abnormality do you speak of? The right to choose who you love? Rather, the right to freely demonstrate who you love. Because these are choices that we as individuals don’t make, it’s just how you are born. Some people have a knack for music, others math. Similarly some people are gay, and some straight. In a world so cruel, no one is going to CHOOSE to be gay. No one would want to put themselves through the shame and the suffocation they face every day., India needs to grow up, to open its eyes and let it sink in. Till we do not recognise that ‘the gay’ is inherent, ‘the gay’ is not wrong, we are very far from spreading our rainbow wings. ‘Gay’ is a synonym for happiness, yet this world is increasingly deeming it a word filled with dirt and hate, It’s time to free ourselves from the cage that we have built around ourselves. It’s time to spread your wings, India. Soar.. Publisher: Tara Bahl. Date Created: 02 Jul 2015, 2:06 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Uphaar Tragedy Kindness court Justice [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Remembering Uphaar Tragedy: When Courts’ Kindness Buried Justice. Short_description: The Supreme Court’s Uphaar fire judgement is indefensible on multiple grounds.. Description: It would be an understatement to say that the use (or abuse) of judicial discretion in sentencing is in a state of flux – it is in fact in a state of turmoil. A turmoil in which many victims, especially those lacking power, pelf or financial clout, perish. , The Supreme Court’s three-judge bench “reasoned” , in the Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy, in which 59 people (mostly children) died and 103 were injured, is the latest in the steadily growing number of people who can negotiate their way out of punishment. And, for good measure, also get a good bargain when it comes to paying the fine., It isn’t as if the deceased, the surviving victims and their kin were waiting with bated breath for the judgement. All their hopes were dashed for good on August 19, when the court tersely , that Sushil and Gopal Ansal, the owners of the movie theatre, would be directed to pay Rs 30 crore each, and “that’s it.” They would not be required to serve the prison sentences imposed on them. The only reason they were still waiting was to see what rationale or judicial logic the court would provide for its clemency. , And even here they had nothing but utter dismay in store., The bench was constituted because there was a split verdict earlier. Justice Tirath Thakur differed with Justice (now retired) Gyan Sudha Misra over the quantum of sentence. While Justice Thakur was agreeable with only a year’s sentence, Justice Misra was clear that the Ansals deserved nothing less than two years – the maximum punishment prescribed under Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code., She provided an elaborate reasoning for her decision – the Ansals’ gross criminal negligence and subterfuge shouldn’t be treated leniently. It is true that the transformer which exploded and started the fire was not maintained properly by the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB), but it is equally true that no victim died of burns; all were asphyxiated, she held. And for that, the Ansals could not evade culpability because it was , of their acts – illegal modifications to the structure, adding extra seats, closing off a crucial fire exit – that the victims lost their lives in such a manner. , She also criticised how the Delhi High Court in its 2003 , had reduced the sentence, without any cogent or convincing reasons, , agreeing with the trial court’s finding of guilt. Of particular significance is her pointing out that appellate courts ought not to interfere in trial courts’ sentencing decisions – save in those cases where there have been manifest errors and injustice. Therefore, when the bench led by Justice Anil Dave sat to consider the matter, it was naturally expected to take a comprehensive and analytical view of all conceivable factors. Because, justice must not only be done but also seen to be done. It is here that the judgement is found severely deficient. , No reason was provided for reducing the fine from Rs 50 to 30 crore, except for recording the Ansals’ submission that it was excessive. Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan, who once represented the brothers but then recoiled in embarrassment and disgust, has, how smugly tightfisted and resolutely brazen they were, trying every trick in the book to delay the judicial process. Shouldn’t convicts’ conduct be taken into account while determining sentence? , The bench seems to have disregarded how the court itself , in the same case in 2011. It drastically reduced the amount of punitive damages set by the high court, but provided extensive reasons. If there is reasoning, one has a fair chance to praise, criticise or critique a judgement. But in the absence of any reasoning, one would be left with bewilderment, or worse, might impute motives., According to the court, the Ansals are “fairly aged” and hence it wouldn’t be “fruitful” to send them to prison. Again, it leaves one baffled – which theory of penology did the judges follow? And, in a case of this nature, when the law is flawed – it provides for a woefully inadequate sentence – isn’t it all the more imperative for the court to give a sentence which would act as a deterrent by sending out a strong message? , Moreover, even if , that the judges were reluctant to be , on these two senior citizens who have been assiduously resisting the judicial process and accountability since 1997, there was nothing stopped them from, upholding the sentence of two years, and then suspending it. The Ansals would have stayed out of jail, but the court wouldn’t have come across as jettisoning objectivity. , In 2012, the Law Commission of India released a , on manmade disasters, in which it took the Uphaar case as an example and strongly recommended that definite guidelines or legal provisions be framed so that subjectivity in sentencing and awarding fines and damages is ruled out. , The Supreme Court’s judgement, which shall stick in the craw of victims and conscientious believers in justice, makes perhaps the strongest case for those recommendations to be discussed and enshrined in the law.. Publisher: Saurav Datta. Date Created: 25 Sep 2015, 8:43 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Love Story Bengali Waist Size [/INST] Opinion news. Title: A Love Story of the Bengali Waist-Size. Short_description: Love makes the world go round. But fish-curry rice makes it fly. And butter chicken, says Partho Ganguly.. Description: Inside every fat man there is a thin one struggling to come out. Mine outed sometime circa 1999. But with a twenty-six inch waist, it kind of resembled a woman. I could fit into my friend’s sister’s pedal-pushers. The parents tried to figure out how to go about introducing their son who had started looking like their daughter. Hollow cheeks and all, they felt she / he was also a junkie. But it was the look that season on the Paris ramps. “It’s called Heroin Chic,” I explained., As I write this on a full stomach, the heroin chick has been long been flushed away, and I’ve come to realise that a big stomach indicates an appetite for life., It’s all because our body hasn’t kept pace with our mind. Back in the hunter-gatherer days, you didn’t know where your next meal was coming from, if at all. So when you ate, you ate like a bastard. The body stored the excess calories as fat, to help cope with a food crisis. Since a fatter person had a higher chance of survival, and hence a better chance of passing on his genes, he was much desired as a mate. Fat boys like me ran wild with naked dreadlocked cave-chicks. Give me back those broken nights, my mirrored room, my secret life…, So much for evolutionary biology. There’s also geography and , (culture). Bengal is watery country, full of rivers, lakes and ponds. Fat cells are also 90 per cent water. This is no coincidence. It is as if the land itself is inside us. Naturally, Bong men feel some fat is a must for glamour., When two Bongs sit across the table to eat, they cannot see each other at first — it is only after they’ve eaten through their mounds of rice that they can say , . For proof, check out the amount of rice served to the hero in Bengali films, whose idea of murmuring sweet nothings is softly burping into his beloved’s hair., The Bong stud’s benchmark is Uttam Kumar, he of the shoulders soft as a pillow, which women could lean, and fall asleep. Bong men are totally cool with this, contrary to the rest of the world, where it is the man’s business to fall asleep on women. In my Calcutta , (gym), dudes even used to do weights with their cheeks filled with water, lest those become hollow with all the exercise., The Bong and his food is a love story, with lots of love songs. Like , . Or , (expat Bongs, brimming with unrequited longing). But this story is real, for here the lovers actually grow old and fat. Sure, cultural conditioning does play Cupid in this great romance. But there is also primordial recall. Let’s take a couple of atypical case-studies. Our school-going daughters are , . Not as in the place in Bangladesh famous for its sarees, but , as in Tamil + , *. They have never set foot in Cal. We have no family in Bombay. Yet, they react to fish like Gujjus to jewellery. Theirs is an atavistic response. , As for me, I feel inadequate unless the freezer is stuffed, streaked with blood, trembling with flesh. Maybe this is racial memory: there was the Bengal Famine, and in ’70-‘71, Bangladeshi refugees like me starved on Calcutta’s streets., In Bengal, even revolutions have been fought with food. During the Bengal Renaissance, the upper class, influenced by Western Thought, waged war against the many ills of Hindu society, such as , and hyper-polygamy. As a call to arms, many intellectuals ate beef. The most celebrated of these was the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt. That revolution rages on. Punching cow-belt, Deobandi Hindutva in the face, Bengal is one of those rare states which permits cow slaughter., Among Calcutta’s cultural icons then are Shiraz, Jimmy’s Kitchen, Bancharam, Cookie Jar and Mocambo. They are our , , they are our , **. As with a good book or film, this is food that moves you, brings a lump to your throat, fills your eyes with tears. This is high art, worthy of being framed on walls and housed in galleries. This is food that deserves a Nobel. , Thus my lard is made of love, made of food made of love, the love of loved ones and strangers, over forty years. This shit is sentimental. This fat is that winter when we had poached fish and wine and kissed and went to sleep, our bellies full of our first baby. Why the fuck would I want to lose that?, But I must. Being fat is a bad career move, especially in today’s telegenic world, where squillion dollar fat-cats are the epitome of fitmess. You read it right, that ain’t no typo. Diet and exercise can mess up your head. Ask any model whose piss has turned orange from drinking carrot juice. Heroin chic is a look among models because they can’t eat or drink. Therefore drugs — something that helps enjoy what remains of their lives., Winds are now blowing through my heart. I smell meat, I smell music, I smell malt. Let us eat, drink, dance, and romance the crap out of our lives. And when our time is finally up, ride fast, hard into the bend, and be gone in a whiff of smoke…, ...to that restaurant at the end of the universe.. Publisher: Partho Ganguly. Date Created: 13 Jun 2015, 7:48 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to tax beat dividend [/INST] Opinion news. Title: When Paying Tax Beats Paying a Dividend. Short_description: When Paying Tax Beats Paying a Dividend. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- You know things are dire in the U.K. property industry when a real estate investment trust scraps its dividend entirely., In the U.K., REITs are exempt from corporation tax on their domestic rental income providing they pay out at least 90 percent of that profit to their owners., But on Wednesday Intu Properties Plc, a publicly traded owner of several U.K. and Spanish shopping malls, announced that it won’t pay a final dividend for 2018 and indicated it might not pay much of one for 2019., This radical move is understandable in such a tough environment for retailers as Brexit Britain. A 13 percent year-on-year slump in valuations has caused leverage to balloon. Intu’s debt has swelled to 53 percent of assets, an uncomfortably high level.  , The company says it wants to remain a REIT and will resume regular distributions in the long term. Still, its decision to cancel the dividend sets a bad precedent for an already beaten-down sector. Intu’s shares fell another 8 percent on Wednesday, bringing their decline over the past year to almost 50 percent., Intu isn’t the master of its own fate here. If property valuations continue to fall, leverage will worsen and further unsettle equity and debt holders. Thus its decision to prioritize debt reduction – it says it wants to get its loan-to-value ratio back below 50 percent – is the right one, even if it leaves equity investors feeling sore.  , The group’s dividend departure means it could be hit with a tax bill of about 20 million pounds ($26 million), or about 10 percent of last year’s underlying earnings. Right now, though, that looks a better outcome than having to fork out roughly 190 million pounds a year in shareholder payouts. That amount is almost twice the operating cash flow Intu generated in 2018, according to Bloomberg Intelligence., The other plank of its deleveraging plan is asset sales. Finding a buyer for its Spanish sites might be more straightforward than in the U.K., where transactions have all but ground to a halt amid uncertainty about Brexit and worries about the financial health of retail tenants. But these disposals are no panacea: divestments bring in cash but cut future earnings, which might further harm the equity story., Intu doesn’t face any big refinancing pressures for the next couple of years and its covenants look manageable. Considering that in the past year the CEO has resigned, the company missed out on , , and tenants like House of Fraser started to shutter stores, operationally the group isn’t in such a bad state: occupancy levels and rental income look pretty good. , The shares trade at a near two-thirds discount to adjusted net asset value, a level management says is “virtually unprecedented.” That discount may prove hard to close. As both Brexit and Intu’s decision to forgo the dividend show, we are living in treacherous times., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Chris Bryant. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 6:58 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Covid Fight Medical Oxygen key [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Medical Oxygen Is Key to Covid Fight. It Used to Be Feared.. Short_description: This simplest of treatments has been around for ages. But, it faced nearly two centuries of skepticism from the medical community.. Description: The desperate scenes playing out in India may foreshadow a dangerous new phase of the pandemic where people die in droves, not of the disease so much as a lack of proper medical care. The situation could get a lot worse thanks to a sudden shortage of medical oxygen in the country., Oxygen is , strange theories, outright quackery and trench warfare in the medical community and beyond., Oxygen’s history in medicine begins in the 1770s, when the Swedish pharmacist Karl Scheele and the British scientist Joseph Priestly independently isolated oxygen gas. Priestly unfairly received the lion’s share of the credit., To make matters worse, Priestly was a believer in , , an invisible substance allegedly released during combustion. What we call “oxygen,” he called “, This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Stephen Mihm, an associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, is a contributor to Bloomberg Opinion., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Stephen Mihm. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 4:31 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to potential gain Pain CVS [/INST] Opinion news. Title: CVS Feels the Pain Before the Potential Gain. Short_description: CVS Feels the Pain Before the Potential Gain. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- It turns out that integrating a giant health insurer and pioneering a business model isn’t a cakewalk. On Wednesday, CVS Health Inc. released its first full-year guidance since closing its $68 billion deal for Aetna Inc. in November. The firm’s earnings-per-share forecast came in below Wall Street’s lowest estimates.  , The pharmacy giant outlined pricing headwinds at , that it said could weigh on earnings, and it looks as if they’re blowing hard. In its fourth-quarter earnings release, CVS said that these issues would have a disproportionate impact in 2019, implying that they’ll fade to some extent. , But while a conservative first-year forecast doesn’t derail the long-term logic of the transaction, it may be some time before investors see the benefits. , A few of the issues CVS is facing will most likely fade fairly quickly. Some of the initial pain of integrating Aetna is likely to pass. So should a particularly poor year for profitable generic drug launches. , Other problems, however — particularly some significant threats to the firm’s pharmacy benefit management business — aren’t going anywhere. In its January presentation, the firm cited lower price increases from drugmakers as a possible drag on profits. Increases almost certainly aren’t going back to historical levels given intense public and political scrutiny of the practice., The Trump administration is actively working to make price increases permanently less profitable for PBMs. It ,  this month that would unfavorably upend the way that CVS functions in Medicare Part D, and it wants to push similar reforms into the larger and more profitable commercial market. Individual states are also taking a , at other ways that PBMs profit from government programs. The Medicare rule won’t hit until 2020 at the earliest, but CVS is already shifting its business model, and profit growth is slowing. , Facing this grim environment without Aetna probably would have been even worse. The insurer offers a potentially profitable captive customer base for both sides of the business and a ready-made opportunity to expand into a broader range of health-care services. The combination of a huge retail presence and a large health insurance business is unique and , . , But there is a lot of investment and experimentation to come before the theoretical benefits of the combination translate into actual results. , Investors that stick it out might be rewarded. But juggling a major integration, a big debt load and a shifting regulatory environment all at once was never going to be anything but incredibly difficult. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Max Nisen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, pharma and health care. He previously wrote about management and corporate strategy for Quartz and Business Insider., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Max Nisen. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 8:04 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Reliance Aramco [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Sorry, Aramco, Reliance Just Isn’t That Into You. Short_description: Could one of the energy industry’s longest-running on-again, off-again romances be catching fire again? . Description: Could one of the energy industry’s longest-running on-again, off-again romances be catching fire again? Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman seems to think so. , “There are discussions happening right now about a 1% acquisition by one of the leading energy companies in the world” in state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., he said in a local television interview Tuesday., Prince Mohammed didn’t disclose which company might make the investment, but you don’t have to be a Jane Austen protagonist to work out the most likely partner. Reliance Industries Ltd., owner of the world’s biggest oil refinery, has been dancing the quadrille with Saudi Aramco for nearly two years. At current prices, 1% of Aramco would be worth about $19 billion — not far off the $15 billion price tag put on 20% of Reliance’s energy division, at the time the , ., A tie-up with Reliance is , , the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The two companies would initially exchange shares, with cash payments from the Saudis over subsequent years making up the balance of the transaction, the paper reported., It is a truth universally acknowledged that an Asian company in possession of an oil refinery must be in want of a Middle Eastern strategic investor. In this case, though, it’s hard to see the attraction for Reliance’s chairman, Mukesh Ambani., First, consider why the Saudi company is looking to sell a stake in the first place. Back in 2019 when the deal was first mooted, Reliance was in a tough financial spot. Net debt had more than tripled to 2.05 trillion rupees ($30 billion) in March that year, from 670 billion rupees five years earlier, as the company plowed cash into its fast-growing telecommunications and internet arm Reliance Jio. , Aramco, meanwhile, was awash with oil cash and expecting to be even more flush after its initial public offering, which eventually raised about $29 billion in December of that year. By offering to put down a 10-figure amount in return for a fifth of Reliance’s energy business, Saudi Inc. was following a time-honored tradition of using its bottomless funds to get a strategic midstream or downstream asset in one of its consuming countries. That would put the deal in line with long-standing tie-ups over oil storage in Japan, and a venture proposed earlier in 2019 to build a , in northeast China., How things have changed. Faced with paying an , , as well as the $69 billion purchase price of state-owned chemicals business Saudi Basic Industries Co. — at a time when all its peers are cutting their oil-price forecasts — Aramco is no longer swimming, Scrooge McDuck style, through piles of money. Though funds are hardly tight, they can no longer be treated as limitless., That Chinese refinery project was put on ice last August, while investments in the U.S. and elsewhere are being wound back, , the following month citing people familiar with the matter. Another $44 billion refinery near Mumbai, in which Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. would have taken a joint 50% stake, has also ground to a halt. Aramco’s most prominent deal this year — the , to EIG Global Energy Partners — saw cash coming into the Saudi business, rather than going out of it. , Reliance’s balance sheet has moved in the opposite direction. Investments from Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. in its Jio business, combined with a rights issue, brought in 2.2 trillion rupees last year. That left the company , by December. A breakneck pace of growth at Jio will likely cause it to overtake petroleum and chemicals as the biggest contributor to earnings, with or without a stake sale. Right now, Ambani isn’t particularly in need of cash. He certainly doesn’t need shares in one of his biggest suppliers, least of all when they’re locked up on a foreign stock exchange in a currency , is looking less secure than it once did., Looking at his comments at the time of Reliance’s last annual general meeting in July, it’s clear that the allure of a conventional petroleum business is rapidly fading: “The catastrophic impact of climate change calls for the legacy energy industry to reinvent itself on a war footing,” he said, before committing the company to net-zero carbon emissions by 2035 and promising investments in hydrogen, wind, solar, fuel cells and batteries. Already at the time of Reliance’s 2019 talks with Aramco, it was looking to shift from a traditional focus on road fuels into jet kerosene and petrochemicals., It’s important not to overstate how much Reliance is likely to change. The world’s biggest oil refinery will continue to earn billions from processing crude and producing chemicals for a long time to come, and Ambani wouldn’t be the first fossil-fuel boss to overstate the pace of his green makeover for the sake of some shareholder adulation., Still, a business that’s flush with cash and sees its future in technology and zero-carbon chemicals doesn’t really need what Saudi Aramco is offering. If Prince Mohammed wants to seal this betrothal, he’s going to have to offer a far more generous dowry., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: David Fickling. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 12:38 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Bad Banks economy [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Bad Banks Really Do Hurt Your Economy. Short_description: Bad Banks Really Do Hurt Your Economy. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Since taking over as the main supervisor of the euro zone’s largest lenders, the European Central Bank , against sickly lenders., The regulator has forced banks to be more open about the value of the exposures sitting on their books, and urged them to write down bad loans faster. All this should not only bolster financial stability, it should also help growth: providing less forbearance to “zombie” borrowers ought to free up credit for more promising startups., These demands have been met with scepticism by some investors and regulators, , . They argue that the ECB’s actions have resulted in an unnecessary destruction of shareholder value as banks scrambled to raise new capital. This has caused unnecessary turmoil, damaging both vulnerable and healthy banks. Finally, the ECB stands accused of having little evidence to prove that its strategy was actually helping to revive the region’s economy., A , from the ECB fills this last gap. Until recently, most research on the link between weak banks and zombie firms relied on the Japanese experience of the 1990s. Dan Andrews and Filippos Petroulakis instead looked at data from 11 European countries between 2001 and 2014, a period covering the euro zone crisis., Their findings are striking. For a start, weak banks are much more likely to be connected to zombie companies: troubled lenders are between 13 and 19 percent more so, suggesting that forbearance is a significant factor., The report also found evidence that zombie firms do indeed crowd out credit to healthier companies. By keeping companies alive artificially, lenders lower the average profitability of a particular industry. That makes banks more reluctant to lend to rivals in the same sector even if they are in better shape., The results clash with , from Guido Tabellini and Fabiano Schivardi, two Italian academics, who had found that a large stock of non-performing loans didn’t crowd out new credit to better companies. However, their particular paper only looked at new lending to zombie firms and didn’t look at the other ways of providing forbearance, such as maturity extensions. They also ignored the consequences on the wider markets of a bank’s lending behavior, which prevents them from isolating the effect the two ECB researchers describe., Still, it would be wrong to conclude that pushing banks to offload their non-performing loans is sufficient to restore economic growth. The ECB paper finds that in sectors that are more exposed to weaker banks it is harder to reallocate capital towards more efficient firms. Without a well-functioning bankruptcy regime that allows companies to be restructured speedily, however, lenders have little incentive to pull the trigger on an ailing borrower. This is an essential requirement for turning a vicious circle of forbearance into a virtuous circle of healthy lending., Of course, it would be easy to dismiss the ECB’s new evidence as self-serving. But it chimes with plenty of other work from reputable analysts., Two OECD researchers looked into a group of rich countries and , that a high share of industrial capital tied up in zombie firms has negative effects on investment, employment and productivity growth, particularly in countries such as Italy and Spain. Gita Gopinath, now chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, and colleagues have found that increasing capital mis-allocation is an important explanation for the productivity slowdown of Southern Europe., All of this points to a paradox: The countries that are resisting the ECB’s crackdown on bad loans the hardest are those who stand to benefit most from a fresh start. Rather than blaming the supervisors, they would be wise to concentrate on the truth of its message., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Ferdinando Giugliano writes columns and editorials on European economics for Bloomberg Opinion. He is also an economics columnist for La Repubblica and was a member of the editorial board of the Financial Times., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Ferdinando Giugliano. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 10:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Asda Deal Sainsbury [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Sainsbury Should Now Walk Away From Asda Deal. Short_description: Sainsbury Should Now Walk Away From Asda Deal. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Sasda is looking more like Sad-sda after U.K. regulators said on Wednesday they , the proposed combination of J Sainsbury Plc and Walmart Inc.’s British subsidiary, Asda., The Competition and Markets Authority’s findings are more onerous than even the worse case scenarios that the two companies or financial analysts had mapped out., But they do have a silver lining for Sainsbury Chief Executive Officer Mike Coupe. They make it easier for him to walk away from a deal that is looking much more of a headache than he anticipated when he triumphantly announced the 7 billion pound ($9.1 billion) purchase back in April., To recap: Sainsbury and Asda say they need to join forces to cope with the changing retail environment – read the increasing might of Aldi and Lidl, the German no-frills supermarkets who continue to gobble up all the sales growth in the sector., The CMA recognized that Aldi and Lidl do compete, but not to the extent of the remainder of the big four supermarkets, Tesco Plc and Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc., Officials also applied a much more stringent test of the incentive of the two companies to raise prices than in other recent cases, indicating that were the transaction to proceed, shoppers would likely encounter higher costs., All in all, competition could be affected in 629 local areas, even more than the 463 that the CMA outlined in the first phase of the competition., To address its concerns, it could block the deal, force the combined group to sell off one of its brands, or require a significant number of store disposals., Coupe attacked the findings as “outrageous.” , His view certainly has merits. Aldi and Lidl are continuing to gain share. What’s more, with the two privately owned companies snapping at the heels of the big supermarkets, it is difficult to see how any grocer could raise prices significantly., The CMA's findings are in stark contrast to its ruling, in late 2017, on Tesco's purchase of Booker. It waived this 4 billion pound transaction through without demanding any concessions. That looked unduly lenient. This time around, its conclusions look unnecessarily harsh., Though that doesn’t make things any better for Coupe, he has actually avoided two outcomes that would have been worse., The first would have been having to manage a requirement for store disposals that is high, but not quite so brutal. This would have stretched the economics of the deal, but not been terminal. The choice of whether to continue would be much more finely balanced., The second would have been a requirement for Sainsbury to make disposals, but then be unable able to find buyers for those stores. That would have made the grocer simply look incompetent., Sainsbury’s performance has weakened since the merger was announced, and what Coupe really needs to do is improve the underlying business. Focusing on this, rather than battling with the CMA or trying to renegotiate the terms with Walmart, looks the best course for the grocer. , As the public face of the transaction, the regulator’s damning indictment raises questions about Coupe’s position., Sainsbury clearly has the most to lose. As I have argued, Walmart has , than this deal. It could persuade a private equity buyer to consider a purchase of Asda. That’s not the case for Sainsbury. The prospects for a buyout are less clear-cut, although it may be a tempting opportunity for Amazon.com Inc., At least the regulator’s response allows Coupe to paint the CMA as the villain of the piece. He has ample reason to walk away, and that’s what he should do. He can now legitimately say that he tried to do something that he thought was in the interests of the companies and consumers, and was prevented from doing so., The CMA has given him a way out. He should use it., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She previously worked at the Financial Times., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Andrea Felsted. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 1:56 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Remembering Raj Kapoor man [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Remembering Raj Kapoor, a Man Who Wept Easily. Short_description: Khalid Mohamed shares a glimpse from the life of Raj Kapoor, a man & actor par excellence, on his death anniversary. Description: My reason for writing today is to illustrate the man and the filmmaker that Raj Kapoor was. Unlike any film personality I have seen in close-up down the decades, he was a class apart. Permit me, then, to recall some incidents which have stayed with me., Consistently criticised for depicting women provocatively – like with Mandakini under a waterfall in , , Raj Kapoor had asked me in the course of an interview, “Tell me, do you think I’m being vulgar? If a great director like Federico Fellini celebrates the female form in , , it’s called art. But if I make , or , , it’s called vulgarity. Why? For the life of me, I can’t understand double standards.”, At the New York airport, en route to being honoured at the Festival of India in Los Angeles, he picked up a stack of , and , magazines, leafed through the pin-ups and laughed, “See, in the western world nudity is no big deal.” After a pause, he sighed, “But I think I’m much too old to look at these , now.”, He handed over the magazines to me. Seeing me startled, he laughed some more and then binned the magazines. Shrugging, he said: “Okay, okay I understand, you’re embarrassed.” The fact was that I would have grabbed the magazines but would first have had to put on a mask of hypocrisy, conveying the impression that I wasn’t into er...navel gazing. “Stop making him blush red,” Mrs Krishna Raj Kapoor had intervened. End of story? No, I often wonder why I’d behaved so prissily., A day before that flight to LA, I’d been mugged on Lexington Street, New York. My shoulder bag, dollars, travellers’ cheques and passport-visa, poof, all gone in an instant. On hearing about it, Raj Kapoor whipped out what looked like a thousand dollars, saying, “You can pay me back in Mumbai.” Nope, here was an offer which had to be refused in line with professional ethics. Next, RK whipped out a battered Parker pen out of his shirt pocket, saying, “At least keep this. I wrote my scripts for , and , with this pen. Keep it, please.” That was an offer which couldn’t be refused., One afternoon, he called out of the blue, to ask, “Do you know where I can get hold of , ?” The Gary Cooper film’s theme about a small-town simpleton hustled into the money-obsessed ways of a big town, had fascinated him for years. Its video cassette was inaccessible., Often, I wonder what his take on Mr Deeds would have been., As it happened, I was a reporter covering the Dadasaheb Phalke Award presentation to Raj Kapoor at New Delhi’s Siri Fort auditorium. On sighting me, he waved to indicate that I should sit next to him. That wouldn’t have been appropriate. I waved back, indicating that I’d see him after the ceremony. Five minutes later, he was overcome by what seemed like a severe asthma attack., He was helped out to the foyer – he could hardly stand. Somehow, attendants managed to take him back to the seat. Since he couldn’t walk up to the stage, the President walked down to present the Award. He was hardly conscious, but folded his hands into a , . Seconds later he was rushed to the nearby AIIMS hospital., Never to get back home or wave out ever again. Raj Kapoor passed away at the age of 63 on June 2nd, 1988, aware of his mortality., (, ). Publisher: Khalid Mohamed. Date Created: 14 Dec 2015, 3:09 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to failure Left State Venezuela [/INST] Opinion news. Title: Venezuela Isn’t Just a Failed State. It’s a Failure of the Left.. Short_description: As Venezuela careens toward a further economic and political collapse, the blame game is heating up.. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- As Venezuela careens toward a further economic and political collapse, the blame game is heating up. In the U.S., Republicans are , “socialist,” using Venezuelan problems as a weapon against more left-leaning Democrats. Commentators on the left, in contrast, are , that Venezuela is more of a failed petro-state with bad leadership, rather than a test of socialist ideals. Who is right?, If we look at government spending as a percentage of GDP, Venezuela seems far from socialism. In recent years government spending in Venezuela has been measured at about , of GDP, with the caveat that these statistics are not fully reliable. For the U.S., the corresponding figure is about , ., Yet emerging economies typically cannot afford the same government programs as wealthier countries, and they cannot run them with the same efficacy. Poorer countries that try to expand their governments to size of wealthier countries, such as Brazil and Venezuela, typically encounter sub-par economic performance. These are indeed stories of big government run amok, as some of conservatives are suggesting., Furthermore, rates of change are important. The Venezuelan figure of about 40 percent is up from about , in 2000, a very rapid increase. By boosting government spending so quickly, the Venezuelan government was sending a message that the key to future riches is courting government favor, not starting new businesses., Or consider exports, which for most developing economies play an especially critical role. They bring in foreign exchange, provide contacts to foreign markets, and force parts of the economy to learn how to compete with the very best foreign companies. Yet over , of Venezuela’s exports are oil, and those resources are owned and controlled by the government. For this all-important growth driver, Venezuela comes pretty close to full socialism — to its detriment., Chile has prudently managed its state-owned copper reserves (also a big export earner), but Venezuelan leaders have treated state oil money as a slush fund for themselves and their cronies, and furthermore they borrowed against future oil revenues. The daughter of former President Hugo Chavez, who died six years ago, is still reportedly one of the , in Venezuela. Of course that came largely from state resources, and it happened while the Venezuelan citizenry was sinking further into poverty., In fact, nationalizations under Chavez were , — encompassing much of the oil sector plus parts of the agriculture, transport, power, steel, telecommunications and finance industries. Even though many of those nationalizations were small in scale, the threat of further encroachments on private property rights discouraged investment and sent the wrong signal about where the nation was headed., And this may be the most important point: Socialism, capitalism and other systems matter not only for the conditions they create but because of the ideas they propagate. This is true even if these ideologies are followed incompletely or imperfectly., One simple way to trace that influence for Chavez is to look at , , where you will find plenty of utterances against globalization and the market economy. “Privatization is a neoliberal and imperialist plan,” he said in 2005. “Health can’t be privatized because it is a fundamental human right, nor can education, water, electricity and other public services. They can’t be surrendered to private capital that denies the people from their rights.” That rhetoric of victimization and absolute moralizing against markets doesn’t sound so different from a lot of what I hear from non-Venezuelans on social media., Like his praise for anti-capitalist, anti-American regimes such as Belarus and Iran, a lot of Chavez’s rhetoric might have been written off as political posturing. But it has continued under his successor, Nicolas Maduro, who has also failed to use his post to educate Venezuelans about the benefits of capitalism and globalization — in stark contrast to many East Asian leaders. Instead, the promotion of socialist ideas has helped to make Venezuelan society less economically robust and more vulnerable to collapse., And while many on the left are now keen to disavow any connection to the Venezuelan disaster, their earlier enthusiasm is on the record. , , writing in The Nation in 2013, offered a laudatory take on Chavez and suggested that Venezuela “might be the most democratic country in the Western hemisphere.” (He also argued, oddly enough, that Chavez “wasn’t authoritarian enough.”) Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the U.K.’s Labour Party, has also been a big , , while Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz , Venezuela’s economic policies in 2007 and declared that the risks of higher inflation were overrated., Yes, there are some exaggerations and mischaracterizations in the right-wing charge that Venezuela’s system is socialism, pure and simple. At the same time, the evidence shows that, for some parts of the ideological left, the cause for embarrassment is very real indeed., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of economics at George Mason University and writes for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include "Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero.", ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tyler Cowen. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 7:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Ultimate Power Spending Spree Apple [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Apple’s $430 Billion Spending Spree Is the Ultimate Power Play. Short_description: Apple’s $430 Billion Spending Spree Is the Ultimate Power Play. Description: Administrations come and go, but CEOs like Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook know there’s no better way to wave the flag than to flash the wallet, whoever is in charge. , On Monday, Apple Inc. , its U.S. investment commitments by 20% over the next five years to $430 billion. The new figure, which includes spending with American suppliers, building data centers and other domestic expenditures, replaces its previous five-year goal of $350 billion set in 2018 under the Trump administration. Then, corporate tax cuts prompted Apple to say it would repatriate some of its overseas cash hoard, , while also giving the company a chance to ,  with job promises. “Huge win for American workers and the USA!,” former President Donald Trump tweeted at the time. , The acceleration announced Monday is a big positive. It points to Apple’s confidence in the economy and its willingness to invest aggressively to keep up with the pace of innovation. In the statement, the tech giant said it will invest tens of billions of dollars to develop next-generation semiconductors, artificial intelligence and 5G wireless technologies. These are all areas that are critically important for Apple to create its future products and compete in the marketplace. But there is clearly a political component to this announcement, too., It is telling how Apple reiterates it is the largest taxpayer in the U.S., supporting more than 2.7 million jobs throughout the economy. The company conspicuously says its investments entail working with more than 9,000 suppliers in all 50 states. Apple also provided detailed plans for future job creation in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington and Iowa. All of which sends a message to local, state and federal politicians on how much the company will contribute to their economies. , The timing is not coincidental. The Biden administration is , the tax burden on large technology giants such as Apple for profits held overseas. The proposal aims to clamp down on the practice of putting income-generating assets in lower-tax offshore countries. Biden also , the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. If after-tax profit streams get crimped, Apple may not be able to invest as much going forward. At least I suspect that is what they are saying behind closed doors., And then there are the regulatory issues. Apple has come under increasing antitrust scrutiny over the past year. It is under multiple investigations from the European Union and is being investigated by Congress over alleged anticompetitive business practices related to its App Store. , , executives from Spotify Technology SA and Match Group Inc. testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel complaining about the App Store’s high fees and restrictive rules. In perhaps a way to strike back, Apple repeatedly emphasized on Monday how the iOS app economy gives livelihoods to millions of developers., Apple is not alone in framing its investments to also make a political point. Chip giant Intel Corp. , $20 billion to build two new factories in Arizona, which are expected to create roughly 15,000 local jobs. Analysts expect that Intel may be able get future subsidies and incentives from the Biden administration for building more U.S-based semiconductor factories., These are smart moves by the big technology companies. After all, even if Apple was going to spend and invest in these areas anyway, it doesn’t hurt to publicly show the size of the stakes and to dress it up politically. Who knows, it may change a congressman’s mind or two., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tae Kim is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Barron's, following an earlier career as an equity analyst., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tae Kim. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 9:59 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Best Gifts kid [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: The Best Gifts for Kids Who Aren’t Your Own. Short_description: The Best Gifts for Kids Who Aren’t Your Own. Description: A common reaction to hearing about a pregnancy is to say congrats and perhaps send a onesie. But there are other ways to celebrate and support newly expecting parents., When my sister-in-law announced her pregnancy last fall, my brain leapt to how my husband and I could save and invest for our future nephew. Savings bonds? Those feel like a relic of the past. A straight up check? Individuals can gift up to $15,000 to someone without triggering tax consequences. As a couple, that means you could gift $30,000., As I’ve said before, there are plenty of reasons to , , especially to help build generational wealth in your family. This is particularly relevant for those who elect to stay child-free, but have nieces, nephews, godchildren and other young loved ones in their lives. , If you’re strategizing for the long term, here are the main options to consider., are often heralded as the best way to set aside money for a child’s schooling. The education savings plans often get the most press because they offer a bit more flexibility compared with prepaid tuition plans. 529 plans are also tax advantaged and can be used for elementary or secondary school education expenses in addition to college. , As a New York State resident, I could open up a , for my nephew and be eligible to deduct up to $10,000 annually from my New York State taxable income (because I’m married filing jointly; it’s $5,000 for single taxpayers). , When it comes to gifting to a child that isn’t your own, however, things do become a tad more complicated. You’d need access to the child’s Social Security number to open up an account. Needless to say, you should discuss any plans with the parents first., There are also a few potential catches with the 529 plan approach. For one, the funds must be used for qualified expenses in order to be tax advantaged. Generally, these are education-related expenses. But if my nephew elected to not attend college and I didn’t use the funds for primary or secondary school, then I’d have a few choices. Pulling money out for a non-qualifying expense would trigger the need to pay taxes plus a 10% penalty. , Luckily, there is no phase out nor age limit to a 529 plan being used, and I could switch the beneficiary to another eligible family member, But another catch is financial aid. The funds in your non-parent 529 plan would be considered the student’s income after distribution, which could, . In this case, 529 plan withdrawals are calculated similarly to a custodial account.  , Instead of creating your own account for a minor, you could just regularly contribute to a 529 plan that’s been set up by the parents. You probably won’t get a potential tax deduction, but it could be a better situation in terms of financial aid for the child. Think about it as a gift just like birthday or holiday presents., If I open a 529 plan and my nephew ends up with a college scholarship, then I could take a non-qualified withdrawal for the amount of the scholarship without penalty — but still pay taxes. There are also exceptions to the penalty if he were to attend a U.S. military academy or become incapacitated. , Custodial accounts like Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) or Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) give far more flexibility in terms of investment options — which would be more pleasing to a savvy investor — but there’s no control over the funds once the child turns 18 or 21 depending on your state’s rules. These also count as student assets in terms of calculating financial aid, which could screw up the amount of assistance the child is then eligible to receive. So if you’re not providing enough to pay for college outright, this should be a discussion with the parents. , Personally, I’m partial to the idea of gifting fractional shares of products and companies he’s interested in as he ages. This would need to live within a custodial account, but it feels like a more engaging way to get him interested in learning about investing than just telling him we contributed to an account. As he ages, I’d want to sit down and teach him some simple investing principles., The gift of financial literacy is a powerful one. It also would be less overwhelming for non-experienced investors to have someone else handle the actual investments in the account., Another idea is to help a parent set up appropriate accounts to start saving and investing for their child’s future. You could gift your loved ones a session with a certified financial planner, especially if there are unique circumstances in their life that make financial planning a bit more complicated., Or perhaps you play the role of tutor. Setting up for a brokerage account can be overwhelming for those who are experiencing it for the first time. Taking an hour of your time to sit in person and walk them through the experience is a gift too. It also keeps them from putting it at the bottom of the never-ending to-do list we all have running., At the end of the day, my and my husband’s opinions about the best way to gift money to our nephew doesn’t matter nearly as much as his parents’ preferences and boundaries. He isn’t my child and it’s completely up to their discretion how much and in what way my husband and I can invest for his future. So if you’re not sure where to start, try asking the new parents. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Erin Lowry is the author of “Broke Millennial,” “Broke Millennial Takes On Investing” and the forthcoming “Broke Millennial Talks Money: Stories, Scripts and Advice to Navigate Awkward Financial Conversations.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Erin Lowry. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 7:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Climate Summit Shot redemption Brazil [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Brazil Has Climate Summit Shot at Redemption. Short_description: Brazil Has Climate Summit Shot at Redemption. Description: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro needs no introduction at this week’s virtual climate summit convened by U.S. President Joe Biden. He rode into office in 2019 threatening to quit the Paris Agreement on climate change, courted miners and loggers and blew off international donors Norway and Germany rather than hear them harp about the fate of the Amazon rainforest. With an eye on reelection in 2022, he has habitually dissed any who would put trees before the stump., Until now. Gone is the mercurial foreign minister who dismissed climate change as a , . , Environment Minister Ricardo Salles is making nice with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry. And Bolsonaro wrote a , to Biden, heralding the sustainability agenda and extolling Brazil’s green credentials., This isn’t contrition so much as an existential reset. With Brazil’s fiscal accounts at a tipping point, a parliamentary inquiry looming over his handling of the world’s second deadliest Covid-19 outbreak, and a record , weighing against him, Bolsonaro has seen his approval ratings combust. His bellicose environmental agenda, which drew sharp rebuke , , has made matters worse. With even the sympathetic business and agribusiness lobby , , Bolsonaro knows he must pivot or turn pariah. “Brazil needs to get in line, and not because Europe says so,” said Pedro de Camargo Neto, a farmer and cattleman and an outspoken critic of government environmental policy. “We need to comply with the law, full stop. What’s illegal is illegal.”, The good news is that Brazil can bring plenty to the table on sustainable development. Its grain belt is built on high-tech agriculture that , , thereby reducing erosion and keeping carbon in the ground. , lights up most homes and industry, with wind and solar quickly gaining on the grid. Clean-burning ethanol distilled from sugarcane helps scrub tailpipe emissions. Even the mistreated Amazon is showing some promising green shoots. Played smartly, Brazil’s environmental assets could win back much of what 27 months of incendiary Bolsonarismo have menaced: , , , , strategic partnerships, ,  and what remains of Brazilian soft power., Hopes rise in unlikely places. Start with Mato Grosso, a sprawling frontier state almost three times the size of Germany that straddles three signature tropical ecosystems: the cerrado or savanna, the Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon’s high rainforest. Once rued as a crucible for habitat destruction, a legacy that won a former state governor Greenpeace’s , in 2005, Mato Grosso has shown it can sharply curb deforestation even as the Amazon region as a whole , . The state’s success owes to , , technology, vigilance and boots on the ground. After putting properties on a statewide digital grid, authorities monitored forest cover through satellite images and dispatched police and forest inspectors to keep farmers honest and catch scofflaws. In 2020, forest police seized 157 tractors, 11 trucks and a helicopter, and arrested 492 people for bootleg logging and forest cutting. More than 1,500 infractions have been heard this year, triple the amount from all of 2020., Ramping up that system took years of commitment and cooperation between officials and producers. It also meant scything through red tape and jumbled land titles — some 80% of Mato Grosso’s 150,000 rural properties overlapped — and ditching the patchy federal forestry data bank for the state’s own system. Mato Grosso hired 50 data analysts to rake through the records. The result: Outlaws are on the run, licensed deforestation rose five-fold, and overall felling is , , on top of a dramatic decline of 88% between 2005 and 2012., Mato Grosso is one of only two Brazilian states to parlay its forestry stewardship into , for slashing greenhouse gas emissions, part of the sustainability rewards outlined in the Paris accord. Tapping $8 million from the carbon credits for computers and forest monitoring technology, Environment Secretary Mauren Lazzaretti projects Mato Grosso will eliminate clandestine clear-cutting by 2030., Mato Grosso can’t fix Brazil’s forest problem — climate treaties are agreements between national not local governments — but it can blaze a trail. “Mato Grosso shows that subnational states can develop their own compliance mechanisms, and that you don’t need to wait eternally for the federal government to act,” said Marcos Jank, a professor of global agribusiness at Insper, a Sao Paulo business school. “Complying with the law matters and will garner preferential treatment by the markets.” This week, 24 of Brazil’s 27 governors penned their own sustainability pledge to stop “the climate emergency” by slashing greenhouse emissions., Plenty of spadework remains. Brazil’s government argues, reasonably, that controlling the plunder depends on sorting out the tangle of property titles that constricts governance in the Amazon. Complying with the national Forestry Code — passed in 2012, but mostly tied up in litigation since — is crucial. Landgrabbers still want to game the code, yet without it, the Brazilian frontier would still be at the mercy of pirates and chainsaws., Yet even the most judicious forest code means little in land where government has gone AWOL. Illegal forest cutting is off the charts on public lands. Most of the clandestine destruction plays out on so-called “non-designated” territory; that’s legal speak for , of forests (an area the size of Spain) owned by the government but controlled by no one. “Essentially, they are no-man’s lands,” said Rodrigo Lima, managing partner of Agroicone, an agriculture consultancy and think tank., Brazil could score an easy win in any climate compact by taking charge of such woodland blind spots, whose despoliation profits only bandits, bringing down the Amazon and the country’s name. “Why not seize the opportunity to announce that we are converting say 10 million hectares of non-designated area into conservation areas, preserve it, and then use it as collateral for the carbon market?” said Lima. “That’s a lot different from going to Washington and saying, hand over the money and we’ll take care of our forests.”, If Bolsonaro misses that smart cue, Brazil risks ending up with less of both dollars and trees., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Mac Margolis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin and South America. He was a reporter for Newsweek and is the author of “The Last New World: The Conquest of the Amazon Frontier.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Mac Margolis. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 2:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to bold plan Broadband Biden [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Biden’s Plan for Broadband Isn’t Bold Enough. Short_description: Biden’s Plan for Broadband Isn’t Bold Enough. Description: President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan is smart to look beyond ports and potholes. But I worry about the part of the plan aimed at expanding broadband. It’s both too ambitious and not ambitious enough., Make no mistake, broadband , infrastructure. It’s unacceptable that American schoolchildren have to piggyback on the Wi-Fi provided by fast-food restaurants to submit homework, and adults have uneven internet access as they hold down remote jobs, apply for jobs, or make Covid vaccine appointments. The problem needs fixing — and soon. , But the Biden plan doesn’t ask for enough money to fix it. It proposes a $100 billion budget over eight years to close America’s digital divide, similar to a parallel bill in Congress. These proposals are predicated on an incorrect FCC mapping of the country’s digital infrastructure that estimates that there are “fewer than 14.5 million” people who lack broadband internet access. The estimate is so far off the mark that the current acting FCC chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, has acknowledged it and commissioned a proper mapping of broadband nationwide., A more reliable count by an independent research group, BroadbandNow, , that 42 million Americans were without broadband and they live in both rural and low-income urban areas. Moreover, the Biden plan calls for “future-proof” broadband, as America’s current broadband standard measured in internet speeds is already out-of-date. The broadband standard is a minimum download speed of 25 Mbps. In Denmark, the average actual download speed was almost 5 times faster; in Switzerland and South Korea, it was over 4 times faster. Taking all of this into account and applying the FCC’s cost structures, my ,  estimates the budget needs to be at least $240 billion — more than double the current target. An inescapable conclusion is that the plan’s budget is not ambitious enough and has a budget shortfall of $140 billion., At the same time, the Biden plan is too ambitious in its proposed solution. It intends to solve the broadband problem through local public and municipal networks — those that operate without a profit motive. That will be difficult to do, to say the least: Municipal networks are banned in at least 18 states., Biden will have to work with other, better-resourced parties. He will also have to find new ways to raise revenue to pay for the upgrades to America’s digital infrastructure., I would propose a two-part solution. Both involve Big Tech, the industry that makes the most money from better connectivity., First, consider a “tech tax” to narrow the budget gap. Nobel laureate Paul Romer has recently suggested taxing the revenues that Big Tech earns from targeted digital ads. There are large revenue pools — of over $120 billion a year — to dip into: In 2020, social media advertising revenues rose to $41.5 billion, while digital video advertising revenue grew to $26.2 billion and advertisers were expected to spend $59.22 billion on search ads. The tech tax revenues can be collected in a new Universal Broadband Fund, modeled on the Universal Service Fund, by which long-distance telecoms were assessed to subsidize telephone service to high-cost areas. Why not revive an old solution for a modern version of an old problem? While it may be naïve to expect bipartisanship on this, it seems not out of the question; lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are keen to get the industry to pay its dues., Given that the digital ad revenues sales are already over $120 billion annually, and with the rise in digital ads sales, this tax pool will only grow in the near term. A tax rate of, say, 15% could help close the $140 billion budget gap over eight years. Over time, the very presence of such a tax could also create incentives for the tech industry to innovate on new business models that do not rely on harvesting data — a benefit that Romer had identified of levying such a tax in the first place., Second, the federal government should partner with the big, for-profit players to bring broadband to disconnected areas — something nonprofit, municipal players can’t realistically do., The large tech companies in lawmakers’ crosshairs — like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple — are already in the business of providing internet access, with projects like Facebook Connectivity and Amazon’s 3,000 low-earth-orbit satellites. The Biden administration should work with them to bring high-speed internet to low-access areas by offering goals, incentives and a bidding process., There have already been some successful public-private partnerships that prove the idea of pairing tech companies with governments and social enterprises can work. Google and the state of California collaborated to connect 100,000 rural households. Microsoft and other companies worked with NGOs on a digital connectivity pilot in East Cleveland. But to attain a national scale, these kinds of projects need the federal government to play the role of organizer and convener., The major technology companies are connectivity’s biggest beneficiaries. The industry makes money every time we touch a keyboard. It doesn’t seem radical to suggest that they should help pay for the creation of more customers through a tax — especially if they can help solve the problem with some of their own hardware.  We should not be wringing our hands over this urgent problem; a solution to our digital divide is literally at our fingertips., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Bhaskar Chakravorti is the dean of global business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and founding executive director of Fletcher's Institute for Business in the Global Context. He is the author of "The Slow Pace of Fast Change.", ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bhaskar Chakravorti. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 7:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Extraordinary Journey Day flower mother [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: The Extraordinary Journey of Your Mother’s Day Flowers. Short_description: The Extraordinary Journey of Your Mother’s Day Flowers. Description: Since the tulip mania of the 1600s, the Netherlands has developed into the hub of the global flower trade, not only growing huge quantities of tulips, roses and other flowers but also importing, auctioning off and re-exporting flowers grown elsewhere. It’s the big blue circle in the upper middle of the map below, with $4.3 billion in 2019 cut-flower exports — about half the global total., When a colleague asked me a few weeks ago to answer the pressing question of where all the Mother’s Day (and Valentine’s Day, and Easter, and Administrative Professional and Secretaries Day, and National Teachers’ Day, and , ) flowers come from, I thus figured it would end up involving a , in the Netherlands., But no. For one thing, Dutch growers’ cooperative Royal FloraHolland has been moving away from live auctions to mostly , , a process accelerated by the pandemic. More to the point, apart from tulips and unique varieties destined for high-end displays at weddings and such, we here in the U.S. generally don’t get our flowers from the Netherlands.,  , The U.S. is the world’s biggest importer of cut flowers, at $1.6 billion in 2019, dwarfing the either , or , in sales by domestic growers, depending on which U.S. Department of Agriculture survey you look at. The hub of our flower trade is not a Dutch auction house or even a digital trading platform, but Miami International Airport, through which about 80% of those imports flow. They arrive there from several different countries in Central and South America, and from the Netherlands too. But mainly they’re from Colombia., The numbers in the above charts are from 2019 because so far there’s only incomplete data on global exports and no data on state production from 2020. But 2020 was an interesting year for flowers! Last spring — right in the middle of the Valentine’s-to-Mother’s-Day high season — the coronavirus pandemic shut down large parts of the global economy, not to mention churches, , . “In mid-March, it even seemed as if the floriculture industry might collapse,” Royal FloraHolland Chief Executive Officer Steven van Schilfgaarde wrote in the cooperative’s recently released , ., Instead, Royal FloraHolland ended up reporting a modest pre-tax loss of 6.8 million Euros ($8.2 million) for the year. In the U.S., some parts of the flower business actually had a great 2020, with 2021 looking even better. Supermarket flower sales, for example, rebounded quickly and , were running 15% higher than a year before., Revenue also rose 67% in 2020 for the consumer floral division at 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. (which also sells fruit baskets, services to florists and other things), while multiple , member surveys in recent months have reported big holiday sales increases over past years. Amid a pandemic, “people are realizing that time is of the essence,” one florist recently ,  in explaining the surge. “You can’t hold a grudge.”, Not every part of the business has boomed. Data on 2020 U.S. cut-flower imports are available, and they declined by $47 million, or 3.6% (5.4% if you go by the number of stems imported) versus 2019. The dollar-value of imports from the Netherlands — again, the source of many flowers for weddings and other events — fell 41%. But imports from Colombia , 3.4%., How did Colombian flowers come to so dominate the U.S. market? One ,  begins with Colombian businessman and gardener Edgar Wells Castillo’s visit to a wholesale flower market in New York in the early 1960s — or , . Upon seeing the prices charged there he sensed a business opportunity, subsequently putting his first shipment of carnations and chrysanthemums on a jet to Miami in October 1965. ,  credits grower Francisco Waldorf with starting the commercial cultivation of carnations on the , a year before that., Other versions put more emphasis on a 1966 U.S. Agency for International Development agricultural mission to Colombia and the 1967 paper by Colorado State University horticulture graduate student David Cheever (who may have been on that mission; he died in 2013 so I can’t ask him) that seems to have done the most to alert people in the U.S. to the attractions of growing flowers at 8,700 feet above sea level near the equator. Cheever’s paper described how the Bogota savanna offered, as ,  a few years ago, “a pleasant climate with little temperature variation and consistent light, about 12 hours per day year-round — ideal for a crop that must always be available.” The soil was also great, and prevailing wages at the time were about 5% of those in U.S. horticulture., The company that Cheever and three other Americans founded in 1969, Floramerica, became for a time the dominant player in Colombian flower exports. Cheever soon quit to work as independent consultant, though, helping lots of others get into the business. The value of , to the U.S. rose from $4,000 in 1965 to $765,000 in 1970 to $30 million in 1977. That year the the Growers’ Division of the Society of American Florists petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission to look into whether these imports were harming U.S. growers, but the ITC , they were “not being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury.” Then, as the exports kept growing through the 1980s — which is when Ecuador, which offered high-altitude equatorial growth conditions similar to Colombia’s, , — other considerations came to weigh heavier with policy makers in Washington than the interests of U.S. flower growers., Those considerations were encouraging political stability and discouraging illicit drug cultivation in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and in 1991 President George H.W. Bush signed into law the , , which offered duty-free treatment to certain products from the region, among them flowers. The most recent version of the Andes trade pact expired in 2013, but Colombian flowers continue to enter the U.S. duty-free, while those from Ecuador face modest tariffs. Cut flowers were the No. 5 export by value in 2019 for both countries, according to the , , behind oil, coal, coffee and gold in Colombia and behind oil, frozen shrimp, bananas and canned tuna in Ecuador. , The rise of the South American flower industry has not exactly ended the illegal-drugs trade, with Colombia reportedly , than ever and Ecuador , . It has also attracted much criticism over lax , and , , although , seem to have been addressed at least partially in recent years. On the positive side, the industry’s rise has coincided with relatively good economic times in both countries — after oil-related busts in the late 1990s, both have ,  since 2000, with Colombia’s per-capita gross domestic product growing at twice the region’s overall rate. And it’s been good news for U.S. consumers. Since 1993, the , have risen at less than a third the rate of overall inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that’s after a sharp price runup during the post-lockdown flower boom., It’s harder to put a positive spin on the ramifications for U.S. cut-flower growers. Cut flower imports first surpassed domestic production four years after the 1991 trade pact, and the gap has only grown since. I didn’t adjust these numbers for inflation because there doesn’t seem to have been much flower-price inflation, but the true trajectory of the domestic industry is probably even more negative than it appears in the chart., The U.S. flower business was being turned upside-down even before the import boom, though. The industry had first taken shape in the decades after the Civil War as florists built greenhouses to serve nearby urban markets. When the Census Bureau took its , at commercial floriculture for the 1890 agricultural census, New York was the clear No. 1 in growing cut flowers for sale, followed by Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The greenhouses ranged in size from 150,000 square feet to 60, “the latter a cozy attachment to the sitting room of a New England farmhouse, whose mistress sells annually $35 to $50 worth of plants and flowers.” Roses and carnations were the top crops, accounting for about 65% of what the Census Bureau calculated with remarkable precision to be a national total of $14,175,328.01 in cut-flower sales., Adjusted for consumer-price inflation , , that amounts to $426.5 million today, or well more than the domestic industry now generates. As a share of GDP it’s equivalent to almost $20 billion, or about ten times the combined value of imports and domestic production today. Either cut flowers have become much less important to Americans than they were in 1890, or there’s been a floral productivity revolution. I think it’s mostly the latter., That revolution seems to have begun in and around Denver, where sunny skies, Platte River water and ample local supplies of coal and natural gas to heat greenhouses spurred a “, ” that began in the 1890s and culminated in Colorado becoming one of the world’s top producers of the long-lasting, easy-to-transport flower. California and Florida, where long growing seasons allowed for large-scale flower production outside of greenhouses, also began shipping flowers farther and farther afield as the 20th century progressed. The short lifespan of most cut flowers still kept the greenhouses close to big cities alive, if not exactly booming, but after the advent of jet transportation in the late 1950s the old business model finally imploded. “We were a predator group — wiping out the industry in the rest of the United States,” one Denver flower wholesaler recalled in a , in the alternative weekly Westword., Big, specialist growers that shipped their products long distances were taking over the flower business. But the industry’s evolution didn’t stop along Colorado’s Front Range. Local growers funded research at Colorado State University into ways to become even more productive, leading to the paper by David Cheever that spelled their demise. “The argument had been: Colorado or California,” a Colorado Springs grower told Westword. “Unfortunately, the answer they came up with was Colombia.” It didn’t help that, just as the Colombian export business was getting going in the 1970s, the energy crisis made heating greenhouses through the Colorado winter much more expensive., Colombia now grows more than 90% of the carnations sold in the U.S., and more than half of the roses. Those two flowers and pompons, a kind of chrysanthemum, are the top , from South America. You have to get down to the No. 11 import by volume, lilies, to find a market not dominated by Colombia and Ecuador., What does this leave for American flower growers? Well, mainly growing flowers intended for planting rather than putting in vases, which because they come attached to lots of soil don’t really pay to be flown in from another continent. U.S. commercial floriculture enterprises generated $4.4 billion in sales , . Cut flowers, once the mainstay, now take a backseat to flats of pansies and petunias and pots of begonias and geraniums., Domestic producers also still grow the kinds of cut flowers that can’t easily survive a couple of airplane flights and a long stay in a supermarket produce section. These are the prettiest flowers, in my opinion, if not necessarily the most profitable. (The chart headline is a lyric from , .), I would have liked to list the main states where these flowers are grown, as I did with imports and countries. But while the USDA can tell you exactly how many flowers of which variety from which country , , it’s much cagier about disclosing where some flowers are grown domestically, because doing so might divulge proprietary information about certain large growers., For example, the country’s most famous tulip-producing region is Washington’s , , just north of Seattle, but the state accounted for only 20% of 2019 U.S. tulip production by sales volume and the USDA doesn’t disclose significant totals for any other state. Bloomia, founded in 2004 by a transplanted Dutch tulip farmer, , , 40% of the national total, in its hydroponic greenhouse complex near Fredericksburg, Virginia, so maybe Virginia is tops for tulips. California is definitely No. 1 for lilies, gerbera daisies and roses, growing more than 90% of U.S. production of each. The source of the nation’s gladioli is a mystery as far as the USDA is concerned, but , of Bronson, Michigan says it’s the top producer. Oregon appears to lead the way in peonies, California and New Jersey in sunflowers. And so on., So where do all the Mother’s Day flowers come from? In most cases they’re grown in Colombia. But the more creative you get about assembling the bouquet, the more likely you are to encounter blooms from elsewhere., The U.S. also exports some of the flowers it grows and the USDA’s domestic production numbers miss out on the smallest growers, but for purposes of my chart those more or less cancel each other out. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business. He was the editorial director of Harvard Business Review and wrote for Time, Fortune and American Banker. He is the author of “The Myth of the Rational Market.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Justin Fox. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 4:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to case Study Foxconn Blunder Wisconsin Biden [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Wisconsin’s Foxconn Blunder Is a Case Study for Biden. Short_description: Wisconsin’s Foxconn Blunder Is a Case Study for Biden. Description: , Walker, like Trump, wanted to claim he had revived manufacturing in his state and he trumpeted the Foxconn transaction as an epic victory., “This is about something that someday, maybe 10 or 15 or 20 years from now, those of us in public service who are either elected or appointed, and others in the community, in the private sector, will look back and say: ‘We were part of that day. We were part of that moment,’” , . “We were part of the thing that was so transformational, it changed and put Wisconsin on the map on a global basis like nothing we’ve ever seen before.”, “They chose us because we’re ready,” , back then. But he and his statehouse team , . They , negotiating contracts with big Asian corporations. And they apparently didn’t bother recruiting outside consultants with deep industry expertise who might have helped them navigate the complex — and possibly insurmountable — supply chain, manufacturing and labor hurdles that arise in a competitive market such as flat-panel production., They just dove in, promising to give Foxconn a , Wisconsin’s annual spending on its public university system and its prisons. For , as a negotiator and the realities of the global electronics market (in other words, people other than Trump and Walker), the specifics of Wisconsin’s initial agreement with Foxconn, , , were risible., As my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Tim Culpan , when the deal was forged, the $3 billion Walker was offering to help subsidize Foxconn’s Wisconsin payroll amounted to as much as $1 million apiece for jobs that were going to provide average annual salaries of $54,000. That $10 billion, 20-million-square-foot plant Gou said he would build? Culpan said the only way an investment of that magnitude could pay off would be to keep staffing at a minimum and automate production. “This LCD factory will be either labor intensive or highly automated. It can't be both,” he noted., In the end, Foxconn committed only to building a far less grandiose operation in Wisconsin and never met the hiring goals in the initial deal. It says it will now invest $672 million instead of $10 billion in the project and create 1,454 jobs rather than 13,000. Fortunately for Wisconsin’s taxpayers, Evers has also prevented billions of dollars of subsidies to remain in play. (Because Wisconsin , , the subsidy would have been funded with taxpayers’ cash.) , But Wisconsin has already spent ,  on infrastructure, local grants and other payments associated with the Foxconn deal. It also granted Foxconn , along its , and used eminent domain laws to , .  The Wisconsin township and county where Foxconn’s plant is based have also spent , on infrastructure and land, including , to raze 132 properties and relocate their residents. “They demolished my house for this?” one displaced resident , . “It’s upsetting. That’s where my old house was, and now it’s just nothing. You know? Nothing.”, All of this came to pass because the Foxconn charade served the financial and political interests of Gou, Trump and Walker even if it didn’t serve the business, workplace and social interests of Wisconsin’s residents. It also came to pass because , , , who didn’t know how to cut a deal. Those are all lessons that shouldn’t be lost on Biden as he partners with the best and brightest in the business community., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Timothy L. O'Brien is a senior columnist for Bloomberg Opinion., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Timothy L. O'Brien. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 4:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Cool Crocs [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Like It or Not, Crocs Are Cool Again. Short_description: Like It or Not, Crocs Are Cool Again. Description: In case you missed it, Crocs are cool again. First, Questlove wore a shimmery gold pair of its foam clogs , , an event that is the height of Hollywood glamour. Then on Tuesday, the company reported a blockbuster 64% increase in first-quarter sales from a year earlier, helping its shares soar to an all-time high on Wednesday. , It’s tempting to conclude that Crocs Inc. is merely riding the wave of comfort dressing that was brought on by months of stay-at-home living. In 2020, when U.S. ,  fom a year earlier amid the retreat indoors, sales of clogs surged 33% as shoppers splurged on all things cozy and casual, NPD Group data shows. But there appears to be more to it., Crocs’ guidance calls for a revenue increase in 2021 of 40% to 50%, indicating it is poised to deliver substantial growth on top of last year’s booming sales even as people dress up to return to offices and parties. That’s an indication of something that’s been readily apparent to fashionistas for some time: Crocs has quietly succeeded in making itself an “it” shoe brand., Some of the rocket fuel for Crocs has been provided by celebrity partnerships. The company debuted shoes in 2020 that were , , the global music megastar who was the , last year. Post Malone, another pop heavyweight, collaborated with the brand for a fifth time on a shoe that launched in December. And since October, Crocs has twice joined forces with Justin Bieber, who has hyped the clogs to his 171 million Instagram followers. The latest Bieber Crocs were priced at $69.99, significantly higher than Crocs' $17.64 average selling price in the latest quarter. The lavender shoes have sold recently on secondhand marketplace StockX for more than $100. This demonstrates that these special-edition Crocs have infiltrated sneakerhead culture, enjoying a halo of hype and scarcity that has strengthened the brand., If you can put aside your reflexively conjured memory of , in Crocs and socks in the early 2000s, you can see these shoes are actually a uniquely perfect fashion item for , . The bright colors and signature shape photograph extremely well. Crocs also offers shoe charms called Jibbitz for $4.99 a pop, add-ons that allow shoppers to customize the clogs with tiny cactuses, narwhals, lollipops or their initials, making them that much more eye-catching and statement-making on social media., Is the company’s momentum sustainable? It certainly has a lot going for it. Even though shoppers are showing renewed interest in dressier items at this phase of the pandemic, , amid the continued strength of athleisure looks. And the so-ugly-its-cool vibe has been going strong for a while now, powering major trends such as dad sneakers and , . Plus, Crocs has ample room for growth in international markets, especially Asia, and through products such as sandals, a category that recorded a 17% increase in sales from a year earlier in the latest quarter. Meanwhile, its , should help cushion any profitability blow that might come from increased logistics or raw-materials costs that are roiling the wider consumer industry., As it enjoys the boom in demand for its products, Crocs said this week that it has begun exiting certain wholesale arrangements in North America with stores that don’t fit its desired brand perception. This is a well-worn path that Nike Inc. and certain luxury brands have taken as they aim to keep or restore cachet and realize the profitability benefits that can come from selling a bigger share of goods from their own websites and stores. Investors clearly approve of the strategy: Crocs, which had just $1.39 billion in sales last year, now has a bigger market value than retail behemoth Macy’s Inc., Crocs seems to accept its peculiar role as a brand that consumers love to hate. Its website notes that when its shoes debuted in the early 2000s, “we were different and it made some people uncomfortable.” That hasn’t stopped Wall Street from getting quite comfortable with the quirky brand – and rightly so. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Sarah Halzack is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She was previously a national retail reporter for the Washington Post., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Sarah Halzack. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 12:42 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Aramco [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Who Would Buy 1% Of Aramco?. Short_description: Who Would Buy 1% Of Aramco?. Description: Five years after Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ventured that , he is, once again, hawking Saudi Arabia’s oil champion to raise funds. In a recent, sweeping , with Arab News, he teased the potential sale of 1% of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco, to a “huge company” in an oil-importing country., Who would pay $19 billion for that sliver of the Saudi dream? The obvious candidates are in Asia, where the bulk of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports flow., Chinese sovereign wealth money, as well as the country’s own national oil companies, are said to be in discussions to take the stake, according to a Reuters report. An alternative scenario involves reviving a deal whereby Aramco takes a stake in the energy division of India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. in return for stock instead of cash — although, as my colleague David Fickling , , that would seem at odds with where Reliance is going.  , There is no clear commercial reason for an oil company to actually buy 1% of Aramco. At the best of times, minority stakes in national oil companies come with , (unless that stake is deeply discounted). One prominent example, BP Plc’s roughly 20% stake in Rosneft Oil Co. PJSC, is itself the product of the U.K. major’s long and drama-filled dalliance in Russia’s most strategic sector. Beyond a dividend and notional share of production, it’s hard to see what that stake really brings; harder still to see the ultimate exit., In Aramco’s case, the buyer would gain a minimal share of a company embedded even deeper in the fabric of its home country — and getting deeper still if the prince’s recently-announced ,  is anything to go by. The dividend yield of less than 4% is barely above that of long-term Saudi government bonds (and far below Rosneft’s 7%), a function of Aramco’s being listed , . The latest quarterly , , released Tuesday, showed that, at $60 oil, free cash flow still didn’t quite cover that dividend. In a world where investors are demanding money back from oil companies, or pushing for greener options, splurging almost $20 billion on a low-yielding, low-liquidity stake carrying no influence in a state-owned oil company seems tough to justify., This is where the strategic part of the pitch usually takes over, justifying the outlay in terms of nods and winks rather than straight value. This can have some logic to it. When several western majors bought into China’s privatizations of its big oil companies two decades ago, part of the rationale was winning entry to a rapidly growing market., This is less clear in Aramco’s case. What countries like China want most is Saudi Arabia’s oil. And with demand growth centered overwhelmingly in Asia, Saudi Arabia must compete to sell it to them anyway. In his interview, MBS made the striking assertion that the U.S. “will not be an oil-producing country in 10 years.” That might constitute a bold counterargument were it not just wishful thinking. It is Saudi Arabia that needs to secure customers — hence its quite rational push into foreign downstream ventures and talks with companies such as Reliance — rather than customers needing to ante up for supply. , In reality, buying 1% of Aramco like this would largely be a political act. Ties between China and Saudi Arabia, which kicked off with a sale of missiles in the 1980s, have deepened since, fueled by China’s thirst for oil and, more recently, its geopolitical ambitions. Just as Saudi Arabia’s desire to transform its economy lures consultants by the planeful, so it also represents a giant target for China’s infrastructure-heavy Belt and Road Initiative. In that context, $19 billion starts to look like a mere downpayment on a subdivision in , ., For Saudi Arabia, the attractions are obvious. The original plan for a global IPO foundered on the clash between political imperatives and market realities. Lately, Saudi Arabia has , from the United Arab Emirates’ book and started pitching bits of its energy sector toward specific types of buyer, , . China represents a major customer, potential source of elusive foreign direct investment and geopolitical hedge against an increasingly ambivalent U.S. It helps, too, that President Xi Jinping isn’t likely to take MBS to task on human rights., Yet courting Beijing also comes with costs. Above all, Riyadh must expand its options but avoid antagonizing Washington too much at a time of deteriorating Sino-U.S. relations. One can imagine the reaction in Congress if, say, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. were hired to wire up a new smart city in the desert., Disentangling from the U.S. relationship is inevitable to some degree, but the process is fraught with risk. For all its complications, the U.S. remains the preponderant military power in the region and, via its Navy, de facto guarantor of those oil tankers sailing eastward., China is many years away from projecting that level of force in the Middle East, assuming it would even want to. If you think the energy transition is a tall order, it pales in comparison to Saudi Arabia’s , ., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy, mining and commodities. He previously was editor of the Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street column and wrote for the Financial Times' Lex column. He was also an investment banker., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Liam Denning. Date Created: 04 May 2021, 6:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Health Care Supply Economics [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Bring Supply-Side Economics to Health Care. Short_description: Bring Supply-Side Economics to Health Care. Description: Non-pandemic health care hasn’t been much on the agenda during President Joe Biden’s first 100 days. But reducing health-care costs remains a priority for the public — , of addressing racism, crime, immigration or climate change., Democrats’ wariness of the issue is understandable. The public is passionate about health care, but also risk-averse. Three of the last four presidents (two of them Democrats) wrecked their poll numbers with efforts to enact sweeping changes to the U.S. health insurance system. And even though Democrats are , , the party’s leaders are wary of opening a debate in which its left wing will demand steps toward a Medicare for All system that makes for an appealing slogan but requires politically toxic , ., There is a better approach: Call it supply-side economics, but for health care. Focus less on the way insurance works than on expanding care to increase competition and reduce prices., To cope with the pandemic, federal, state and local governments have already taken dramatic steps, such as setting up mass vaccination centers. They are not just paying for care, they are providing it., Greater investment in what the progressive think tank Data for Progress calls the , — community health centers, publicly owned hospitals and so on — makes sense even in non-pandemic times. Last year saw a record number of , , while low-income urban communities , by the trend toward pharmacy-based retail health clinics or urgent-care centers., In economic terms, both choices are sensible. Rural populations are dwindling, and profit-seeking companies naturally want to locate near customers with spending power. But poorer communities have health needs too, and there’s a clear opportunity for the public sector to serve customers the private sector isn’t., An even more basic funding opportunity is simply to train more doctors. Last year Congress , for the first time since 1997., It’s a good first step, but they should raise the cap even higher. The idea of capping residencies reflects a misguided desire to reduce aggregate health-care spending. But what people actually care about is the price of services. More doctors means cheaper access to care — and if that makes total spending go up, then who cares?, Just as the aging of the U.S. population is going to continue, so is its need for doctors. Not only is the cap on residencies too low, many of the slots are taken by foreign-born doctors because you’re not allowed to practice medicine in the U.S. without first completing a residency in the U.S. Economist Dean Baker has long , that the U.S. should allow qualified foreign doctors to practice in the U.S. if they complete an equivalent residency program in another country., The U.S. currently has the highest-earning physicians in the world but a relatively low number of , . Residency reforms could flip that around., In a more free-market vein, all 50 states should be encouraged to follow the lead of New England, the Great Plains and the Pacific Northwest and allow nurse practitioners the , recommended by the , . That means giving them the legal authority to evaluate patients and conduct diagnostic tests and basic treatments without the supervision of a medical doctor — allowing smaller clinics to serve a wider range of communities in a more convenient and cost-effective way., Granted, these are state issues. But given the federal government’s huge role as a financier of health-care services through Medicare and Medicaid, there’s considerable room for Congress or even the Department of Health and Human Services to play a constructive role., Last but by no means least, the administration should consider , the , that were granted last year in response to the pandemic. One critical decision was to allow medical providers to use widely available consumer communication platforms (FaceTime, Zoom, Skype and so on) for consultations with patients. Another was to allow doctors to provide remote services to patients in other states., Nothing terrible has happened in the last year as a result of either of these regulatory relaxations — strong evidence that they were simply unnecessary. Easily obtainable technology that allows doctors to consult with any patient, anywhere, is just as useful in non-crisis times as it was over the last year. With permanent rules in place, it could spur the creation of new business models for health care., There is no doubt that health care is a treacherous issue for presidents, and Biden is right to shy away from the all-encompassing approaches of his predecessors. But the public really is interested in improving health care. Focusing on the supply side of the system is a way to avoid the pitfalls of past administrations while still addressing the primary issue where voters look to Democrats for leadership., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Matthew Yglesias writes the Slow Boring blog and newsletter. A co-founder of Vox and a former columnist for Slate, he is also host of "The Weeds" podcast and is the author, most recently, of "One Billion Americans.", ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Matthew Yglesias. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 6:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Junior stress banker good [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Note to Junior Bankers: Stress Can Be Good. Short_description: Note to Junior Bankers: Stress Can Be Good. Description: An HSBC Holdings Plc contractor named Jonathan Frostick recently wrote an introspective post on LinkedIn about, . What was striking about the item is that upon experiencing chest pains, Frostick immediately thought not of his wife and family, but how inconvenient it was given all the outstanding projects he had left to finish for HSBC., The post struck a nerve - - receiving, at last count, 240,000 reactions on the social media platform – because it spoke to the hard-charging culture of Wall Street at a time when Wall Street is doing a lot of soul-searching about how much is too much when it comes to the workloads of its employees, especially its junior bankers. A presentation put together by 13 first-year analysts in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment-banking group that made the rounds in March complained about , and a deterioration in their physical and mental health. The latest example comes this week from UBS, which sent out a memo to remind employees that they are entitled to a , each day. Some banks have promised to hire more associates to help spread the load., I was a trader at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. during the 2000s, running the second-largest exchange-traded fund trading desk on Wall Street in terms of market share. I, about my experiences and my struggles with mental health (I battled bipolar disorder and was hospitalized for a time, which is hereditary and not a result of my work.) I also had fairly severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, which was a result of my work, and the associated anxiety. When I left Lehman, the OCD mostly went away., Traders don’t work the hours that bankers do, but the work is much more intense. My time on the trading floor was characterized by lots of screaming and yelling, breathtaking amounts of risk, having trades getting picked off by much faster hedge funds, and getting so angry that I would shake uncontrollably multiple times a day. When Lehman went bankrupt in 2008 and I was suddenly out of a  job, every cell in my body told me that I could not work another day. I had burned out., And yet, I wouldn’t have changed a thing., I started at Lehman in 2001 in the associate training class for new MBAs. It was not too dissimilar from the experience that Michael Lewis chronicled in his , . We sat and listened to presentations from all the different businesses in the firm, so we could be better informed about which one we would seek to work in. , One day, we heard a presentation from a senior employee in foreign-exchange research. The new associate sitting next to me interrupted the speaker and asked, “Is your job stressful?” It was an odd question to ask at an investment bank., The presenter thought about it for a moment, and replied, “We are all here to feel a little stress.” I thought that was a deeply profound thing to say. Life isn’t about the avoidance of stress; when we feel stress, we experience personal growth. When we push ourselves to our limits, and we come out the other side, we flourish. An absence of stress means an absence of growth., This is the philosophy of the U.S. military, or at least it was back in the early 1990s. I entered the United States Coast Guard Academy out of high school.  I went through “Swab Summer,” the Coast Guard’s version of basic training, where the goal was to break people down and build them back up. Having been a wrestler in high school, I was physically prepared for what was going to happen, but I was not prepared for the psychological stress. But I made it through, and came out a better person. And, yes, I had my share of 100-hour workweeks while out to sea, with round-the-clock operations, drills, and , ., There has always been a culture of hard work in finance. The 2001 book , chronicled the lives of a couple of young DLJ bankers during the dot-com bubble. In addition to being very funny, it describes some of the things newly-minted bankers were doing at the time to keep up with the workload, like not taking time out to wash their underwear and just buying new ones instead. , The volume of deals is similarly high today, but as a banker you know that if you work hard for a few years, you get promoted and your life gets easier. Stress is never permanent; it’s transitory., People like to say that there are more important things than work. I work longer hours now than I have any point in my career, but that’s because I enjoy my work. Not to minimize Frostick and his regrettable situation, but when I’m on my deathbed, I won’t regret all the time I spent working; I will regret all the time I spent watching television. If you’re doing what you love, then you’re not conflicted about work-life issues., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Jared Dillian is the editor and publisher of The Daily Dirtnap, investment strategist at Mauldin Economics, and the author of "Street Freak" and "All the Evil of This World." He may have a stake in the areas he writes about., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Jared Dillian. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Fed [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Fed Should Start Tapering, But It Won’t. Short_description: Fed Should Start Tapering, But It Won’t. Description: I suspect that Federal Reserve officials are not the only ones looking for an uneventful policy meeting this week. The majority of market participants are also expecting an undramatic event that will include an upgrade of the economic outlook, a reiteration of uncertainties and the signaling of nothing new on policies. Unfortunately, it’s an outcome that kicks the policy can further down the road when the central bank should be thinking now about scaling back its extraordinary measures., Although Fed officials raised their growth estimates significantly at their last meeting, they will most likely upgrade their economic outlook for 2021 again after the recent string of  strong economic data. This will be accompanied by the usual Covid-related qualifications when accelerating vaccine deployment continues to race against growing infections and the threat of new variants of the virus., The further improvement in the economic outlook is unlikely to change the Fed’s policy guidance, however. Rather than follow the lead of the Bank of Canada, which last week  began cutting back on bond purchases and signaled a quicker time frame for the next interest rate increase, the Fed will most likely take an approach similar to the one the European Central Bank conveyed last Thursday. It will maintain policy as is, remind markets that it is willing to do even more should downside risks materialize and play down the risk of inflation and other overheating as transitory., Markets have validated this policy attitude over the past month. After spiking to 1.76% in reaction to the improved economic outlook and inflation concerns, the yield on 10-year government bonds has declined, closing 20 basis points lower last week. Despite some small wobbles, risk-taking in the equity markets has remained robust. And all this has come in the context of reassuring statements from top Fed officials – not just playing down the significance of the coming increase in inflation but also indicating that there is no need to worry about risks to financial stability., Such a policy approach does have the attractiveness of repressing financial volatility at a time of economic, policy and institutional transitions. The Fed does not want to be a source of financial instability, especially when President Joe Biden’s administration faces challenges in Congress on its infrastructure proposal, the economy is picking up steam and the long-overdue handoff away from excessive reliance on monetary policy is materializing., It is also an approach that papers over the growing inconsistency between ultra-loose financial conditions on the one hand and a strongly recovering economy, rising inflationary pressures and yet more evidence of pockets of excessive and, at times, irresponsible risk-taking on the other. The attractiveness of short-term calm comes at the risk of more significant policy challenges down the road., Rather than do what it is most likely to do this week — that is, accompany the ECB in stoking ultra-loose financial conditions even though the U.S. economic outlook is brighter than Europe’s — the Fed should seriously consider following the Bank of Canada’s example by initiating a gradual and careful retreat. The longer it takes to do so, the harder it will be to pull off an eventual normalization without risking both significant market volatility and damaging what should and must be a durable and inclusive economic recovery., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Mohamed A. El-Erian is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge; chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, the parent company of Pimco where he served as CEO and co-CIO; and chair of Gramercy Fund Management. His books include "The Only Game in Town" and "When Markets Collide.", ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Mohamed A. El-Erian. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 3:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Aim High right climate Biden [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Biden Is Right to Aim High on Climate. Short_description: Biden Is Right to Aim High on Climate. Description: Even if President Joe Biden had no ground to make up — if his predecessor hadn’t pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement and done his best to stop all progress toward climate protection — he still would have needed an aggressive new target for lowering emissions. The country’s previous Paris commitment was too modest for the U.S. to do its part in bringing global warming under control. In addition, Biden wants the U.S. to take up its proper leading role in setting standards for the world., The mark the president has set — to cut emissions to at least half their 2005 level by 2030 — is the right one. It’s suitably ambitious, calling for drastic transformations in energy use and farm and industrial practices. And its nine-year time frame is short enough to spur actions immediately and in the foreseeable future — not decades down the road., Those actions are what will matter. Biden has broadly indicated that he intends the effort to encompass every part of the economy. He wants to get Americans to travel on electric power, and to live and work in energy-efficient houses and buildings. He wants to get power plants using mostly renewable energy. He wants to stem methane pollution from oil wells, gas wells and farms, and reduce emissions from factory furnaces. To meet the 2030 goal, the White House will need to make rapid progress on every front., Biden can push some changes via regulation. His Environmental Protection Agency is already moving to return to tough Obama-era restrictions on tailpipe emissions, for example, which encourage carmakers to move toward all-electric fleets. The EPA can also re-strengthen rules for controlling methane emissions from oil and gas wells. The Department of Energy can expand its investments in developing batteries, clean grids, “green” hydrogen fuels and methane-capture technologies., But the president will need to work with lawmakers — in Congress and in states and cities — to accomplish much of the change required. One of the most significant moves now on the table is to establish a national clean energy standard, which would set deadlines for power plants to boost their use of renewable and nuclear power. Many states already have their own clean energy standards, and have demonstrated how effective these can be in driving progress toward cleaner, cheaper electricity., The standard that the White House has included in the $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan aims to decarbonize electricity generation entirely by 2035. This would eliminate one-fourth of U.S. emissions, shrinking the carbon footprint of electric cars and appliances. The administration should aim to design its standard so that it can be passed in the Senate via reconciliation, on a simple majority vote., Working with Congress, the administration can also build out electric-vehicle charging infrastructure and give states incentives to help speed the closure of coal-fired power plants, stop the construction of new gas-fired plants, and establish clean building codes., Opponents of change are correct to say such efforts will be expensive — though they stand to pay great dividends in the form of jobs and health, as well as climate preservation. And failing to take drastic action is certain to cost more. Slashing U.S. emissions as quickly as possible, and urging other countries to follow suit, is Biden’s only responsible choice., Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: The Editors. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Infrastructure Plan Denver Airport Biden Model [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Denver Airport Is a Model for Biden’s Infrastructure Plan. Short_description: Denver Airport Is a Model for Biden’s Infrastructure Plan. Description: Anyone among the , of Americans who approve of President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan for infrastructure investment probably knows somebody in Denver, or , a nonstop flight from its 25-year-old international airport to somewhere in North America, Asia, Europe or South America. Flying , for the weekend is the latest Denver connection., DIA, the only major new U.S. airport since the 1974 completion of Dallas-Fort Worth, was the largest public-works project in Colorado history. It is the largest airport in geographical size in the U.S., and No. 3 in the world. It led the Department of Transportation's measure of domestic origin-and-destination traffic last year for the first time., It is also the top money maker for the state, pumping $33.5 billion into the economy with 259,084 jobs., That's more than eight times the best year at , , the 20th-century relic it replaced with the support of 65% of , in a 1989 referendum. They had witnessed a 1980s exodus to the point where the state was losing people. The new airport helped change the trajectory of Colorado's population, which increased 15% to 5.8 million during the past decade with the third-fastest , among major states since 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. , “I can't imagine where we'd be without the aerial link that DIA empowers to the rest of the country and the rest of the world,'' said Governor Jared Polis, the former Democratic congressman, entrepreneur and philanthropist who took office in 2019. “Without the growth the airport has helped create, we wouldn't have the productivity and quality-of-life advantages a good infrastructure can provide,” including new transportation networks, Polis said in an interview earlier this month at the governor's mansion., Denver International Airport wouldn't exist without its original advocate, Federico Pena, who was elected the city's first Hispanic mayor in 1983 before he became secretary of the Transportation and Energy departments in President Bill Clinton’s administration in the 1990s. Some local businessmen, led by Republican media consultant Roger Ailes, who would later manage Fox News, assailed Pena's project as a boondoggle., Airline chief executives also were unenthusiastic. Robert L. Crandall, chairman of American Airlines, , the project as “a field of dreams” “way out in the boonies,” telling Time magazine in 1991 that “there is no need for a new airport in Denver.”, Denver International Airport was financed with revenue bonds that turned out to be the best performers in the market for state and local government debt. During the past three years, the bonds gained the most weight — 3.8 percentage points — among those for 47 major U.S. airports in the benchmark ICE BofA U.S. Airport Municipal Securities Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. , At the same time, DIA bonds led the five largest airports' debt performance with a total return (income plus appreciation) of 18%, beating Chicago O'Hare, 17%; San Francisco, 16%; Los Angeles, 15%; and Dallas, 11%., “We were the first major airport to sell revenue bonds without agreements of the airlines,” Pena said earlier this month during an interview at the downtown Denver office of his venture capital firm, which helps startups. “People thought we couldn't do it. We were oversubscribed. And people came to Denver and never left to the extent this has become the second-highest per capita college-educating community in the United States.” , Colorado's commitment to infrastructure at the end of the last century ended its traditional reliance on mining and energy and transformed the economy. Its labor participation rate, at 68.5%, increased the most in any state over the past five years and is the highest among the 45 in the country with a population greater than 1 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg., The 21st most populous state today punches way above its weight and is ranked No. 3 overall since 2010, measured by employment, personal income, home prices, mortgage delinquency, tax revenues and corporate equity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Among other things, Colorado has more professional athletes per capita than any other state, with national baseball, basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, rugby and soccer teams.,  , Non-farm payrolls in Colorado have risen 20% in the past 10 years, better than in all but four other states. Personal income surged 86% over the same period, No. 3 in the nation; home prices gained 78%, the second-fastest rate, and tax revenues climbed 81%, third best in the nation. All of which helps explain the increasing diversity of the economy where the gross state product from accommodation and food services rose 132%; arts entertainment and recreation, 53%; construction, 106%; education services, 54%; transportation and warehousing, 96%, and retailing, 58%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. , In 1995, 64% of corporate Colorado was in materials, such as coal mining, metal mining and chemicals, with industrial companies at 11% and energy at 6%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since then, the tables have turned with the weighting of materials declining to 21%, overtaken by the consumer discretionary industry, including restaurants, resorts, apparel and education services. Technology at 14% is now the third largest sector, followed by communication, 12%. , When the Denver International Airport was completed in 1995, only 47 Colorado-based companies were in the Russell 3000 Index, the benchmark for large and small companies in the U.S. The 77% percent increase to 83 since then is the most of any of the 16 states with an economy similar to or larger than Colorado's, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By giving companies easy access to domestic and international destinations, DIA made it easier for companies to expand their business., Arrow Electronics Inc., the technology distributor which relocated from New York to Centennial, Colorado, in 2011, appreciated 5.6 times during the decade after its move, dwarfing its annual 2.27% gain during the previous 10 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., the Denver-based restaurant chain, advanced 69% in the past 12 months, more than 70% over its six American rivals in the same period. Crocs Inc., the Broomfield, Colorado-based maker of shoes, surged 276%, triple the return of 18 peers in the S&P 500 Apparel Index., “We attracted the U.S. Patent Trademark Office to Denver, which was huge for us, and when we asked them why, they said because of your investment in infrastructure,'' said Michael Hancock, Denver's second African-American mayor, now in his third term. “America is behind the eight ball when it comes to investing in infrastructure.'' During an interview at City Hall earlier this month, the mayor said, “I hope that the work we've done opening the world to Denver through the Denver International Airport defines us.”, But Hancock is confident Denver’s experience will enable Biden to get some, if not all, of his infrastructure package passed. The American Jobs Plan gets , even from Republicans — for reasons that Coloradans of all political persuasions figured out decades ago. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Matthew A. Winkler is Co-founder of Bloomberg News (1990) and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus; Bloomberg Opinion Columnist since 2015; Co-founder of Bloomberg Business Journalism Diversity Program in 2017. During his 25 years as Editor-in-Chief, Bloomberg News was a three-time finalist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting and received numerous George Polk, Gerald Loeb, Overseas Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists and Editors (Sabew) awards., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Matthew A. Winkler. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Mark Zuckerberg [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Who Pays $24 Million to Protect Mark Zuckerberg?. Short_description: Who Pays $24 Million to Protect Mark Zuckerberg?. Description: Many of us spent the better part of 2020 trapped in our homes — not able to travel, attend a live event, see a movie on a big screen, or get together with friends and family outside of our immediate pods. But judging from corporate disclosures, it seems these restrictions didn’t apply to a small subset of people — specifically, executives at publicly traded companies., When’s the last time you attended a major sporting event? For me, it was a Dodgers-Mets game at Citi Field in September 2019. Yet executives at Live Nation Entertainment Inc. received more than $100,000 worth of “tickets to certain music and sporting industry events” in 2020, according to a company , statement. That’s about half what they got in 2019, but still pretty impressive given that the company , in May 2020 that 80% of shows had been canceled. Live Nation didn’t respond to a request for comment., How about travel? I recently took a cross-country trip for the first time since February 2020. But New Jersey-based Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. , that it had spent $217,000 in 2020 providing its London-based CEO, Brian Humphries, with an apartment in New York City “as a result of his frequent travel to our New York office.” That’s more than twice what the company spent for Mr. Humphries’s apartment in 2019, despite the sharp , in New York City rents in 2020. He started as CEO in March 2019. A spokesman for Cognizant said that the lease was renewed in 2020 “before the world knew the severity of the pandemic.”, Some companies dispensed with corporate apartments, a popular perk among the C-suite set. Biotech company Seagen Inc. , that while it had spent $165,000 on corporate housing and travel for Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roger Dansey in 2020, it discontinued the rental of his corporate apartment because “travel to our corporate headquarters was limited” due to Covid-19. A spokeswoman for Seagen said the company had no plans to reinstate the perk. After paying $77,000 in 2020 to rent a Seattle apartment for CEO Scott McFarlane, tax software provider Avalara paid another $24,000 to terminate the lease in October. Avalara offered no comment., Security costs were another big item. Silicon Valley-based software company Workday , spending $2.6 million in 2020 keeping CEO Aneel Bhusri safe — a more than four-fold increase over 2019. The company attributed the added cost to Covid-19, which required Bhusri to split his time between two residences, and to an unspecified threat to family members that was distracting the executive. Workday had no further comment., The bigger boon to the security industry, though, were Facebook executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, whose safety cost the company $24 million and $7.6 million in 2020, respectively. The company said that the expenses were elevated in 2020 due to “costs relating to security protocols during the Covid-19 pandemic, increased security coverage during the 2020 U.S. elections and market increases in the cost of security personnel.” A spokesman for Facebook added that “Mr. Zuckerberg is one of the most-recognized executives in the world in large part as a result of the size of our user base and our continued exposure to global media, legislative and regulatory attention.”, All of these disclosures are theoretically visible to the shareholders who are paying for the perquisites, but one must be willing to pore over proxy statements. Companies typically present the information as “all other compensation” in summary compensation charts — a disclosure mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission — and then add relevant details in footnotes, often in very small typeface. I call it non-disclosure disclosure: there, but accessible only to the determined., Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” As far as I can tell, it has yet to have much of a cleansing effect on corporate perks., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michelle Leder. Date Created: 03 May 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Puffery Defense Elizabeth Holmes [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Elizabeth Holmes Will Use a Puffery Defense. Could It Work?. Short_description: Elizabeth Holmes Will Use a Puffery Defense. Could It Work?. Description: In a filing this week, lawyers for Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO of Theranos, made clear that their client plans to defend herself against federal fraud charges in part by arguing that everyone in Silicon Valley understands that start-ups make exaggerated claims. They asked the judge presiding over her forthcoming trial to allow the defense to argue to the jury that her alleged misstatements to investors were merely , ., There’s a certain logic here. In common usage, puffery refers to an extravagant claim, a usage that the Oxford English Dictionary traces to the early 18th century. In the legal context, a statement that is mere puffery isn’t intended to be taken literally, and is understood by the hearer as an exaggeration, mere boosterism., How does the concept relate to fraud charges? To prove its case, the prosecution must show that the company made misstatements, that the misstatements were material, and that the investors reasonably relied on them. The puffery defense asserts the contrary. In a case decided in 2019, a federal court wrote that the doctrine “presumes a relatively (but realistically) savvy consumer — the general idea being that some statements are just too boosterish to justify reasonable reliance.”, Or, as I tell my contracts students each fall, puffery is a defense when no reasonable listener would think the statement is literally true. (“The best-built cars in America.”), But there are problems. For one thing, as the research reminds us, what some would-be buyers dismiss as puffery, , . For another, once one party puffs, so must the next, and on and on until bad information drives out good., Consider an example with which most readers will be familiar: the thousands of letters of recommendation received every year by colleges. The puffery has become so relentless that recommendations nowadays constitute a sort of meta-language, which admissions officers must translate. “One of the best students I’ve ever taught” means roughly “Did well on the final examination.” A student described as “Among of the best in this year’s class” was likely “A bit above the median.” I’m old enough to remember an era of detailed and nuanced letters that sought to deliver useful data, but I’m not so foolish as to imagine that those days are coming back., All of this raises a “market for lemons” problem. If buyers expect sellers to make untruthful statements, they’ll tend to discount the truthful ones. Even if a professor really does believe that a particular student is the best she’s ever taught, there’s no easy way to signal that this time the statement is true. Thus we see why “everybody knows that everybody does it” might be a problematic defense., The law professor Courtney M. Cox, in , , calls puffery a term “that the law and legal theorists have used to suggest that permissible lies are somehow not lies.” She argues sensibly that allowing the concept of puffery into the various areas of law that penalize deception can only result in ... more deception., Maybe that’s why courts tend to greet it skeptically, particularly in fraud cases. The highest profile executive to try the puffery defense in a criminal case was Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling. In appealing his conviction for securities fraud, he argued that such statements as the claim that the subdivision Enron Broadband Services had “sustainable high earnings power” and was “having a great quarter” (there were many others) should be considered mere puffery, because they constituted only “generalized, positive statements” about the company's “competitive strengths and future prospects.” In rejecting the argument, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrote that misstatements aren’t puffery when they’re “so contrary to the verifiable historical facts that they falsely misstate the speaker’s true reasons” and mislead potential investors., And although markets rely on the truth of companies’ statements, I wouldn’t want to leave the impression that no defendant ever prevails with the puffery argument. Some do, , . So I can’t predict whether Holmes will win. , Certainly, she’s not alone in thinking that Silicon Valley culture is one of pervasive puffery. Here’s a retired lawyer , : “At one time, Silicon Valley was known as the land of vaporware. Announce a product long before it is ready for the market and see how the market responds.” And here’s the law professor Donald C. Langevoort a , : “Start-up entrepreneurs are a well-studied breed, prone toward greater over-optimism and illusions of control than the general population.”, However the Theranos litigations plays out, one might argue that puffery is very much the appropriate language of post-modern America. Despite our newly discovered distaste for what we’re bold to call “misinformation,” the notion of objective truth remains one from which society is fleeing., One proposal to fix this –if indeed anything’s broken – is to make it more difficult for sellers to hide behind claims that are vague. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Yale University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His novels include “The Emperor of Ocean Park,” and his latest nonfiction book is “Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster.” , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Stephen L. Carter. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 6:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to lucky time Blackstone [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Blackstone May Not Be So Lucky Next Time. Short_description: Blackstone May Not Be So Lucky Next Time. Description: Blackstone Group Inc. got lucky in Japan. It may not have the same outcome this time, and that’s a lesson for private-equity houses circling the country., Last year, the U.S. buyout giant lost out to Lone Star Group in a high-profile, take-private battle for Japanese real-estate developer and hotel operator Unizo Holdings Co. The company is now on the brink, reeling from the impact of Covid-19. The investors who beat out Blackstone are dealing with the aftermath., Hong Kong-based hedge fund Asia Research and Capital Management Ltd., an investor in Unizo’s bonds, is getting ready to file a petition for bankruptcy and believes the Japanese company is insolvent, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The hotel operator had to sell assets last year to pay interest and dividends to Lone Star. Regional banks are now sitting on 147 billion yen ($1.34 billion) of unsecured loans to the Japanese real estate developer — that's about 18% of their 2019 pretax income., For Blackstone, it seems like a moment to breathe a sigh of relief. However, last month, seemingly unfazed by Unizo’s fate, the U.S. buyout firm went in again and picked up a package of eight hotels from Japan’s Kintetsu Group Holdings Co., a railway operator. The company will continue to run the properties, which have a book value of 42 billion yen., Deals have to go on, no doubt. With record levels of , , someone’s got to deploy money. Here’s the thing, though: Exit deal values were down 24% last year because managers were waiting to ride out the pandemic before selling. In Japan, they fell 58%, according to Bain & Co. , This would seem like the right time to reassess how Japan’s low valuations relative to the rest of the world stack up against the many unknown risks that the pandemic continues to throw up for businesses and investors. As I’ve written before, the , for the picking but exiting at an opportune time, with justifiable internal rates of return, is proving much harder than anticipated. , The small and medium-size firms that private-equity investors love are clearly struggling. As Covid-19 has dragged on, such companies – large contributors to employment and productivity growth in Japan – have been hit hard as their assets shrink. They’ve been propped up by the government and lenders. D, It isn’t clear how these firms will emerge as the helping hand is withdrawn over the course of this year. Larger companies have held up slightly better but with much higher levels of debt., Investment decisions are being premised on the optimism that the pandemic will abate and vaccinations will pick up. That's a flimsy baseline. Let’s be honest, no one really knows anything about timing at this point., Just look at where we are: Japan is , with severe symptoms and many prefectures are under a second state of emergency. Meanwhile, , and the country has , it has imported. Like other countries, it is well behind its inoculation plans. Harder still is the practicality of doing all the on-the-ground diligence on target companies to understand why they’re undervalued or downright cheap. Those are factors private-equity managers cannot control or quantify. At this point, pricing in a recovery becomes more art than science., As Japan Inc. grapples with holding its businesses together, it’s worth wondering how much private equity-backed governance reform and restructuring they’ll be open to. For now, companies are just trying to preserve value. Focusing on performance targets, long-term growth and value-creation aren’t really top-of-mind., Blackstone and other private-equity houses continue to eye Japan, ready to swoop in. But buying assets is only half the equation, as Unizo’s investors have found. Running these businesses successfully and making timely exits is what drives returns. That’s a lot tougher than it looks., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Asia. She previously worked for the Wall Street Journal. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Anjani Trivedi. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 3:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to pandemic Nintendo [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Nintendo Shows How to Play Through a Pandemic. Short_description: Nintendo Shows How to Play Through a Pandemic. Description: Concerns that an end to the Covid pandemic may be bad for Nintendo Corp.’s business appear to be allayed by record numbers produced during the March quarter., While the Japanese games maker ,  for the coming year at 13% below analyst estimates, its habit of low-balling expectations means we should take such predictions with a grain of salt. Instead, data for the company’s traditional post-holiday ebb indicate levels of player momentum not enjoyed by rival Sony Corp., which reported last week., Shipments of Nintendo’s Switch games consoles climbed 44% for the period to 4.7 million units. That’s admittedly a massive but expected and unimportant drop from the peak December quarter. The fact worth focusing on is that this is the strongest level ever turned in for the January to March, period since the Switch was released four years ago. , Crucially, that strength was also seen in software sales, where shipments of games titles climbed 31% to again produce a record for the period. Another metric that should stir optimism is a solid software to hardware ratio, where 11.6 games were sold for every console shipped. This tells us that consumers remain engaged with the platform, helping to create ongoing revenue., Contrast this to the PlayStation. On April 28, Sony reported its own low-season figures showing the drop-off we’d expected. Yet the quite large decline in software titles , that the new PS5, released in November, was already losing its luster among consumers. A slight drop in subscribers to the PlayStation Plus service also got my attention as it indicates loyalty may be waning., Nintendo’s data, on the other hand, are a sign that any strength or weakness in the gaming sector may be platform-specific, and thus not necessarily due to the return to relative normalcy from the Covid-19 pandemic that some countries have been expecting this year., There are two final things to keep in mind. First, management warned that a shortage of chips, may impact Nintendo’s ability to produce, consoles. In addition, rumors abound that a new version of Switch is in the works, which could revitalize both hardware and software sales while also causing a temporary lull as consumers hold off on new purchases until its release., Looking forward, this set of numbers shows that whatever the state of the pandemic, the game isn’t over for the Japanese giants., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tim Culpan. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 2:36 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Day Change Flag Amid Profit Win Prime Caution Amazon [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Amazon’s Prime-Day Change Is a Caution Flag Amid Profit Win. Short_description: Amazon’s Prime-Day Change Is a Caution Flag Amid Profit Win. Description: Earlier this week, Amazon.com Inc. ,  that it would pull forward a pay hike and give more than 500,000 employees an increase of 50 cents to $3 an hour. The timing of the magnanimous gesture just before a big earnings report was curious, with some saying it could be a way for the e-commerce giant to inoculate itself against criticism for another embarrassingly profitable performance. Well, they were right: Late Thursday, Amazon reported first-quarter earnings per share of $15.79, beating the $9.69 Bloomberg consensus. The company’s $108.5 billion of revenue in the quarter was 44% higher than a year earlier. For the current period, Amazon projects revenue growth of 24% to 30%., It was a strong report for sure, but the results and guidance reflect conditions that likely won’t be repeated. The latest quarter’s earnings were helped by the unprecedented amount of government stimulus payments made in the period. As for guidance, Amazon said in its press release that its annual deals-bonanza Prime Day is now scheduled for the current June quarter instead of the typical July timeframe. This means that without the inclusion of Prime Day, its projections would have been lower. Beyond that, though, there  is a bigger problem: second-half comparisons likely won’t have this kind of extra help and so won’t be as easy to beat., The fact is, Amazon’s 2020 performance was extraordinary. It was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the shifts in consumer behavior caused by the pandemic. With many physical stores closed, shoppers increasingly bought goods online. Meanwhile, the rising demand for digital internet services — from videoconferencing software to streaming video — boosted its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing business. These trends will likely lose some steam as life returns to normal., Already, there are signs that the surge in e-commerce may be decelerating. According to Bank of America credit-card data, online sales’ share of retail spending has been declining since December. In addition, the bank’s numbers show the category’s sales growth so far in April is only up 21% compared to the prior year — significantly below the 62% growth figure in the March quarter. The slowdown may explain why Amazon decided to pull forward its Prime Day this year. , The other big thing to watch for Amazon is regulatory developments. Governments around the world have been investigating the company’s anticompetitive behavior, regarding its use of internal seller data to launch private-label products. Congress is also looking at allegations over mistreatment of its third-party partners, including forcing them to use its bundled services to get better placement on product pages. And the Biden administration is signaling it is going to take antitrust reform seriously with the nomination of Lina Khan to the Federal Trade Commission. Khan gained prominence for her seminal 2017 Yale Law Journal article titled , in which she alleges Amazon abused the monopoly power of its platforms to hurt its competitors. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tae Kim is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Barron's, following an earlier career as an equity analyst., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tae Kim. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 5:48 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Ethics problem Supreme Court Coney Barrett big [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Supreme Court’s Ethics Problems Are Bigger Than Coney Barrett. Short_description: Supreme Court’s Ethics Problems Are Bigger Than Coney Barrett. Description: A lot of hand-wringing has accompanied Supreme Court Justice , , (including from those of us who wish we had a $2 million book deal). While there’s always reason to worry when big piles of money land on the court, and Coney Barrett has wasted little time monetizing her new job, some larger points are getting lost in all of this., After all, Coney Barrett isn’t the first justice to reel in a big book deal. Justice Sonia Sotomayor collected an advance of , for her memoir, and Justice Clarence Thomas got , for his. Justice Neil Gorsuch , for a book about the Constitution. Here’s the rub: , mandate that justices can’t accept more than , in outside pay. However, book income — which can reliably bring in much larger sums than the relatively modest pay justices receive for teaching gigs — is exempt from the guidelines., When these deals arise, concerns are often voiced about justices being compromised by pocketing money from publishers who might have free speech and other issues affecting them before the court. But books are only a small part of a bigger problem: The Supreme Court’s conflicts of interest and financial disclosure rules remain ragged and outdated., Unlike every other member of state and federal judiciaries, the court’s nine justices , an ethical , . That mirrors the , given the presidency, which also isn’t beholden to most guidelines circumscribing financial and professional practices of people in lower-ranking government jobs. Former President Donald Trump’s tenure, marked by , , is a reminder of how ineffective , are when someone isn’t really interested in self-regulation., The modern court, to be sure, has never approximated the tawdry corruption that enveloped the Trump administration, and , that it remains widely trusted and admired — especially compared with , . But while the court has always said it is capable of minding its own store, evidence showing otherwise has piled up in recent years. This isn’t partisan; liberal and conservative justices alike have had notorious lapses., “No justice is blameless and all of them have missed disclosures they should have made — all of them,” says Gabe Roth, executive director of , , a group that monitors transparency and disclosure issues and advocates legislation to resolve some of the court’s problems. “Just because the Supreme Court says it isn’t the same as the legislative or executive branches doesn’t mean it’s exempt from basic measures of transparency.” , Roth’s group has pushed for a new ethics code for the court, more detailed and timely financial disclosures, a ban on owning individual stocks, disclosure of public appearances outside the court, greater media access, , of hearings, and 18-year term limits. Fix the Court’s , is , with , for why all this makes sense., In recent years, nearly every justice has , on issues ranging from failure to recuse themselves from cases in which they might have had a financial or personal conflict to , . They’ve been dinged for participating in partisan fundraisers and making baldly partisan comments to the public. They’ve also been criticized, of course, for cashing in on books., Some court scandals from earlier eras seem relatively quaint today. Abe Fortas was , for accepting a $20,000 annuity from a Wall Street financier earlier in his career. William O. Douglas , for accepting $350 for a magazine article he wrote about folk music. William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor , for modest sums and nobody complained., Some , after Watergate, when the 1978 , was passed to stem federal corruption. The act requires justices to file annual disclosures about their and their immediate family members’ financial interests. In practice, it has pushed them to disclose potential financial conflicts (and ideally recuse themselves) , — and without being prohibited from owning shares in companies with cases that might come before the court. Problems have arisen., In 2016, Chief Justice John Roberts , he had sold $250,000-$500,000 worth of Microsoft Corp. stock during the previous year. He sold the shares prior to hearing a case involving the company’s lucrative gaming system, but that wasn’t disclosed until well after the fact. He joined in the court’s denial of an appeal in a case involving Texas Instruments Inc. in 2016 while still holding $100,001-$250,000 worth of that company’s stock. After , reported the conflict, the court acknowledged that Roberts should have recused himself., On the , front, in 2016, the University of Rhode Island reimbursed Sotomayor $1,045 for a flight so she could be the school’s commencement speaker. That’s reasonable. The , for a block of 11 hotel rooms for the justice, members of her family and her security detail. That seems highly unreasonable. Sotomayor, also unreasonably, reported none of this in her disclosure forms that year., While the law requires justices to disclose and address potential conflicts involving family members, Thomas has been , for not , from , in which , , , , might have , . For several years he , that his wife had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in income from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Thomas eventually , of disclosure forms to account for his wife’s employment., So it goes. And so it’s likely to continue unless the court embraces transparency and adopts and enforces more sophisticated and stringent conflicts policies. The , , a bipartisan policy center says , are necessary for the court to “model commitment to the rule of law.”, If the court doesn’t better police itself, congressional oversight might be needed to push for the changes. Democrats in the House of Representatives recently introduced the “, ,” which seeks to establish a code of conduct for the court, require online financial disclosures, offer public explanations for why and when justices recuse themselves, and provide audio access to hearings. Democrats in the Senate introduced the “, ” last fall., But Congress ultimately may lack the constitutional power to mandate ethics guidelines for the court (an issue that the court itself would possibly , ). President Joe Biden has set up a commission to examine whether the court should be restructured. That’s a contentious matter that the commission is unlikely to resolve, and it’s not clear whether it will address more manageable issues such as financial conflicts., To avoid seeing outsiders try to resolve its ethical problems, the court should take them up on its own. While the justices remain widely trusted, that faith is increasingly falling , . In some polls, a majority of respondents don’t think the justices make impartial decisions. With its legacy and reputation at stake, the Roberts court should demonstrate that it’s fully committed to ethics and transparency., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Timothy L. O'Brien is a senior columnist for Bloomberg Opinion., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Timothy L. O'Brien. Date Created: 02 May 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Ban Menthol Cigarettes FDA [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: The FDA Should Ban Menthol Cigarettes. Short_description: The FDA Should Ban Menthol Cigarettes. Description: The Food and Drug Administration faces an April 29 deadline to decide whether to allow menthol cigarettes to remain on the market. To discourage children from starting smoking and to help adults quit, it should ban them. It should also ban menthol and all other flavors except tobacco from e-cigarettes., The harm that menthol adds to the already injurious practice of smoking has been recognized for many years. In a 2013 , of the science, the FDA concluded it is “likely that menthol cigarettes pose a public health risk above that seen with nonmenthol cigarettes.”, By seeming to cool the throat and soothe the irritation from burning tobacco, menthol makes smoking more palatable. This lures young people — close to half of all kids who smoke begin with menthol cigarettes — and helps to keep adults hooked. From 1980 to 2018, menthol encouraged an extra 10.1 million Americans to become smokers and was responsible for 378,000 extra premature deaths and a total of 3 million life-years lost, a , found., Research has also revealed that menthol increases dependency. Menthol smokers are significantly more likely than other smokers to light up within five minutes of getting up in the morning, and to wake in the night and have a cigarette, studies have shown. Menthol smokers , more often than other smokers do, but succeed less., Congress banned most cigarette flavors — candy, fruit, chocolate and others — in 2009, but menthol, the most popular one, was left to the FDA to deal with. Twice since then, the agency has given notice of an intention to address menthol in cigarettes, but it still has not acted. For eight years, the agency has neglected to respond to a , to ban menthol. (One of the groups behind that petition is Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.) Finally last year, the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council , the FDA, saying it had unreasonably delayed its decision, and now a federal judge in California has given the agency until the end of the month to respond to the petition., Although this petition has to do with combustible cigarettes, menthol attracts new recruits to vaping as well as smoking, and it is still allowed to be used in e-cigarettes. It should be banned in every form of tobacco use., Some people have , that a menthol ban would discriminate against African American smokers because, thanks largely to decades of , by tobacco companies, they are more likely than other smokers to use menthol cigarettes. While menthols account for , of the total cigarette market, , of Black smokers smoke them. A ban, opponents say, might create a new point of friction between African Americans and law enforcement., It’s also possible, however, that a menthol ban would persuade more African American smokers to quit. After menthol cigarettes were banned in much of Canada, daily menthol smokers began quitting at , the rate of other smokers., What’s certain is that allowing menthol cigarettes to remain on the market will continue to spur heart disease, respiratory illness, cancer and other health problems that , Black Americans. It’s no wonder so many African American advocacy , for a menthol ban., The FDA should honor their request — and protect the lives of all Americans — by prohibiting the sale of menthol cigarettes., Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: The Editors. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to inflation Pressure earning Nuggets real [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Inflation Pressure Is Real and Other Earnings Nuggets. Short_description: Inflation Pressure Is Real and Other Earnings Nuggets. Description: On this busy day for industrial earnings, it’s clear a recovery is taking form but it’s also clear that the pandemic is still very much a thing. Traditional industrial markets — including automotive parts and equipment for elective health-care procedures — are bouncing back, but that’s causing raw material, logistics and labor costs to rise. The hard-hit aviation sector is showing some early signs of improvement as more planes return to service and need maintenance work, but it’s slow going for engine makers General Electric Co. and Raytheon Technologies Corp. Meanwhile, businesses that benefited from the pandemic — such as 3M Co.’s N95 masks and United Parcel Service Inc.’s delivery services — are continuing to boom as the virus lingers and certain Covid habits prove sticky. , Amid all of these conflicting signals, this group of industry bellwethers largely declined to commit to a more optimistic outlook for the rest of the year. Raytheon was the only company to raise its full-year earnings and sales guidance, and the move was more incremental than game-changing. And so investors were forced to read between the lines. Here are my takeaways from Tuesday’s batch of industrial results:, More than a year into the pandemic, UPS analysts are still getting caught off guard by the sheer magnitude of pandemic online-shopping habits. Revenue for the three-month period ended in March climbed to $22.9 billion, up nearly $5 billion from a year earlier. To put that in context, that means UPS gained more than an Under Armour Inc.’s worth of revenue over the course of the pandemic. What’s most impressive about this surge is the degree to which it’s continuing to boost UPS’s bottom line. The process of delivering individual packages to consumers’ doorsteps is naturally less profitable than ferrying truckloads of goods to offices, but limitations on freight capacity because of parked commercial aircraft and a captive audience of retailers desperate to move product out the door have allowed UPS and rival FedEx Corp. to charge more for their services. There were questions among analysts as to how sustainable these pricing gains would be as the vaccine rollout gained momentum and the economy reopened. Well, on Tuesday, UPS reported its widest adjusted operating margin in five years., The comparisons will get tougher as the year goes on but the narrative for this company has clearly shifted in a more permanent way under Chief Executive Officer Carol Tome’s “better not bigger” strategy. It’s a bit surprising that after a such a steady string of positive earnings news, UPS still doesn’t feel comfortable giving guidance for the full year. The company blamed this on “continued economic uncertainty.” To take a more cynical view, giving formal guidance might help analysts more accurately estimate quarterly results and limit the opportunities for such eye-popping surprises on earnings day. Why risk tripping up a stock price that keeps setting new records if you don’t have to? Case in point, UPS shares climbed more than 10% on Tuesday. , 3M beat analysts’ estimates for first-quarter earnings and generated broad-based growth across all of its businesses. Sales of its N95 masks and other respirators rose $190 million from a year earlier, but the company also saw growth in roofing granules, industrial adhesives, electronic components and certain health-care products. And yet, 3M left its guidance for the rest of the year unchanged. It cited a “fluid and uneven” recovery but also rising costs. The company now expects as much as a 50-cent hit to its annual earnings per share from rising raw-material and logistics costs. Only about a month ago, Chief Financial Officer Monish Patolawala had signaled the impact would be more in the range of 20 cents, underscoring how fast-moving these cost dynamics can be. The company is working to offset these pressures by increasing prices for customers, exploring alternative sourcing options, improving its operational efficiency and trying to plan better for the whiplash effect of pandemic demand swings. But the benefits of these actions won’t show up until later in the year, so 3M predicted rising costs would shave as much as 125 basis points off its operating margin in the second quarter. That wasn’t exactly a soothing message for investors who are already jittery about inflation. 3M shares fell about 3%., The highlight of GE’s first quarter was the company’s announcement that it would sell a majority stake in its GECAS jet-lessor business for total consideration of more than $30 billion and wind down GE Capital as a separate entity as a result. The deal helps raise money to pay off some of GE’s still-too-large debt load but the bigger goal is to simplify a company that somehow always seems to have idiosyncratic issues on earnings day. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. That's how executives wound up spending a good portion of the earnings call talking about factoring — or the sale of accounts receivable to the financing arm in exchange for cash to help with short-term funding needs. GE largely discontinued this practice as of April 1 in preparation for a future when it’s less reliant on GE Capital. It will adjust out the resulting hit to its cash flow in future quarters but didn't do so in the first quarter and analysts were struggling to keep up with all of the moving parts. It's a temporary headache, but it clouds the argument that GE has put its old habits of obfuscation behind it and is just a regular industrial company., Amid all the messiness, GE elected to keep its free-cash-flow guidance for the full year unchanged and its first-quarter showing on this front was a bit light relative to analysts' estimates. On the bright side, GE’s profit margins in the all-important aviation division offered some good news. While the 12.8% segment margin was about 200 basis points worse than a year ago, it represented a 320 basis-point improvement from the fourth quarter as cost cuts took hold. Raytheon just barely eked out a profit in its rival Pratt & Whitney jet engine unit, although that was more than offset in investors’ minds by the news that it’s boosting its share buyback to about $2 billion this year. There aren’t many other companies in the aerospace industry that have the financial wherewithal to even think about repurchasing stock right now, let alone increase their target this early in the year. GE shares fell about 2.5%, while Raytheon’s stock climbed about 2%., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Brooke Sutherland. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 11:19 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to SEC Blind Spot Archegos Collapse [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Archegos Collapse Exposes an SEC Blind Spot. Short_description: Archegos Collapse Exposes an SEC Blind Spot. Description: No financial market is without its risks, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in a career as a securities regulator, market chairman, corporate director and investor, it’s this: The more you know, the less risk you take., That's why I support greater disclosure requirements for the kinds of investments that are often held in the shadows, away from public scrutiny and awareness despite their size and potential impact on other investors and markets., Private investors, hedge funds and others have long been able to take short positions in companies — betting against their future rise in value — without disclosure. And with the collapse of Archegos Capital Management, greater attention is now being paid to the ability of institutional investors and money ,   to hold highly complex and risky derivative-based investments without letting anyone know — including their own investors and counterparties., This can't continue. First of all, disclosure requirements shouldn’t treat certain kinds of investments differently than others. If a hedge fund or investor takes a major long position in a company, defined as greater than 5% of outstanding shares, that has to be disclosed. Why shouldn’t the same standard apply to the same investor taking a major short position?, More critically, greater disclosure helps markets price risk better. Financial crises and major losses often emerge from unseen and undisclosed risks, when nobody understands the size of the potential problem until it’s too late. We always hear after these explosions: “If only we had known.” Right now, the knowing isn't possible. There’s no reason for these risky investments to be disclosed publicly because it’s not required., The Securities and Exchange Commission and its new Chairman Gary Gensler can and should fix this. Ample and timely disclosure requirements similar to 13F and 13G filings on major short positions and derivative-based strategies would give market participants the information they need to better understand the risks they take, whether they want to be on the other side of those positions or join them., This is an urgent matter. More of today’s financial markets are controlled by complex, derivative-based and highly leveraged investment strategies. They are often bespoke and hard to value at any given time. And too often, investors in these strategies — including highly sophisticated investors, endowments and other funds — are being told to accept their merits on faith, as well as the risk that goes with them., Maybe this is fine for some investors, especially those receiving an attractive return. But there is risk in any investment, and the person who takes a large position using an inscrutable strategy is himself a source of unseen risk. A highly leveraged strategy can involve people and institutions who had no idea they were depending on the success of a complex instrument. The cascading effect, as we know from the global financial crisis, is profound. And unseen., I'm aware, of course, that disclosure requirements can be expensive and create complexity. They may also deprive investors of the secrecy their strategies depend on. But think of the overriding benefits: Greater disclosure brings greater transparency, which leads to healthy markets. The more you know, the less risk you take., I saw it firsthand at the SEC, which I led for eight years. There, we introduced several important disclosure requirements that revolutionized Wall Street’s practices and brought greater confidence in, for example, financial audits, the release of material information to the public, mutual funds pricing, performance ratings and risk profiles. When we first proposed greater disclosure requirements for these areas, we were told it would be too expensive and too radical. Now, investors and public companies embrace them., That being said, disclosure can often be used to hide, not reveal. At the SEC I fought hard for “plain language” requirements in prospectuses for companies and mutual funds. It seemed to me then, and still does today, that a convoluted or deliberately dense prospectus is as good as no prospectus as all. Disclosure is not the same as transparency., I've also seen lawyers use disclosure requirements to present a picture of reality that is opposite the truth. We must remember that the complexity of derivative-based strategies is not a bug but a feature. Any eventual rule should have one overriding goal: Explain the investment as clearly as possible and, importantly, its potential risks, including the amount of potential loss the investment entails., There is yet another good reason for the SEC to act energetically to promote greater and more useful disclosure requirements: The investing public wants it. Whether it’s in the area of shareholder activism, or the claims made by companies regarding their environmental, social or governance (ESG) efforts, or their political contributions, investors want to know more about how their companies are performing., This is a good thing. In fact, it’s the very best expression of free market economics. Free people want to make informed decisions about how they invest their money. That’s no impingement on a free market. It’s how we get one., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Arthur Levitt Jr. is a former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a director of Bloomberg LP., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Arthur Levitt Jr.. Date Created: 26 Apr 2021, 4:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Oscar Sequels conundrum dimension Kominers [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Kominers’s Conundrums: Oscar Sequels From Another Dimension. Short_description: Kominers’s Conundrums: Oscar Sequels From Another Dimension. Description: , Can’t wait until this evening’s , to get a bit of movie magic? Don’t worry — we’ve got you covered here at Conundrums, with a puzzle co-written with one of our top solvers, , ., You know how many classic movies are getting , and sequels these days? We’ve put together a list of 14 former Academy Award winners or nominees that we’ve, shall we say, followed up on., Each clue describes a movie with one word added to its title in a way that changes the meaning a bit. For example, “, ” might become “West Side Story , :” Celebrated Leonard Bernstein Jets vs. Sharks musical, , ., “, ” might lead to “Spirited Away , :” Miyazaki anime feature in which the protagonist’s parents are transformed into pigs, , ., Or this year’s nominee “, ” could turn into “Sound of Metal , :” Rock duo’s drummer fights hearing decline, and eventually sells his RV and , ., Your challenge is to identify the 14 flicks and figure out how we’ve modified their titles. (To help you out, we’ve indicated the number of letters in each tack-on. Those hints are at the end of each clue in parentheses.), From there, you should be able to string together the new bits to identify an award category we’d like to see the Oscars add — and that is this week’s answer. (Bonus points if you send us your nominations for the category! They don’t have to be recent.), These pictures are drawn from a range of eras, so you might want to team up with family or friends to identify them. And as always, you’re welcome to use any tools available when solving — including search engines and movie indexes like , ., If you manage to find a cinematic solution before the after-parties start — or if you even make partial progress — please let us know at ,  before midnight New York time on Thursday, April 29., If you get stuck, there’ll be hints announced ,  and in , . To be counted in the solver list, please include your name with your answer. And don’t forget to ,  for our Conundrums email list!, We sought to , made up of the “odd ones out” from six different sets of words., The top row of the pyramid was provided as an example, indicating that “SEW” was the correct choice out of the three:, BAG, GEL, SEW, The key was that both “BAG” and “GEL” also spell words if you read them in reverse (“GAB” and “LEG”), whereas “SEW” does not., Here are the solutions for the other five rows:, BOAR, LION, VOLE, YETI, All four words described fearsome creatures, but the “YETI” is the only one of them that doesn’t actually exist., DIANA, JANUS, MIDAS, ORCUS, VESTA, The word “Egyptian” wasn’t just a tie-in with the pyramid theme — it was an oblique clue that you should be looking to ancient history. Each word on the list except “MIDAS” is the name of a mythical Roman god or goddess (, , by contrast, was a Phrygian king best known for his role in , mythology)., CHOOSE, MANNED, SHOOIN, SMOOTH, STOOGE, TROOPS, The reference to “staring” was a double-clue indicating both that you could literally identify the odd one out by staring at the words, and that all but one of the words — “MANNED” — had an “eyes open” letter pattern (“OO”) in the middle., GEODUDE, HAUNTER, METAPOD, PERSIAN, SNORLAX, UMBERTO, VENONAT, “Monsters” in “pockets”? Of course, most of the words in this set were names of , (also linking to the clue “go” as in the popular mobile game “Pokémon Go”). The exception was “UMBERTO.”, ABJECTLY, CHIPMUNK, FRABJOUS, JACKPOTS, MEGABUCK, MONOGRAM, QUACKERY, WALTZING, This last set was the hardest because you were actually looking for the , of a pattern, as the clue hinted. All the words but “MONOGRAM” have a rather unusual property for eight-letter words: they have no repeated letters., Filling those words into the grid we provided and then “scaling the pyramid and coming back to the ground after making it to the top” revealed the pyramid’s hidden treasure:, The final answer was “MUMMY’S WISDOM,”, a treasure which, as we had hinted, is “even more valuable than gold.”, solved first — continuing his first-solver streak to the third consecutive week — followed by , ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, , , , and, . The other solvers were , ;, ;, ; , ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ; , ;, ;, ; , ; , ; , ; , ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, and , . And thanks especially to , for consulting on the puzzle!, I forgot to mention last week that part of our , was inspired by , ’s 2009 , . And , and I recently published , giving new solutions to the , that was featured in Conundrums just over a year ago., Spectate the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament finals , (hat tip: , ); or join an interactive adventure set in the world of Robin Hood that , (tickets , ; hat tip: , )! Spy agency , ; treasure hunters , ; , (hat tip:, ). Simple, yet subtle , . Plus , ; a long read , ; as well as “, .” And inquiring minds want to know: , (hat tip: , )?, Or does it? , Not to be confused with the "Moonlight Pokémon" Umbreon. , Benjamin Salop and Eric Wepsic pointed out that the modifier "GREAT" also appears in the grid snaking up from the bottom (starting from the "G" in "MONOGRAM"), to climb up to the word "WISDOM." This was entirely unintentional, and just goes to show how mysterious pyramids can be! , Happy early Mother's Day to moms everywhere! , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Scott Duke Kominers is the MBA Class of 1960 Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics. Previously, he was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and the inaugural research scholar at the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Scott Duke Kominers. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Amazon Workers Spoke important [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Amazon Workers Spoke. It’s Important to Hear Them. Short_description: Amazon’s workers understand their own interests better than officials in Washington do, writes Michael R. Bloomberg.. Description: Workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, voted, by a margin of more than two to one not to join a union. It’s a heavy blow for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, for the wider labor movement, and for the many politicians and activists who wanted the union’s push to succeed. But the workers have spoken — and all of the groups on the other side should be listening to the message., Instead, many rejected the result and attacked the process, almost as though an election is to be respected only if you win. When Republicans did that after the presidential election, they were rightly condemned., The idea that the overwhelming majority of workers in Bessemer were intimidated or bamboozled into voting against their interests — as unionization proponents have suggested — is not only implausible; it’s insulting, as though workers couldn’t possibly be so foolish to have voted against it, so they must have been coerced or tricked. Nonsense., Workers are better positioned to assess their own employment situation than elected officials in Washington, or anyone else for that matter. They voted ‘No’ because they struggled to see what they would gain in exchange for their dues, given that they work for a company that already provides industry-leading pay and benefits. The union lost the vote because it failed to answer, or even seriously address, that question., Of course, that’s not to say everything is perfect at Amazon. In a letter to shareholders after the vote, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, wrote,, “We need a better vision for how we create value for employees — a vision for their success.”, Unions should be taking away that same lesson: How can they offer workers a more attractive deal — a better vision for their success — than the one they turned down? Instead, the union is appealing the result, hoping that judges or regulators will overturn the will of the workers., It remains to be seen what Amazon’s vision will be, and to be successful, it will have to be developed in partnership with employees. It would be good for workers if unions engaged in the same exercise, recognizing that what they are currently offering is not enough. But it’s not clear that’s the case., Labor union rates have declined for a myriad of reasons, but one of them is simply that unions are still operating from the same playbook that they’ve used for decades, while companies are increasingly treating employees as their most valuable asset — and offering pay and benefits to attract and retain the best and hardest-working. In Bessemer, Amazon’s starting wage is more than double the minimum wage,, plus it provides health care and other benefits that many other employers do not offer., Workers at Amazon would benefit from a competition between management and unions, but at least for now, it seems that only one side is on the playing field, while the other is arguing with the referees. Workers know the score, and they know how to choose sides., Of course, Amazon will continue to be an irresistible target. Unionizing the company would be a notable feat for the labor movement. Perhaps it will yet happen. But it may be that the company continues to offer workers what the union could not: a better deal., Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, and served as mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. He is currently serving as WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, UN Global Ambassador for Race to Zero and Race to Resilience and UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michael R. Bloomberg. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 2:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Prevent Burnout boss [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: To Prevent Burnout, Stop Blaming Your Boss. Short_description: To Prevent Burnout, Stop Blaming Your Boss. Description: “So I had a heart attack…” begins the , from Jonathan Frostick, an IT lead at HSBC. It was just another Sunday. Trip to the park; late lunch; sitting down around 4 p.m. to prepare for the workweek ahead., Suddenly he knew something was very, very wrong. “I needed to meet with my manager tomorrow, this isn’t convenient,” was his thought, before even realizing he needed to get his wife to call emergency services., Frostick , to my colleagues at Bloomberg News that “he is responsible for the overwork and neglect of his health that culminated in his heart attack.”, “I owe a responsibility to myself and other people,” he said, as well as “I don’t think this should reflect badly on the place where I work.” Instead, he wants to keep the focus on: “This happened to me, it could happen to you. You need to change that.”, In the annals of overwork-induced medical emergencies, this message is a relief. Workaholics often pin the blame anywhere but on themselves. It’s their overbearing boss; it’s an always-on company culture; it’s rising economic inequality; it’s “late capitalism.”, Of course, these can be factors, especially in time-greedy industries and dysfunctional companies. It is much easier to set healthy personal boundaries if you have a boss who believes in them. A company culture of late-night emails and always-on work can easily become an arms race, with employees striving to prove they’re more committed than the next guy or gal. Conversely, if you’re on a team where everyone shuts down after 5 or 6 p.m., there’s no incentive to keep checking your phone., But many professionals are selling themselves a dangerous fantasy when they tell themselves they don’t have any control over their work schedule. There may be some trade-offs involved, but for many people in time-greedy fields — law, banking, consulting, tech, medicine — tweaking one’s relationship with work is not going to send them to the poorhouse., It’s unpopular to say this, and I expect to get hate mail, but workaholism is a prison we choose to live inside. That’s hard to recognize, because losing one’s sense of agency is a hallmark of workaholism. The effects of that loss are insidious and dangerous: A sense of autonomy over one’s work is one of the things that , ., It’s also common to think, “Well, everyone works this way, and I have to as well if I’m going to keep up.” That is not true. There are lots of people out there who make just as much money as the workaholics — and who also enjoy their weekends., Nonetheless, I understand all too well that forging a new relationship with work often does , radical — even impossible. And that feeling keeps too many people on the treadmill of work obsession., Let’s be clear: When we talk about overwork, it’s important to separate workaholism, which is an attitude, from long hours (which researchers set at 50 hours a week or more). You can be a workaholic even if you’re regularly putting in a 40-hour week. Getting too emotionally attached to your work, like any form of codependency, can be unhealthy., Although various studies over the years have linked long hours to a host of physical problems — cardiovascular issues, sleep problems, obesity, alcoholism — researchers are still trying to disentangle the effects of long hours and the mental habits of workaholism itself. , of workaholics, for example, found that long hours didn’t correlate to any health issues, but ruminating and worrying about work did., In fact, the , , a , of seven elements of workaholism, doesn’t ask how many hours you log. Instead, it focuses on the role work plays in your mind and in your life, , how often you “become stressed if you’re prohibited from working,” whether work has caused you to deprioritize hobbies or exercise, and whether you work “in order to reduce feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness and depression.” (The first time I read that I thought, darkly: “Aside from a paycheck, is there any other reason , work?” Which perhaps tells you a bit too much about my state of mind at the time.), Starting to change these mental habits doesn’t require anyone else’s permission. For example, people who let work bleed into their personal time often say, “Sorry, I have to work.” Reframing that can help reclaim autonomy: “I’m choosing to work.”, It helps us remember that we are ultimately in the driver’s seat of our own careers, even if the road we’re traveling is that of a fresh-out-of-grad-school investment banker, consultant or lawyer undergoing , of life as a junior associate., Lots of people, especially while working from home during the pandemic, have struggled to switch off their brains at the end of the day. Instead of simply trying to , thoughts of work (“Don’t think of a purple elephant!”), give the brain something else to obsess over. Fill the nights and weekends with deeply , ., Often the biggest challenge is just remembering that we have other identities out there waiting to be claimed. It’s normal in our culture to identify strongly with work. It’s even a feature of the English language. We don’t say, “I bank.” We say, “I’m a banker.”, Investing in those other identities isn’t just beneficial; it’s a form of risk management, as with any diversified portfolio., It takes some effort to feel pride in one’s work while also maintaining a healthy separation from it. But it’s an effort that will pay off. And as Jonathan Frostick has warned, it shouldn’t take a heart attack for us to realize it., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Sarah Green Carmichael is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion. She was previously managing editor of ideas and commentary at Barron’s, and an executive editor at Harvard Business Review, where she hosted the HBR Ideacast. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Sarah Green Carmichael. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Covid Test State India [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: India’s State Is Failing Its Covid Test. Short_description: In the absence of a strong and capable government, whether you live or die largely depends on who’s in your phone book.   . Description: If you are lucky enough to be healthy in Covid-haunted Delhi, life feels strangely disconnected. Offline, there’s an undeclared lockdown. The normally noisy city is silent except for the sound of birds., Social media, on the other hand, is an unfolding tapestry of tragedy. People beg for help finding hospital beds and life-saving medicines. Friends and acquaintances call and text asking if you know where they can get an oxygen concentrator for the home. In one way or another, everyone is battling the virus., Everyone, it seems, except the Indian state. Once again, ordinary citizens feel as if we’ve been abandoned by our government. Even in the face of an unprecedented emergency, state and federal officials seem more interested in point-scoring and blame-shifting than in cooperation., Denialism about the scale of the problem is official policy. Ministers, bureaucrats and even government lawyers insist that there is no shortage of oxygen or hospital beds, although everyone can plainly see that there is., Things are even worse in places such as Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state. There we might not know the scale of the humanitarian disaster for months, if ever: , and the state’s administration has , those spreading online “rumors” — including about family members gasping for oxygen — that they might be prosecuted under draconian national-security laws., Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Perhaps we shouldn’t have expected more of the notoriously fragile Indian state. There’s no escaping the fundamental contradiction of 21st century India: It is one of the world’s largest economies, ambitious and aspirational, and its government has vast resources. But it is also, still, a poor country, with a per capita income one-fifth China’s. The state’s capabilities are spread truly thinly across India’s billion-plus people., Government spending on health in particular has always been shockingly low. In the villages of Uttar Pradesh, the needs of hundreds of thousands of people might be filled by just five health centers — and not a single qualified doctor., And citizens need more than the basics. In Delhi, the local government often talks up its expenditure on primary health centers, which are indeed vital. But that hasn’t made up for the lack of tertiary care, which is what most Covid-19 patients need. Delhi has only 5,000 usable ICU beds for its roughly 20 million citizens; less than a dozen were free on April 30, according to the , ., For years, many Indians believed the private sector could make up for the government’s shortcomings. Indians mostly pay in advance and in cash when a calamity hits and hospitalization is needed. We run down our savings, or we look to personal networks for help: , of healthcare spending in India is out-of-pocket expenditure by households. That’s where Indians have turned in this crisis as well — to friends, family and Facebook., But the pandemic is a reminder of why even a dynamic private sector needs a state that can support its efforts. That’s true in the best of times; in the worst, such as these, there is no replacement for a government that can coordinate private efforts and supplement them where needed. Instead, authorities can’t supply enough oxygen or even tell us which hospital has the fewest ambulances lined up outside its gates., Underfunded and understaffed governments such as India’s simply have no spare capacity to serve their citizens when disaster strikes. You can’t hope for the private sector to do so; only the state can afford to carry this vital excess capacity or build it up at short notice., It doesn’t have to be this way. India’s southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu have, for decades, been better run than their northern counterparts. In recent weeks, they’ve set up elaborate systems of , to sort out Covid-19 cases and minimize the burden on hospitals., Even the financial capital Mumbai, epicenter of the latest variant, has established , in each municipal ward, manned by public-school teachers, to triage patients and tell them where to go and what to do. While it took too long to increase the number of hospital beds, at least the local government is allotting those beds to the neediest., Perhaps residents of Mumbai feel less abandoned; certainly, that city seems to have turned a corner in the past fortnight. In Delhi, by contrast, whether you and your loved ones live or die still largely depends on who’s in your phone book., This is unfair to all of us, but particularly unfair to those who are from historically excluded religions, castes and classes. A functional state would be impartial between these categories. A flawed government might not be impartial but would at least pretend. Instead, in the anarchy that rules here today, parts of India are reverting to their stratified worst., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Mihir Swarup Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and head of its Economy and Growth Programme. He is the author of "Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy," and co-editor of "What the Economy Needs Now." , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Mihir Sharma. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 6:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Netflix sheen AT&T [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: AT&T Steals Some of Netflix's Sheen. Short_description: AT&T Steals Some of Netflix's Sheen. Description: AT&T Inc. is looking better already, and all it took was shuffling some numbers around. , The company’s traditional pay-TV business, which is anchored by the DirecTV service, lost 620,000 customers in the first quarter, bringing the total exodus for the past two years to 7 million — millions more than any of its competitors including Comcast Corp. Normally, this would be casting a cloud over otherwise pretty good quarterly results, leaving a sour taste in investors’ mouths and adding to the apprehension they have about the wireless giant’s costly gamble on streaming with HBO Max., But in February, AT&T did , : It “pretended” to divest — as analysts for New Street Research LLP put it — this DirecTV-led unit. As a result, the cringeworthy pay-TV results didn’t even make an appearance in AT&T’s earnings announcement Thursday and were relegated to the “Corporate & Other” section of its quarterly filing. And wouldn’t you know it, shares of AT&T jumped more than 5% (they often fall on earnings day). The move was in celebration of the company adding 2.7 million U.S. HBO Max and HBO subscribers as well as 823,000 regular wireless customers., AT&T is separating the pay-TV assets into a new entity called New DirecTV, partly owned by private equity firm TPG Capital. As part of the transaction, TPG is paying AT&T $1.8 billion and receiving preferred equity that pays a 10% coupon. In other words, AT&T is essentially just replacing one form of debt with another. Still, it accomplished plenty simply by putting the business out of sight and out of mind., There are other challenges ahead. Netflix Inc. was ,  and while HBO Max and HBO are growing more quickly in the U.S., they have a lot of catching up to do. Ideally, HBO Max (excluding legacy HBO) would have more people signing up heading into this post-pandemic summer, which ,  as they return to socializing and travel. As of now, Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime are considered the most essential TV services, with HBO Max trying to break out from the group of streaming afterthoughts. The soon-to-come more affordable, advertising-supported version of HBO Max and international launches should help, as will , that are being simultaneously released on HBO Max this year. , In 5G, AT&T is generally considered to have a better spectrum standing than Verizon Communications Inc., yet both are playing runners-up to T-Mobile US Inc., whose acquisition of Sprint last year really turned the tables. To the extent that the most exciting applications for 5G lie in the business realm — whereas past network upgrades were tailored to consumer smartphones — AT&T and Verizon would seem to have an advantage because of their existing footprints among business customers. However, Dish announced Wednesday , to run its own 5G network over Amazon’s popular AWS cloud software. It’s the deal Dish needed to alter its perception in the market from notorious spectrum hoarder and bluffer to legitimate 5G contender., On Thursday’s earnings call, AT&T CEO John Stankey also pointed to the potential threat of the supply-chain disruptions that are being felt across industries, including 5G expansion efforts: “Global supply chains are stressed right now across the board,” he said. “People will give you comfortable answers, but I’m a little skittish.”, That aside, AT&T is able to focus more intently now on 5G and streaming, and the benefits of that are already becoming apparent. The next step is finding a “Game of Thrones”-like smash hit to inspire more people to make the leap to HBO Max. , And so given that the deal has no impact on AT&T’s leverage and only a small impact on profitability, any meaningful value would have to come from a subsequent deal that would see New DirecTV merge with Dish Network Corp.,New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin and Spencer Kurn wrote in a March 4 report. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tara Lachapelle is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the business of entertainment and telecommunications, as well as broader deals. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tara Lachapelle. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 7:55 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to fragile Democracy Coup Sudan risk [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: A Coup Fails in Sudan but Its Fragile Democracy Remains at Risk. Short_description: A Coup Fails in Sudan but Its Fragile Democracy Remains at Risk. Description: Sudan’s transition to democracy was rudely jolted this week, when a group of military officers loyal to the ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir , in Khartoum against the civilian-led administration of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. Their failure is cause for relief, but neither the government nor the wider world can afford to exhale., For the best part of two years, Sudan has been a shining exception to the trend of democratic retrenchment across much of Africa and a beacon of hope amid the gathering gloom of autocratic populism worldwide. After widespread protests brought , in the spring of 2019, the military and opposition groups , for a 39-month period., Now in the third year of that arrangement, Sudan’s transition has entered its most difficult period, and Hamdok is at his most vulnerable. Although his government has introduced a dazzling and daring array of political, social and economic reforms — from making , and , , to , with Israel and , — ordinary Sudanese have received little dividends for having dethroned the dictatorial al-Bashir.  , The euphoric optimism of 2019 has long since been replaced by frustration, much of it stemming from unemployment and , The Sudanese economy was hobbled by $60 billion in foreign debt even before the crippling effects of the Covid pandemic. Although Hamdok has secured , and , from foreign governments, there has been little investment as yet, and few opportunities for job creation., The frustration felt by many Sudanese has been boiling over into the streets. There have been , over the removal of fuel subsidies, part of an economic reform package agreed with the International Monetary Fund. More ominously, , in parts of Darfur, Kordofan and the Blue Nile region, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. , The men who plotted Hamdok’s overthrow were counting on the widening disquiet: They , in the east of the country where there had recently been anti-government protests. Perhaps they hoped the protesters, disillusioned by the transition to democracy, would support a return to the old ways — after all, that’s more or less what happened in Sudan’s northern neighbor, Egypt, in 2013 when anti-government demonstrations allowed General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to seize power., Other reports say the plotters included elements of the armored corps, and had tried to seize control of the , . They may have been hoping to make an appeal for solidarity from the rest of the military., But they had misread the national mood. Whatever their grievances with the government, ordinary Sudanese are not inclined toward another revolution. Nor is the military high command of a mind to join a general mutiny. Not even the country’s most feared warlord, the paramilitary commander , , , . “We will not allow a coup to take place,” he said. “We want real democratic transition through free and fair elections, not like in the past.”, But Hamdok can’t be sanguine about the rest of transition to democracy. The failed coup was the second shot at derailing the process: Hamdok himself , in early 2020. There may very well be other bids to overthrow the government before the elections expected in early 2024., The prime minister knows the greatest threat to Sudanese democratic aspirations , . The failure of one group of officers may not deter others. He is using the failed coup to make the case that the army should come under civilian control. This week “clearly indicates the need to reform the security and military apparatus,” Hamdok said in a statement., It will be harder to pull off than all his previous changes. A military command that, at best, sees itself as co-equal with the political leadership will not easily submit to civilian authority. Hamdok’s best hope for the preservation of his government is to keep the population on his side., This, in turn, will require him to get the economy on track. The wider world can help, by speeding up debt-forgiveness and aid, and encouraging private investment in Sudan. There are many other countries in need of such succor, but this bright spark of democracy in Africa deserves special consideration., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He writes on foreign affairs, with a special focus on the Middle East and Africa., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Bobby Ghosh. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 11:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Shoddy Bias Training corporate risk remedy [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Shoddy Bias Training Is a Corporate Risk, Not a Remedy. Short_description: Shoddy Bias Training Is a Corporate Risk, Not a Remedy. Description: When it comes to programs aimed at reducing discrimination and fostering diversity in the workplace, one thing is clear: Much like gym memberships, having them is only a (small) first step. , The latest warning on the perils of diversity box-ticking comes from Britain’s Employment Appeal Tribunal, in a recent ruling on a racial harassment case where an employer sought to shield itself by arguing that it did everything possible to prevent the behavior — a permissible defense — and offered its equal opportunities policy, anti-bullying and harassment procedures and training as evidence. However, these were found to be stale and ineffective, the company responsible for the ill treatment and obliged to pay compensation., There’s plenty of skepticism around unconscious bias and other inclusion training, often with good reason, even among those who agree on the need to address both explicit and ingrained prejudice, and on the damage caused. It’s clear from this case that rushed, one-size-fits-all webinars, perhaps squeezed in during the employee-induction process, achieve little — however many billions of dollars companies collectively spend on them. Enough, in fact, to create an entire industry. The Equality and Human Rights Commission in the U.K., for one, , unconscious bias training did enhance awareness, but did not eliminate the problem and could even backfire. , That doesn’t mean that the whole thing is — in the memorable words of Bill Michael, former U.K. chairman of Big Four auditor KPMG, “complete and utter crap” — or that the wider push serves no purpose. What’s hard is pinpointing exactly how to make it work. The tribunal case, , , offers at least a useful examination of how , to, and why failure leaves companies and staff at risk., An employee of Indian origin hired by Allay in 2016 and dismissed a year later complained of racial discrimination over regular comments made by a colleague, who argued instead that he had engaged only in limited “racial banter.” The appeal focused on the company’s argument that it took all reasonable steps to prevent this with existing procedures, policies and training; the colleague attended the latter in 2015. Both the employment tribunal judge and the appellate tribunal took a dim view. The training slides, according to the judgment handed down in February, suggested at best an insufficient effort that had faded fast. Harassment, for example, was defined with no reference to race or racial stereotypes. The company’s anti-bullying and harassment procedure referred to harassment only in the title, and again made no mention of race., Proof of the poor quality — indeed, uselessness — was that neither policies nor training were enough to help avoid the situation in which the colleague apparently thought he was engaging in a playful exchange while asking “why the claimant was in the country,” while other employees didn’t know what to do when they heard the comments or were told about them. , “If training involved no more than gathering employees together and saying, ‘Here is your harassment training, don’t harass people, now back to work,’ it is unlikely to be effective,” the judgement reads. It needs to make a difference — and actually last. That’s a high bar. At the very least, poor behavior should signal that existing instruction isn’t working, and needs to be refreshed., How exactly we make that difference is a tougher question that the appeal tribunal didn’t answer. We need far more data, as my colleague Chris Hughes has , , especially from outside the United States. But we do know that when it comes to unconscious bias, adequate education can at least increase cognizance of the problem, something clearly not present in the British case. Training can be a start to tackling defensiveness, helping White employees acknowledge an issue that is often, as KPMG’s Michael eloquently demonstrated, underplayed by those who prefer to believe they owe everything to merit. Regular, rather than one-time, sessions are key — not least because a single 30-minute discussion hardly communicates that the issue is a priority. , Then, training has to be placed in the wider context of other organizational efforts to tackle bias and improve diversity and inclusion, from clear goals to messaging. Lip service is neither ethically nor legally sufficient., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Clara Ferreira Marques. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 4:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Population Advantage America [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Why America’s Population Advantage Has Evaporated. Short_description: Why America’s Population Advantage Has Evaporated. Description: Fifteen years ago, population growth was one of America’s core advantages over other nations. With a fertility rate close to the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman — the level necessary for long-term population stability — the U.S. had somehow avoided the birth-rate collapse that had characterized other rich countries (and more than a few poor ones). Add copious immigration on top of that, and our demographic future seemed assured., Projections had the U.S. substantially increasing its size relative to its main potential rival, China, over the course of the century. And the country’s youthfulness implied a bright future for its economy, its asset markets and the solvency of its pension and health care systems., Fast forward a decade and a half, and this vision of demographic dominance seems to have gone up in smoke. Data from the 2020 Census indicates that the U.S. population is now growing more slowly than at any time since World War II. The country isn’t shrinking yet, but if we don’t correct course, we are certain to stagnate in size:, Why is this happening? Why does it matter? And what can be done about it? None of these questions have simple answers, but we’re going to have to grapple with all of them in the years to come., Ultimately there are two ways a nation’s population can grow: Having babies, or taking in immigrants. The U.S. used to be very good at both of these things, but no longer., According to both the World Bank and the Population Reference Bureau, by 2018 the U.S. total fertility rate has fallen to around 1.73, in line with the likes of Denmark and the U.K., And that was before Covid-19; a pandemic , will speed the U.S. toward a low-fertility future. , fertility is now down to 1.6, similar to Germany., This isn’t merely a matter of pessimistic Americans giving up on the future, or crumbling under the weight of childrearing’s excessive cost. Some of this is happening for good reasons. For example, the teen birth rate has fallen enormously, from 61.8 per 1000 teenage girls in 1990 to just 17.4 by 2018 — a 72% decrease. That’s a positive development; we don’t want kids having kids., Another positive cause of fertility decline has been the assimilation of Hispanic Americans to U.S. fertility norms. In 2007, Hispanic American women had about 67% more children than their White counterparts; by 2018, , to less than 20% . This is a sign of successful cultural integration of the descendants of immigrants, as well as upward , among Hispanics., But the fertility drop isn’t completely benign. As economist , , surveys show a gap between real and desired fertility since around the time of the Great Recession. The average number of children women say they want has actually , , to 2.6. That implies that American parents lack the financial resources to have as many kids as they would like., If fertility falls, the other way a country can grow its population is through immigration. But here, too, the once-mighty U.S. has faltered. Immigrants are still coming in, but at a much lower level relative to population:, As with fertility, this is not entirely for bad reasons; the big driver of the immigration slowdown was , of net illegal arrivals seen around the time of the Great Recession. But the U.S. could have raised its legal immigration numbers to compensate, and it didn't., With immigration and fertility both down, the U.S. is projected to age rapidly. Even before Covid, the median age , to rise to 43 by 2060 from 38 today. The size of the 55+ age group is , , while the number of young people is barely budging., The question then naturally arises: Why should we care? You might be tempted to look at all these numbers and shrug, and simply hope that America will age gracefully. But as other rich countries have discovered, a graying population entails two big problems: economic burden and loss of national power., The economics of aging revolves around a very simple fact: Old people stop being able to work. And that means their consumption must be supported by the efforts of younger, working people. This support happens both financially — through pensions, Social Security, and the money people pay to take care of their aged family members — and directly, through elder-care work. As the population ages, the number of working-age people available to support each old person decreases; this puts an increasing financial and physical burden on the young. In 2010, the number of working-age adults per older adult was 4.8; by 2060 it’s projected to be only half that., So based on that projection, you can take whatever economic burden a young working person currently shoulders to take care of the old — payroll taxes, elder care duties, nursing home payments — and double it. That’s what the American workers of 2060 will be facing if we stay on our present course. Of course, mathematically, this will hold down living standards; fewer working people means less output per person in the total population., But that isn’t the only economic cost of aging. It also tends to reduce productivity growth, which pushes living standards down even more. A , by economists Nicole Maestas, Kathleen J. Mullen and David Powell looked at U.S. states and found that the slowdown in productivity due to an aging population is even bigger than the mechanical effect of the shrinking of the labor force. , by Shekhar Aiyar, Christian Ebeke and Xiaobo Shao looked at European countries and found the same., Why does aging hold down productivity? Part of it might be because older workers slow down a bit, but Maestas et al. estimate that an aging workforce also reduces productivity among ,  workers. That suggests that the reduced productivity comes from corporate management dominated by older managers who become set in their ways and fail to exploit new technologies, new business models and new market opportunities. Another subtler, more corrosive effect could come from the weakening of what economists call agglomeration: without a large and growing domestic market to sell to, companies are loath to invest in a region, which hurts productivity within that region. If that happens to the U.S. as a whole, we're in trouble., In other words, if the U.S. doesn’t do something about its slowing population growth, it could see a halt to improving living standards as well., And for many, living standards aren’t the only reason to care about population; they also care about national greatness. As the fourth-largest country in the world, the U.S. enjoyed clear and devastating advantages over smaller 20th-century rivals like Germany and Japan. But now, the U.S. appears to be entering a period of intensified competition with a new rival — China — whose population is four times our own., As writer and Bloomberg Opinion contributor , , a growing U.S. population would put America in a much stronger position vis-à-vis its much larger rival. China’s population has plateaued and will soon shrink, if it hasn’t started to do so already. But if the U.S. allows its own population to stagnate, the gap between the two countries will remain vast, making it extremely hard for the U.S. to balance China geopolitically in the long term. We don’t have to go all the way to one billion Americans, as , , in order to bolster our position, but we should at least make sure to grow instead of shrink., Opponents of population growth often argue that it’s bad for the planet, that by having more babies or bringing in more immigrants, we’ll be increasing the use of natural resources. But this isn’t necessarily true; over the past few decades, even as the U.S. population has continued to grow, use of many resources — fresh water and various minerals — , . Energy use has also stayed flat, and total carbon emissions have gone down substantially., Given the economic and geopolitical threats from a shrinking population, , that it makes sense to develop a national population policy. Fortunately, such a policy would probably look a lot like what Biden is already trying to do., First and foremost, the easiest way to give population growth a quick boost is to allow in more immigrants. As part of an immigration reform package, Biden’s allies have , a raft of proposals to make it much easier to enter the U.S. legally, focusing especially on skilled immigration. These will , to get past Senate Republicans, especially at a time when anxiety over immigration has become , on the political right. But Biden still has an obligation to try. Meanwhile, Biden can unilaterally , on refugee admissions, which , on Monday., But even expanded immigration would only , long-term U.S. population decline. This is because many immigrants are already in their prime or even middle-aged when they arrive, and because continually expanding immigration to compensate for accelerating population decline is probably politically infeasible. If the U.S. is going to stabilize its population, Americans need to have more children., Since surveys show they , to have more kids, it seems likely that the main thing holding them back has to do with financial factors. The cost of , , education, and children’s health care have , over the past few decades. By defraying these costs, the government can help young Americans have as many children as they desire., Biden’s big new , would be a big step towards doing this. The bill would extend the substantial child allowance of $250 to $300 per month per kid that was a centerpiece of the president’s earlier Covid relief bill. It would make pre-kindergarten and community college free, provide heavy subsidies for child care, and create a new paid leave program. Many will think of this as an anti-poverty bill, but it’s also a pro-natalist bill — a way to make raising children a lot cheaper., The experience of other rich countries suggests that this would have a positive, though modest, impact on fertility. Stone, , the effects of pro-natalist policies in other countries, concludes that raising U.S. fertility back to replacement level might require an increase in child benefits of anywhere from $2,800 to $23,000 a year for the median parent. Biden’s plans fall at the low end of that range, but even if his new policies don’t make up the entire gap, they'll at least provide some boost to fertility if passed by Congress., In the end, the question of population is a question of what kind of nation America wants to be. We can choose to be a graying nation, looking inward and grimly awaiting the days of the thinning herd, even as we prepare to shoulder the heavy burden of supporting the elderly on our diminishing shoulders. Or we can choose to be a great nation: a vigorous, future-oriented, positive country confident enough in ourselves to believe that there should be more of us., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Noah Smith. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to minute city Atlanta Trail [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: How Atlanta Is Blazing the Trail of 15-Minute Cities. Short_description: How Atlanta Is Blazing the Trail of 15-Minute Cities. Description: , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Conor Sen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and the founder of Peachtree Creek Investments. He's been a contributor to the Atlantic and Business Insider and resides in Atlanta. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Conor Sen. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 6:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Simone Biles Nike Snub big win athleta [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Simone Biles Nike Snub Is a Big Win for Athleta. Short_description: Simone Biles Nike Snub Is a Big Win for Athleta. Description: As Gap Inc. looks to vault its Athleta brand to new heights, it has struck a powerful deal that simultaneously dents a rival. The women’s athletic apparel chain said Friday that it has forged a partnership with gymnastics superstar Simone Biles, who has defected from Nike Inc. for the new arrangement that will give the Olympian her own clothing collection. Biles said in an , that she was enticed by the idea of teaming with a company that was “truly for women by women.”, Luring Biles as a face of its brand is a huge victory for Athleta, a small but fast-growing player in the industry that Gap has said is on track to rake in $2 billion in annual sales by 2023. It will give the chain outsize visibility at the coming Tokyo Olympics, where Biles, a dominant presence in her sport, will be among the U.S.’s most high-profile competitors. Athleta had earlier , , another onetime Nike athlete, who will also give it prominence at the event., As Gap’s namesake brand and Banana Republic chain , , the company is counting on Old Navy and Athleta as the pillars of its growth. For Athleta to continue growing quickly, it is important for it to find ways to become more differentiated from Lululemon Athletica Inc., the retailing rock star whose $44 billion market value is nearly four times that of Gap., The Biles partnership is an important step in that direction. Lululemon has never focused on sponsoring big-name athletes as a marketing tactic, instead going for a more bottom-up approach that centers on yoga instructors and other figures in local fitness communities. In signing a celebrity athlete and giving her a dedicated apparel line, Athleta is giving shoppers a clear reason to choose it over its rival., It also helps that Biles is a star with strong appeal to young girls, a key target audience for Athleta. The chain has a kids’ collection, an offering , when it shuttered its Ivivva brand. While Lululemon has aimed to grow its men’s category, Athleta has strategically remained focused on women and girls, marketing itself with themes of female empowerment. (In fact, when Gap briefly dabbled in men’s athletic wear, it did so under a separate brand name, Hill City). Biles is a powerful messenger for a brand campaign in that vein, someone who can help Athleta ingratiate itself with moms looking for a feel-good brand to shop with their daughters. , The loss of Biles on Nike’s roster won’t have much of a financial impact on the company, which still maintains a veritable murderer’s row of sponsored athletes. Nevertheless, the optics aren’t good for the apparel and sneaker behemoth. Bolstering its women’s business is an important component of its growth strategy, and it has endured a trickle of tough headlines in recent years about being an , and for its maternity policies affecting , , , . The loss of Biles certainly won’t help repair those reputational wounds. , Also, it is noteworthy that the Biles partnership comes in the same week that Bloomberg News’s Matthew Boyle , , a college football Heisman Trophy winner, to promote its new private-label athleisure line. If this and the Biles gambit are successful, it could encourage other retailers to join the fray in courting athletes, scrambling a multiplayer battle that has usually involved a small handful of athletic wear megabrands. For stores looking to reach consumers in the extremely competitive athleisure market-share showdown, that could be a game changer.  , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Sarah Halzack is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She was previously a national retail reporter for the Washington Post., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Sarah Halzack. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 8:38 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Florentino Perez Spies italian Deal road [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Florentino Perez Spies a Road to $12 Billion Italian Deal. Short_description: Florentino Perez Spies a Road to $12 Billion Italian Deal. Description: Florentino Perez may be about to test Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s commitment to free and fair markets. The construction tycoon and president of the Real Madrid soccer club has lately attracted scorn for his plans for a closed-shop European football league. But his bold ideas for expanding Spanish builder Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA could reveal whether Italy has a more supportive attitude toward competition., Perez-led ACS said in early April it was considering an offer of as much as 10 billion euros ($12 billion) for Autostrade per l’Italia SpA, the Italian toll-road operator that maintained the Morandi road bridge prior to its horrifying collapse, claiming 43 lives, in 2018. This is a long-running, highly politicized and sensitive situation. Perez, while intervening late, may nevertheless be able to influence how it is resolved., Autostrade is currently subject to a contentious nationalization plan driven by previous Italian administrations in response to the Genoa tragedy. Its owner, infrastructure company Atlantia SpA, has rejected allegations that it breached its maintenance commitments for the bridge. In response to government threats to strip Autostrade of its operating license, it has proposed a 3.4 billion-euro package of compensation, investment and toll cuts instead., This hasn’t quelled the furor. Atlantia is 30%-owned by the billionaire Benettons, and the government of , wanted to end the family’s involvement with Autostrade altogether. The result was a plan for postal-savings bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA to buy it., Atlantia has, argued, a sale of Autostrade should be determined by market forces. The process has been anything but competitive. A CDP-led consortium, including funds run by Blackstone Group Inc. and Macquarie Group Ltd., is the sole buyer. An alternative plan for an Autostrade demerger was nixed by the Benettons last month, against the wishes of most other shareholders. The Benettons said a deal with CDP offered more certainty. The impression is that they now want closure without further fuss or delay., CDP’s offer is worth 9.1 billion euros, Bloomberg News reported. It’s not too late for that to be revised upward. Even after factoring in the costs of the settlement, some of which are spread over time and tax deductible, it’s some way from the 14 billion-euro value analysts ascribed to the business before the disaster. Minority investor TCI Fund Management Ltd. reckons Autostrade is worth 12 billion euros. The reality is that only a market listing of the shares, or a fairly run auction, can determine a solid price., Even if CDP can agree terms with Atlantia’s board, its offer would then need shareholder approval. If its plans falter at either hurdle, the whole process will be back to square one. The question then is whether Draghi would restart an uncontested nationalization, something he may not have initiated had he been in power in 2018., The Genoa bridge has been reconstructed but the official report into the tragedy has yet to conclude. Clearly, Atlantia faces questions over whether it oversaw inadequate maintenance. If failings by Autostrade are proven, Atlantia should pay heavily, especially given the high dividends it shelled out over the years. It also has a duty to fund works across the network necessary to prevent a repeat., But it’s far from clear how a sale, uncompetitive or otherwise, is necessary. A forced nationalization imposes a backdoor financial penalty, but these costs should arguably be levied on Autostrade directly and transparently. A sale while the investigation is pending — and the final bill for upgrading the network is unclear — also carries risks. The unpalatable outcome would be that Atlantia shareholders got a clean break from the situation, while passing on still uncertain costs to new owners., If Draghi still believes new ownership is necessary, rather than subjecting Autostrade to tougher monitoring ahead, he might struggle to justify a process that excluded other bidders. Perez would then have a chance of a deal. But he would also face a challenge: demonstrating that ACS, no stranger to leverage, would be a better owner, and that the demands of debt-servicing and dividends would come second to the needs of the business., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Chris Hughes is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals. He previously worked for Reuters Breakingviews, as well as the Financial Times and the Independent newspaper., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Chris Hughes. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 1:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Land Feed Population Singapore [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Can 1% of Singapore's Land Feed Its Population?. Short_description: Can 1% of Singapore's Land Feed Its Population?. Description: From fish farms bobbing in the Straits of Johor to industrial warehouses and the rooftops of hotels downtown, urban farming is all the rage in Singapore. Covid-19 has given the country, which produces only a tiny fraction of what its people eat, a big scare. Dependence on neighbors for sustenance is a huge vulnerability the government says it's determined to rectify., Developing agriculture almost from scratch doesn't come easy. Obstacles include a shortage of labor, competition from lower-cost economies elsewhere in Asia and a chronic scarcity of space. How the nation addresses these hurdles will say a lot about whether food self-sufficiency is a fad or a smart deployment of state muscle. The Singapore Food Agency is dispensing millions of dollars to solve this existential challenge. While food supplies have held up during the pandemic, some shelves were emptied of staples like rice and instant noodles in the early days. A few months ago, , while drivers waited for hours at Covid checkpoints. , “Nobody contemplated the Causeway shutting down or air freight becoming more difficult,” said Benjamin Swan, co-founder and chief executive officer of Sustenir Group, referring to one of two road links to Malaysia. His company, whose backers include sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings Pte., grows vegetables vertically in a warehouse in Singapore's northern suburbs. “We got lucky this time. Next pandemic, who knows?”, All farming in Singapore is urban. One of the most densely populated countries, you can drive across it in about half an hour. At independence in 1965, roughly a quarter of the city-state’s land was devoted to agriculture. Now it's closer to 1%. In the decades between, mile after mile was cleared for high-rise public housing, malls, schools and highways. The population has also swollen to 5.7 million from about 2 million as the republic grew from a backwater to a commercial hub. Gross domestic product per capita is about $65,000, , . For all that success, Singapore is heavily reliant on suppliers overseas for the basics of modern life: food, electricity, water and labor. The government has been working quietly for years to reduce this reliance on neighbors, with whom relations have oscillated. (Indonesia violently opposed the creation of Malaysia in 1963, of which Singapore was briefly part.), The nation’s food goal is nominally modest: , , up from about 10% now. But after years of prioritizing finance, aviation, shipping, petrochemicals and tourism, it's a significant shift of emphasis. “For years, Singapore didn't have to think about providing its own food,” said Farshad Shishehchian, chief executive officer of , , which rears shrimp and fish in vast tanks. “The view was: ‘I have money, I can buy it.’ Now there is a realization, especially after Covid hit, that food is more essential than anything.” , The government’s focus is on eggs, vegetables and marine fare. (For now, those famous chicken rice dishes at the local hawker center will still rely on foreign birds.) With global food demand , by more than half by 2050, the republic needs to put meals on the table while trying to figure out , . Climate change is a particularly grave threat for a small island nation. While Singapore’s drive to secure the food chain preceded the pandemic, the government is now urging producers to “, .”  , From his farm on the northern tip of Singapore — my cell phone told me I was in Malaysia — Shishehchian produces about 120 tons of shrimp a year, a drop in the bucket compared with the roughly 30,000 tons imported. His edge isn't price — shoppers can buy frozen shrimp from Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand for far less. But his inventory is fresh: Every day at about 6 a.m., trucks leave his farm for supermarkets across the city-state. And he’s planning additional facilities, which should boost production to 450 tons of fish for consumption and 320 tons of shrimp a year. Blue Aqua has received $S1.2 million ($900,000) from the Singapore Food Agency since 2019. , Like farmers in Sussex or South Dakota, Singaporeans tending the land and water wish that office dwellers had a better appreciation for what they are up against. Some gently grumble about shortages of labor, and the cost of power and water. There are huge risks, explained Ong Jong Yang, owner of Smith Marine, whose farm rearing seabass, grouper and snapper sits in the narrow waters separating Singapore from Malaysia. These include tidal surges, pollution and changes in water temperature. Toxic algae blooms wiped out 500 tons of fish in scores of coastal fish farms in 2015, , ., Still, thanks to all the buzz, everyone wants to be in agriculture these days, Ong grouses. Many won't make it, despite generous grants from the government, he says from the shed of the outboard motor business he also runs. “Grants can be helpful, but also a burden if people can't get the job done,” said Ong, who received about S$30,000. He didn't want to attract attention by turning one down. “I don't want to look special.” , It's great to have fish protein that can rumble down the Central Expressway to supermarkets. But fish don't just appear from thin-air. The fingerlings from Ong's operation come from Malaysia. Blue Aqua's brooding stock travels all the way from Florida and Hawaii. So what will food self-sufficiency ultimately mean?, The idea isn’t to replace overseas suppliers entirely — that isn’t realistic — but to have a buffer for a couple of months if required, said William Chen, a professor of food science at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In that light, the idea of “30 by 30” —  that is, 30% of nutrition sourced locally by 2030 — is a realistic goal. Chen reckons S$144 million has been allocated by the Singapore Food Agency to related projects, including urban farming, alternative protein and other innovation. , At Sustenir, the vertical farm, going inside the plant requires donning white plastic overalls, hair nets and gloves, not unlike visiting a clean room in a semiconductor factory. As I drove home, buildings that spoke to Singapore's industrial history, emblazoned with signs for 3M Co. and Seagate Technology Plc, whizzed past —  symbols of the era of manufacturing globalization. One of the founding ideas of the country's development was to focus on economies of scale and what it could do best, while outsourcing the rest. Singapore’s big investment targeting modest results turns this model upside down. But that’s all the more reason it can succeed., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Daniel Moss is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian economies. Previously he was executive editor of Bloomberg News for global economics, and has led teams in Asia, Europe and North America., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Daniel Moss. Date Created: 30 Apr 2021, 4:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Privacy Ad Armageddon Familiar Tech Giants Apple [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Apple's Privacy Ad Armageddon Helps Familiar Tech Giants. Short_description: Apple's Privacy Ad Armageddon Helps Familiar Tech Giants. Description: , acknowledged on Thursday that Apple's changes were an important milestone and could significantly affect how they work with advertisers, Apple, which has more than 1 billion active iPhone users and controls more than half of the U.S. smartphone market, believes it is the right time to move forward on an issue that has drawn scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers and consumer advocates. , Google is exploring an alternative for its Android operating system, according to Bloomberg News, which cited people with knowledge of the matter.) Technology companies’ control and use of valuable personal data is a big reason tech giants have been under fire, and Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has acknowledged that the industry hasn’t done enough to respect the privacy of consumers nor been fully transparent on how it exploits their data. And yet, even as this move would seem to be a victory for consumers, the reality is it may increase the dominance of the biggest platforms., Apple may stand to benefit the most. As mobile ads in general become less effective, that may spur developers to charge up front for apps or implement paid subscriptions. Either of those options would increase Apple’s profitability because it takes a commission of as much as 30% for any digital content sold on its platform (its App Store is already the subject of antitrust efforts). The privacy push could also help the company’s device sales, convincing consumers it cares more about protecting their data. It may even help Apple’s own advertising business. The , on Thursday the company plans to add a second advertising slot on its App Store search page later this month just as app makers will be looking for other alternatives., Facebook may turn out to be a winner too, despite its prominent position in the mobile-ad market. Bank of America research estimates Apple’s changes will decrease the social media company’s revenue by only 3% after accounting for the exposure of its ad network business to iOS and likely lower rates for app installation ads. Last month, ,  explained why the development could make the company stronger over time. He said it would compel more businesses to buy advertising and sell goods on their platforms as targeted ads elsewhere become less effective. “I’m confident that we are going to be able to manage through that situation,” he said as a guest on the Clubhouse show “PressClub.” “We’ll be in a good position.” , Zuckerberg is probably right. Digital advertising dollars will have to flow somewhere, and Apple’s new policy does nothing to stop companies from tracking user behavior inside their own apps and ecosystems. So the assets of incumbents Facebook and Google parent Alphabet Inc. — both of which have unrivaled quantities of internal data on what the billions of users on their platforms buy or are interested in — become even more valuable for advertisers. Marketers will now pay more to buy an Instagram shopping ad if they can see it led to a direct sale inside an Instagram e-commerce Shop., A similar dynamic is likely to play out in the world of mobile gaming apps. Big companies — including Candy Crush-maker Activision Blizzard Inc.’s King and Zynga Inc. — will have an easier time pinpointing the big spenders, or “whales,” among their bases of more than 100 million players, putting them at an advantage. But the smaller developers that do not have the luxury of large captive gamer communities will suffer as they have relied on external ad-targeting to find their best customers in the past., There is no doubt Apple’s move will have positive effects on the privacy practices for the entire industry. That should be applauded. But on the inequality front, where a handful of technology behemoths grow more dominant while increasingly stifling the competition — this move may only exacerbate the problem., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tae Kim is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Barron's, following an earlier career as an equity analyst., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tae Kim. Date Created: 23 Apr 2021, 7:46 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to shot Lyft driver Uber [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Uber and Lyft's Drivers Can Call the Shots Now. Short_description: Uber and Lyft's Drivers Can Call the Shots Now. Description: Gig economy workers are in the driver’s seat. With ride-hailing demand outstripping labor supply, a strengthening economy may accomplish what activists have failed to achieve: better pay and benefits., This week, Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. reported earnings that exceeded expectations, citing a rapidly improving market for ride-hailing. Not everything was perfect. While enthusiastic about demand trends, the two companies admitted driver shortages were becoming a serious limit for their businesses. For now, they are resorting to temporary financial incentives while holding out hope that more workers will return after fears about pandemic safety wane. But given the likelihood of a hotter labor market, I don’t believe that will be enough to build the sustainable workforce they need. Instead of using stop-gap measures, the two gig economy leaders should take the opportunity to find a more permanent solution., Wall Street homed in on the driver shortfalls during the two companies’ earnings calls. Analysts repeatedly questioned Uber and Lyft management about their plans to attract more workers and how it would affect the supply-demand imbalance. The good news is demand will likely remain robust as the economies reopen and lockdown restrictions are lifted. Uber cited the continued strength it saw inside cities, while Lyft noted how trips to airports were up more than 65% in April compared with those in January. Regarding the supply of labor, things are more complicated. Following the expiration of unemployment benefits later this year and as more people get vaccinated, the companies expect more drivers will come back. Lyft even said ride-hailing will pull in food-delivery workers because they will crave in-person social interactions with passengers. Really., That seems like a lot of wishful thinking — especially because the hiring market seems to be tightening. Corporations are getting the message and taking action, accordingly, to stay competitive. Last week, , that it would pull forward a pay hike of up to $3 an hour for more than 500,000 employees. And , – including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Walmart Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. – committed to expand hiring of the 70 million to 100 million Americans with criminal records in another sign labor shortages may be changing employment practices., Worker availability is not the only problem for the ride-hailing firms. Uber and Lyft are also still facing the prospect of rising regulatory scrutiny. Last November’s Proposition 22 victory in California, allowing gig-economy workers to remain as contractors, doesn’t mean there won’t be subsequent setbacks. For example, in February Uber , before the U.K. Supreme Court, which mandated some extra worker benefits and forced the company to reclassify the status of its drivers. And on Wednesday, the Labor Department revoked a Trump administration rule that would have made it easier to categorize gig workers as contractors under federal law, a sign that the government under President Joe Biden will do more to push for worker rights and protections., With risks on several fronts, it isn’t surprising investors are getting skittish. Despite their good numbers, Uber and Lyft shares declined following their reports., But the smart move for Uber and Lyft would be to look beyond the short-term volatility and do what’s right for their businesses over the long term. They could get ahead of any government action and fix the labor-shortage problem in one swoop by offering higher wages and enhanced benefits — including health care, disability insurance and paid vacation days. Yes, it will hurt profitability, but it’s the only durable solution. Not only will it create a more loyal and productive workforce, it will let the ride-hailing companies meet higher levels of demand more easily., In the current environment, Uber and Lyft are incentivized to do the right thing. They should step up., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tae Kim is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Barron's, following an earlier career as an equity analyst., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tae Kim. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 7:03 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Autism covid Post child Boost [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Children With Autism Need a Post-Covid Boost. Short_description: Children With Autism Need a Post-Covid Boost. Description: In retrospect, the autism warning signs were all there. A calm, easy baby from birth, around the age of two my middle son appeared to stall. He had a magpie eye for complicated words and entire Peppa Pig episodes, repetitions I now recognize as , . He had no interest in role-playing games and hated getting his hands dirty. Eventually, his hand-and-leg-flapping — so jerky that we thought he was having convulsions — triggered alarm bells, visits to the neurologist and some answers., I wonder today how that might have played out had it been 2020, with no school or playgroup to highlight differences, longer waiting lists for health services in many places, and plenty of Covid-19 restrictions. We might have waited months to be referred to a specialist, and not accessed speech and occupational therapy until even later, delaying support that has been instrumental in his development into a cheery middle-schooler. , Yet that is what has, in all likelihood, happened to tens of thousands of children globally, if not many times that — left behind during a pandemic that has already proven disproportionately challenging for those with special needs. Autistic children and adults, whose broad range of conditions often includes significant social and communication challenges, frequently struggle to read faces and now need to contend with masks. Those who thrive on routine are faced with the greatest upheaval most of us have ever known., We know from ,  on autism spectrum disorder that early support can and does lead to , , given our brains’ plasticity in the early years. We’re better equipped than ever to diagnose it, even in children under two. But that’s only when someone is looking and knows what to look for, especially in less obvious cases. Autism is hard and often costly to diagnose — even outside a public health emergency. Despite advances in genetics, behavioral symptoms are key and those vary widely. A disturbed year of interrupted schooling and child care, when families avoided non-urgent doctors’ visits and had less interaction with others, may have allowed kids to slip by unnoticed and wasted precious time. , Autism isn’t the only condition that has fallen out of sight during the Covid-19 crisis, of course. ,  have been overlooked with dramatic consequences. And not everything has been bad: For some autistic children, virtual learning has been a respite from the stresses of regular school. Behaviors like hand-flapping that release anxiety or excess energy attract fewer stares. Intense interests can be fed., It’s still a problem that should concern us all. Millions of children have already been let down by uneven education provision and access to technology during the pandemic, and this leaves an autistic cohort, already so often failed by society, even further behind. This is especially true in the , , where screening can be erratic at the best of times, and in frequently neglected minority communities. Autistic children become autistic adults, and societies already waste far too much of their talent. Plus, the numbers are not trivial: In the United States, estimates of prevalence have found an average of ,  are identified as having autism., It’s not easy to know today exactly how grave the issue of missed diagnoses is, since they’re uncounted. The past year has accelerated advances in telehealth, with clinicians and practitioners shifting some diagnostics, basic intervention and parent coaching online. This has brought good results, Isabel Smith, clinical psychologist and professor in the department of pediatrics at Canada’s Dalhousie University, pointed out to me. Continued progress should help avoid multiple long hospital assessments, bring down costs, and improve access to care outside cities and developed countries., But, as Smith points out, it’s far harder to use video calls to diagnose patients with less prototypical patterns of behavior — those with significant additional conditions like severe anxiety or ADHD, or more subtle manifestations. Girls tend to do things like role play in a way far closer to neurotypical children. It’s even worse for the very young. Most problematic of all, even very experienced clinicians shifting to online work don’t have a baseline to work from and to compare patients against. Meanwhile, those lucky enough to be seen in person have to be assessed on their ability to interact by someone in protective equipment., The opportunity cost is potentially huge. Intensive interventions based on , , or ABA, have fierce supporters and opponents, and I won’t step into that debate. But basics like speech and language therapy to tackle the fundamentals of turn-taking and conversation, and occupational therapy to help with fine motor skills and coordination, can alone make a huge difference —  especially if done early. Non-verbal children can make advances, too. Autism is a lifelong condition and is never “cured.” Certainly for my son, I would not want to change who he is. But we can move children along a multidimensional spectrum to a place where they can more easily fulfill their potential., We know that very few autistic adults are employed —  ,  in the U.K., a dismal rate even compared to other conditions, and a huge waste of talent. There is no room to allow the pandemic to make that worse by delaying action and support., The next step is to try and catch up with diagnosis and missed treatment. That can mean more screening efforts in the community and stepping in even before an official diagnosis, in some cases educating parents on how best to help their own children. The , pioneered by the University of New Mexico — which relies on experts in a hub working with practitioners to tackle conditions where specialists are in short supply — is one way to help many more families and medical staff. , Covid-19 has left behind many inequities and gaps. This is one we can, and must, close., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Clara Ferreira Marques is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities and environmental, social and governance issues. Previously, she was an associate editor for Reuters Breakingviews, and editor and correspondent for Reuters in Singapore, India, the U.K., Italy and Russia., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Clara Ferreira Marques. Date Created: 07 May 2021, 3:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to good vaccine effective [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: How Good Are Vaccines? Try 99.9999% Effective. Short_description: How Good Are Vaccines? Try 99.9999% Effective. Description: I have a friend who works in the New York City Department of Education’s Covid-19 ,  — tracing cases, informing contacts and so on. She’s really good at her job, which is why I was surprised to hear her make a strange statistical assertion: Since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 95% effective, one in 20 vaccinated people are going to get Covid., That’s wrong, dangerously so. And given that an expert who works in the area every day can make such a mistake, I figure it’s worth some explaining., The intuition is pretty straightforward. You can get Covid only if you’re exposed. At the current low level of cases in New York, and given reasonable precautions, you would expect only a small fraction of the population to be exposed. Hence, if those people are also protected by a vaccine, the actual infection rate should be much lower than one in 20., How much lower? Let’s consider the clinical , that measured the Pfizer vaccine’s efficacy. There were two groups of about 22,000 people each. They were similar in all ways — age, health, location, activities — except that one group received a real vaccine and the other received a fake one. Over time, 162 unvaccinated participants developed at least one symptom and tested positive, while only 8 people in the vaccinated group did. That’s 95% fewer infections, suggesting 95% efficacy. But less than 1 in 2,700 of the vaccinated participants fell ill., In real life, the threat to the vaccinated will depend on the overall prevalence of Covid. In early January, when an , one in 34 people in the U.S. were infected, one could have expected inoculated people to have about a one in 700 chance of contracting Covid. Now that cases are down to less than one in 100, vaccinated people are even safer., Keep in mind, too, that so far we’ve been talking only about infections. Vaccinated people are even less likely to actually die of Covid. And that’s where the evidence is extremely good. According to the , tracking “breakthrough cases” in the general population, only 88 out of 87 million fully vaccinated people in the U.S. had been reported dead as of April 20, and 11 of those were unrelated to Covid. That’s a death rate of less than one in a million., Of course, there are caveats. In the wild, the vaccinated aren’t necessarily comparable to the unvaccinated. They might be more careful types generally, which would contribute to their lower infection rates. Or they might take greater risks on the assumption that they’re protected. Deaths might be undercounted, and in any case will increase over time as more fully vaccinated people get exposed. And even an excellent vaccine can’t prevent cases like the , in Kentucky, where a nursing home worker refused inoculation and caused a deadly outbreak., Still, the Covid-19 vaccines are a miracle of science. It’s enough to make me want to require vaccines next school year for all eligible students and staff, even if it puts my good friend out of a job., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Cathy O’Neil is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a mathematician who has worked as a professor, hedge-fund analyst and data scientist. She founded ORCAA, an algorithmic auditing company, and is the author of “Weapons of Math Destruction.”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Cathy O'Neil. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 3:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to American Tourists Spain Greece Italy [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: American Tourists Can’t Save Greece, Spain and Italy. Short_description: American Tourists Can’t Save Greece, Spain and Italy. Description: It’s the American Dream for Europe’s troubled tourism sector. On Sunday European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the New York Times that fully vaccinated American tourists , this summer., But the U.S. accounts for a tiny proportion of travelers to tourist-dependent countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. To prevent another lost holiday season for these nations, a full reopening of intra-European travel is needed. And that still looks some ways off., The prospect of U.S tourists coming to Europe is certainly a step in the right direction. Americans have been eager to travel again, and domestic summer rentals have been , . Some people might now be tempted to swap their Cape Cod getaway for a trip to Capri. American travelers would be a boon to the continent’s local economies and to international hotel groups, such as Marriott International Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Plc and Accor SA., A restoration of transatlantic flying would also help airlines like Virgin Atlantic and British Airways (part of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA). Not only does this account for a large chunk of legacy carriers’ capacity, but flights between Europe and North America are also very profitable. The plunge in long-haul flying is one reason why shares of IAG, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Air France-KLM have lagged behind those of low-cost short-hop specialists like Ryanair Holdings Plc., And yet, it’s not clear how many Americans will actually want, or indeed be able, to travel to Europe. Last week, the U.S. State Department issued “Do Not Travel” advisories for about 80% of the world’s nations, including many in Europe., The biggest problem for the bloc, however, is that the majority of tourists to France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain during their peak summer seasons come from other western European countries, according to Richard Clarke, an analyst at Bernstein. Americans are more likely to book vacations to closer Caribbean resorts than to Mediterranean destinations., For European tourism to truly recover, restrictions need to be lifted in the countries that are big exporters of summer sun-seekers, such as Britain and Germany., The U.K. has announced a traffic-light system, with Brits able to travel to “green” countries without the need to quarantine upon their return. Arrivals from higher-risk areas designated “amber” and “red” will be subject to more stringent restrictions. The government is expected to announce further details next week, and this may open up international travel from May 17. But the details will matter: Countries on the amber list would still be inconvenient and expensive for many families, as arrivals would have to quarantine for 10 days and take multiple Covid tests., Germany has no outright travel ban, but the situation isn’t clear cut either. For example, although Germans can still visit the island of Mallorca, they are discouraged from holidaying in Greece. Consequently, some countries are taking matters into their own hands. Greece will fully open up to tourism for those who have been vaccinated, or have recently tested negative for the virus, from the middle of May., Of course, this tentative unlocking could be undone by new Covid variants and measures to prevent new waves of infections from countries such as India. U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month raised the possibility of Brits needing a third dose of vaccines, to protect against new strains, before being able to travel internationally. Such a plan would stop the rapidly approaching travel season in its tracks., It may be a rare glimmer of hope, but an American vacation invasion won’t be enough to save the European summer., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the consumer and retail industries. She previously worked at the Financial Times., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Andrea Felsted. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 11:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Economic Recovery Easy [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: The Easy Part of the Economic Recovery Is Behind Us. Short_description: The Easy Part of the Economic Recovery Is Behind Us. Description: , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Conor Sen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and the founder of Peachtree Creek Investments. He's been a contributor to the Atlantic and Business Insider and resides in Atlanta. , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Conor Sen. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 4:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to California Donor Law Supreme Court Wary [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Supreme Court Should Be Wary of California Donor Law. Short_description: Supreme Court Should Be Wary of California Donor Law. Description: On Monday, the Supreme Court grappled with a genuinely tough First Amendment issue: Should California be able to make charities that speak on matters of public concern disclose to the state the names of their big donors? The issue reveals something about the way that conservatives and liberals currently differ on free speech issues., On the one hand, states might need the information to combat fraud. Moreover, California says that it will keep the information confidential. The IRS already gets this information from tax-exempt charities, and has so far done a good job of protecting it., On the other hand, the Supreme Court has long held that the names of members of civic organizations like the NAACP are confidential, protected by the freedom of association. It isn’t implausible to think that if the justices uphold the California law, other states might pass laws requiring that donors be made fully public., When the justices were deciding whether to hear the case, Trump’s Department of Justice filed a friend of the court brief saying it thought the law was unconstitutional. This matched the instinct of most legal conservatives, who today tend to support a First Amendment that is highly protective of absolute free speech, including protection of anonymity., The Biden Department of Justice reconsidered the issue and took a different stance. In essence, it has , that the justices split the baby in two. First, its brief says that because the information won’t be publicly disclosed, the court should evaluate the state’s need less exactingly than it would if the names were being given to the public. If judged by that easier standard (in legal jargon, “exacting scrutiny” instead of the more rigorous “strict scrutiny”), the California law has some chance of being upheld., Second, the Biden Justice Department brief goes on to say that the court should send the case back to the federal appeals court to determine how much risk there is that the California law might deter donors from giving money to charities. This leaves open the possibility that the law could still be struck down., Behind this complex argument is the Biden administration’s liberal worry that if the court were to strike down the California law, the decision might call into question the law that commands disclosure of political donations to candidates., That’s an understandable worry. But it gets the Biden brief into some deep and dangerous waters., The Biden administration’s brief insists that there is a difference between a law that burdens free association directly, which should get the highest level of scrutiny, and a law that only indirectly burdens that association, which should be evaluated more deferentially.  , What’s troubling about this distinction is that it weakens the principle of free association established by the Supreme Court in the landmark 1958 case of , . In that case, the court held that Alabama could not require the organization to tell the state’s attorney general who its members were., Back in the 1950s, the justices didn’t always use the same terms of art that they do today to describe how closely they were evaluating a law. The court didn’t use the words “exacting scrutiny” or “strict scrutiny.” But it did say that Alabama’s reason for demanding the membership list had to be “compelling” — language that prefigures the strict scrutiny test, not the less-rigorous exacting scrutiny test., NAACP v. Alabama was a liberal decision, intended to protect civil rights activists from hostile retaliation at the height of White southern resistance to desegregation. And for decades, liberals believed that preserving the privacy of members of civic organizations was crucial for protecting free association. Donations to political candidates were a different matter, connected to avoiding corruption in elections., In recent years, however, liberals have started worrying more about how wealthy conservative donors are affecting public life — not only in elections, but in other contexts like those covered by the California law. That’s led to a liberal rethinking of the right to associational privacy., The concern is certainly legitimate. But liberals should not forget that conservatives can still use disclosure of donations or membership lists to target liberals. Imagine that the California law was being proposed or implemented by conservatives. Then liberals would rightly be worried that donors to Black Lives Matter or to trans rights groups would have to be disclosed to the states., Perhaps the California law can be distinguished from the Alabama law on the ground that it won’t necessarily lead to retaliation against donors. Regardless, the justices should be careful not to weaken the principle of free association — including organizations’ right to keep their membership lists private., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and host of the podcast “Deep Background.” He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. His books include “The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President.” , ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Noah Feldman. Date Created: 27 Apr 2021, 12:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to conundrum Empire holiday Kominers [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Kominers’s Conundrums: The Empire Strikes Back on a Holiday. Short_description: Kominers’s Conundrums: The Empire Strikes Back on a Holiday. Description: This Tuesday — May 4 — we celebrate , (May the “Fourth” be with you)! But this year, there’s trouble brewing: Conundrums intelligence has discovered that the Galactic Empire is working on a , Death Star., A rebel agent codenamed “Zigzag” discovered this while embedded inside the Empire’s Office of Major Initiatives. He managed to get a copy of the plans, which he’s smuggled to our non-canonical outpost in a galaxy far, far, away with the help of trading droid BL00M-Bg. These documents reveal that like its predecessors, the new Death Star has a critical weakness. This time, though, it’s not the usual ,  — the Empire does learn from its mistakes, eventually., Here’s the transmission. Can you figure out what the new Death Star’s weak point is? That’s this week’s answer — and the fate of the galaxy depends on it!, ++++++++++++++++++++ BL00M-Bg Terminal Readout ++++++++++++++++++++, FROM: SOPLRNYE , SUBJECT: Death Star weak point, This is the part of the Death Star plans that record where the fatal design flaw is., But it’s encoded with the new Empire’s “combination-lock” cryptosystem, which I haven’t been able to crack., The text is here:, Z CYZY ZYZZ ZYYZ ZZ ZYZYP Y ZZYZ UCZ YZY ZYZZ FYY YYZ ZYYZ ZYYZ UZYZ ZYYY YYYY YY YC CYYY YZGC ZZ YZ UYYUC YYZ YYZ ZZ PYZ YYYG Z YZY ZYZZU ZYZ Z YZY ZYZZ YYYU ZZ YZ PUCY ZZF ZU UUYZY ZYZZ YZ Z FYYYY YYYZ Z YZY ZYZZ ZYZY FYZ GYYYZ Y YYZF UGZYZYP ZY ZY ZYYC CFUZYZY YZZZ ZU YZY ZYZZ ZYZYC ZZ YZ Y ZZGG YZ ZZZ UCZZ Z PYZY GUZYZZ YZFBF YYY ZZZ ZZZU ZYZY FCYYY ZZYZ YZYYB ZZ Z YZY ZYZZ YZB UYYY ZZYC Y GBZZYYCU YYYY UZZZ YZYU YZZY YZP Z YZY GUUZYZZCU ZZYZ BZ YZYY UUZZ YZ CZZ BCYZGU YYYYC ZZ YZ Z ZYZP UYZ YYY YZ YYYY ZYUP ZZ UYZ BFYZYYU YZYYG FZZY UPZZ CYZ YZZY ZZZ ZZ ZZY YYYY YYYC PZ ZZ YZ YZ, And the four-step decryption instructions are as follows — but unfortunately all the instructions after the first one seem to be encrypted as well., +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++, Using the , at , , we noticed that if you apply the first instruction to the text of the second, you get: “DROP LETTERS IN NAME OF BOUNTY HUNTER WHO CAPTURED HAN SOLO. THEN DECRYPT WITH MORSE CODE; X MARKS THE DOT.”, But we’re not sure what to do with that — although we did find a , on the same website., Once you’ve figured out the new Death Star’s Achilles’ heel, there’s one more puzzle you can solve: Can you identify agent Zigzag’s secret identity?, If you manage to stop this dire threat in time for the ,  — or if you even make partial progress — please , at ,  before midnight New York time on Thursday, May 6., If you get stuck, there’ll be hints announced ,  and in , . To be counted in the solver list, please include your name with your answer. And don’t forget to ,  for our Conundrums email list!, “2001 , helicopter war movie reimagined as set in Australia,” for example, referred to “Black Hawk Down , .”, Meanwhile, “Benedict Cumberbatch plays Bletchley Park code-breaker who solves enigmas with a look of serious determination” referred to “The Imitation Game , .”, The full set was as follows:, Stringing together the first letters in each of the tack-ons (indicated in bold above) spelled out the name of “an award category we’d like to see the Oscars add:” BEST PUZZLE FILM., solved first, for the fourth week in a row; ,  and , tied for second;,  and up next were , ,, ,, ,, (FiveThirtyEight’s , , who submitted an emoji solution),, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, , , ,, and, . The other 23 solvers were, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ,, ,, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, ;, and, . (Asterisks denote solvers who nominated category winners.) And thanks especially to , for test-solving!, And who should win the Oscar for Best Puzzle Film? , We really enjoyed all your nominees, including puzzler classics like “, ” and “, ” and a few we weren’t aware of, such as “, ,”  “, ,” and “, ” (first nominated by , , , , , , ,  and , , respectively). “, ” and “, ” (first nominated by , and , ) were fan favorites, with more than four nominations each. , pointed out that there is literally a film called “, ”; , , meanwhile, reminded us about an awesome , that was used to promote “, .” , But after careful deliberation (and a bit of re-watching), the Conundrums Academy (aka , and yours truly) chose to award the title jointly to “, ,” “, ” and “, ” (first nominated by , , , and , ). And at Conundrums, Nicolas Cage is always in season (see ,  ,  for a reminder of why), so we’re also giving a special shoutout to “, ” (first nominated by , )., AI (sort of) wins its first , ; , ; , ; and all the memes in “, .” , (hat tip: , ); the , ; , (hat tip: , ); and making money off , (also hat tip: , ). Plus inquiring minds want to know: How well does Magnus Carlsen , (hat tip: , )?, We’re counting “Starkiller Base” as a third Death Star because – serious talk here – “The Force Awakens” and "A New Hope" are pretty much the same movie. , Why do they even write this stuff down? , I would watch that. , Their submissions were time-stamped within seconds of each other, which is below the margin of error of our processing system. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Scott Duke Kominers is the MBA Class of 1960 Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Department of Economics. Previously, he was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and the inaugural research scholar at the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Scott Duke Kominers. Date Created: 02 May 2021, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to global Strategy Global TSMC [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: TSMC's Global-Not-Global Strategy Must End. Short_description: TSMC's Global-Not-Global Strategy Must End. Description: Explore within a 100-mile radius of central Taiwan and you’ll stumble across some of world’s most majestic mountains, breathtaking lakes and awe-inspiring valleys. You’ll also find 95% of the world’s most-advanced chipmaking., While lacking the same postcard views as Jade Mountain or Sun-Moon Lake, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is still a treasure. The company went from being the upstart of a government industrial think tank to the most crucial chip supplier in the world. But even as it’s grown into a $540 billion company, management has stubbornly kept all state-of-the-art manufacturing capacity at just three locations., That needs to change. The time is over when it made sense to put all of TSMC’s fabs within an easy two-hour high-speed rail journey, allowing engineers to visit multiple sites in a day. The world and the electronics industry have evolved, and this chip giant is failing to keep up. Western allies are increasingly wary of having so much of their supply chains outside their control. Even temporary disruptions, such as a recent shortage of automotive chips, have world leaders talking about national security., TSMC is the only company that makes the leading-edge circuits required by the likes of Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. It controls more than half the made-to-order chip foundry market and has a lock on top-end technologies used in components for smartphones, servers, games consoles, cellphone base stations and even weapons systems. Rivals are as much as a decade behind , . But that edge could be quickly eroded by political concerns if governments insist that components be sourced locally and TSMC lacks the factories to do so, losing orders to competitors with fabs on the ground., The numbers, belie the absurdity of this situation., More than 90% of TSMC’s revenue comes from clients that are based outside of Taiwan. Yet more than 94% of production capacity is within that 100-mile radius. TSMC makes all its best stuff at just this, handful of factories. That wasn’t a problem two decades ago, when more chipmakers did their own manufacturing. But now that fewer companies have fabs, and most rely on TSMC, the excessive concentration is no longer sustainable., You’d be hard-pressed to find any company in any industry that operates at such a global scale at this level of geographic concentration. Even Foxconn Technology Group, another Taiwan behemoth that gets half its revenue from Apple, has facilities on all four corners of the planet., What makes matters worse is management’s refusal to see the folly of maintaining this strategy or undertake to change it at a time when international relations , . , “Our center of R&D and majority of production lines will continue to be located in Taiwan,” Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei told investors April 15. Beyond plans for a small factory in Arizona, “We currently have no further fab expansion plans in other areas such as Europe, but we do, not rule out any possibility.”, Founder Morris Chang, known as the godfather of Taiwan’s chip industry, followed up a week later by pouring cold water on the notion of the United States as a base for semiconductor manufacturing. Speaking at a forum in Taipei, Chang talked up Taiwan’s engineering talent, convenient transport links and local management as reasons why the foundry business can only possibly succeed there. The U.S. simply lacks the workforce and interest to develop advanced manufacturing, , , and its people prefer instead to focus on venture capital or marketing., His comments about the lack of American talent for chip manufacturing are incongruous. The U.S. produces managers and engineers with the requisite skills and education, plenty of whom work for TSMC, including Wei. Furthermore, Chang and his successor as chairman, Mark Liu, are both U.S. citizens and graduates of universities there., Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is betting that Chang is wrong. With $20 billion earmarked for expansion over the next few years, the California-based chipmaker appears confident it can find the local talent needed to run the high-end fabs that will rival TSMC., In reality, the Taiwan company is facing a sort of innovator’s dilemma — holding steadfast to a business model that worked for three decades, and refusing to recognize a changing landscape that may render the old ways redundant. , TSMC needs to recognize that there are significant economic and political forces pushing to have more semiconductors manufactured in Western nations. Taking over from Donald Trump, President Joe Biden is eager to return the U.S. to its former chip glory and is seeking $37 billion from legislators to help fund that effort. Among the administration’s concerns is the possibility that China will attack Taiwan and put the supply of chips at risk., Intel’s Gelsinger has tapped, into the zeitgeist and played up the fear of a supply chain dependent on Asia — despite most nations being steadfast American allies — to push for greater government investment in the U.S. chip sector. This would likely lead to subsidies for Intel., European leaders are also putting on pressure. In January, Germany’s economy minister, Peter Altmaier, weighed in on the shortage of automotive chips by appealing directly to Taiwan’s government. Last week, European Commissioner Thierry Breton met with TSMC executives and followed up ,  that implied the E.U. would form some kind of partnership to bring the Taiwanese company to its shores., A company official noted that the meeting showed commitment to Europe and desire to support customers, but stopped well short of pledging, to actually open a factory there. , A European fab would be logical. The company has a smattering of clients in the region, but more importantly, it’s the home base of some of TSMC’s most important suppliers, including Dutch equipment maker ASML., Europe is already considering plans to go it alone on an advanced facility anyway, one which my colleague , would be wildly misplaced. Yet if the E.U. is willing to write 30 billion euro ($36 billion) checks to buy its way back into the chip race, TSMC may as well jump aboard and offer to do it. , In the U.S., the company will need to do more than open a token factory in Arizona by 2024. That fab will have a monthly capacity of 20,000 wafers, equivalent to what's currently available from TSMC’s largest overseas plant — in Nanjing, China — representing a paltry 1.9% of the firm’s current global capacity., An additional five Arizona fabs may be in the works, Reuters reported this week., This was always likely, but the company has yet to elucidate any plans., Bluntly, management is happy and comfortable in Taiwan, where talent is plentiful and the supply chain mature. Moving a significant proportion of capacity overseas would be difficult. But surviving in a world that’s increasingly scared of geographic risk will be even more challenging., It’s time now for TSMC to recognize this new world order, and commit publicly to being a part of it., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Tim Culpan. Date Created: 06 May 2021, 3:30 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to taper modest tantrum [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: A 'Very Modest' Taper Is Undeserving of a Tantrum. Short_description: A 'Very Modest' Taper Is Undeserving of a Tantrum. Description: Rapid economic growth need not lead to significant increases in interest rates or meaningfully faster inflation. Muscular recoveries from last year's deep slump imply neither the imminent end of prolonged monetary easing nor any marked slowdown in the printing presses. , Some folks are clearly having trouble digesting this break with orthodoxy. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's relatively anodyne comment about the ,  from a pre-recorded interview with the Atlantic rippled through financial markets Tuesday. Yellen later clarified that she wasn't predicting or recommending that the Federal Reserve pull any stimulus. I believe her: It's unlikely that someone so well versed in Washington’s ways would talk out of turn. Fed officials zealously guard their independence, as Yellen did when she was Fed chair from 2014 to 2018. , Investors zeroed in on Yellen’s line that rates may have to rise “somewhat” to ensure the economy doesn't overheat. More telling, however, was her statement that any increases could be “very modest.” Those words point to the extremely incremental nature of what might transpire in bond yields or the Fed's benchmark rate. If anything happens at all. Central banks in most countries have practically taken to hiring planes towing banners proclaiming that rate hikes aren’t worth fretting about. , Even if the International Monetary Fund projects the global economy will , , the most since at least 1980, inflation is a long way from being problematic. Policy makers worry much more about deep scars from last year's disaster. They are very keen to talk about jobs, jobs, jobs. Wage rises are good. There should be more of them. Inflation is quiescent.  , At least two developments in Asia this week underscore the new paradigm. The Reserve Bank of Australia, and forecast a nice decline in unemployment. The policy implications? Far from signaling a peeling back of accommodation, the RBA intimated that quantitative easing is likely to be extended. Conditions warranting an increase in rates are unlikely until 2024 at the earliest. Inflation is nowhere near the bank's 2% to 3% target. “The board places a high priority on a return to full employment,” Governor Philip Lowe said in a statement., In South Korea, inflation picked up to the, in April, but hardly anyone batted an eyelid. Consumer prices rose 2.3% from a year earlier, the government reported Tuesday, exceeding the Bank of Korea's 2% target. The central bank has said it’s prepared to look beyond numbers that seem big relative to last year’s collapse in activity. Governor Lee Ju-yeol said last month that inflation will moderate after fluctuating around 2% this quarter., One nation that has begun to taper is Canada. Last month, the central bank , and brought forward its estimate for the timing of rate increases to late next year. While this initially caused a bit of a stir, the impact on stimulus will be “incremental,” the Bank of Canada said. , If this is what hawkishness looks like these days, doves should embrace it. Yellen, very modestly, would have to agree., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Daniel Moss is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian economies. Previously he was executive editor of Bloomberg News for global economics, and has led teams in Asia, Europe and North America., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Daniel Moss. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 11:12 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Energy Crisis Puts Net Zero trouble Britain [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Britain’s Energy Crisis Puts Net Zero In Trouble. Short_description: Britain’s Energy Crisis Puts Net Zero In Trouble. Description: , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Therese Raphael. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 2:25 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to French Billionaire Establishment Hedge Fund [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: A Hedge Fund Knocks Back the French Billionaire Establishment. Short_description: A Hedge Fund Knocks Back the French Billionaire Establishment. Description: A hedge fund challenging the French establishment for control of Lagardere SCA has notched up a victory with the help of billionaire investor Vincent Bollore. But the fight over the media and retail company is far from over, even if Chief Executive Officer Arnaud Lagardere now faces an uphill battle to prevent a breakup of the company that bears his name., Vivendi SA, a French media group controlled by Bollore, teamed up with the hedge fund Amber Capital U.K. LLP last year to push for governance changes at Lagardere, which Arnaud controls through an antiquated partnership structure despite owning just 7% of the stock. Lagardere roped in former President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as the billionaires Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere and Bernard Arnault to fend off the challenge., On Tuesday, Lagardere agreed to significant concessions, abandoning the partnership arrangement, known as a “commandite,” in return for a six-year contract as chairman and a doubling of his stake. Financially, he’s made a shrewd choice. Under the commandite structure, his management company received sizable consulting fees that Amber heavily criticized. He’s exchanging that for greater exposure to Lagardere SCA’s financial success — if he can resurrect its fortunes, he benefits more; and if he fails, he’ll receive more proceeds from any asset sales., But without the protection of the commandite, Lagardere must work harder to convince shareholders that he can make the most of the company’s assets. Vivendi is eyeing some of its businesses such as the Europe 1 radio station and Hachette publishing house, while Arnault is reportedly interested in Paris Match magazine and the weekly newspaper Journal du Dimanche. Major asset sales require approval from seven of Lagardere’s 11-person board, as does replacing the chairman or CEO., Key to the survival of both Lagardere and the integrity of the company founded by his father will be the extent to which the board members are willing to protect the interests of all shareholders — i.e., the extent to which they are truly independent. Vivendi and Arnaud will nominate three board members apiece, of which two each must be independent. Another three will be nominated by Amber, Arnault and the Qatari sovereign wealth fund respectively, with a further two going to employee representatives., Agreeing to these concessions seems to suggest that Lagardere wasn’t totally confident he’d retain control of the board at the upcoming annual shareholder meeting. He’s negotiated some protection, but he’s more vulnerable than before., If he can ride the post-lockdown recovery to resurrect the fortunes of the company, which includes a significant duty-free retail business, then in two or three years’ time there’ll be little reason for the board to push him out or approve asset sales. If he fails, however, then it’s their duty to find other ways to maximize value for the company’s investors, which may mean divestments and, Lagardere’s history at the helm does not augur well. The company has significantly underperformed both the French market and European media stocks since he took over in 2003. Vivendi and Amber may be gambling on his inability to buck that trend in order to achieve their goals, whether that be his ouster or their acquiring prize assets. Bollore is a master of playing the strategic long game., While Lagardere’s concessions may look like a truce, the suspension of hostilities is only temporary., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe's technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other technology companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Alex Webb. Date Created: 28 Apr 2021, 5:56 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Biggest Rival Boris Johnson blow [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Boris Johnson's Biggest Rival Can't Land a Blow. Short_description: Boris Johnson's Biggest Rival Can't Land a Blow. Description: Keir Starmer, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, was more than a breath of fresh air when he took over from Jeremy Corbyn after the 2019 general election. Boris Johnson’s Tories had just trounced the hard-left Corbyn’s party, seizing seats in former Labour strongholds in northern England — so something had to change. , Thursday’s local, regional and national elections will be the first indication of how far Starmer still has to travel if he wants to replace Boris Johnson. The omens don’t look good., In a little more than a year since he took over, the former public prosecutor has scored regular debating hits against Prime Minister Johnson in Parliament and taken an unambiguous line against , . He’s even urged the government not to ruin the pandemic recovery with tax hikes, a very different fiscal stance to the tax-happy Corbynites., But ,  suggests none of this will deliver the gains Labour needs. The popularity Starmer built up toward the end of last year waned as the Johnson government’s vaccine rollout picked up steam. Pollsters have suggested Labour is even , to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, neither of which has any chance of doing much governing., If polls prove accurate and the party loses the parliamentary election in traditionally , , comes last in Scotland behind the Tories and , in the Midlands and the North, people will ask whether soft-left Starmer really is a better bet than socialist Corbyn — electorally, at least., In fairness, Labour’s problems predate Starmer. Hartlepool, a strong pro-Brexit seat, would have gone to the Tories in the last election except that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party divided the leave vote, allowing Labour to cling on., Scotland is equally painful. Starmer is named after Keir Hardie, a Labour founding father who hailed from north of the border, and yet his party has barely registered a pulse in Scotland since 2016 and has been in decline since the Scottish National Party came to the fore. The recent appointment of a competent new Scottish Labour leader, , , came too late to make much of a difference to this election., Starmer has two disadvantages in trying to turn things around. The first is , . His lawyerly demeanor may one day prove the antidote to Johnson’s bluster that the public wants. But regardless of his many failings the prime minister is one of the towering personalities of modern British politics., Voters will need to tire of Johnson’s antics, the chaos at Downing Street, his , and , . They’d have to grow less tolerant of a Conservative Party that’s been in power for more than a decade and want a change. So far they’re still rewarding the prime minister for delivering Brexit and Covid vaccinations.  , Starmer’s second big problem is , Cleaning house from the Corbynite era consumed much of his first year in office. He’s now under pressure from the left to stay true to statist Labour values and from his party’s moderates to prove he can win back those working class voters who defected to Johnson after the Brexit vote. Both sides will want to see evidence that he can draw blood against the Tories soon., The more Starmer moves his party off the turf occupied by Corbyn, the more he’s faced with a question he hasn’t yet answered: What , the Labour Party under his leadership? Understandably he doesn’t want to be too specific about policies with a general election still years away, but voters are struggling to know what he stands for. This crisis in how social-democratic parties define themselves is by no means unique to Britain. , It’s hard, too, when the Conservatives are proving adept at presenting themselves as the new champions of the working class. The reality is that the center of British politics has shifted left on economics, with the Tories borrowing Labour policies where needed. Since the Conservatives have a better reputation for economic management, Johnson can occupy that ground more credibly for now. , The global pandemic has also let the prime minister use the state to ease the lives of citizens, something that would have been opposed more vigorously by traditional free-market Tories during normal times. His government, having failed egregiously to contain the pandemic last year, has spent heavily on job furlough and other support programs., Right now people are more likely to reward the Conservative administration for the vaccination program — would a Labour government have tapped a , to design it? — than punish it for the “, ” scandal or the serious but inscrutable problems of , and its high-profile lobbyists., Starmer’s best hope is to keep chipping away on those issues of propriety and cronyism and prepare himself for the moment when normal politics resumes and some of his blows actually land. For that, he could also use a stronger top team. Few of his shadow cabinet are recognizable to voters, which doesn’t help when you’re trying to sell them as a government in waiting., His is arguably the toughest job in British politics. The country needs a sharp opposition to hold the government to account, now more than ever given the Greensill revelations and Johnson’s messy way of operating. Starmer has done a pretty decent job of that. But it’s not enough. , This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Therese Raphael. Date Created: 05 May 2021, 12:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Firearm Control Guns [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: I Grew Up on Guns. Now I've Learned to Love Firearm Control.. Short_description: I Grew Up on Guns. Now I've Learned to Love Firearm Control.. Description: One evening in 2008, I attended a Republican rally in Kansas, with an address by vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Because I am very tall and somehow visibly un-American, I was quizzed by neighbors in the crowd. One of them asked me defiantly, though not offensively: “What do people like you not like about people like us? Is it that we’re Christians? Is it that we’re White? Is it that we do guns?”, I answered cautiously. But I felt able to say plenty about guns, which have been big in my life — too big, I fear. My father would have qualified as a gun nut, even by National Rifle Association standards. He not only owned sporting weapons, but also muzzle-loading flintlocks together with pistols of every kind, dating from several centuries., He brought keepsakes back from World War II — Luger, Mauser and Radom semi-automatics, together with a Schmeisser submachine gun. In my childhood in the 1950s, many British as well as American homes boasted such lethal souvenirs which, curiously enough, were seldom employed in crime., When my parents were absent, which was quite often, I loved to play with father’s toys. My sister’s garden seat still shows the holes where, aged 11, I emptied a 9-millimeter magazine into it. Our local village regarded the Hastings family as unreliable even before word got around of my unauthorized excesses with weapons. Local folklore held that I was “inadequately supervised.” Which was true., I recite this personal history before considering the latest appalling U.S. massacres in Atlanta, Colorado, Indianapolis and elsewhere. It is intended to dispel the common response of American enthusiasts to the rest of the world’s horror: “Foreigners don’t understand guns.” There was a time when I understood little else: I could strip and reassemble all manner of firearms with far more dexterity than I displayed with a cricket bat., Yet to me today, as to hundreds of millions of others, it seems a kind of madness that a civilized society should suppose that it is acceptable, or even sane, to permit ordinary citizens to possess weapons that have no sporting application, but are purpose-built to kill people., Britain drastically curbed possession of such guns in the later 20th century, even though our gun crime was relatively very low. In 1966, three policemen were murdered in London’s Shepherd’s Bush by a criminal using an illegally owned revolver. This prompted moves, matched elsewhere in Europe, to reduce the number of weapons in circulation., A succession of statutory amnesties permitted people to surrender unauthorized guns, notably war souvenirs, at police statiowithout penalty. This prompted thousands of people, including my father, to hand in their lethal playthings. Some big-thinkers produced bazookas and machine guns., Although mass shootings are mercifully rare in Britain, each such horror that has taken place — notably at Hungerford in 1987, when 17 people including the killer perished, then at Dunblane in Scotland in 1996, when 16 schoolchildren and a teacher were shot — prompted , on gun ownership. Today, private citizens in general are permitted to hold only sporting shotguns firing not more than three cartridges without reloading, and non-repeating rifles., In Australia, after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in which a gunman armed with two semi-automatic rifles killed 35 people, the Australian government committed several hundred million dollars to a buyback of privately held weapons, removing at least 640,000 from circulation. , were also drastically tightened. Opinion polls show steady and overwhelming Australian public support for such curbs., In Britain, I was among those who objected on libertarian grounds when, after the Dunblane killings, private ownership of handguns was all but prohibited. The measure seemed disproportionate, especially when our target-pistol shooters were , ., I have since changed my mind. I have come to believe that widespread firearms ownership is a pollutant; that we are a better, much safer society without handguns. Some drug gangs in Britain are illegally armed, but they use their weapons almost exclusively to kill each other. In the year ending in March 2019, only , were fatally injured in U.K. gun crimes. , My resistance to private ownership of military weapons is strengthened by close acquaintance with them. I once won a prize as a member of a British Parachute Regiment team, shooting with automatic rifle, submachine gun and light-machine gun. I know how terrifyingly easy it is for a man or woman — though it is always men — with a gun in their hands to touch a trigger and broadcast devastation and death., I have experienced the thrill that many adolescents get from firing weapons on what Vietnam grunts used to call “rock ‘n’ roll” — full automatic — with fragments flying off everything in the line of fire, and empty cases clattering out of the breech., The argument is advanced by U.S. apologists for a weapons free-for-all: “Guns don’t kill. People do.”, In truth, everyone familiar with firearms knows how much possession of a gun facilitates homicide — and suicide, which accounted for , of last year’s 43,000 U.S. firearms deaths. It requires absurdly little physical effort, or even psychological commitment, to point and fire a gun., No other nation in the world comes near the U.S. in its scale of gun ownership: 400 million weapons, counting legal and illicit, according to the , ; against 16 million in Germany, 13 million in France and perhaps around 3 million in the U.K. According to the United Nations, Americans own 46% of all the , in private hands., U.S. gun sales rose by 40% in 2020, as the pandemic intensified nameless, undefined fears. Many of these gun owners cannot credibly explain what threat their personal arms are supposed to defend against. It would be hard to shoot a virus, for instance. People want the weapons anyway, however, and the gun industry is grateful., The triumph of the National Rifle Association’s decades of political lobbying — the group reportedly , $5 million before January’s Georgia Senate runoff elections alone — is to make weapon ownership seem an inherent part of American identity, especially in the eyes of Republicans and people living in the country., Yet this is a fiction. A spate of , has shown that the association of right-wing patriotism with gun ownership is a recent construct. It had its origins in the 1960s, and gained more traction in the era of Ronald Reagan Republicanism, nurturing a historical myth of virtuous, armed white cowboys settling scores with Native Americans, Mexicans, rustlers and just about everyone else. , Possessing an automatic weapon makes some people walk taller. They believe that it offers empowerment, in an age when some humble citizens cry out for means to resist “them” — forces of authority and racial alienation, which rouse their resentment and fear., In Britain, by contrast, most of my fellow citizens flinch from guns. Shooting councils and countryside bodies, on several of which I have served, often debate this issue. I have come to believe that my compatriots’ wariness, irritating though it can be for us bird shooters, is a fault on the right side., Another distinction between the U.S. and everywhere else is that the overwhelming majority of our arms are pellet shotguns, of relatively low lethality. I own five such weapons, and one rifle. When I renew my licenses — every five years — I must produce evidence that I have legitimate access to appropriate places to shoot; a certificate from my doctor, testifying to my physical and psychological fitness; and supporting character references from two respectable citizens who know me well., I accept such tough licensing conditions — as do Canadians, for instance — as a price gun owners must expect to pay for having tools in our homes that endow us with the power to kill. Moreover, British law rejects any right for citizens to shoot to defend property. Far from keeping a gun handy under my bed, all my weapons must be held in locked cabinets, subject to inspection by the police. If my wife and I found ourselves faced with intruders, I would not think of reaching for one of my guns: Such a response would probably prompt my indictment, for using a firearm with intent to endanger life., Everybody who studies U.S. experience knows that legally held firearms are almost never successfully used by civilians, either to prevent a crime or to frustrate a mass shooting. The more extreme U.S. gun lobbyists insist that the best response to gun massacres is to arm more people, including , , to defend themselves. There is no shred of evidence, nor credible speculation, to justify such a claim., Most people seem to accept the enthusiasm of rural Americans for owning sporting guns as an assertion of the frontier spirit, which is in some measure shared by foreign sportsmen like me. Yet assault rifles, such as so many self-proclaimed militiamen now boast, have no application for practicing target skills or killing deer., What makes such guns unique is that they have no benign application whatsoever, nor relevance to a civilized society, save in the hands of good soldiers or the right kind of police officers. Their sole application is to kill, to destroy. It has taken me most of a lifetime fully to acknowledge this., The U.S. Congress is the only major national legislature in the world that is willing to , citizens’ claims that ownership of an AR-15, or attending school or work with a concealed handgun, represents a constitutional right. The , , a firearms lobby, recently denounced President Joe Biden’s proposal for new restrictions as signifying that he has “declared war on tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners.”, Whatever fine words echo forth from Democrats, we know that gun control will not happen as long as the Republican Party is inseparably entwined with the gun lobby, lavishly funded by the gun industry., I have often expressed my faith in the U.S. and its powers of economic, political and strategic resurgence. Yet the nation’s gun sickness is more frightening than the Covid-19 pandemic, because it is self-inflicted, and impervious to vaccines. It poses a threat to the world’s faith in American civilization, and indeed strikes at the heart of that civilization., As a child, I enjoyed the movies of Charlton Heston. Today, however, I cannot bear to watch him on a screen, because I see only the fanatical five-term president of the NRA. Perhaps nothing would do more to elevate respect abroad for the U.S. than for its government to find the will and means to disarm its citizenry; to curb the appalling gun death toll. This is unlikely to happen in my lifetime, however, and probably not in yours, because the malady has eaten so deep into the nation’s soul. , The only measures with a chance of passing some future Congress, less fissured than today’s, are curbs on assault weapons and concealed handguns; statutory security measures to make guns less accessible to irresponsible minors, such as I once was; and character checks, to deny arms to identifiable madmen. Until such palliatives are adopted, the civilized world, which craves U.S. moral as well as strategic leadership, shares the despair of tens of millions of decent Americans., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Max Hastings is a Bloomberg columnist. He was previously a correspondent for the BBC and newspapers, editor in chief of the Daily Telegraph, and editor of the London Evening Standard. He is the author of 28 books, the most recent of which are "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy" and "Chastise: The Dambusters Story 1943.", ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Max Hastings. Date Created: 25 Apr 2021, 12:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Italy Europe [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: If Italy Fails, Then Europe Fails Too. Short_description: If Italy Fails, Then Europe Fails Too. Description: Italy’s parliament has approved Mario Draghi’s 261 billion-euro ($315 billion) spending plan to resurrect the euro zone’s third-largest economy from the ruins of the pandemic. Now comes the hard part: Implementing the tough structural reforms Italy needs to drive growth and rebalance public accounts, and convincing Italians it’s the right path., Failure to do so would consign Italy to decline and blight the European Union’s plans for further fiscal integration., Draghi evoked the ghosts of the statesmen of Italy’s postwar reconstruction as he laid out his 273-page spending and reform plan to parliament this week. A comparison with Italy’s ravaged economy after World War II isn’t far-fetched. The country’s gross domestic product shrank 8.9% last year, compared with a 6.2% decline for the EU on average. More than 120,000 Italians have died from Covid-19, the greatest loss of life in the bloc from the virus., The pandemic also hit Italy’s already dwindling birth rate. There were fewer babies born there last year than at any time since unification. Almost 10% of the population lives in absolute poverty., What’s more, the virus struck Italy when its economy still hadn’t recovered from the financial crisis, the only EU country to fail to do so. From 1999 to 2019, Italy’s GDP expanded by 7.9%, compared with growth of between 30% and 45% for Germany, France and Spain. Its economic productivity shrank 6.2% between 2001 and 2019, while elsewhere in Europe it grew. Adding to the sense of Italy being locked in the middle of the last century, it has Europe’s lowest representation of women in the workforce, at 53%., Draghi is right then to give an electric shock to an almost defunct economy with his massive spending spree. Rome is the largest beneficiary of the EU’s 750 billion-euro pandemic recovery fund, and the 261 billion euros he has at his disposal is unprecedented. Still, the task is immense, complex and risky., The Draghi plan’s pillars are public investment and incentives to get the private sector to invest more too. There are six investment “missions,” including digitalization and the green economy (taking in sustainable transport such as high-speed rail networks). Italy’s depressed south gets 40% of the total core spending. Women are prioritized, as are the young, one in three of whom is unemployed., But spending is the easiest lever for Draghi to pull. His bigger task is the medium- and long-term plan to reestablish the Italian economy in a way that supports growth. That requires a painful structural reform of justice, public administration, competition and red tape that Italy has been shirking for decades. This will be much harder to achieve than the six investment missions. The reforms will confront the deeply vested interests and dysfunctions such as tax evasion that cripple Italy’s economy., Already there are signs of political discontent: Lawmakers jeered Draghi this week in the senate when he briefly misread his notes. But for Italy there is no Plan B, nor is there for Europe. If this plan fails in Italy, European fiscal policy fails too. That would provide all the fodder euroskeptic campaigners need to reinvigorate a case they’ve pursued in Germany’s constitutional court to get the EU’s pandemic recovery fund declared illegal., Paola Subacchi, an economist at Queen Mary University in London, argues that the one-two punch — first spending, then reforms — is “pure Draghi.” She says it recalls the policy debate during the Greek debt crisis when he was president of the European Central Bank. While Germany’s then finance minister Wolfgang Schauble was insisting Greece had to make a structural reform as its economy was going under, the debate in the ECB favoured sequencing. “His position is, you need to support people through the emergency and then do the structural reform,” says Subacchi. “But the reforms are the overarching thing.”, Unfortunately, Italy is on an exceptionally narrow path to economic reinvention and Draghi’s time is limited. Spending can’t be decoupled from reform: Italy has traditionally struggled to find ways to spend EU funds. He must also navigate between the Scylla and Charybdis of Italy’s historically weak GDP growth and its fiscal position. Italy’s economy should add 3.6 percentage points by the plan’s conclusion in five years time. But that growth needs to sustainable to rebalance Italy’s public accounts over the long term and its eyewatering deficit of 11.8% of GDP and public debt of 160%., Draghi’s success in becoming the interface between European politics and Italy’s national politics has brought his country breathing room. For Europe he is a guarantor that Rome won’t default on its debt. But, crucially, his plan has a life longer than that of his coalition government. Italy’s current legislature ends in 2023. The plan runs until 2026., What he really needs to do now is talk to the Italian people, to build consensus around the plan. Here he could again draw on the experience of Italy’s postwar leaders who built its economic miracle on a shared national drive to improve “the common good.” If Draghi’s project isn’t owned by the public, it will never come true., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Rachel Sanderson was Milan correspondent for the Financial Times from 2010 to 2020. She has also written about Italy for the Economist and reported for Reuters and Reuters TV from Rome, Paris and London., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Rachel Sanderson. Date Created: 29 Apr 2021, 11:00 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Republican Strategy Obsolete Incomes Render [/INST] Opinion/Gadfly news. Title: Rising Incomes Render Republican Strategy Obsolete. Short_description: Rising Incomes Render Republican Strategy Obsolete. Description: , The 2008 recession was particularly traumatic. In a new , , the economist Jay Shambaugh and I document how the recovery from the Great Recession unfolded. It took 77 months for employment to reach its pre-recession level, much longer than the 47 months needed to recover from the 2001 recession., The rate of employment among prime-age people fell by 3.8 percentage points — a drop more than twice as large as experienced in the 2001 recession. Real GDP fell by 4% in the Great Recession. In the 2001 recession, it fell by 0.4%., The benefits of the eventual recovery took a long time to reach the bottom half of workers. Inflation-adjusted wages were above their 2007 level over the entire period from 2008 to 2019 for workers in the top 20%. But as late as 2014 — five years after the recession officially ended — wages for the bottom half of workers were lower than in 2007. Wages for the bottom 20% were lower in 2015 than in 2007., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”, ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Michael R. Strain. Date Created: 22 Apr 2021, 6:03 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to indian Media Mogul Beat Fund U.S. Activist [/INST] Opinion/View news. Title: An Indian Media Mogul Beat a U.S. Activist Fund. Or Did He?. Short_description: Asian family values triumphed over American-style corporate governance? Not really, but everybody won.. Description: A 70-year-old Indian media magnate was about to lose his crown jewel to a campaign by a U.S. fund manager. But within a week, a Japanese conglomerate, itself a , of several challenges by foreign activists, came to Subhash Chandra’s rescue. Asian family values triumphed over American-style corporate governance? Not really. Everybody won — the Indians, the Americans, and, of course, the Japanese., Privately held Sony Pictures Networks India is merging with publicly traded Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. Sony Group Corp. will , , and infuse an additional $1.4 billion of cash into it. But the combined entity will be presided over by Punit Goenka, the current Zee chief executive and founder Chandra’s elder son. What’s more, the family gets an option to raise its near-4% stake to 20%., Chandra, who will also get extra shares as a non-compete fee, should be thrilled. But the almost-32% jump in the stock suggests that minority shareholders aren’t exactly grumpy, either, even though the merger is unlikely to trigger an open offer. Funnily enough, the shares had surged almost 40% last week — after Invesco Developing Markets Fund and OFI Global China Fund LLC, between them owning 17.9%, had called for a shareholders’ meeting to boot out Goenka and end the 30-year-sway of the family., It seems the market can’t make up its mind if India’s largest private television network, with a 17% share nationwide, is more valuable with the founders in the driver’s seat or out of the wagon entirely. , In the early 1990s, the homegrown firm had brought non-state-controlled TV to India with Rupert Murdoch’s help, before parting ways with the Australian-American tycoon. (Full disclosure: I worked at the group’s news venture in New Delhi in the late-1990s.) By all reckoning, Zee Entertainment is a more solid franchise than Sony India., The pandemic, which saw a vicious surge during April and May, left Zee’s advertising revenue in the June quarter down by almost 23% from the pre-Covid-19 levels. Even without short-term disruptions, the heydays of the traditional broadcaster may be over, with the hunger for content moving from television sets to smaller screens of smartphones and tablets. However, with , , Zee isn’t doing too badly in the faster-growing streaming market. The network is now seeking to offer digital programming in regional languages — such as Punjabi — hoping to open up new audiences both at home and among the large Indian diaspora. Sony’s own digital platform could never have shaken the , . Combining with Zee gives it a decent shot. , In other words, the business, which has more cash than debt, could perhaps have commanded a better valuation than what the Japanese are paying: three times annual sales, which works out to a multiple of 13 on 18 billion rupees ($241 million) earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to B&K Securities. But Zee’s problem was founder Chandra’s , ., Wanting to build roads with other people’s money may be a great idea, but not when you’re already making a killing by selling what folks crave even more than the missing infrastructure: Bollywood entertainment. After the sudden 2018 collapse of IL&FS Group, a large Indian infrastructure financier, the credit markets all but froze up for Chandra. His media stock, which he had pledged to raise equity for his other ventures, got hammered. Without Invesco-Oppenheimer coming in as a white knight in late 2019, he couldn’t have held on. But then, two years later, the family’s presence became a liability to the rescuers — and that gave Sony the opportunity it had long sought. And on attractive terms., Where does the merger leave Invesco? To the extent that its activism precipitated the announcement, the investor can give itself a pat on the back for unlocking value. The shareholders’ meeting it had called to oust the CEO may no longer be necessary. Although Goenka would continue in the top job, Sony would control the majority of the board. From a corporate governance standpoint, that’s not a bad outcome. Besides, the deal is nonbinding for now. Other suitors could emerge, offer Invesco an even better deal for its shares, and give minority owners an exit option. The American shareholder didn’t exactly lose anything by speaking up — and might score an even bigger win.  , Even Zee’s soap operas don’t often have such unpredictable twists. Or unanticipated endings., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services. He previously was a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews. He has also worked for the Straits Times, ET NOW and Bloomberg News., ©2021 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Andy Mukherjee. Date Created: 23 Sep 2021, 12:20 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Justice Department McCabe war [/INST] Opinion/View news. Title: Trump, McCabe and the Justice Department Go to War. Short_description: Trump, McCabe and the Justice Department Go to War. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Andrew McCabe, who briefly served as acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the tumultuous months in 2017 after President Donald Trump fired James Comey, is making the rounds to promote his new book, “The Threat.”, This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Timothy L. O’Brien is the executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. He has been an editor and writer for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, HuffPost and Talk magazine. His books include “TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald.”, ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Timothy L. O'Brien. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 5:30 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Round Trump California train [/INST] Opinion/View news. Title: The Next Round of California v. Trump Will Be Over Trains. Short_description: The Next Round of California v. Trump Will Be Over Trains. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- President Donald Trump can’t just , from California as payback for the state’s challenging the constitutionality of his border wall., There are laws governing decisions by agencies like the Department of Transportation. Those laws require that agencies give principled policy reasons for their actions — not recite doubtful pretexts for decisions taken on political grounds., If the Transportation Department actually pulls the funding, as it has said it plans to do, California will challenge the decision in court. And the odds are pretty high that the state will win, regardless of what happens in the separate , ., At issue in the latest Trump administration shenanigans is a high-cost, high-speed-rail project that is supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles. California voters adopted the plan by referendum in 2008. The total cost would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $77 billion. Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom said , from its ambitious original plan, and will focus on completing one smaller section., The federal government has already put in about $2.5 billion in grants. An additional $929 million is in the pipeline — or was, until the Department of Transportation sent a letter to the state pulling the funding., The timing of that letter is crucial not only to understanding what happened but also to predicting the outcome of the future lawsuit., On Monday, the state of California, joined by 15 other states, , to block Trump from using money not allocated by Congress to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. The attorney general of California took the lead. That matters because, by filing suit in California, the states hope to get a liberal lower court judge and to get the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled against Trump in the Muslim travel ban case., On Tuesday, one day after the suit was filed, the head of the Federal Railroad Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, sent a , to the chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority unilaterally terminating the grant agreement between the department and the state and pulling the $929 million that was otherwise coming., At the same time, the Department of Transportation issued a statement to the effect , “actively exploring every legal option to seek the return from California of $2.5 billion in Federal funds FRA previously granted for this now-defunct project.”, The letter said that the FRA’s decision was “based on many factors.” It listed several, of which the most significant was the assertions that California wasn’t on track to finish the project by 2022. The others involved alleged failures by California to fund the project at agreed-upon levels and to file reports connected to its funding plans., The letter also gave the state the opportunity to respond to these claims by March 5. The letter said the FRA would consider California’s answers “before taking any final action.”, The timing alone makes the plan to pull the funding look like Trump’s revenge against California. The unusual separate statement about seeking the clawback of $2.5 billion strengthens the circumstantial case., Then, as usual, there are presidential tweets that come close to sealing the deal. Also Tuesday, Trump tweeted:, The juxtaposition of the California suit with the reference to the expensive high-speed-rail project makes the causal connection seem fairly evident. But Trump wasn’t done. He tweeted:, It’s a foundational principle of law under Administrative Procedure Act that an agency must give reasons for its actions. Those reasons have to be the actual ones the agency has used, not excuses., Courts have used this principle to strike down other Trump actions. Most recently, a federal district judge in New York blocked the Department of Commerce , on the ground that the commerce secretary had given reasons that were pretext, not accurate representations of his motives., If the Department of Transportation isn’t bluffing, and actually kills the funds, California can sue under the Administrative Procedure Act., The only defense available to the Trump administration will be that it had good reason to counsel the funding independent of California’s wall lawsuit — essentially, the federal government will have to argue that it would have made the same decision regardless of California’s lawsuit, and that its reasons are legitimate., If and when the government raises that defense, its lawyers will have to grapple with Trump’s tweets., Past presidents wouldn’t have wanted to lose in court. According to convention, it’s supposed to be politically costly for a president to have a judge tell him that he acted vindictively and in violation of federal law., But as we have learned repeatedly, Trump doesn’t seem to mind losing in court so long as he gets his political message across. In this instance, the message of payback is about as clear as it can get., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Harvard University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. His books include “The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President.” , ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Noah Feldman. Date Created: 21 Feb 2019, 12:06 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to big advantage Middle East Battle Iran [/INST] Opinion/View news. Title: Iran Has a Big Advantage in the Battle for the Middle East. Short_description: Iran Has a Big Advantage in the Battle for the Middle East. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Why can’t the U.S. and its allies get the better of Iran? To all appearances, the face-off is a colossal mismatch, with incomparably greater power arrayed against Tehran than for it. But Iran and its allies have several underappreciated advantages, not least the relative cohesion on their own side versus the disarray among their opponents., Last week’s U.S.-organized Warsaw Summit on “peace and security in the Middle East” was correctly regarded by most participants and observers as an effort by Washington to shore up the coalition opposing Iran’s regional Middle East ambitions. There were representatives of more than six dozen countries, all of whom are meaningfully opposed to Iran’s policies on nuclear proliferation, supporting terrorism and the like. They include most of Europe’s NATO members, many of the largest Arab countries and Israel. On its face, it’s a very large and formidable coalition., By comparison, Iran’s committed allies seem a small and ragtag bunch: the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Iraq and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. True, in confrontations with the West Iran can call on the general sympathy of Russia and China. But those large powers are unlikely to bail Tehran out of a crisis, and they maintain good relations with many of Iran’s key opponents such as Saudi Arabia and Israel., The key to the strength of Iran’s Middle East coalition is its relative vertical integration and discipline. Most of its members are either beholden to or dependent on Iran. So most important decisions are made by the Republican Guards or National Security Council in Tehran. Dissent is rare, and usually contained or irrelevant. Even the outlying coalition members such as the Houthis, who do not pay much attention to Iran’s instructions, are valuable because their rebellion contributes to the chaos that Tehran strategically exploits., The relative vertical integration of decision-making on the pro-Iranian side is also buttressed by cultural and religious deference to authority among Shiite Muslims. Shiites are typically supposed to adhere to the judgment of senior clerics, and Iran’s revolutionary Islamist appeal is precisely to such religious-political authority. , In sum, Iran is a revisionist, anti-status-quo power that flourishes amid regional instability. None of this is true for its opponents. The coalition of Gulf countries, other pro-U.S. Arab countries, Israel, the U.S., and most NATO states is quintessentially oriented to keeping the status quo, to preserving the global and regional order. And it is much harder to create and maintain structures than it is to blow them up., This is not made easier by the disarray in the anti-Iranian camp. The Gulf Arab countries and Israel don’t even have diplomatic relations. They remain profoundly divided over the Palestinian issue. All cooperation on security such as sharing intelligence must be limited and surreptitious. There’s no real possibility of an open alliance between them, as has become painfully clear to a disappointed Trump administration. And the Sunni-majority Arab countries are themselves bitterly divided, as the ongoing boycott of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt demonstrates., NATO is badly divided on Iran as well. Since the Trump administration withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal, Britain, Germany and France, along with the European Union, have been trying to keep the agreement alive despite Washington’s opposition. They have created a “special purpose vehicle” for European companies to get payments for trading with Iran in currencies other than the dollar, bypassing the U.S. banking system and, therefore, American sanctions. They all sent junior delegations to Warsaw, except for Britain, whose foreign minister said he was only there to talk about Yemen., Another key NATO member, Turkey, opted out of Warsaw altogether, preferring to join Iran and Russia in a rival conference at Sochi, Russia, ostensibly to talk about Syria. Turkey is increasingly taking a neutral attitude toward Iran, which it views as a rival rather than an adversary., Finally, in contrast to the Shiite deference to clerical authority, most Sunni traditions encourage believers to judge everything for themselves and to pick and choose among various opinions for different purposes. This allows Sunni extremists such as Qaeda to reject denunciations of terrorism by senior Sunni clerics in favor of justifications by junior or marginal jurisprudents they claim to find more persuasive. It also makes it difficult, if not impossible, for Sunni Muslim powers to deploy religion as a politically unifying, integrating factor in a regional coalition that includes non-state actors and militias. The last time this was systematically attempted, by the U.S., Pakistan and Saudi Arabia during the Afghan war in the 1980s, it helped defeat the Soviet Union, but also produced Qaeda and the Taliban., None of this is to say that Iran is in a stronger position than its adversaries. It’s not. Its economy is in ruins, it suffers from increasing political dissent at home, and it’s struggling to keep a grip on Iraq, which a few years ago seemed completely lost to Tehran’s influence., No rational person would prefer to be in Iran’s position rather than those of its American and Middle Eastern adversaries. But Iran and its small but potent coalition do enjoy some clear advantages, including much stronger unity and relative integration, the advantages of being disruptive and, as Warsaw demonstrated so clearly, the utter disarray on the other side., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. , ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Hussein Ibish. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 4:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Shrinking Ukraine Eastern Europe [/INST] Opinion/View news. Title: Eastern Europe Feeds on a Shrinking Ukraine. Short_description: Eastern Europe Feeds on a Shrinking Ukraine. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- One of the issues complicating the Ukrainian presidential election at the end of March is that no one, including pollsters, knows how many people still live in the country. Waves of Ukrainians have been emigrating and counting them isn’t easy., Official ,  are deceptively detailed. The latest population count, from December 2018, is 42,177,579. According to the Ukrainian State Statistical Service, there was a sharp drop in population between 2014 and 2015, when Ukraine lost Russian-annexed Crimea and couldn’t run counts in the eastern regions of the country, controlled by Russian proxies. But in recent years, there has been no sharp population decline., That, quite likely, is inaccurate. Government statistics , a slight population increase in the first 11 months of 2018, though the number of internal refugees from the areas controlled by pro-Russian forces — the biggest source of inbound migration in recent years -- did not grow during this period. The giveaway is that data from neighboring countries show that large numbers of Ukrainians are moving, especially to eastern Europe, and more have been tempted to do so since the EU introduced visa-free travel in June 2017. , Europe’s official statistical service, Eurostat, is slow to release migration data; the latest available are for 2017. But even those data suggest that something is wrong with the official Ukrainian numbers. Eurostat says 662,000 Ukrainians, more than any other nationality, received EU residence permits in , . Meanwhile, according to the Ukrainian government, only 430,290 people migrated out of Ukraine that year., Most of the inflow went to Poland which, according to Eurostat, issued 585,439 residence permits to Ukrainians in 2017. Ukrainians were also the biggest group of permit recipients in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Lithuania. It’s hard to miss the irony here: These are all countries with anti-immigration governments, which openly fight or quietly boycott the EU’s attempts to redistribute asylum seekers throughout Europe on the grounds that they are too poor to pay for big integration efforts or that the Middle Eastern and African Migrants are too culturally dissimilar from them. , These are, however, also countries with tight labor markets — the result of big population outflows to wealthier nations. Poland has simplified procedures for employing foreigners, used mainly for Ukrainians, which allow companies to hire people on the basis of “employment intention declarations.” In 2017, such declarations were , for 1.7 million Ukrainians, in addition to almost 200,000 work permits. The rules were slightly tightened in 2018 to improve compliance with EU regulations, and in the first half of last year, 820,000 declarations were filed, most of them benefiting Ukrainians. It’s uncertain how many people actually took up the jobs, but it’s likely that their number in Poland alone is higher than Eurostat's residence permit count., Other countries, too, try to lure Ukrainian workers. The Czech Republic has a simplified employment program for them, and earlier this year, the government , the fast-track employment quota for Ukrainians to 19,600 per year. Ukrainians are already the biggest community of legally resident foreigners in the Czech Republic — 117,000 out of a total population of 10.5 million., Ukrainian communities are growing fast in the Baltic states too, where a worker can make far more than in Ukraine. In Lithuania they’re the largest group of resident foreigners and their number increased 55 percent last year. In Estonia, a record inflow of Ukrainians was registered in 2018. Russia, which many consider to be in a state of war with Ukraine, issued 77,000 residence permits to Ukrainians; 81,000 became Russian citizens., It’s still hard to get a complete picture of the emigration because of unofficial and semi-official seasonal employment. In 2017, 11,000 Ukrainians were , to be illegally present in EU countries — but that’s only a fraction of those who work in Europe without obtaining any official permits. With the visa-free regime, it’s not easy to track those who do so on a seasonal basis., Migrant remittances, which last year amounted to 13.8 percent of Ukraine’s economic output, according to the World Bank, are perhaps the best measure of the Ukrainian population outflow. , Judging by a 35 percent jump in remittances in 2018, the biggest one-year increase since 2007, a growing number of Ukrainians are working outside their home country, and their number is likely higher than the 5.9 million estimated by the United Nations in 2017., This is politically important. The loss of the relatively pro-Russian populations of Crimea and eastern Ukraine has boosted the election chances of pro-EU, pro-North Atlantic Treaty Organization politicians. But it’s often the most active and enterprising Ukrainians who seek their fortunes overseas; the effect of emigration may help tip the balance toward unpredictable populists. (While non-resident Ukrainians can vote, turnout is low as few bother to travel and line up at local embassies or have faith that the outcome will change much.) The current , of the race, Volodymyr Zelensky, is a comedian and TV producer without any political experience or a coherent program., The Ukrainian emigration is significant for Europe, too. The eastern European resistance to accepting refugees isn’t anti-immigrant sentiment per se: it’s anti-Muslim and often racist, and it’s based on a common perception that immigrants from outside Europe won’t want to work or blend in. Such discrimination is deeply ingrained, but to combat it, Western European countries could work harder to improve their own records on integrating immigrants., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Leonid Bershidsky. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 12:00 PM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to Emerging market Tables [/INST] Opinion/View news. Title: The Tables Are Turning on Emerging Markets. Short_description: Waning optimism leads financial commentary. Also, bad times for wheat and troubles in Sweden.. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Emerging markets made it through the turmoil in late 2018 relatively unscathed. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index of equities actually rose 1.03 percent over the final two months of the year, compared with a decline of 5.97 percent in the MSCI All-Country World Index. That outperformance continued in January, but the tables have turned in February with the 0.14 percent gain in the emerging-market benchmark trailing the 2.32 percent surge in the broader market despite emerging markets posting their best day in six weeks on Wednesday by surging as much as 1.50 percent., Investors jumped on the emerging-market bandwagon last month, leading the remarkable turnaround in risk sentiment globally from the dark days of December. But that’s the problem. A number of influential investors and strategists now ,  the prospects for such assets, raising concern that a reversal in sentiment could drag global markets lower just as they led them higher. A combination of potentially hawkish Federal Reserve surprises and already stretched performance has persuaded HSBC Holdings Plc strategists including Max Kettner to turn cautious on emerging-market assets, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategist Ralf Preusser thinks developing-nation bonds are vulnerable to positive U.S. data releases, Bloomberg News’s Cormac Mullan reports. “Might now be the time to reduce EM exposure in portfolios tactically, that is over three months? We think it is indeed time for a breather,” the HSBC strategists wrote in a research note. In another sign that optimism is waning, investors added money to emerging-market exchange-traded funds at the slowest pace this year last week. Inflows into U.S.-listed funds that invest across developing nations as well as those that target specific countries totaled $313.1 million in the five days through Feb. 15, according to Bloomberg News’s Aline Oyamada. That’s a fraction of the $3.97 billion inflow in the previous week., What’s important to know is that emerging markets are increasingly having a bigger impact on the direction of asset prices given how fast their economies have grown. Based on , , the seven largest emerging-market economies could grow around twice as fast as the Group of 7 on average in the years ahead.  As a result, six of the seven largest economies in the world are projected to be emerging economies in 2050 led by China (1st), India (2nd) and Indonesia (4th)., Having digested the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting in January, bond traders can now turn their attention to the two main geopolitical risks that remain outstanding: trade talks between the U.S. and China and the rising possibility of a so-called hard Brexit, in which the U.K. crashes out of the European Union without a negotiated deal. As the top-ranked interest rate strategists at BMO Capital Markets point out, neither of the impending deadlines of March 1 or March 29 appear set in stone, and either one could be extended. “Whether this dynamic increases the probability of a comprehensive agreement, or merely kicks the can down the road, is difficult to discern ahead of time,” but the fact that 30-year government bond yields in Germany, Japan and the U.S. “are all back at late-2016 levels suggests that markets aren’t exactly anticipating a global synchronized acceleration anytime soon; if anything, the opposite.” In other words, don’t dismiss the signals being sent by the global government bond market. When it comes to U.S.-China trade talks, an extension of the deadline may not be seen as positive news, as it just means that investors will have to continue to deal with more uncertainty when the Global Economic Uncertainty Index, a measure of unpredictability in 20 countries with the U.S., China and euro zone being some of the biggest components, has risen to a record. What that means is that any misstep on the policy front could have an outsized negative impact on riskier assets, as the bond market seems to expect.,                                                                                                                                                                                           U.S. equities have modestly outperformed the rest of the world this year, with the MSCI US Index gaining 11.3 percent compared with a 9.34 percent increase in an MSCI index of global stocks that excludes the U.S. Such performance raises the question of whether U.S. stocks have risen too far, too fast, especially with the possibility of an earnings recession looming. After all, an 11 percent gain would be good for any full year, and February isn’t even over yet. But the bulls are searching hard for trading patterns that would suggest the good times have further to go. Keith Lerner, the chief market strategist at SunTrust Private Wealth Management, has zeroed in on stocks in the S&P 500 Index that exceed their 50-day moving average. Lerner has found that more than 90 percent were above the threshold Friday for the first time since March 2016 based on data compiled by Bloomberg, according to Bloomberg News’s David Wilson. The earlier instance was among 14 that Lerner cited since 1990, and the S&P 500 rose all but once in the next three and 12 months after those moves. That sounds tempting, but DataTrek Research notes that analysts on average have been cutting their price targets for individual stocks despite this year’s rally in the S&P 500. Currently, that aggregate price target is 3,059, representing an 11 percent expected return over the next 12 months, down from a forecast if 3,094 in early January. That’s one trend going in the wrong direction for the bulls.,                                                                                                                                                  The commodities market is having a moment, rising every day this week. In that period the Bloomberg Commodity Index rose as much as 2.31 percent in its biggest three-day gain since the start of October. Perhaps the move is tied to comments made by President Dnald Trump that trade talks with China, the world’s largest consumer of raw materials, are going well. If true, then maybe China’s economy will stabilize. Heavy equipment machinery company Caterpillar Inc. gave some credence to such notions on Wednesday when Amy Campbell, head of investor relations, said in a presentation at a conference that the pace of equipment replacement in the Asian nation is at normal levels. Just don’t tell wheat farmers. The price of the grain fell to its lowest since July on Wednesday, hurt by signs that U.S. exports are struggling to compete with global oversupply. Also, Egypt had a wheat tender that could bring about the “worst scenario” for American and European supplies, according to Bloomberg News’s Isis Almeida and Salma El Wardany. With prices slumping, Russian grain has made a comeback to the list of cheapest offers, according to traders familiar with the process. On top of that, French supplies, which were expected to be competitive, turned out more expensive than Romanian and Ukrainian wheat, after freight costs are included, said the traders, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the media. There were no U.S. offers., The Swedish krona did nothing on Wednesday, basically ending unchanged against a basket on nine other developed-market peers. But that’s a significant victory for a currency that has been beaten down badly this year as poor economic data thwart the Riksbank’s plans to finally start raising interest rates out of negative territory for the first time in more than four years.  The krona has depreciated some 5.63 percent this year to an all-time low against the basket as measured by the Bloomberg Correlated-Weighted Indexes. The latest blow came on Tuesday in the form of a weaker-than-forecast inflation report. Consumer prices with a constant interest rate rose an annual 2.0 percent in January, below the 2.3 percent median estimate by economists surveyed by Bloomberg and the 2.4 percent predicted by the central bank. Sweden’s economic growth is forecast to slow to 1.3 percent this year from 2.2 percent in 2018, according to a survey by Bloomberg News. The troubling thing is that Sweden is just one example. More and more large economies and central banks are grappling with subpar data, which is why more and more market participants are expecting a global synchronized slowdown. In fact, the data in major economies is coming in below estimates at a degree that is among the worst seen over the past five years, according to the Citigroup Economic Surprise Indexes., In many ways, the euro zone is ground zero when it comes to concerns about a budding synchronized economic slowdown. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg is that the currency bloc’s economy expanded at an anemic 1.5 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter. The forecast for all of 2019 isn’t any better at 1.4 percent. That’s why market participants will be keeping a close eye on the PMI manufacturing reports due out Thursday for a sense of just how rapidly economic conditions are deteriorating. The good news is that it appears things are stabilizing. IHS Markit Economics’ composite purchasing managers’ index is seen little changed at about its lowest level since late 2014 with a reading of 51.1 for February. The European Central Bank signaled at its last meeting that it was in data-watching mode in the run-up to its next meeting on March 7 as it tries to assess the nature of the euro area downturn and how long it is set to last, the strategists at RBC Capital Markets wrote in a research note. “The February flash ‘PMIs,’ therefore, represent one of the more significant data points ahead of that next gathering,” they added., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Robert Burgess is an editor for Bloomberg Opinion. He is the former global executive editor in charge of financial markets for Bloomberg News. As managing editor, he led the company’s news coverage of credit markets during the global financial crisis., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Robert Burgess. Date Created: 21 Feb 2019, 3:23 AM IST </s>

<s>[INST] Tell me news related to ready Putin Homeward [/INST] Opinion/View news. Title: Putin Is Finally Ready to Look Homeward. Short_description: Putin Is Finally Ready to Look Homeward. Description: (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin knew that, in his state of the nation address, he would have to respond to the steep , in his popularity since the middle of last year., So the , he delivered on Wednesday focused on improvements to welfare, education and health care as well as economic development instead of foreign policy, the area which he previously relied on to sustain his ratings., But Putin’s promises face an obvious obstacle: the improvements he seeks are being held back by the oppressive and corrupt system of government he has built and, judging by the speech, has no intention of dismantling. In essence, he wants Russia to go down China’s path without China’s competitive advantages., The slide in Putin’s popularity started with his decision to raise the retirement age. Polls quickly showed this was a price Russians were unwilling to pay for the president’s version of “great again,” which featured so prominently in last year’s state of the nation , . On Wednesday, Putin signaled that, after bolstering Russia’s sovereignty and defenses, he is ready to pay more attention to citizens’ needs., Russia’s international reserves, Putin said (and official ,  , it), are, for the first time in years (since 2010, to be precise) higher than the combined foreign debt of the government and the private sector. With the economy thus ring-fenced from external shocks, the Kremlin looks prepared to be generous., The social program looks like the most ambitious one Putin has ever outlined. It comprises massive payouts to families with children, including more one-time payouts after a birth and mortgage subsidies; more spending on anti-poverty programs; mortgage holidays for people who have lost a job; and pension increases. He outlined programs to modernize health care and education, including an anti-cancer program worth more than $15 billion over six years and a plan to extend high-speed internet to all schools by 2021., He promised to fix Russia’s growing waste-management problem, which has led to sporadic protests in many regions as barely regulated dumps have encroached on residential areas. Putin declared urban redevelopment a national priority and committed to a 20 percent reduction in industrial emissions over six years., To gasps in the audience of senior officials and supporters, Putin pledged to abolish by 2021 all existing regulations currently used to put pressure on businesses – things like fire safety rules, construction codes and consumer protection programs. He proposed a leaner, more transparent regulatory regime will replace it., Under Putin’s growth plan, Russia will have to step up government spending and investment, especially in areas like artificial intelligence and big data, and increase cooperation with China. He promised to link his pet post-Soviet integration project, the Eurasian Economic Union, to the Chinese Belt and Road initiative, just as China has long urged him to do. , In a speech like this, security policy was but an afterthought. Putin dwelt only briefly on his concern about the U.S. decision to abandon the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Work on the new weapons systems he presented in 2018 was progressing nicely, he said, and Russia will be ready to retaliate in the event of any perceived increase in the U.S. military threat. Ukraine, the biggest problem in Russia’s relations with the West, didn’t get a single mention., From the domestic point of view, the shift from foreign adventures to social and economic issues is long overdue. Russians, however, are unlikely to be impressed with promises – especially as they come so transparently after an anti-Putin turn in the polls. Everything he promised this year could have been done earlier, and with more resources, had Putin not spent years building up his confrontation with the West. Even his boast that international reserves now exceed foreign debt only became possible thanks to deleveraging caused as much by Western sanctions as anything else., And for all the attempts to step up cooperation with China, the country’s direct investment stock in Russia actually , in the first seven months of 2018 – to a puny $3.1 billion from $4.2 billion at the start of last year. Though Russia was China’s fastest-growing trade partner last year, oil and other commodities accounted for more than three quarters of the country’s exports to China; that’s not the kind of trade that fundamentally changes Russia’s economic position., Putin appears to operate under the illusion that, with enough government spending and attention, the Russian economy can make rapid progress just as China’s did. But even that country is now facing push-back both from the U.S. and European Union, where Germany and France trying to counter the influence of its national champions., Facing these three economic giants, Russia, smaller in both population and economic output, has opted to put on additional shackles. Its conflict with the West, for example, is an obstacle to taking advantage of Western educational institutions on the same massive scale as China, and its ability to borrow to finance investment is severely constrained., Russia’s system of government may be too rotten to help Putin project his will. As he spoke of reducing pressure on business, the country’s top foreign private equity investor is , . And for all Putin’s indignation about festering garbage dumps, his billionaire friends have large interests in the waste-management business, which will only be furthered by his recent decision to put a government-run operator in charge of the disposal of all solid waste., Despite all the social and development promises, some 15 percent of all Russian government spending, or 5 percent of gross domestic product, is on defense and security. (Germany, by comparison, , less than 3 percent of GDP). Under the Russian government’s , , defense and security’s share of spending will only fall to 13.5 percent (or 4.6 percent of GDP) in 2021. But health care and education outlays are also set to decline both as a share of public spending and economic output. None of this suggests a major shift in the Putin regime’s priorities from protecting itself to improving ordinary Russians’ lives., Putin’s ability to wreak havoc both internationally and at home remains considerable. When it comes to development, however, his resources and options are constrained both by his past attempts to turn Russia into a fortress and his inability to limit his friends’ and enforcers’ appetites. In that sense, the state of the nation remains unchanged., This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners., Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru., ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.. Publisher: Leonid Bershidsky. Date Created: 20 Feb 2019, 8:24 PM IST </s>