Tag: news

My Dedicated Zoom Work Station

We have all experienced how draining Zoom meetings can be and how hard it is to concentrate when a speaker has bad audio. Since I will be teaching via Zoom this semester, I wanted my video and audio to be better than I was getting using my laptop. In addition, I needed

  • A set up that would hold my teaching notes.
  • Something that allowed me to be positioned in a way that approximated how I teach.
  • A separate workstation so I did not have to use my laptop, which is running all sorts of programs and on which I always have dozens of windows open.
  • Something dedicated only for teaching that I could keep configured the way I wanted.
  • Something compact that could easily be wheeled out of the way, since I use this space for my home gym and to play the drums. (Yes, that is sheet music for my drums now on the workstation.)

I am very pleased with the setup I settled on.

Zoom workstation

 

 

It consists of the following equipment with Amazon pricing (in descending order of price). (Unfortunately, I just missed out on buying the HP monitor from Staples for $275 before it sold out).

The total price for this setup was $704. I am also using a set of wired earbuds to plug into the mic so I can hear myself and the students and a wireless keyboard/mouse, both of which I already owned. The monitor has fine speakers for conferencing but this way, I do not disturb others in the house. Zoom lets you easily switch between the monitor speakers and the Pyle mic earphone jack. I will experiment with what seems most natural. The mic sounds awesome BTW. I highly recommend it for $55.

The light ring includes brackets for an IPad and IPhone as well as a Bluetooth remote to take selfie pictures with the IPhone that also mounts inside the ring.

I used the free OBS Studio software with a free Reaper ReaGate VST plug-in to eliminate the hum of the heat pump that is nearby. I am also running the Brave Browser which has enhanced privacy settings as compared with Chrome

I bought this particular computer cart because it had the tilting shelf for my notes. When configured this way, you can use the mouse but cannot easily use the keyboard. Since I won’t be using a keyboard with this setup, that is fine for me. But others might figure out how to play with the shelves to allow better access to the keyboard–or get a different cart. I also like this one  because, in addition to the tilting shelf, it is adjustable from seated to standing height (much higher than in the picture) and allows me to teach while sitting on a stool as I sometimes do in the classroom. When I am seated, the mic and light ring are both out of the picture. It is decently made for $99.99.

 

This is the mini stick PC:

Unfortunately, the Terryza PC Stick I bought, which has 8GB RAM and 12GB SSD is now out of stock. I bought this one to ensure it could handle video streaming. $175 for a full featured Windows 10 Pro PC was pretty good, I thought. The lesser priced ones still available might work.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/3g66pVi
via IFTTT

When Teachers Call the Cops on Parents Whose Kids Skip Their Zoom Classes

dreamstime_xxl_176349629

If there’s one thing the public school system shouldn’t be doing right now, it’s making life even more hellishly difficult for parents. And yet many teachers in the state of Massachusetts are contacting the authorities to report parents for suspected child abuse when kids fail to show up for Zoom classes.

“Massachusetts school officials have reported dozens of families to state social workers for possible neglect charges because of issues related to their children’s participation in remote learning classes during the pandemic shutdown in the spring,” The Boston Globe reported on Saturday.

The infuriating article is worth reading in full. The Globe spoke with several parents who have received calls and visits from the state Department of Children and Families (DCF). The department has the power to remove children from their homes and place them in foster care if agents suspect that kids are being mistreated, abused, or neglected—and DCF considers distance-learning no-shows to be possible abuse cases. DCF lists numerous circumstances in which teachers should feel obliged to call the cops, among them kids appearing tired or hungry during Zoom sessions.

Working parents who have no choice but to leave their young children in the care of a sibling, or let them fend for themselves, will be particularly vulnerable to unfounded child services investigations. This isn’t a theoretical concern. Consider the case of Em Quiles, who

struggled to work her full-time job while overseeing her young son’s schooling. During remote class time, her 7-year-old was largely supervised by his teenage brother, who had his own school work to do.

Quiles said she told staff at Heard Street Discovery Academy in Worcester in the spring that her work schedule made it tough to assist with virtual schooling and she struggled to navigate the school’s online platforms. “They didn’t offer any help,” she said.

Then in June, Quiles was stunned to receive a call from the state’s Department of Children and Families. The school had accused Quiles of neglect, she was told, because the 7-year-old missed class and homework assignments.

Another mother, a Spanish-speaking immigrant, requested a virtual meting with a school councillor to discuss her son’s behavioral difficulties, which had worsened during pandemic-induced isolation. A few days after she spoke with the councillor, DCF called the mom. Someone at the school—possibly the councillor—had accused the mom of “general neglect” based on “behaviors observed or disclosed during remote learning.” The agency spent weeks investigating the matter, interrogating the mother and her son on everything from “the contents of her refrigerator to her son’s sleeping location.” The allegation was eventually dismissed.

A third parent—Christi Brouder, a single mother of four kids—faced frequent threats from teachers that DCF would intervene if the children didn’t improve their virtual attendance. Once, when her 10-year-old daughter was tuned in to Zoom class, Brouder’s autistic six-year-old son leapt naked in front of the screen. Predictably, the school called the cops:

Later that day, Brouder received a call from the Department of Children and Families. The social worker informed her that school staff had reported a naked adult male exposing himself on the computer.

Brouder explained that she lives alone with her four young children and that the nude male was only 6.

She was relieved when the social worker told her the case wouldn’t go anywhere. The school district, however, wasn’t ready to drop the issue. The head of Haverhill’s special-education department told Brouder that afternoon they had contacted the city police department “due to the severity of the allegations,” according to Brouder.

A plainclothes police officer came to her home that evening; that case, too, was eventually dropped.

Massachusetts’s DCF is not radically different from the child services departments in the other 49 states, and similar issues are probably cropping up elsewhere. The harm is likely to be worse for poorer families, though economic security is by no means a guarantee of safety from predatory child services investigations.

The decision to rely partly or entirely on virtual learning has created a horrible situation for many working parents who depend on school for day care. Public school officials should be treating such families with empathy and patience, not putting the authorities on speed dial.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/2Y9Wbx9
via IFTTT

Anti-Tech Warriors Are Coming for Your Food Delivery Apps

zumaamericastwentyseven151318

“Protect Our Restaurants” campaign calls on Congress, regulators, and city governments to intervene. As the Trump administration continues its all-points crusade against tech companies, food delivery services such as Uber Eats, Doordash, Postmates, and GrubHub could be the next target. A new advocacy campaign is calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate these companies for potential violations of federal antitrust law.

“The campaign has worked with several lawmakers, including House consumer protection subcommittee chairwoman Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s (D–Ill.) office, to apply more pressure on the FTC for an investigation,” Morning Consult reports.

Tons of consumers and businesses across the U.S. use and enjoy food delivery apps. They allow individuals to patronize restaurants that might not otherwise offer delivery services; they allow businesses to expand their audience; they provide flexible gig work for delivery drivers. But restaurants are expected to pay relatively high fees for this service. So a number of them have stopped using these apps and, sometimes, have beefed up their own delivery services or put more marketing into encouraging customers to call directly for delivery.

That’s how things tend to go as new, “disruptive” technologies shake up old business models. Consumer choice is expanded. New jobs are created. And existing businesses have to step up their game or face dwindling profits—but also enjoy get a chance to reach more customers and expand their revenue. It’s a good opportunity for smaller businesses with flexibility and room to grow.

Unsurprisingly, entrenched food businesses with established audiences tend not to like delivery apps. They don’t like giving app companies a cut of their profits, and they don’t like giving customers new options for places to eat. They’re competition. And they’ve been gaining use since the pandemic started, with people stuck at home and restaurants often closed for in-person dining.

The people who wants to quash food delivery apps don’t say that, of course. They say apps are “exploiting restaurants, workers, and consumers” and taking “money out of the local economy.”

But their “Protect Our Restaurants” campaign is basically cronyist lobbying, asking the government to intervene so a favored class of businesses can make more money improving services. We’ve seen similar crusades from newspapers, hotels, and other industries whose old business models have been undercut by the internet.

Politics is also fueling this campaign. In addition to support from restaurants, the Protect Our Restaurants campaign is backed by activists with a broader mission against tech companies (and corporations more generally). The American Economic Liberties Project is a project of the Open Market Institute, whose “anti-monopoly” program’s mission “is to develop and promote law and policy designed to structure markets and corporate behaviors in ways that ensure a fair and equitable distribution of opportunity, wealth, and power within our society.” Their solutions usually revolve around greater government regulation.

Just as Trumpian politicians have seen great success mobilizing animosity at tech companies for their own political purposes, this line of attack is proving profitable for Democrats. Last week, for instance, a “future of antitrust” fundraiser—co-headlined by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D–Minn.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee antitrust subcommittee, and Rep. David Cicilline (D–R.I.), who chairs the antitrust subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee—served as way to raise money for the Biden Victory Fund. Tickets to the online ranged from $250 to $10,000.

Hating tech companies is a good business and good politics, once again.

I recently talked with tech policy and law experts recently about the bipartisan backlash against TikTok, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and other popular tech tools and companies. Check that out here.

QUICK HITS

• Some good news on COVID-19 immunity: “Scientists who have been monitoring immune responses to the virus are now starting to see encouraging signs of strong, lasting immunity, even in people who developed only mild symptoms of Covid-19, a flurry of new studies suggests.”

• The latest election poll:

• The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday that California’s ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines is unconstitutional.

• A new study on access to opioid addiction treatment found that “pregnant women were about 20% less likely to be accepted for treatment than nonpregnant women.”

• “It’s kind of this bastard mix of conspiracy theories, sovereign [citizens], and just straight-up scamming people.”

• A federal court has “dismissed a lawsuit filed by two inmates who challenged the Maine Department of Corrections policy on early releases during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/2E9WyAM
via IFTTT

My Dedicated Zoom Work Station

We have all experienced how draining Zoom meetings can be and how hard it is to concentrate when a speaker has bad audio. Since I will be teaching via Zoom this semester, I wanted my video and audio to be better than I was getting using my laptop. In addition, I needed

  • A set up that would hold my teaching notes.
  • Something that allowed me to be positioned in a way that approximated how I teach.
  • A separate workstation so I did not have to use my laptop, which is running all sorts of programs and on which I always have dozens of windows open.
  • Something dedicated only for teaching that I could keep configured the way I wanted.
  • Something compact that could easily be wheeled out of the way, since I use this space for my home gym and to play the drums. (Yes, that is sheet music for my drums now on the workstation.)

I am very pleased with the setup I settled on.

Zoom workstation

 

 

It consists of the following equipment with Amazon pricing (in descending order of price). (Unfortunately, I just missed out on buying the HP monitor from Staples for $275 before it sold out).

The total price for this setup was $704. I am also using a set of wired earbuds to plug into the mic so I can hear myself and the students and a wireless keyboard/mouse, both of which I already owned. The monitor has fine speakers for conferencing but this way, I do not disturb others in the house. Zoom lets you easily switch between the monitor speakers and the Pyle mic earphone jack. I will experiment with what seems most natural. The mic sounds awesome BTW. I highly recommend it for $55.

The light ring includes brackets for an IPad and IPhone as well as a Bluetooth remote to take selfie pictures with the IPhone that also mounts inside the ring.

I used the free OBS Studio software with a free Reaper ReaGate VST plug-in to eliminate the hum of the heat pump that is nearby. I am also running the Brave Browser which has enhanced privacy settings as compared with Chrome

I bought this particular computer cart because it had the tilting shelf for my notes. When configured this way, you can use the mouse but cannot easily use the keyboard. Since I won’t be using a keyboard with this setup, that is fine for me. But others might figure out how to play with the shelves to allow better access to the keyboard–or get a different cart. I also like this one  because, in addition to the tilting shelf, it is adjustable from seated to standing height (much higher than in the picture) and allows me to teach while sitting on a stool as I sometimes do in the classroom. When I am seated, the mic and light ring are both out of the picture. It is decently made for $99.99.

 

This is the mini stick PC:

Unfortunately, the Terryza PC Stick I bought, which has 8GB RAM and 12GB SSD is now out of stock. I bought this one to ensure it could handle video streaming. $175 for a full featured Windows 10 Pro PC was pretty good, I thought. The lesser priced ones still available might work.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/3g66pVi
via IFTTT

When Teachers Call the Cops on Parents Whose Kids Skip Their Zoom Classes

dreamstime_xxl_176349629

If there’s one thing the public school system shouldn’t be doing right now, it’s making life even more hellishly difficult for parents. And yet many teachers in the state of Massachusetts are contacting the authorities to report parents for suspected child abuse when kids fail to show up for Zoom classes.

“Massachusetts school officials have reported dozens of families to state social workers for possible neglect charges because of issues related to their children’s participation in remote learning classes during the pandemic shutdown in the spring,” The Boston Globe reported on Saturday.

The infuriating article is worth reading in full. The Globe spoke with several parents who have received calls and visits from the state Department of Children and Families (DCF). The department has the power to remove children from their homes and place them in foster care if agents suspect that kids are being mistreated, abused, or neglected—and DCF considers distance-learning no-shows to be possible abuse cases. DCF lists numerous circumstances in which teachers should feel obliged to call the cops, among them kids appearing tired or hungry during Zoom sessions.

Working parents who have no choice but to leave their young children in the care of a sibling, or let them fend for themselves, will be particularly vulnerable to unfounded child services investigations. This isn’t a theoretical concern. Consider the case of Em Quiles, who

struggled to work her full-time job while overseeing her young son’s schooling. During remote class time, her 7-year-old was largely supervised by his teenage brother, who had his own school work to do.

Quiles said she told staff at Heard Street Discovery Academy in Worcester in the spring that her work schedule made it tough to assist with virtual schooling and she struggled to navigate the school’s online platforms. “They didn’t offer any help,” she said.

Then in June, Quiles was stunned to receive a call from the state’s Department of Children and Families. The school had accused Quiles of neglect, she was told, because the 7-year-old missed class and homework assignments.

Another mother, a Spanish-speaking immigrant, requested a virtual meting with a school councillor to discuss her son’s behavioral difficulties, which had worsened during pandemic-induced isolation. A few days after she spoke with the councillor, DCF called the mom. Someone at the school—possibly the councillor—had accused the mom of “general neglect” based on “behaviors observed or disclosed during remote learning.” The agency spent weeks investigating the matter, interrogating the mother and her son on everything from “the contents of her refrigerator to her son’s sleeping location.” The allegation was eventually dismissed.

A third parent—Christi Brouder, a single mother of four kids—faced frequent threats from teachers that DCF would intervene if the children didn’t improve their virtual attendance. Once, when her 10-year-old daughter was tuned in to Zoom class, Brouder’s autistic six-year-old son leapt naked in front of the screen. Predictably, the school called the cops:

Later that day, Brouder received a call from the Department of Children and Families. The social worker informed her that school staff had reported a naked adult male exposing himself on the computer.

Brouder explained that she lives alone with her four young children and that the nude male was only 6.

She was relieved when the social worker told her the case wouldn’t go anywhere. The school district, however, wasn’t ready to drop the issue. The head of Haverhill’s special-education department told Brouder that afternoon they had contacted the city police department “due to the severity of the allegations,” according to Brouder.

A plainclothes police officer came to her home that evening; that case, too, was eventually dropped.

Massachusetts’s DCF is not radically different from the child services departments in the other 49 states, and similar issues are probably cropping up elsewhere. The harm is likely to be worse for poorer families, though economic security is by no means a guarantee of safety from predatory child services investigations.

The decision to rely partly or entirely on virtual learning has created a horrible situation for many working parents who depend on school for day care. Public school officials should be treating such families with empathy and patience, not putting the authorities on speed dial.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/2Y9Wbx9
via IFTTT

Key Events In The Coming Week: Dem Convention, FOMC Minutes, Earnings Season Ends

Key Events In The Coming Week: Dem Convention, FOMC Minutes, Earnings Season Ends

Tyler Durden

Mon, 08/17/2020 – 09:24

As the mid-summer sun rises and as most traders take advantage of the current newsflow lull to step away for a quick vacation, the FOMC minutes from the July 29 meeting should be one of the more interesting events in this quiet week especially if there are signs of a potential average inflation target being discussed – with the other being the various surveys ending with the flash August PMIs on Friday. As DB’s Craig Nicol notes, this should give investors one of the first indications of how the global economy has fared moving into the month, so it’ll be interesting to see if the recent positive momentum in most of the PMIs is sustained. For reference in the July PMIs, with the exception of Japan, all of the other countries (Australia, France, Germany, Euro Area, UK and US) had PMIs above the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction.

We’ll see if that helps the S&P 500 complete the final half a percent or so needed to take it to new all-time highs. The other talking point has the bear-steepening in rates which for Treasuries saw 2s10s jump to 56bps, steepening 13bps on the week. For what it’s worth, DB’s strategist think there could be more to come and target 0.85% on the 10y Treasury (about 15bps above this morning’s level).

Investors are also bracing for election season to kick into higher gear with the Democratic National Convention, which runs Monday through Thursday. The Republican convention will be held from Aug. 24 to Aug. 27 and both will be mostly virtual this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elsewhere, earnings season is almost done, and as of Friday, 457 companies in the S&P 500 have reported results, of which 81.4% came in above dramatically lowered expectations, according to Refinitiv data. The retailers, along with Walmart, Kohls and Target are due to report second-quarter earnings later in the week.

Below is a day-by-day calendar of events, courtesy of Deutsche Bank:

Monday

  • Data: Japan preliminary Q2 GDP, US August Empire State manufacturing survey, August NAHB housing market index, June foreign net transactions
  • Central Banks: Fed’s Bostic speaks Earnings: BHP Group, JD.com
  • Politics: Democratic Convention begins

Tuesday

  • Data: US July building permits, housing starts
  • Central Banks: RBA release meeting minutes
  • Earnings: Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target, TJX
  • Politics: Latest round of UK-EU negotiations on their future relationship commences

Wednesday

  • Data: Japan July trade balance, June core machine orders, UK July CPI, Euro Area June current account, final July CPI, Canada July CPI
  • Central Banks: Bank Indonesia policy decision, FOMC release meeting minutes
  • Earnings: Nvidia

Thursday

  • Data: Germany July PPI, US August Philadelphia Fed business outlook, weekly initial jobless claims, July leading index Central
  • Banks: Central Bank of Turkey policy decision, ECB and RBI release meeting minutes, Fed’s Daly speaks
  • Earnings: Alibaba, Estee Lauder
  • Politics: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at the Democratic convention

Friday

  • Data: August Manufacturing, services and composite PMIs for Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Euro Area, UK and US, Japan July nationwide CPI, UK July retail sales, Canada June retail sales, Euro Area August advance consumer confidence, US July existing home sales
  • Earnings: Deere & Company

* * *

Finally, looking at just the US, Goldman notes that the key economic data release this week is the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index on Thursday. In addition, minutes from the July FOMC meeting will be released on Wednesday.

Monday, August 17

  • 08:30 AM Empire State manufacturing index, August (consensus +15.0, last +17.2)
  • 10:00 AM NAHB housing market index, August (consensus 74, last 72)
  • 12:00 PM Atlanta Fed President Bostic (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic will discuss inclusive innovation in a virtual event hosted by the Rotary Club of Atlanta. Audience Q&A is expected.

Tuesday, August 18

  • 08:30 AM Housing starts, July (GS +3.8%, consensus +4.6%, last +17.3%); Building permits, July (consensus +4.9%, last +3.5%): We estimate housing starts rose +3.8% in July. Our forecast incorporates a boost from lower mortgage rates and stronger construction job growth.

Wednesday, August 19

  • 02:00 PM Minutes from the July 28-29 FOMC meeting: At its July meeting, the FOMC left the target range for the policy rate unchanged at 0-0.25%, as widely expected, and made no changes to its forward guidance. In the minutes, we will look for further discussion on the framework review, forward guidance, and asset purchase policies.

Thursday, August 20

  • 08:30 AM Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index, August (GS 24.1, consensus 21.0, last 24.1): We estimate that the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index remained unchanged at 24.1 in August.
  • 08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended August 15 (GS 975k, consensus 920k, last 963k); Continuing jobless claims, week ended August 8 (consensus 15,000k, last 15,486k): We estimate initial jobless claims ticked up to 975k in the week ended August 15.
  • 01:00 PM San Francisco Fed President Daly (FOMC non-voter) speaks: San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will discuss the new future of work at an event hosted by the San Francisco Fed.

Friday, August 21

  • 09:45 AM Markit Flash US manufacturing PMI, August preliminary (consensus 51.5, last 50.9)
  • 09:45 AM Markit Flash US services PMI, August preliminary (consensus 50.9, last 50.0)
  • 10:00 AM Existing home sales, July (GS +18.0%, consensus +14.4%, last +20.7%): After rebounding by 20.7% in June, we estimate that existing home sales increased 18.0% further in July. Existing home sales are an input into the brokers’ commissions component of residential investment in the GDP report.

Source: DB, GS, BofA

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/312U145 Tyler Durden

CNN Poll: Biden’s Lead On Trump Tumbles By 10 Points After Two Months Of Rioting

CNN Poll: Biden’s Lead On Trump Tumbles By 10 Points After Two Months Of Rioting

Tyler Durden

Mon, 08/17/2020 – 09:05

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A new CNN poll has found that Joe Biden’s lead over President Trump has shrunk by 10 points after over two months of unrest and rioting in major American cities.

CNN’s last survey, conducted in early June when riots had largely been confined to Minneapolis, had Biden ahead by 14 points. Now he leads by just 4.

“Biden leads President Donald Trump by just four points nationally — 50 percent to 46 percent — and by even less across 15 battleground states that will determine who wins the electoral college,” reports Breitbart.

“In those 15 states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin — the new CNN poll has Biden leading by just one percent, with Biden at 49 and Trump at 48.”

The poll indicates that the riots have not only convinced many independents and moderates to vote for Trump, but that the unrest has also hardened support amongst Trump’s base.

Indeed, the numbers show that the President’s backing among conservatives has been boosted from 76% to 85%. Those between the ages of 35 and 64 now lean towards Trump having favored Biden back in June.

The survey was also conducted after the announcement of Kamala Harris as Biden’s running mate, suggesting her selection has done nothing to help Biden or even harmed his chances.

[ZH: Notably, only 27% of the poll respondents self-identified as Republicans]

Who would have thought that two and a half months of American cities burning, with the tacit support of Democrats, would have harmed their chances? Incredible.

[ZH: And compare to Hillary’s 2016 “lead”, Biden is marginally ahead]

Source

On a serious note, the fact that Biden is still ahead even after a long hot summer of total bedlam inspired by extremist far-left rhetoric that the Democratic Party has encouraged is somewhat disturbing.

*  *  *

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via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3aIKeDT Tyler Durden

Italy Closes Nightclubs As COVID-19 Revival Rocks Europe; US Deaths Top 1k For 5th Day: Live Updates

Italy Closes Nightclubs As COVID-19 Revival Rocks Europe; US Deaths Top 1k For 5th Day: Live Updates

Tyler Durden

Mon, 08/17/2020 – 08:46

Summary:

  • US deaths surpass 1k for 5th day
  • Italy closes nightclubs
  • India passes 50k deaths
  • Australia suffers record death toll

* * *

When the world looks back on the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the virus’s conquest of Lombardy, the northern Italian region surrounding Milan that’s known as the locus of Italian industry, will likely be remembered as a catalyst of the terror that quickly spread across Europe and the US.

And now, after COVID-19 cases have steadily crept higher in recent weeks, it looks like Italy is preparing to to start reimposing restrictions on nightclubs and bars just after unveiling plans to re-start in-person learning across the country.

Italy isn’t alone: France, Spain and Germany have all reimpose restrictions ranging from partial localized lockdowns to mandatory mask orders to restrictions on travel over the past few weeks as the number of new cases has started to bounce back across Europe.

Specifically, Italy is shutting bars and nightclubs for three weeks and making it compulsory to wear a mask outdoors at night in some parts of the country where new cases are increasing. The restrictions are similar to the nightlife rules imposed by Hong Kong to combat its “third wave” of the outbreak a few weeks ago, as younger people are largely emerging as the primary drivers of these latest outbreaks.

While the median age of new infections has dropped below 40, the number of new cases reported over the last week has doubled from three weeks ago.

Just a few days after passing 2.5 million cases, India reported 941 new COVID-19 deaths, bringing the country’s total north of 50,000. India is in fourth place globally in terms of the death toll.

India has the fourth-highest number of deaths globally, after recently surpassing the UK’s tally. The virus’s spread continues to accelerate through the world’s 2nd-most populous country, with the total number of confirmed case at more than 2.6 million, the third most in the world.

After reporting its largest batch of new cases in 5 months yesterday, South Korea reported 197 more cases of coronavirus on Monday, amid a flareup of infections. The country warned over the weekend of another mass infection after reporting the highest number of coronavirus cases since early March, most of which are linked to an outbreak at a church in the capital.

In the US, deaths topped 1,000 for the fifth day in a row.

Finally, Australia suffered its deadliest day yet, with 25 deaths recorded in the state of Victoria, home to Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne…

…which is presently the epicenter of the country’s worst outbreak yet.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3g3ymx2 Tyler Durden

The ‘V’ Is Over – Empire Manufacturing Survey Slumps In August As New Orders Decline

The ‘V’ Is Over – Empire Manufacturing Survey Slumps In August As New Orders Decline

Tyler Durden

Mon, 08/17/2020 – 08:37

While analysts expected a modest decline in the Empire Manufacturing survey (from 17.2 to 15.0), the soft sentiment signal tumbled to just 3.7, suggesting the exuberant rebound from the depths of lockdown is over…

Source: Bloomberg

The drop was driven by a decline in new orders as it appears the restocking pent-up demand moves are over.

Nearly 34% of respondents said that business conditions are improving, while about 30% said activity was declining. The bank’s gauge of new orders fell to minus 1.7 from 13.9 and the shipments index dropped to 6.7 from 18.5.

And finally, we note that optimism among New York manufacturers about economic conditions over the next six months cooled with ‘hope’ sliding to 34.3 from 38.4.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/346jbRx Tyler Durden

Homebuilders Have Never, Ever Been More Confident

Homebuilders Have Never, Ever Been More Confident

Tyler Durden

Mon, 08/17/2020 – 08:18

As Upton Sinclair is credited with saying, “it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

And that, some might argue, sums up the amazing surge in homebuilder sentiment in August, spiking from 72 to 78 (74 exp) – equalling its highest level in history (in Dec 1998)…

  • Measure of present single family sales rises to 84 vs 78 last month

  • Future single family sales gauge rises to 78 vs 75 last month

  • Prospective buyers traffic measure rises to 65 vs 57 last month

Source: Bloomberg

“Housing has clearly been a bright spot during the pandemic and the sharp rebound in builder confidence over the summer has led NAHB to upgrade its forecast for single-family starts, which are now projected to show only a slight decline for 2020,” Robert Dietz, NAHB chief economist, said in a statement.

“Single-family construction is benefiting from low interest rates and a noticeable suburban shift in housing demand to suburbs, exurbs and rural markets as renters and buyers seek out more affordable, lower density markets.”

While home-buyer sentiment has rebounded from its depths, it remains notably decoupled from homebuilder exuberance…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, we find the record high sentiment ‘interesting’ in light of the dramatic tightening of lending standard

Source: Bloomberg

It would seem that Sinclair could be right.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3h31JRq Tyler Durden