Category: Breaking News

Coronavirus vaccine rollouts and a huge US stimulus package have boosted economic growth expectations.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sharply hiked its 2021 global growth forecast on Tuesday to 5.6%. The deployment of coronavirus vaccines and a huge US stimulus program have greatly improved the world’s economic prospects. Tuesday’s figure is an increase of 1.4% from the Paris-based organization’s December forecast. It said faster and more effective vaccination across the world is of critical importance. The outlook for global growth would be better than current projections if the production and distribution of vaccines accelerate as containment measures will be relaxed more rapidly. “World output is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels by mid-2021 but much will depend on the race between vaccines and emerging variants of the virus,” it stressed. The OECD said global gross domestic product (GDP) growth would be 4% in 2022. The US growth is expected to be 6.5% in 2021, partly reflecting the large-scale fiscal stimulus now planned with a sustained pace of vaccination. In the euro area, where the level of fiscal stimulus is lower and vaccine rollout slower, GDP is projected to increase 3.9% next year. The forecast for G20 countries was up 1.5 percentage points to 6.2% this year, the OECD said. Effective containment of the virus and regained dynamism of industrial activity created brighter prospects for the Asian-Pacific region. “In China, GDP growth is projected to be 7.8% this year; in Japan 2.7%; in Korea 3.3%; and in Australia 4.5%,” it said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives will take up by Wednesday the Senate version of the sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package backed by President Joe Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday. Closing in on final approval of one of the biggest U.S. anti-poverty measures since the 1960s, Democrats aim to enact the massive legislation by Sunday, when enhanced federal unemployment benefits are set to expire. The Senate passed its version of the bill after a marathon overnight vote on Saturday. The Senate version eliminated or pared back some provisions included in the House bill, which had increased the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and extended expanded jobless assistance through Aug. 29. Now that it has passed the Senate, it must be approved again by the House before it can make its way to Biden’s desk and be signed into law. Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol that the timing of a vote on the House floor “depends on when we get the paper from the Senate.” “We’d take it up Wednesday morning at the latest,” she said. Like the Senate, Democrats hold a very narrow majority in the chamber, meaning they cannot withstand many votes against the bill. The first version of the bill passed in the House without a single Republican vote. Two moderate Democrats joined Republicans in voting against that version. One of them, Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon, said on Monday he would now vote for the bill with the Senate changes. “My concerns remain on the size and scope of this bill but believe the Senate changes provide meaningful relief for Oregonians in need,” Schrader wrote on Facebook. “Funding for our local governments, small businesses, schools, families, healthcare providers and an extension on unemployment benefits will be a lifeline for many,” he said of the legislation. Republicans, who broadly supported coronavirus relief early in the pandemic, have criticized the price tag of the Biden relief package. On Friday, as the Senate vote was still under way, House Democratic lawmaker Bonnie Watson Coleman said she was “disgusted” by some of the changes in the Senate bill and questioned if she could support it. A spokesman for her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Representative Pramila Jayapal, head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters she thought members of the group would back the legislation, which she described as “phenomenal” and in keeping with most of its members’ priorities. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki praised the legislation at a news conference, saying that while there were some changes on the margins, it represented the “core” of what Biden originally proposed.

Dr. Lawrie has provided a rapid review to validate the analysis of efficacy of Ivermectin provided by the Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance , based in the US. Its leading figures have recently given testimony to the National Institute of Health’s Covid-19 Treatment Panel In New York. In connection with her analysis of ivermectin she sent a letter to Health Secretary Mr. Hancock and other MP’s on 3 January and has so far received no reply.

In her letter to the Prime Minister Dr. Lawrie states,

“The good news is that we now have solid evidence of an effective treatment Covid-19. It is called ivermectin. Ivermectin is a very safe and effective anti-parasitic medication widely used in low and middle income countries to treat worms, lice and scabies in both adults and children. It has been around for decades and not only is it on the WHO list of essential medicines it is a Nobel Prize winning medicine due to its increasing usefulness across a range of illnesses.

Between Xmas and new year I independently reviewed 27 studies presented by the FLCCC as evidence of ivermectin effectiveness. The resulting evidence is consistent and unequivocal : ivermectin works well both in preventing covid infections and in preventing deaths at the same doses used to treat lice other parasitic infections.

I am very pleased to inform you that this evidence solidly substantiates the FLCCC’s recommendation that ivermectin should be adopted globally and systematically for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19. Because I know there is alot of fake news going about I would like to assure you that you can trust the integrity of my report because I am an experienced independent medical research consultant whose work is routinely used to underpin international clinical practice guidelines. In addition I have no conflict of interest and have received no funding for this report.

But most of all you can trust me because I am a medical doctor first and foremost with amoral duty to help people, to do no harm and to save lives.

Please may we start saving lives now.

Thank you very much for your help. Mr.Hancock’s office should have my details. ”

https://youtu.be/5Q3qbPO_cSc

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday that she hopes President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package will help bring back full employment by 2022. Speaking with PBS NewsHour, Yellen said the U.S. needs to “go big” with coronavirus relief in order to help get the economy back on track to pre-pandemic levels. “It’s a big [stimulus] package, but I think that we need to go big now, and that we can afford to go big,” she said. “And the most important thing is to get our economy back on track and help people get their lives back, in order to make sure that this pandemic doesn’t permanently scar our work force. And I think this is what we need. I’m hopeful that, next year, with a package of this size, we can be back at full employment.” Yellen’s comments came after Friday’s announcement that the U.S. economy exceeded expectations by adding 379,000 new jobs in February. While Yellen said she was “pleased” with those numbers, she added that the unemployment rate is still running at about 10 percent. “When you think about the pace, although 379,000 jobs in one month, it sounds like a lot,” she said. “But, at that pace, it would take us more than two years to get back to full employment. And we’re — we want to make sure that our workers get back to full employment, the state we had in the economy before the pandemic struck, a lot sooner than that.” “The package that the president and his advisers put together that’s working its way through the Senate now was really geared to relieve the suffering of the American people,” she added. Biden’s stimulus package, called the American Rescue Plan, was passed by the House of Representatives on February 26 and has now been passed in the Senate. The package now goes back to the house where the Senate version of the bill is reconciled against the House version. It is expected to with little change.

Senate Democrats passed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan on Saturday afternoon in a 50-49 vote after a grueling all-night voting session, pushing the massive relief bill over a crucial hurdle on its way to becoming law over the objections of the Republican Party and setting up a major victory for Biden in the early days of his presidency. The legislation will authorize hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending for vaccine distribution and virus testing, hospitals, state and local governments, schools and small businesses to combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and offset its economic toll.

WASHINGTON—Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated his intention to keep easy-money policies in place but provided no sign the central bank will seek to stem a recent rise in Treasury yields, prompting them to rise further. Stocks also sold off on Mr. Powell’s remarks Thursday during an interview at The Wall Street Journal Jobs Summit. The appearance came a week after a jump in Treasury yields driven by forecasts of stronger U.S. economic growth and inflation this year, among other factors. “Today we’re still a long way from our goals of maximum employment and inflation averaging 2% over time,” Mr. Powell said Thursday during the interview.The Covid-19 pandemic continues to upend the job market. Some analysts said his latest remarks did little to ease investor fears about rising bond yields.“The market was looking for some more reassurance and didn’t get it,” said Krishna Guha, head of global policy and central bank strategy at Evercore ISI. Fed officials “don’t appear particularly concerned about the current level of yields, which in both real and nominal terms is significantly higher than it was two weeks ago.” The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose above 1.55% after Mr. Powell’s interview—its highest level since before the pandemic—up from 1.46% earlier Thursday and 0.92% at the beginning of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 345.95 points, or 1.11%, to 30924.14 Thursday. The S&P 500 declined 51.25 points, or 1.34%, to 3768.47, the third consecutive session of declines. The Nasdaq Composite fell 274.28 points, or 2.11%, to 12723.47. Meanwhile, oil prices rose Thursday after OPEC and a Russia-led coalition of oil producers kept most of their production cuts in place, surprising traders who had expected the group to increase output. Mr. Powell’s remarks came at his last scheduled public event before Fed policy makers meet on March 16-17. He said the central bank will maintain ultra-low interest rates until its employment and inflation goals have been met, and will continue hefty asset purchases until “substantial further progress” has been made. Recent evidence suggests the labor market is improving, but slowly. The Labor Department said Thursday that filings for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, rose slightly to 745,000 in the week ended Feb. 27, down from 927,000 in early January but more than three times their pre-pandemic levels. Mr. Powell noted that the U.S. has about 10 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic and said, “It will take some time to get back to maximum employment.”The central bank has held its overnight federal-funds rate near zero since last March. It has sought to suppress longer-term rates by purchasing, since last June, at least $120 billion a month of Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities. As bond yields have risen, some investors have begun to speculate that the Fed could start to skew its asset purchases or holdings toward longer-dated instruments in order to keep borrowing costs low. Asked Thursday about the climb in long-term rates, Mr. Powell said it “was something that was notable and caught my attention.” But he signaled no imminent policy response from the central bank. “I would be concerned by disorderly conditions in markets or a persistent tightening in financial conditions that threatens the achievement of our goals,” Mr. Powell said Thursday. He added that the Fed is looking at “a broad range of financial conditions,” rather than a single measure. “If conditions do change materially, the [Fed’s rate-setting] committee is prepared to use the tools that it has to foster achievement of its goals,” Mr. Powell said. Mr. Powell said last week that the Fed doesn’t foresee lifting its benchmark fed-funds rate from near zero until three conditions have been met: a broad range of statistics indicate that the labor market is at maximum strength, inflation has hit its 2% target, and forecasters expect inflation to remain at that level or higher.