Power Grab

Israel closes schools, universities as Netanyahu issues dire coronavirus warning

Decision doesn’t include kindergartens, special education and boarding schools; PM warns of ‘a global event unlike anything’ the country has seen,

calls for emergency government

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that Israel would be closing schools and universities effective Friday as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, calling the pandemic “a global event unlike anything” the country had ever seen.

“We are closing the schools and the universities,” the premier announced on live television.

He said the closure didn’t include preschools and kindergartens, special education and boarding schools, adding that a decision would be made for those institutions soon.

In a prime-time speech from the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu warned that “the potential number of deaths is very high and we must take action to prevent that.”

He said the mortality rate from the virus, which he put at between two and four percent, was “very high.” There have so far been no deaths from the virus in Israel, where there have been 109 confirmed cases.

“We are in the midst of a global event unlike anything else in the history of the state’s existence,” he said, offering a dire warning of the potential death toll if most of the population is infected and even comparing the situation to the 1918 Spanish Flu, which infected some 500 million people — 27% of the world’s population at the time — and killed between 17 and 50 million people, according to estimations.

He said Israel’s efforts were focused on slowing the spread of the virus so that it doesn’t cause masses of sick to require medical attention at the same time and overwhelm the healthcare system.

Stepping up the current ban on gatherings of more than 100 people, Netanyahu called on the public to “refrain as much as possible from gatherings in general.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-closes-schools-universities-as-netanyahu-issues-dire-coronavirus-warning/

Gov. Kate Brown Orders State Action On Climate Change

Oregon Republicans killed cap and trade this year. Now, they’ll have to contend with cap and reduce.

Closing a loop on a pledge she made last year, Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order Tuesday that aims to sharply curb greenhouse gas emissions with a full-court press by government agencies.

The 14-page order comes less than a week after a Republican walkout killed Senate Bill 1530, Democrats’ signature proposal for a cap-and-trade system in Oregon. It contains ambitions that are at once equal to and much broader than that bill.

“The executive branch has a responsibility to the electorate, and a scientific, economic, and moral imperative to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions,” the order says, “and to reduce the worst risks of climate change and ocean acidification for future generations.”

Like SB 1530, Brown’s order updates the state’s carbon reduction goals, setting targets of a 45% reduction below 1990 levels by 2035, and an 80% reduction by 2050. But its path to those goals extends well beyond the regulations in the legislative proposal.

Brown’s order, for instance, directs agencies to alter building codes to prioritize energy efficiency, and to further ratchet down the carbon intensity of gasoline. It has provisions for updated energy efficiency standards for appliances and directives for reducing food waste.

In total, the action impacts 19 state agencies and commissions, directing a large portion of the state’s bureaucracy to do its work with an eye toward reducing emissions. That sweeping nature is certain to make it a target — both legally and rhetorically — of Republicans and industry groups.

“This executive order is extensive and thorough, taking the boldest actions available to lower greenhouse gas emissions under current state laws,” Brown said in a statement. “As a state, we will pursue every option available under existing law to combat the effects of climate change and put Oregon on a path we can be proud to leave behind for our children.”

For its differences to SB 1530, a central piece of Brown’s order bears a resemblance to the primary enforcement mechanism in the scuttled bill. Under the order, carbon polluters in the industrial, transportation and natural gas sectors would have their emissions capped by the state’s Environmental Quality Commission and Department of Environmental Quality, with allowable emissions reduced over time.

https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-governor-kate-brown-climate-change-executive-order-cap-and-trade-bill/

JPMorgan Capitulates: "One Could Perhaps Pedantically Argue That This Is QE"

We were right again.

On Jan 24, we wrote an article titled "The Debate Is Over: In Two Months "Not QE" Officially Becomes QE 4," in which we wrote that by the March 18 FOMC meeting, "the Fed will need to reduce its "demand burden" on the bill market, i.e., there won't be enough Bills available for the Fed to monetize without it distorting the market, and will extend the purchase program to include short coupons in the process officially ending any debate whether the Fed's manipulation of the market under the guise of saving repo, is "Not QE", because it is limited to Bills and thus no duration is taken out of the market, or is "QE 4", in which the Fed purchases at least some coupon securities in addition to Bills."

Not only were we right, but the transformation from Not QE to QE-4 (or QE-5, depending on how one counts), took place one week ahead of the FOMC meeting, when today as part of its massive, $1.5 trillion (with a maximum capacity of $5 trillion per month) bazooka in response to the bizarro moves in the Treasury market, the Fed announced that it would - as we predicted - expand its POMO from just Bills to all securities across the fixed income spectrum, including Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, Floating Rate Notes and, you guessed it, nominal coupons.

And just like that Not QE has become QE-4, as even JPMorgan - which for the longest time was arguing to anyone who bothered to listen that Not QE is not QE 4 and would not become QE 4 - was forced to admit today.

Here is JPM's Michael Feroli admitting "since today’s announcement moves those purchases further out the curve one could perhaps pedantically argue that this is QE." Those damn pedants.

This afternoon the Fed took two liquidity measures to support financial market functioning. The first was to redistribute its current $60 billion a month reserve management purchases of T-bills across the curve (including TIPS and FRNs) over the next month. The second was to conduct three $500 billion tranches of term repos (two for 3-months, one for 1-month) today and tomorrow. These actions were taken to address dislocations in funding markets that were impairing Treasury market functioning.

These actions are not designed to provide further economic stimulus. If the Fed wanted to provide such stimulus then it would have lowered the federal funds rate from its current 1.0%-1.25% target range. Whereas the Fed’s bill purchases were clearly not QE, since today’s announcement moves those purchases further out the curve one could perhaps pedantically argue that this is QE. Even if one bought this argument, the total size of purchases—$60 billion—is trivial compared to each of the Fed’s large-scale asset purchases.

Moreover, it would be inaccurate to describe the $1.5 trillion in repo operations as “money pumped into the system” as it is a temporary swap of reserves for government securities which will be unwound in one or three months’ time. We may well be approaching the point when the Fed turns to genuine QE (or large-scale asset purchases), but that won’t happen until the Fed sets the funds rate to zero, which should be next Wednesday at the latest.

Transaltion - the head JPM economist was wrong again, but we will give him some credit: Feroli - whose firm was pushing his clients into stocks as recently as two days ago - is right about one thing: genuine QE, or whatever the "non-pedants" want to call it, is coming as soon as next week, and if Yellen has her way and she will, - it will also include stocks and ETFs.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/jpmorgan-capitulates-one-could-perhaps-pedantically-argue-qe