WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Wednesday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes:
- Wednesday and it seems the world is singing the old Bob Gibson song, “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be,” also recorded by Bob Denver, The Chad Mitchell Trio, Jose Feliciano and many more. In fact there’s a Web site (bobgibsonfolk.com) where all 12 versions can be played. But we digress …
- First TikTok, the app that tweens and teens spend hours a day on. In fact it’s player duration that really sets it apart in the world of apps. President Trump said he gets a briefing Thursday morning after which he’ll decide what to do about what he says is a big security risk, if the Chinese Communist Party can get access to all that data from 13 year olds. It seemed so simple a couple of weeks ago. Microsoft would buy it, Treasury would take a cut, and all would be well. Then Microsoft was rejected, Oracle was chosen and, one more thing, China officials said they would never export TikTok’s secret sauce, millions of lines of code governed by really smart algorithms. Will Oracle end up basically administering a firewall protecting U.S. users, if that’s even possible? Will this whole episode be the debut of national champion apps, so nuanced and complex they can never be duplicated, only licensed? But somehow, that’s the way it’s gonna be.
- Then to Snowflake Inc., the data warehousing company whose shares shot to the sky on their first day in marketland, now suddenly a $70 billion firm with its shares having closed at more than twice their IPO price. A “pure” play on the cloud that’s become so vital to stay-at-homers. High tech in a world where high-tech is king, a promising IPO when investors are hungry for promising IPOs and a CEO with a successful track record. What’s not to like? Don’t read that recent issue of one of the geekworld’s favorite magazines, IEEE Spectrum, that says companies are on the verge of reclaiming their data from the cloud.
- Also on the way soon, two or more proven Covid-19 vaccines, at least according to noted virologist D. Trump. He assured a press room full of strangely skeptical reporters in an evening appearance that the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Virus Task Force member Robert Redfield was confused, or misinformed and just plain wrong when he told a congressional committee earlier in the day any vaccine won’t be in wide distribution until late next year.
- Also on the way is 2% inflation, according to noted fortune teller and Federal Reserve chief J. Powell. Having not quite gotten to the goal of 2% for about eight years. Powell said on the far horizon is even higher inflation and it will stay higher for a while, to balance out all the time spent below target. There is the little problem of a badly damaged economy which has the effect of depressing inflation. Even members of the Federal Open Market Committee couldn’t quite envision the promised land, not seeing in their quarterly assumptions the first approach to 2% until 2023. The entire story of the day’s FOMC meeting is elsewhere on this macenews.com site.
- Big 10 football is, what else, on the way. It was just a month ago the season was postponed because of the virus. President Trump claimed credit for pressuring college ball back into play and said Pac-12 – he called in Pac-10 – may soon follow. Still there was a tentativeness to the announcement, given other college teams that did keep playing have found, like Texas Tech, that most of the team can become infected. Some colleges keep secret their rate of infections, something for the opposing teams to think about.
- Upcoming economic statistics includes the weekly count of fresh unemployment benefit claims at 8:30a ET, along with housing starts and Philly Fed. The morning’s report on August retail sales was a little disappointing, casting a little shadow on third quarter snapback euphoria. Kevin Kastner explains it all elsewhere on this macenews.com site.
- Finally Japan’s ubiquitous TV channel NHK, broadcasting in 28 languages, has a feature about how retailers there have found a bonanza in an app that allows customers to pay more for products if they want to. Like the packaging, add a 100 yen. Impressed by the quality then tack on 300 yen. There’s a minimum price set, which customers happily ignore. Amazon listening?
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