US Sets Debt Record | CDC Plagued With Dissent | Sharia vs International Law

July 15, 2020

Please take two minutes to share Daily Pnut and help make the world a more intelligent place. Besides sharing a newsletter that will educate and entertain others, you’ll also win Daily Pnut swag as well as begin receiving our Sunday Newsletter after referring 5 other subscribers. Here’s an article in last Sunday’s Edition: No, Not That BLM

In addition to earning Daily Pnut swag and the Sunday newsletter, the person with the highest number of referrals between June 1, 2020 and the end of July will receive all of the following:

Call Sign Chaos by Jim Mattis, signed by Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
A brand new 2020 Apple iPhone SE.
A year of Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu subscription.

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.” – William Faulkner

Fed Up With Debt

(Olivier Douliery via Getty Images)

COVID-19 caused the US Federal Reserve to mobilize the full force of its balance sheet to shore up credit markets for the second time in just over a decade. In April, along with the government’s $500 billion small business loans program known as PPP, the Fed pledged to buy trillions of dollars of debt, much of it from the corporate sector, and some with questionable credit quality.

The relentless build-up in America’s corporate debt stems from the late 1970s, when bond salesman Michael Milken imagined that lending money to risky companies at high interest rates could be more profitable than earning reliable but meager returns from the debt of industrial champions. By inventing a form of corporate venture capital — issuing debt for companies whose bonds were rated as junk from the start — Milken changed the rules of business.

The debt craze spread far beyond junk bonds, fed by aggressive and complex financial engineering. Pension funds and insurance companies bought debt in bulk, while private equity firms put together leveraged buyouts in assembly line fashion. The result has been a dramatic change in how the US economy channels savings into the financial capital that fuels growth.

2008’s financial meltdown worried many experts about excessive financial engineering, but the response has been to increase leverage, not wind it down. Companies today owe a record $10 trillion — equivalent to 49 percent of US economic output. Add in other forms of business debt and the figure becomes a whopping $17 trillion.

This pandemic underscores the fragility of a leveraged economy in a time of crisis. Companies are filing for bankruptcy at the fastest pace since 2013. Many risk digging themselves a deeper hole — new loans might help them through the worst period of lockdowns, but it means they enter a potentially weaker phase of economic growth with even higher debts.

The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend

(Pool via Getty Images)

China and Iran are in negotiations over a 25-year strategic partnership that could involve about $400 billion in Chinese investment through various sectors of the Iranian economy. An outline of the accord’s details surfaced in an 18-page document that was leaked online.
The two-country pact would increase intelligence sharing and security cooperation, including possible missions in Syria and Iraq. It would also enable Chinese companies to expand their footprints in Iranian railroads, ports, and telecommunications, while Beijing would secure a steady and discounted Iranian oil supply for the next quarter-century.
China would develop free-trade zones in strategic locations in Iran, further binding the country to its sprawling Belt and Road global trade and development initiative. A former acting director of the CIA tweeted: “China & Iran win; we lose. This is a direct result of our go-it-alone policy on Iran. This is a key reason why so many, including Tillerson & Mattis, were against the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Policy missteps have real consequences.”
The New York Times noted, “The draft agreement with Iran shows that unlike most countries, China feels it is in a position to defy the United States, powerful enough to withstand American penalties, as it has in the trade war waged by President Trump.” (WaPo)
Caught in ‘Ideological Spiral,’ U.S. and China Drift Toward Cold War (NYT, $)
China promises ‘firm response’ to Trump’s order ending Hong Kong’s special status (Guardian)
Huawei Equipment Will Now Be Banned From UK’s 5G Network (NPR)
US allies once seemed cowed by China. Now they’re responding with rare coordination (CNN)

Sharia vs International Law

A 42-year-old former Islamic militant has gone on trial “for persecution on the grounds of gender” at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. This is the first ever case held for such a charge. Prosecutors say Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud forced hundreds of women into sexual slavery through torture, extrajudicial punishments, and forced marriage, which “led to repeated rapes and sexual enslavement of women and girls.”
He is also charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. The alleged offences were committed during a six-month period when the Malian city of Timbuktu was occupied and ruled by radical Islamist groups in 2012 and 2013. Timbuktu fell to a coalition of Tuareg rebels and Islamist militant factions in mid-2012.
The militants enforced a harsh version of Sharia law in areas under their control, banning music, forcing women to wear the burqa, preventing girls from attending school and demolishing saints’ graves. The extremists withdrew when French soldiers advanced in January 2013.
The Al Hassan case is groundbreaking not just for charging persecution based on gender for the first time, but also for including the crime of forced marriage as distinct from sexual slavery. “This gives recognition to the gendered dimension of forced marriage, separate from sexual violence, as well as recognising the social stigma faced by victims,” said a gender justice professional. (Guardian)

Additional World News

COVID-19

Baby Was Infected With Coronavirus in Womb, Study Reports (NYT, $)
How coronavirus affects the entire body (CNN)
Two months after infection, COVID-19 symptoms persist (Ars Technica)
The Math of Social Distancing Is a Lesson in Geometry (Quanta Magazine)
How Herd Immunity Happens (Atlantic, $)
UAE coronavirus: Dubai, Abu Dhabi take different approaches (WaPo, $)
The US is diving into a dark Covid hole — and there’s no plan to get out (CNN)
How Two Waves of Coronavirus Cases Swept Through the Texas Panhandle (New Yorker, $)
Coronavirus Surge Is Killing America’s Small Businesses (NYT, $)
Elements Of A Coronavirus Conspiracy: 5G, Vaccinations, Bill Gates (NPR)
Super-rich call for higher taxes on wealthy to pay for Covid-19 recovery (Guardian)

A Not-So-Long Planned Vacation

Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced on Monday he was taking a “long-planned” vacation. Fox News hosts are known for taking aptly timed “vacations” when controversies erupt and advertisers pull out; Carlson made no mention if his “vacation” was connected to last week’s resignation of his head writer, Blake Neff.
A CNN investigation found that Neff had, for years, been using a pseudonym to post bigoted remarks on an online forum that is a hotbed for racist, sexist, and otherwise offensive content. Additionally, over a five year period, Neff maintained a lengthy thread in which he derided a woman and posted information about her dating life that invited other users to mock her and invade her privacy.
On Monday, Carlson called Neff simply “a writer” on the show, and gave an attempted exculpatory explanation for why Neff’s “wrong” comments were solely his own, with “no connection to the show.” Further inspection, however, reveals ample overlap between material Neff posted and Carlson’s diatribes.
Carlson is the most-watched cable news host in US history, and delights in generating backlash with on-screen rants against migrants and liberals, controversy he uses as fuel for further tirades. President Trump is a committed viewer of the show. (Guardian, CNN)

CDC Plagued With Dissent

In the midst of an external public health crisis, internal strife now grips the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the federal agency fields criticism for their handling of COVID-19, they have found no reprieve on the topic of racial justice.
More than 1,200 CDC employees have signed a letter calling for the nation’s most prominent health institution to “take immediate, specific, and measurable actions to address the systemic racism that continues to afflict this agency.” The document, addressed to CDC Director Robert Redfield, alleges an agency-wide culture of discrimination and a glaring lack of diversity in executive positions.
Currently, black employees make up 10% of the agency’s senior leadership, and only 6% of their most recent Epidemic Intelligence Service class. The fellowship program is seen as an important first step in climbing the ranks of the CDC, but with so few people of color making the cut, the letter condemns the agency of fostering an “old boy/girl network.”
Redfield gave public acknowledgement of the letter after more than 10% of the CDC workforce signed on in support, stating that he welcomes an “inclusive environment in which staff can openly share their concerns with agency leadership.”
Such publicized demonstrations of dissent are uncommon in federal agencies like the CDC, who are renowned for keeping tight control of their public image. However, many workforce norms have gone by the wayside as public opinion on racial justice is shifting in favor of black, indigenous, and people of color. (NPR)

Additional USA News

Minimum wage workers cannot afford rent in any US state (CNBC)
Government Rescinds Plan to Strip Visas From Foreign Students in Online Classes (NYT, $)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg in hospital for treatment of possible infection (Guardian)
Representative Steve Watkins of Kansas Is Charged With Voter Fraud (NYT, $)
Jeff Sessions loses GOP nomination for his old Alabama Senate seat (Guardian)
South Dakota Shares Driver’s License Info For Trump Request On Citizenship (NPR)
Ghislaine Maxwell denied bail in Epstein sex trafficking case (BBC)
Federal Judge Rejects Harvey Weinstein’s $19 Million Settlement With Alleged Victims (NPR)
Biden’s Clean Energy Proposal: What’s In It (NPR)
Trump twists stats on police brutality: ‘more white people’ are killed (Guardian)
Trump’s Shocking Inaction on Russia (NYT, $)
The Cost of the Evangelical Betrayal (Atlantic, $)
$600 a Week Buys Freedom From Fear (Atlantic, $)

Extreme Quarantine

A new documentary, Spaceship Earth, tells the story of a troupe of eight hippies who spent two years in the early 1990s sealed inside a dome called Biosphere 2. For a generation that had come of age with moon landings and films like “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Silent Running,” the experiment was originally meant to demonstrate the viability of closed ecological systems to support and maintain human life in outer space.
Over four years, a $150 million facility was constructed in the Arizona desert, with gleaming white panels and ziggurats of glass filled with forests, deserts, laboratories, recycling systems, pigs, chickens, hummingbirds, bush babies, and even a coral reef. Biosphere 2 was designed to explore the web of interactions within life systems in a structure with different areas based on various biological biomes. Simply put, it was hoped that Biosphere 2 would be a way for people to learn how to replicate Earth so that other planets might be settled.
Hordes of media, speeches, and fireworks accompanied the launch of Biosphere 2 on September 26, 1991. Eight volunteer ‘biospherians’ — four women, four men, dressed in all white jumpsuits — sealed themselves in for the two-year journey into the unknown.
Problems began: many of the food crops were too slow or too labor-intensive to be worthwhile; oxygen levels decreased faster than anticipated, with a corresponding build-up of carbon dioxide; animals died; morale deteriorated. Rather than luxuriating in a Garden of Eden, the biospherians became more like subsistence farmers.
They emerged on September 26, 1993, starving and oxygen-deprived. While the episode showed that humans weren’t ready to colonize space quite yet, watching the documentary today can make us feel grateful that we at least have access to oxygen in our own quarantine bubbles. (Guardian)