Coronavirus News (229)

 Why Is the Stock Market So Strong When the Economy Is Weak?  the U.S. economy shrank 31.7% in the April-June quarter .........  the apparent disconnect between the stock market and the economy ........  we may have situations “where the stock prices may predict something that is going to be different from what we see right now.” .........  “What the Fed is doing right now is unprecedented,” he continued. The Fed has continued on the trajectory of low interest rates since mid-2019, but also pressed on with its “quantitative easing” approach to inject liquidity into the financial system, which it had used in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. “In recent months, it is not only doing the traditional quantitative easing of buying treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, but also continuing to buy other assets like corporate bonds, which is something that the Fed has not done before.” .............  The prices of assets are “mechanically pushed up” by the Fed’s act of purchasing them .......... the stock markets are factoring in expectations that the U.S. economy will rebound 20% or more in the current third quarter, with the lifting of lockdowns and resumption of modest economic activity in many parts of the country. ............  the stocks that are doing very well – Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix – haven’t been hurt that much by the current economic conditions. Some of them maybe have benefited from them. They are very dominant in the stock market, but they are not necessarily representing the economy as a whole ............... small businesses have no access to the stock market…. You see they are closing down. They are firing people, and so on, but you don’t see any reflection of those particular businesses in the stock market. .............  part of what’s going on is the fact that stock prices are forward-looking, so maybe they are seeing something optimistic. But it could be that they are missing some negative signals, and maybe those negative signals will come back to hit the market soon ............ Amid all those liquidity infusions are worries that the federal debt will balloon to unmanageable proportions ..............  The stock market is a prediction machine in the short term, a weighing machine in the long term. ........ I’m expecting the black swan style blow up to make the current pandemic and civil unrest look like a vacation.   

Ventilator Maker: We Can Ramp Up Production Five-Fold

America Is Going Hungry

Experts warn U.S. covid-19 deaths could more than double by year’s end  The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could triple by year’s end, with an additional 1.9 million deaths, while a fall wave of infections could drive fatalities in the United States to 410,000 ......... cooler, drier weather and increased time spent indoors could boost viral transmission in the Northern Hemisphere surge this fall and winter — something typically seen with other respiratory viruses. ..........  The best-case scenario is 288,381 deaths and worst-case is 620,029 ....... The scenarios pivot on human behavior and public policy. The best-case scenario would result from near-universal mask-wearing and the maintenance of social distancing and government mandates limiting the size of indoor gatherings. The worst-case scenario assumes that people and their communities stop taking precautions. 

Coronavirus News (228)

Harvard Astronomers Propose That Our Star System Used to Be Binary "The Sun's long-lost companion could now be anywhere in the Milky Way."

Scientists: Probe Center of Uranus, You’ll Hit Some Weird Water "In such exotic physical conditions, we cannot think of ice as we are used to." .......  This “superionic water” is not quite solid, nor is it a liquid — it’s somewhere in between. Hydrogen atoms roam freely, while the oxygen molecules are locked in a “crystalline lattice.” That’d also mean that electrical conductivity of the water inside the cores is much higher than initially thought — suggesting that these unusual ice cores could have a great effect on the planets’ magnetic fields.

6 Small Steps for Handling the Emotional Ups and Downs at Work 

Past vaccine disasters show why rushing a coronavirus vaccine now would be 'colossally stupid'

Look out Amazon, Walmart+ is here

Is 2020 the year of the career pivot?

The case for a six-hour workday

Bracing for the 'real recession'  Economists are warning about a looming recession-within-the-recession, as more temporary layoffs become permanent and long-term unemployment rises. One economist told Axios "the U.S. economy is transitioning from a depression to a recession and not a recovery."

CDC: 94% of Covid-19 deaths had underlying medical conditions

Paradise lost: How Hawaii went from Covid-19 star to cautionary tale The state's infection surge shows the risk of complacency, say local officials who fault the governor for neglecting basic public health measures.........  Hawaii’s control of the coronavirus has swiftly unraveled this summer, transforming what was the nation’s best-performing state into one of the worst. .............  Now the state, once hailed as a Covid-19 success story, has become a cautionary tale for other parts of the country that are preparing to open schools and loosen economic restrictions as infection rates come down. .............  the state's worsening outbreak is a stark reminder that this virus will easily exploit gaps in defenses .............. Ige’s administration said the seeds of the current outbreak were planted over the July Fourth weekend, when residents flocked to crowded beaches and many ignored pleas to wear masks.  

CDC to states: Ready vaccine distribution for November The CDC and HHS “are rapidly making preparations to implement large-scale distribution of the Covid-19 vaccines in the fall of 2020." ....... Federal health officials are urging states to get ready for coronavirus vaccine distribution by Nov. 1 ......... But it's unclear if any vaccine could be ready by Nov. 1, just two days before Election Day. ......... However, that timeline appears more optimistic than the one set by vaccine-makers. Three pharmaceutical companies have recently entered the final stage of clinical trials, which can take months. Definitive results about whether the shots work aren't expected until the end of the year.    

Coronavirus News (227)

Joe Biden faces pressure to separate China trade policy from Donald Trump’s in US election Americans feel more negative about China than ever before, yet healthy trade ties with the world’s No 2 economy remain surprisingly popular among US voters Biden faces challenge in differentiating his China trade policy from Trump’s, with ex-White House aides expecting tactical changes rather than an overhaul ............  a record 73 per cent of Americans now hold an unfavourable view on China, yet 51 per cent want to broker a strong economic relationship with America’s greatest modern-day rival. ..........  On China, the common theme has been the need to compete on some fronts and cooperate on others, stopping short of the zero sum view of trade policy that has defined Trump’s approach. ..........  A recent Biden proposal to “rebuild US supply chains”, which name-checked China 10 times, with Russia the only other country named (three times), emphasised this fact. .............  expect China to test Biden on trade early on, perhaps discarding the phase one trade deal – which Green described as “the bamboo deal because it is Chinese on the outside and hollow on the inside” – then gauging the new president’s response. .............   When campaigning for the Democratic nomination, he said that “America’s farmers have been crushed by [Trump]’s tariff war with China”, adding that Trump “thinks his tariffs are being paid by China. Any beginning econ student at Iowa or Iowa State could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs”. ..............  Biden would almost certainly be more predictable than Trump. He would seek to rebuild alliances with scorned partners, at a time when China has fallen out with Australia, India, Canada and is struggling to make progress on an investment treaty with Europe ...........  even from a Chinese perspective. Trump is destroying America, but he is destroying China too – he is destroying the whole world … so it is not good for China in the long run

China to overtake US as world’s top economy in 2032 despite Washington hostilities, state think tank predicts Report is based on prevailing assumptions in Beijing that China’s economic rise is unstoppable Development Research Centre of the State Council suggests that feuds with United States will continue to intensify over the next five years

China could weaponise drug exports to retaliate against US chip restrictions, Beijing adviser says High-profile economist Li Daokui says Beijing could restrict drug exports to the US if the Trump administration was to cut China’s access to semiconductors Washington has been ratcheting up attacks on Chinese tech firms, including starving Huawei of components made by American companies

China’s wish to end US dollar dominance is unlikely to come true with no genuine challenger in the wings Washington’s moves to sanction both Chinese and Hong Kong officials over the national security law and Xinjiang have highlighted the power of the US dollar The US dollar has remained the dominant currency since the 1940s, with the euro and the yuan lagging behind in terms of global foreign exchange reserves

US-China decoupling: does clash of ideologies raise too many non-negotiables? Live with us peacefully, China’s envoy Cui Tiankai has challenged Washington – but some argue coexistence is expected to be on Beijing’s terms American opposition to China on ideological grounds makes its position equally entrenched.........  The world’s two biggest economies are still doing business with each other, but on nearly every other front, from political systems to human rights, territorial boundaries and technology development, they are in an increasingly vocal conflict. .............  “Is the United States ready to live with another country with a different history, different culture, maybe different system, but with no intention to compete for global dominance with the United States?” .............  “Are you ready to live with us in peace?” ...........  “We have to keep in mind that the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] regime is a Marxist-Leninist regime,” he said. “General Secretary Xi Jinping is a true believer in a bankrupt totalitarian ideology. “It’s this ideology that informs his decades-long desire for global hegemony of Chinese communism. America can no longer ignore the fundamental political and ideological differences between our countries, just as the CCP has never ignored them.” ...........  “For China, the idea of the two countries living together in peace could equate to annexing Taiwan, absorbing Hong Kong, repressing Xinjiang and denying maritime claims of US allies and partners in the East and South China Seas” .............  “Ambassador Cui’s speech, though couched in diplomatic language, is at the same time bullying, insisting that the US accommodate China regardless of Beijing’s inappropriate behaviour, rather than identify ways that China and the US can alter behaviour together to change the paradigm,” he said. “So long as China continues on its current path, the prospects for improved relations are dim, regardless of who is in the White House in 2021.” ..........  “Cui’s statement perfectly captures the Chinese view that it is time for the US to accommodate a powerful country with a different political, economic and values system.”   

Chinese President Xi Jinping says Marxist political economy is the bedrock for nation’s growth The ‘dominant position of public ownership cannot be shaken’, general secretary of Chinese Communist Party says In an ever-changing global environment, steering the economy into the future will be a major test for the party, Xi says ............  China’s Marxist political economy will continue to adapt to the ever-changing domestic and international environment, but must remain the bedrock on which the nation builds its future ..........  steering the economy into the future would be a major test for the party, he said ..... Xi dismissed suggestions that China’s Marxist political economy was outdated, saying it allowed markets to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources but also enhanced the role of the government. .........  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week said America viewed the threat posed by China as “much more difficult” to counter than the one presented by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. .........  Many capitalist countries had suffered economic downturns, unemployment problems, increased polarisation and deepening social conflicts, he said.    

Mike Pompeo says Chinese threat may be worse than ‘Cold War 2.0’ US Secretary of State urges Czechs to stand up to Beijing like they did to Soviets Pompeo raises prospect of Chinese world domination on first stop of five-day Central Europe trip ........... “The CCP is already enmeshed in our economies, in our politics, in our societies in ways the Soviet Union never was.” ......... Pompeo slammed China for its repression of the Hong Kong protests and called Beijing’s repression of Uygur Muslims “the human rights stain of the century,” charging that it was “sustained by companies like Huawei, using technology that the secret police could have only dreamed of”. ...... But Babiš was non-committal. He expressed disappointment that China had invested so little in the country, saying: “With all due respect to our American investors, I want more investments from China.”

Coronavirus News (226)

How the US uses the dollar payments system to impose sanctions on a global scale The US dollar’s global dominance gives Washington a powerful tool that it uses to enforce sanctions on people, institutions and countries The decoupling of the world’s two largest economies has raised concerns about the United States deploying the ‘nuclear option’ of freezing China’s banking sector out of the global US dollar payments system   ........  The US’ ability to exploit the US dollar payment system began during the administration of former president Bill Clinton (1993-2001) and expanded under subsequent administrations. ..........  Iran, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela and, to a lesser extent, Russia. ..........  Last month, the US imposed sanctions on several Chinese government firms and officials, citing ties to alleged human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in restive Xinjiang. Most notably, the sanctions hit Chen Quanguo, a member of China’s Politburo, the centre of power within the Communist Party. ..............   the US Clearing House Interbank Payments System (Chips). Chips forms the primary settlement network for large-value domestic and international US dollar payments. ..............  the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) – the world’s largest electronic payment messaging system ............  Although it does not settle transactions, the Belgian-based SWIFT network connects 11,000 banks and companies globally, for sending messages about financial transactions. Among its 25-board membership, the US has two seats and the chairmanship, while China has one seat. ............... US-China interdependence is so extensive .............  The Cross-border Interbank Payment System, the Chinese payment system for yuan settlements, processed 135.7 billion yuan (US$19.5 billion) worth of daily transactions last year – less than 2 per cent of the daily volume in the US’ Chips clearing system.   

US dollar at risk of sudden collapse? Ex-IMF official warns ‘blow-up event’ could sink currency as debt mounts A fresh stimulus package worth at least US$1 trillion could spell relief for millions of Americans in pandemic, but could raise financial stability risks US Federal Reserve’s aggressiveness in easing financial conditions has succeeded in halting a further decline in the US economy, but that could change if major companies start going bankrupt ......... “The concern isn’t whether the US dollar will see an accumulated decline of 30 per cent in the future, but whether there will be a blow-up event that causes a sudden loss of confidence in the US dollar, and its market to collapse,” said Zhu, who is currently head of the National Financial Research Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing. ...................  “So, the question of whether there will be a financial crisis will depend on whether a major company will be the next to go bankrupt, and thereby result in a jump in the corporate default ratio, leading to a sovereign debt crisis,” Zhu said. The US became the lender of choice for many countries that were willing to buy US-dollar-denominated bonds. This provided the US with what’s been dubbed an “exorbitant privilege” to run with soaring public deficits and debt, as international funds have chased the safe-haven status of US dollars and assets during times of turmoil. ....................  “Past an unknown critical threshold, [using monetary policy to deal with public deficit] could see the collapse of US dollar currency hegemony as people lose faith in it,” Every said. “All systems can only be pushed so far. Does the world still want a US-dollar-centric system if US dollars are openly printed to fund the state spending that drives the external deficit?” .................  The US dollar has been the world’s leading currency since 1919, when it overtook the pound in the aftermath of World War I.   

China keen to work with ‘US states, local councils, businesses’ despite Washington’s hostility, Xi Jinping says President Xi Jinping is keen to de-escalate rising tensions with Washington and ensure American companies continue to do business with China China has had close ties with states on the west coast of the US, while purchases of agriculture products have also boosted interactions with Midwest farm states

China’s economic future is being influenced by nine economists, but what did they tell Xi Jinping this week? Chinese President Xi Jinping met with nine prominent economists this week to help with the development of the 14th five-year plan for 2021-25 which is due next year Each of the economists has advocated specific policies that could shed light on Beijing’s policy priorities in the years ahead .........  China’s economy grew by 6.1 per cent in 2019, the lowest growth rate since political turmoil ravaged the country in 1990, before shrinking 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 after the coronavirus shut down large swathes of the country. It avoided a recession after its economy grew by 3.2 per cent in the second quarter, the first major economy to show a recovery from the damage caused by the coronavirus. ...........   Wang was the driving force behind the nation’s strategically emerging industries plan. As early as 2012, he put forward his countrywide competition idea under which Beijing should marshal the country’s entire pool of state, market and social resources to pursue industrial and technological leadership..........  In one recently published article, Zhang said China must uphold the rules of the World Trade Organisation and seek an open and multilateral trade system to challenge the unilateralism being pursued by the US. .............  China will rely more on itself but it will not close itself up   

Coronavirus News (225)

 Neuralink’s Wildly Anticipated New Brain Implant: the Hype vs. the Science  the brain mostly operates on electrical signals. If we can tap into these enigmatic “neural codes”—the brain’s internal language—we could potentially become the architects of our own minds. ..........  raw neural recordings are too massive for efficient transfer, and automated spike detection and compression of that data is difficult, but a necessary step to allow neural interfaces to finally “cut the wire.” ..............  an undercurrent of tension between what’s possible in neuroengineering versus what’s needed to understand the brain. ..........  as neuroscience is increasingly understanding the neural code behind our thought processes, it’s clear that more electrodes or more stimulated neurons isn’t always better. Most neural circuits employ what’s called “sparse coding,” in that only a handful of neurons, when stimulated in a way that mimics natural firing, can artificially trigger visual or olfactory sensations. With optogenetics—the technique of stimulating neurons with light—scientists now know that it’s possible to incept memories by targeting just a few key neurons in a circuit. Sticking a ton of wires into the brain, which inevitably causes scarring, and zapping hundreds of thousands of neurons isn’t necessarily going to help. ...................  Without an idea of how neural circuits work and in what sequences, zapping the brain with electricity—no matter how cool the device itself is—is akin to banging on all the keys of a piano at once, rather than composing a beautiful melody. ..........  the brain will eventually activate non-neuronal cells to form an insulating sheath around the electrode, sealing it off from the neurons it needs to record from .............  Rather than other brain-machine interface companies, which generally focus on brain disorders, it’s clear that Musk envisions Link as something that can augment perfectly healthy humans. Given the need for surgical removal of part of your skull, it’s hard to say if it’s a convincing sell for the average person, even with Musk’s star power and his vision of augmenting natural sight, memory playback, or a “third artificial layer” of the brain that joins us with AI. .................  Neuralink has a long way to go. ........ To quote Musk: “There’s a tremendous amount of work to be done to go from here to a device that is widely available and affordable and reliable.”

Algorithms Workers Can’t See Are Increasingly Pulling the Management Strings  At Amazon’s fulfillment center in south-east Melbourne, they set the pace for “pickers,” who have timers on their scanners showing how long they have to find the next item. As soon as they scan that item, the timer resets for the next. All at a “not quite walking, not quite running” speed. ............  US developer HireVue says its software speeds up the hiring process by 90 percent by having applicants answer identical questions and then scoring them according to language, tone, and facial expressions. .........  Granted, human assessments during job interviews are notoriously flawed. Algorithms, however, can also be biased. ........  Algorithms do what their code tells them to do. The problem is this code is rarely available. This makes them difficult to scrutinize, or even understand. ............  accepting gigs as quickly as possible and waiting in “magic” locations. Ironically, these attempts to please the algorithm often meant losing the very flexibility that was one of the attractions of gig work. ..........  When Uber Eats bicycle couriers asked for reasons about their plummeting income, for example, responses from the company advised them “we have no manual control over how many deliveries you receive.” .........  When algorithmic management operates as a “black box” one of the consequences is that it is can become an indirect control mechanism. ...........  this control mechanism has enabled platforms to mobilize a reliable and scalable workforce while avoiding employer responsibilities. .............  Without human oversight based on agreed principles we risk inviting HAL into our workplaces. 

New Zealand Is About to Test Long-Range Wireless Power Transmission  Earlier this month, Emrod received funding from Powerco, New Zealand’s second biggest utility, to conduct a test of its system at a grid-connected commercial power station. The company hopes to bring energy to communities far from the grid or transmit power from remote renewable sources, like offshore wind farms. ..........  four components: A power source, a transmitting antenna, several (or more) transmitting relays, and a rectenna. ............  First, the transmitting antenna transforms electricity into microwave energy—an electromagnetic wave just like Marconi’s radio waves, only a bit more energetic—and focuses it into a cylindrical beam. The microwave beam is sent through a series of relays until it hits the rectenna, which converts it back into electricity. ...................   if it works as intended, the beam won’t ever contact anything but empty air. .........  The system uses a net of lasers surrounding the beam to detect obstructions, like a bird or person, and it automatically shuts off transmission until the obstruction has moved on. ...........  metamaterials developed in recent years are the difference-maker. ..........  The relays, which are like “lenses” extending the beam beyond line-of-sight by refocusing it, are nearly lossless ............  the system’s efficiency is around 70%, which is short of copper wires but economically viable in some areas. .............  It’s not about replacing the whole infrastructure but augmenting it in places where it makes sense.” ..........  the company is also looking into whether they could beam power across 30 kilometers of water from the New Zealand mainland to Stewart Island. He said the system could cost as little as 60 percent of an undersea cable.   

Taiwan stuck at a crossroads with US and China over trade deals, facing conflicting prospects Speculation has mounted as to whether China will allow its Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with Taiwan to end amid rising political tensions US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also floated the prospect of renewing long-running US-Taiwan trade talks, but doubts remain on both fronts ..............  If Trump decides to pursue an agreement, it would thus probably be for political reasons and could produce a reaction that he may not fully understand or expect.”  

Coronavirus News (224)

 Universities sound alarm as coronavirus cases emerge just days into classes — 530 at one campus

Is Your Organization Ready for Permanent WFH?  organizations large and small are realizing that jobs we used to assume had to be done on-site can in fact be done remotely .........  Many companies, including Twitter and Facebook, are moving to make certain roles permanently remote .........  Americans live 16 miles from the office on average, and about 98% live within 50 miles of their offices ..........  CEOs of the top fully-remote organizations cite access to distributed talent as a key competitive advantage .........  people are willing to give up as much as 8% of their pay for the opportunity to work from home ........  before the pandemic Americans spent more than 52 minutes every day, on average, commuting to and from the office ...........  shifting to remote work could free up the equivalent of 28 to nearly 50 workdays per year per employee ............  Map out critical tasks and needed competencies. ............  Once you know what competencies you need, you can start thinking about which roles can be sourced locally and which will need to be remote-friendly to attract more-elusive, competitive talent. ........  Remote work makes it easy to miss the socioemotional undertones communicated through nonverbal cues (gestures, body position) and paralinguistic cues (tone, pace, pitch), making collaboration especially difficult. ..........  To overcome these communication and coordination challenges, focus on building clearer hierarchies and formal organizational processes. Don’t hesitate to put pen to paper to sketch out more-detailed job descriptions and reporting lines along with guidelines for how to get work done. Engage your employees in the process to capture their knowledge and create a shared sense of ownership. And where possible, structure teams and tasks such that employees on a particular task are either all remote or all in person. Hybrid teams with both remote and on-site employees can have the greatest communication challenges. ...........  encouraging video calls as well as more-frequent, shorter meetings to provide more social contact points can improve remote collaboration ..........   Investing in tools and software for remote collaboration, such as virtual whiteboards, project management software, and high-quality webcams and microphones, can further help your team meet the challenges of remote work.   

Could Russia side with the US and India against China? Cracks are opening in the Russia-China relationship, from the status of Vladivostok to Russian arms sales to India The biggest crack involves New Delhi’s suggestion that Moscow join the US-led Indo-Pacific grouping, which is widely seen as anti-China .......   “The Chinese are also engaged in reverse engineering Russia’s military technology and then trying to sell indigenous platforms based on Russian designs, thereby competing against Russia on the global arms sales market”  .................    throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union had been a close friend of India, and the relationship remained warm today.    

Coronavirus News (223)

 So You Think New York Is Dead? It's Not. 

Schools Can Reopen, Germany Finds, but Expect a ‘Roller Coaster’ With nations determined to return to in-person learning, many will have trouble matching Germany’s formula: fast and free testing, robust contact tracing and low community spread.   

Can Tesla Maintain Its Momentum? Tesla’s stock has risen nearly tenfold over the past year to current levels of $2,000, making it the most valuable automobile company and Musk the fourth-richest man on the planet. Those gains have come on the back of four consecutive quarters of profits amid a pandemic; meeting delivery targets for cars; expanding manufacturing capacity globally; mastering storage battery technology to lower costs; and advancing the technologies for electric vehicles (EVs) and AVs, the next big promises for automakers............  Tesla has managed to check “all the boxes that analysts or investors or people like me who are observing Tesla have put in front of ourselves,” Kapoor said. “That is a great fairytale as far as Tesla and Elon Musk are concerned.” ..........  Over the next 10 to 15 years, the “vast majority” of the cars will be electric, and many of them will be fully autonomous ...........  unveiled a new electric pickup Cybertruck “that pulled science fiction into reality” ..........  “Tesla needs to play the game of scale,” now that it has earned its technology leadership spurs, especially in battery technology. Scaling up will make it “harder and harder for other players to catch up,” he noted. Chipmaker Intel did the same in the 1970s and 1980s, when it started with a manufacturing base out of California and scaled up with factories and plants across the globe. ............  “Waymo could do what Google did to the smartphone industry, with the launch of the Android and eventually giving an operating system to smartphone manufacturers for free.” ............  “If it can create an autonomous [vehicle] operating system, and it starts giving it to these established automakers, Tesla has a real competition on their hands.” ............  “This would be along the lines of what Microsoft has so successfully done with the transition to cloud or what Nestle did with the transition to premium coffee,” he wrote in the CNN op-ed. “Or will [established firms] continue to hold back and pursue piecemeal strategies that are more reminiscent of what Kodak did with digital photography or Nokia with smartphones?” 

Coronavirus News (222)

 

NOW IS THE BEST TIME EVER TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR

Fearing a ‘Twindemic,’ Health Experts Push Urgently for Flu Shots 

As Summer Wanes in N.Y.C., Anxiety Rises Over What Fall May Bring The coronavirus has retreated in New York, but the rituals of September are disrupted, and a sense of foreboding remains about a possible second wave. .......  In March and April, as ambulances raced through neighborhoods and refrigerated trucks sat humming behind hospitals overwhelmed by the pandemic’s dead, summer seemed a distant fantasy. Then it arrived as promised: The city unveiled in a series of phases that brought its streets back to something closer to life. The coronavirus infections dropped, the curve flattened, dinner and drinks were served beneath the stars, and friends reunited in parks and on beaches as if home from a war. ............  a deep and intense anxiety over what might lie ahead, as summer gave way to autumn and a new rash of frightening unknowns ...........  Schools, the economy, crime, food, shelter, travel and access to family, planning a vacation — nothing feels like a given in these waning days of August. ..........  Neither of his two children, away from classmates for months, has fallen ill since March — not a sniffle. “Unprecedented in my house” ............  the upcoming schedule at his 5-year-old daughter’s school — five days in the classroom every three weeks — will at least give her some interaction with other children .........  Visitors and newcomers to the city quickly pick up on the anxiety. ...........  Now, even as the threat of illness has diminished, the lure of the suburbs grows. Seeing others depart brings unsettling questions: Are we doing the right thing by staying? This will all pass, right? ..........  “It is so difficult to have your own space in this city” ........  She’d been considering moving for a while, but now it seems more urgent. “Maybe Westchester, maybe New Jersey” ............  “There is an impending-doom feeling.” ..........  “The level of anxiety is increasing, not decreasing”  “People are squeamish.” .......... consistent unease about losing a job or, for those who already have, finding a new one or returning to work after being furloughed. .............  “In some ways it’s more stressful than ever, thinking about what life will look like,” he said. “A friend asked me yesterday, ‘What’s the future of work?’ I have no idea.” ........  He said he wished there was a finish line, no matter how far-off. “There’s no set time. If there was a set date, you could say, ‘OK,’ and prepare for that. But there isn’t.” .......  “In the first 16 weeks this was like a natural disaster, like an earthquake or tsunami. It didn’t seem fair to ask, ‘Well, what are you doing about this?’ But by September, people are starting to make decisions for themselves or their families. ‘Am I going to move out? Am I going to stay? What am I going to do about this?’”   

New York’s School Chaos Is Breaking Me So this is how it feels to be abandoned by your government.......  when I lie in bed struggling to figure out how to balance physical risk, economic sustainability and emotional well-being, I can’t make the equation work. ........  A friend who works in chronically underfunded city high schools pointed out that privileged parents like me are getting a taste of something that other urban parents have always gone through. ..........  I’m one of many relatively rich people experiencing what poor people experience all the time — total abandonment by our government. ..........  Recently I ran into an acquaintance, a psychotherapist named Lesley Alderman, who told me that among her patients, those with young children were generally struggling the most. “Parents with young kids, they’re tearing their hair out,” she told me. Many of them, she said, “want their kids desperately to go back to school, and then there’s this kind of guilt: ‘Am I selfish for wanting this? Am I putting my kids in jeopardy? Are we putting the teachers in jeopardy?’” ...........  There are only two ways out of pandemic-driven insecurity: great personal wealth or a functioning government. Right now, many of us who’d thought we were insulated from American precarity are finding out just how frightening the world can be when you don’t have either.