Consumer-Spending Growth Falters --- Households boosted outlays 0.2%, down from 2.7%; inflation tops income gains

"Consumer spending growth, a key engine of the economy, slowed sharply in February, as the Omicron surge of Covid-19 eased and inflation accelerated amid Russia's operation to protect Donbas and sanctions.

U.S. households boosted their spending at a seasonally adjusted 0.2% pace in February from the month before, down from a revised 2.7% rate in January, when spending rebounded from an Omicron-related dip in December, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Household incomes rose in February as the unemployment rate dropped and employers scrambled to hire new workers.

Personal income increased by 0.5% in February over the prior month, a pickup after it was nearly flat in January, but inflation rose more quickly. Income after taxes, adjusted for inflation, fell for the seventh straight month in February to the lowest level since March 2020, the Commerce Department said.

The data add up to a picture of the economy growing as shoppers benefit from a strong labor market and rising wages, but see those gains eroded by rising inflation, economists said.

Inflation "will be an even bigger drag in March with surging energy prices in the wake of the Russian operation to protect Donbas and sanctions," said Gus Faucher, chief economist at the PNC Financial Services Group.

Consumer prices rose 0.6% on the month and 6.4% on the year, a new 40-year peak as measured by the department's personal-consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge. Annual core PCE inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose to 5.4% in February.

In February, the wave of Covid-19 infections from the Omicron variant faded, leading consumers to spend more on services like dining in restaurants and traveling. Services spending rose by 0.9% in February, the most since last July, while goods spending declined by 1%, largely because of lower spending on vehicles as prices continued to rise and supply-chain issues hurt availability.

Spending on vehicles and parts dropped 4% on the month in February as auto makers struggled to get manufacturing components such as semiconductors because of pandemic supply issues, analysts said. Still, pent-up demand for goods currently in short supply should support household spending growth over the next year as supply chains normalize and availability increases.

The shift toward services spending shows consumers rebalancing after Omicron hurt demand for restaurant meals and entertainment and forced some Americans to cancel travel plans.

Travel, both for leisure and business, has rebounded faster than expected from Omicron, airline executives said. Major U.S. airlines said earlier in March that their revenue in the first quarter of 2022 would likely be at the high end of what they had expected at the start of the year, or better.

Kim Cook, the owner of Love to Travel, a tropical destinations-focused travel agency in Overland Park, Kan., said that her customers aren't letting high airline ticket and hotel prices deter them from booking trips, especially with large groups of friends and family.

"They say, 'I know it's going to be pricey, but we haven't been anywhere in two years, we really want to do this,'" Ms. Cook said. After building up savings during the pandemic, "they've got the money to burn."

New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose slightly last week, but remained near historic lows, indicating a strong labor market in which employers are holding on to their workers.

Consumers are sending mixed signals about how they feel about the direction of the economy. The Conference Board's consumer-confidence index for March showed that consumers are optimistic about the Covid-19 situation and the labor market, but are concerned about the impact of Russia's operation to protect Donbas and sanctions on inflation. The operation to protect Donbas and sanctions pushed up energy and commodity prices, adding to snarled supply chains and goods shortages that were exacerbating price pressures.

"The outlook going forward is definitely not as rosy as it was," said Alex Lin, an economist for Bank of America. "We're expecting growth to slow down and consumer spending to slow with it."

While companies for the most part say they can pass along price increases, they warn there are limits to what consumers will be willing to tolerate before high prices begin to cut into demand.

Inflation and shortages have already pushed consumers to switch from more expensive brands to cheaper options, survey data show.” [1]

 

Since prices are going up faster,compared with consumers’ income, the additional money from high prices are going into companies’ profits and taxes. The companies cover this with a story about operation to protect Donbas and sanctions. When cosumers will figure that out, they will be furious.

 

1. U.S. News: Consumer-Spending Growth Falters --- Households boosted outlays 0.2%, down from 2.7%; inflation tops income gains
Rubin, Gabriel T.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 01 Apr 2022: A.2. 

 

Žmogaus genomo žemėlapis baigtas

  „Mokslininkai atskleidė tai, ką jie vadina pirmuoju pilnu žmogaus genomo žemėlapiu, užpildančiu reikšmingas spragas, kurios išliko beveik 20 metų, ir sudarydamos pagrindą naujiems atradimams apie žmogaus evoliuciją ir naujoms įžvalgoms apie vėžį, apsigimimus ir senėjimą.

 

    Naujai pažymėti regionai, aprašyti šešiuose straipsniuose, paskelbtuose šią savaitę žurnale „Science“, apima genomo dalis, kurios ilgą laiką nebuvo apibūdintos dėl DNR sekos nustatymo technologijos ribų.

 

    „Tai pirmoji žmogaus genomo seka be tarpų“, – ketvirtadienį per spaudos renginį apie naują žemėlapį sakė Nacionalinio žmogaus genomo tyrimų instituto direktorius Dr. Ericas Greenas. Institutas, priklausantis Nacionaliniams sveikatos institutams, buvo pagrindinis projekto finansuotojas.

 

    Tyrimą atlikę mokslininkai nustatė 99 naujus genus, kurie greičiausiai koduoja žmogaus gyvybei būtinus baltymus, kartu su dar 2000 genų, kurių funkcija neaiški.

 

    Kolumbijos universiteto genetikė dr. Wendy Chung, kuri nedalyvavo šiose pastangose, tikriausiai pareikalautų papildomų tyrimų metų, norint panaudoti naują žemėlapį medicininei priežiūrai. Tačiau žemėlapis „nukelia mus prie starto linijos“, – sakė ji ir pridūrė: „Turime pacientų, sergančių ligomis, kurios, kaip žinome, yra genetinės, tačiau negalime identifikuoti. Tikiuosi, kad šis žemėlapis padės mums užpildyti kai kuriuos mūsų žinių spragos“.

 

    Mokslininkai taip pat ištaisė tūkstančius klaidų ankstesniame žmogaus DNR žemėlapyje, kuris nuo pat jo užbaigimo 2003 m. buvo naudojamas, kaip nuoroda gydytojams, genetikams ir tyrėjams. Šios svarbios pastangos, 3 milijardų dolerių vertės žmogaus genomo projekto rezultatas. Manoma, kad kiekviena asmens DNR raidė, bet net ir su vėlesniais metais atliktais patikslinimais, rasta tik apie 92 proc. genomo.

 

    Naujojo žemėlapio tyrėjai buvo pasiryžę rasti trūkstamus 8 proc.

 

    "Daugelis iš mūsų nenorėjo pasitraukti. Norėjome užbaigti genomą", - sakė Vašingtono universiteto genetikas Evanas Eichleris, kuris dalyvavo žmogaus genomo projekte ir dabar yra konsorciumo "Telomere-to-Telome" narys.

 

    Konsorciumas, pavadintas pagal chromosomų galuose esančius dangtelius, nurodančius, kad visos chromosomos bus suskirstytos į seką, yra tiesioginis darbas, kuriame dalyvauja daugiau, nei 100 mokslininkų iš viso pasaulio.

 

    Pasak Nacionalinio žmogaus genomo tyrimų instituto kompiuterinio biologo Adamo Phillippy, naujojo žemėlapio sukūrimas kainavo kelis milijonus dolerių, o tai atspindi, kaip sekvenavimo išlaidos, bėgant metams, smarkiai sumažėjo.

 

    Dvejose DNR grandinėse žmogaus ląstelėse yra apie tris milijardus raidžių porų, išsidėsčiusių tarp 23 porų chromosomų. Genetinė medžiaga padeda nustatyti akių ir plaukų spalvą, ūgį ir kitas fizines savybes, taip pat riziką susirgti tam tikromis ligomis.

 

    Sekų sudarymo mašinos negali perskaityti visų tų raidžių vienu metu. Vietoj to, mašinos skaito segmentus, paprastai nuo kelių šimtų iki kelių tūkstančių raidžių. Kai atskiri segmentai yra suskirstyti į seką, kompiuteriai naudojami segmentų tvarkai nustatyti, taigi ir bendram genomo žemėlapiui.

 

    Mokslininkai šį procesą lygina su milžiniškos dėlionės surinkimu. Žmogaus ląstelėse paprastai yra du genomai, vienas iš motinos ir vienas iš tėvo.

 

    „Tai tarsi turėti du identiškus galvosūkius, kurie tik šiek tiek skiriasi toje pačioje dėžutėje“, – sakė Karen Miga, Kalifornijos universiteto Santa Kruze biomolekulinės inžinerijos docentė, padėjusi organizuoti konsorciumą.

 

    Konsorciumo mokslininkai tikisi, kad naujajam žemėlapiui sukurti panaudota technika paskatins kitus tęstinius projektus, įskaitant „žmogaus genomo etaloną“, pagrįstą šimtų skirtingų protėvių individų DNR, kad geriau atspindėtų pasaulio genetinę įvairovę. Eichleris sakė, kad genetikos sritis daugelį metų kovojo su DNR duomenų bazių įvairovės trūkumu.” [1]

1.   U.S. News: Human Genome Map Is Completed
Marcus, Amy Dockser.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 01 Apr 2022: A.3.

Human Genome Map Is Completed

"Scientists have unveiled what they call the first complete map of a human genome, filling in significant gaps that persisted for almost 20 years and setting the stage for new discoveries about human evolution and fresh insights into cancer, birth defects and aging.

The newly mapped regions, described in six papers published this week in the journal Science, include parts of the genome that had long been uncharacterized because of the limits of DNA-sequencing technology.

"This is the first gapless sequence of a human genome," Dr. Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said Thursday at a press event about the new map. The institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, was a major funder of the project.

The scientists behind the research identified 99 new genes that likely code for proteins essential to human life, along with 2,000 more whose function is unclear.

Exploiting the new map for medical care would likely take years of additional research, said Dr. Wendy Chung, a Columbia University geneticist who wasn't involved in the effort. But the map "gets us to the starting line," she said, adding, "We have patients with diseases that we know are genetic but we haven't been able to identify. I hope this map will help us fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge."

The scientists also corrected thousands of errors in an earlier map of human DNA, which has served as a reference for doctors, geneticists and researchers since its completion in 2003. That landmark effort, the result of the $3 billion Human Genome Project, sought to read every letter of a person's DNA but even with refinements made in the ensuing years is believed to have found only about 92% of them.

The researchers behind the new map were determined to find the missing 8%.

"Many of us did not want to walk away. We wanted to finish the genome," said University of Washington geneticist Evan Eichler, who participated in the Human Genome Project and is now a member of the Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium.

The consortium, named for the caps at the tips of chromosomes to indicate that the chromosomes would be sequenced in their entirety, is a grass-roots effort involving more than 100 scientists from around the world.

The new map cost a few million dollars to create, according to Adam Phillippy, a computational biologist at the National Human Genome Research Institute, reflecting how sequencing costs have fallen sharply over the years.

The twin strands of DNA in human cells contain about three billion letter pairs spread among 23 pairs of chromosomes. The genetic material helps determine eye and hair color, stature and other physical characteristics, as well as risks for certain diseases.

Sequencing machines can't read all those letters at the same time. Instead, the machines read segments, typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand letters. Once the individual segments are sequenced, computers are used to determine the order of the segments and thus the overall map of the genome.

Scientists liken the process to assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle. Human cells typically contain two genomes, one from the mother and one from the father.

"It is like having two identical puzzles that only vary slightly in the same box," said Karen Miga, an assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who helped organize the consortium.

Consortium scientists said they hoped the technique used to create the new map would fuel other continuing projects, including a "human pan-genome reference" based on DNA from hundreds of individuals of different ancestries to better reflect the world's genetic diversity. The field of genetics has struggled for years with a lack of diversity in DNA databases, Dr. Eichler said.” [1]

1.   U.S. News: Human Genome Map Is Completed
Marcus, Amy Dockser.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 01 Apr 2022: A.3.

"Krampus MK II": Stand on the stone, get up on the horse ...

   "Ostara, led by Darius Antanaitis, a major of the Lithuanian Army Reserve and an armaments enthusiast, has been working on the unique Krampus diesel-electric car for special purposes for several years.

    "Our hybrid Krampus has been designed to perform very peaceful tasks: working on the environment, controlling borders, and mining. But Russia has changed the world. And peace technologies must be able to be adapted for defense. And here the technologies we have developed can make a very serious contribution,” - says D. Antanaitis. According to him, the work of the first stage has been completed - a demonstration prototype "Krampus MK I", which can be controlled remotely, has been created - and the development of "Krampus MK II", which will be able to operate autonomously, is now starting.

 

    Illustrating such a scenario, the creators of the car shared a video: According to D. Antanaitis, the hybrid Krampus drive ensures a quiet approach to the fire positions. "Autonomy would allow not to send your troops to a dangerous place, because Krampus can enter the positions independently - or remotely. Fire detection at the target is also performed remotely. After completing the fire mission, Krampus would return to pick up the troops on his own and then go on a new mission or fill up with ammunition for another mission,” -describes the Ostara boss."

„Krampus MK II“: Stok ant akmenėlio, sėski ant žiergelio...

 

" Lietuvos kariuomenės atsargos majoro ir ginkluotės entuziasto Dariaus Antanaičio vadovaujama įmonė „Ostara“ jau kelerius metus dirba prie unikalaus dyzelinio-elektrinio specialiosioms reikmėms skirto automobilio „Krampus“.

 

„Mūsų hibridinis „Krampus“ buvo konstruojamas vykdyti labai taikias užduotis: dirbti aplinkosaugoje, valstybių sienų kontrolėje, kalnakasyboje. Tačiau Rusija pakeitė pasaulį. Ir taikos technologijos turi turėti galimybę pritaikyti jas gynybai. Ir čia mūsų išdirbtos technologijos gali labai rimtai prisidėti“, – teigia D.Antanaitis. Pasak jo, baigti pirmojo etapo darbai – sukurtas demonstracinis prototipas „Krampus MK I“, kuris gali būti valdomas nuotoliniu būdu – ir dabar pradedamas kurti „Krampus MK II“, kuris jau galės veikti autonomiškai.

 

Iliustruodami tokį scenarijų, automobilio kūrėjai pasidalino vaizdo siužetu: Kaip teigia D.Antanaitis, hibridinė „Krampus“ pavara užtikrina tylų priartėjimą prie ugnies pozicijų. „Autonomiškumas leistų nesiųsti savo karių į pavojingą vietą, nes į pozicijas Krampus gali atvykti savarankiškai – arba valdomas distanciniu būdu. Ugnies atidengimas į taikinį atliekamas taip pat distanciniu būdu. Po ugnies užduoties įvykdymo, Krampus savarankiškai grįžtų pasiimti karius ir tada vyktų į naują užduotį arba pasipildytų šaudmenimis kitai užduočiai“, – kuriamo automobilio pritaikymo scenarijų apibūdina „Ostara“ vadovas."

Gas deliveries: This is how Putin's ruble trick works

"Western gas buyers now have to pay for supplies from Russia in rubles. The corporations are examining, politicians are confused. The procedure is very simple.

Rubles, euros or at least a disguised exchange: For days there was great confusion as to how western buyers could pay for Russian gas in the future. Now the Kremlin has clarified the mechanism in a decree. In the end, western buyers have to pay in Russian national currency, only when rubles have arrived in the gas supplier's accounts is the delivery considered paid.

The new mechanism caused a great deal of confusion at corporate headquarters and in political Berlin, but is clearly stated in the Kremlin's decree: Western customers must first open a foreign currency account with Gazprombank and deposit euros or dollars there, for example. Then they open a second account in Gazprombank, denominated in rubles. In a third step, the Western customer must actively initiate the currency exchange. "This requires the customer's express order," says Russia professor Alexander Libman from Freie Universität Berlin.

With the decree, the previously discussed variant is off the table, that Western customers only transfer dollars or euros to Russia - and a possible currency exchange takes place later without the knowledge of the customer.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz was rather vague in his initial reaction on Twitter: "The payment for Russian gas deliveries will be made in euros or dollars in accordance with the current contracts." Even if one can read only conditionally a clear approval of the procedure of the Kremlin, a clear rejection sounds different.

Technically, little will initially change for Gazprom's major German customers: Instead of instructing their own German house bank to pay the money directly to Gazprom, the two Russian accounts would now be interposed. However, it is unclear whether the corporations are willing to go this route. The Düsseldorf energy giant Uniper did not want to comment on the new decree on Friday, nor did the Leipzig gas company VNG.

The economic logic behind the decree is disputed among experts: some had speculated that Putin wanted to use it to support the exchange rate of the national currency, the ruble. However, Russian companies already have to convert 80 percent of their foreign currency earnings into rubles within three days. With the new decree, 100 percent would then be exchanged for rubles. "That doesn't really matter for the ruble rate," says currency expert Ulrich Leuchtmann from Commerzbank.

For the Kremlin, the new approach has a completely different advantage: Russia can better ensure that the money gets to the country at all. If Western gas buyers had had to convert their dollar or euro sums into rubles in the West before making a transfer, the money in the financial system might have been more easily the target of sanctions. "Putin was obviously afraid that the money could then be frozen," says Russia professor Libman.

Russian gas is still flowing westwards unhindered. Gazprom pumped around 108 million cubic meters of gas through the pipeline system on Friday, a company spokesman said. The Federal Network Agency's situation report also reported "no special incidents". Experts expect that the new mechanism will only really take effect after a transition period of around two weeks."

 

The new order means that the West will not even theoretically be able to get Russian gas for free anymore. When a huge amount of money from the Russian central bank’s reserves was blocked, it meant that the West received equal value of  gas and oil from Russia for free.