Bitcoin keeps hitting new records, nears $30,000 in late 2020 price surge

So how many of you still believe bitcoin is a scam like so many keep on saying over and over again?

It took bitcoin (BTC) 10 years in existence to reach the $20,000 mark, on Dec. 15. Then it took just 15 days to reach $29,000. It took the Dow Jones almost three years to make the same move.

Bitcoin started the year at $7,200. It’s ending the year close to $30,000, up 296%. (For comparison, the Nasdaq is up 43% in 2020, the S&P 500 up 16%, the Dow up 7%.)

The 2020 bitcoin bonanza can be chalked up to a convergence of many positive factors, as well as a convergence of narratives.

In the past, a common criticism of bitcoin from skeptics was that it isn’t useful as a real currency—you can’t spend it in most places. In 2020, investors decided they don’t care about that, and don’t want to spend their bitcoin anyway. Institutional firms flooded in, viewing cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset to hold in their portfolio.

At the very least, the consensus now appears to be: Bitcoin isn’t going away. It has existed for 10 years and will continue to exist.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-keeps-hitting-new-records-193106428.html

'I'm going to get in trouble for saying this': President-elect Biden disputes Democratic debt cancel

President-elect Joe Biden cast doubt on a popular Democratic idea involving executive action that would cancel up to $50,000 in federally-held student loan debt for roughly 43 million American borrowers.

"I’m going to get in trouble for saying this," Biden told a meeting of news columnists on Wednesday, raising the Democratic argument that "the president may have the executive power to forgive up to $50,000 in student debt. Well, I think that’s pretty questionable. I’m unsure of that. I’d be unlikely to do that.”

Earlier this week, while introducing his nominee for Education Secretary, Miguel Cardona, Biden declared support for forgiving $10,000 in student debt across the board — through legislation passed by Congress.

“It’s a balancing act, but I’m optimistic that we can get a lot of the things that I’d like to do done,” Biden said on Wednesday. “I’ve spent most of my career arguing against the imperial presidency. We got three equal branches of government. I’m confident that there are a number of areas that are of such consequence that they go beyond the partisan boundaries.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/biden-student-debt-loan-forgiveness-cancel-173246655.html

'This is ridiculous': Congress avoids shutdown but deadlocks on stimulus

Congress bought itself two more days to negotiate a coronavirus package on Friday evening even as lawmakers stumbled in their efforts to seal the deal on a $900 billion relief agreement.

Still, the day did not turn into the total debacle it once seemed. The House overwhelmingly approved the 48-hour stopgap spending bill to avoid a shutdown, and Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) relented on threats to shut the government down in their bid for larger stimulus checks than the $600 under consideration.

While Sanders threatened to object to the stopgap funding bill, he allowed it to go through by citing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s promise to keep the Senate in session until a Covid deal is reached. The Senate will reconvene on Saturday morning as congressional leaders try to break the stubborn impasses on the Federal Reserve’s lending programs, rescue for entertainment venues and disaster relief funding.

McConnell summed up the state of play on negotiations that have seemed within reach for days: "We've been close for a while now. And we still are.”

Congress had hoped to at least announce a deal on Friday, using the shutdown deadline to pressure lawmakers to finish their work. Now lawmakers will work through the weekend.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said even if negotiators clinch a deal late Friday, which appears unlikely, the earliest the House would vote would be at 1 p.m. Sunday, teeing up a frantic day of legislative action to close out the weekend.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/18/congress-stimulus-talks-funding-448089

California economy still staggering from COVID-19 shutdowns. And things could worsen

Source: Sacramento Bee

California’s economy continues to struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic, enduring business shutdowns ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom and embarrassing defections to Texas by some bright lights of Silicon Valley. On Friday, the Employment Development Department released the latest snapshot of the state’s economy: California’s unemployment rate fell eight-tenths of a point in November, to 8.2%.

However, job growth totaled just 57,100, a little more than one-third as many jobs as were created a month earlier, signaling a slowdown in the recovery. What’s more, the November figures don’t reflect the recent havoc inflicted on the economy. In early December, Newsom ordered new restrictions as coronavirus infections spiked and beds filled up rapidly in hospital intensive care units. His order meant the closure of barbershops and nail salons, further restricted capacity at shopping malls and reduced restaurants to takeout service, among other things.

“This is the calm before the storm,” said Sung Won Sohn, professor of finance and economics at Loyola Marymount University. November’s decline in the unemployment rate also was misleading, Sohn said, because it partly reflects that 627,000 Californians have dropped out of the job market since February because “the job outlook is so poor.” People who’ve halted their job search to go back to school, or stay home with their children, aren’t counted as unemployed.

All told, California has recaptured just 46% of the 2.6 million jobs that vanished in the first two months of the pandemic, the EDD said.



Read more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article247950260.html

Gavin Newsom could be 'undermined' by Democrats in recall efforts, report says

The sixth attempt to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom is rapidly gaining steam amid the worsening pandemic, a controversial new stay-at-home order and an unemployment fraud scandal.

It was previously reported by Politico's Carla Marinucci that those close to the governor were growing "increasingly worried" about the recall efforts, and Marinucci's latest report on the recall adds another twist.

After detailing the new Republican fundraising efforts behind the recall — while noting the challenges the GOP will face in a heavily Democratic state — Marinucci quotes a "Sacramento insider aligned with a major special interest group" who says, "We’ve gotten calls from Democrats who are already kicking the tires" on getting on the ballot in a potential recall election in 2021.

Here's why that development is significant: If a recall election is held, the first item on the ballot would be a simple "yes" or "no" vote on whether Newsom should be recalled. The second item would be a vote on Newsom's replacement, which would be negated if "no" receives more votes than "yes."

However, if "yes" wins, Newsom would automatically be disqualified from office and his successor would be chosen from one of the candidates on the ballot. That's what happened in 2003 when 55% of Californians voted to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante was the main Democratic candidate at the bottom of the ballot.

Put another way: The recall effort provides an opportunity for Democrats to replace Newsom while avoiding a Republican governor. San Diego Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a moderate who just termed out of office last week, is almost certainly going to run for governor in 2022, and would likely advance to the general election vs. Newsom after getting through the state's jungle primary.

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Gavin-Newsom-recall-Democrats-2021-candidates-2022-15811264.php

Xinjiang: more than half a million forced to pick cotton, report suggests

More than half a million people from ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang have been coerced into picking cotton, on a scale far greater than previously thought, new research has suggested.

The Xinjiang region produces more than 20% of the world’s cotton and 84% of China’s, but according to a new report released on Tuesday by the Center for Global Policy there is significant evidence that it is “tainted” by human rights abuses, including suspected forced labour of Uighur and other Turkic Muslim minority people.

The revelations came as the international criminal court (ICC) said it did not have the jurisdiction to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity and genocide in Xinjiang.

This year the US imposed sanctions and cotton import restrictions on suppliers controlled by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) – a paramilitary production entity which produces a third of Xinjiang’s cotton – over human rights concerns. But according to the report, those concerns extend beyond the XPCC to the whole region. It recommended the US government expand its import restrictions to cover all Xinjiang cotton, not just that produced by XPCC regions.

The report – written by Adrian Zenz, an independent researcher specialising in Xinjiang and Tibet – analysed government documents and state media reports to determine it was likely authorities were using the allegedly coercive “labour transfer programs” to provide hundreds of thousands of workers to pick cotton.

China’s labour transfer scheme is purported to be part of the government’s massive poverty alleviation campaign, but growing evidence indicates it targets Uighur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and coerces participation.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/15/xinjiang-china-more-than-half-a-million-forced-to-pick-cotton-report-finds

Why Households Need To Earn $300,000 A Year To Live A Middle Class Lifestyle Today

America's highest-paid sex worker sues NV, urging the state to reopen brothels

Alice Little, the highest-paid sex worker in the US, is suing Nevada to reopen the state's brothels.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak closed brothels, including Little's employer the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, in March.

While bars and restaurants were able to reopen in late May during Phase 2, brothel doors have remained closed.

Little says it is discrimination.

In a lawsuit filed October 30, she says the brothels in Nevada, the only state with legalized sex work, have provided a safe space for sex workers for over 50 years. Their closure has meant financial disarray for sex workers employed at these brothels, as government pandemic assistant has excluded sex workers, strippers, and dominatrices.

"Nevada's governor has unfairly kept the legal brothels closed while allowing other high-contact businesses, such as massage parlors, spas, and salons, to reopen," Little said in a GoFundMe statement to raise legal fees for the lawsuit.

"Nevada's legal brothels have kept sex workers safe and provided a legal and respectable outlet for sex workers to ply our trade for nearly fifty years, and now the brothels are in danger of closing forever and the livelihoods of sex workers are in dire jeopardy."

The complaint states that if Sisolak keeps brothels closed, registered sex workers should be able to use their licenses to take on clients at their homes or in private locations.

However, days before Little filed her suit, Sisolak told The Nevada Independent brothels are not top of his priority list.

"Certainly we're going to have to look at getting kids back into schools before we look at getting folks back into brothels," he told the news outlet. "We'll be addressing it sometime, certainly, but it's not in the immediate future."

Throughout the pandemic, sex workers in the US have been hit with a heavy financial burden, in-person appointments have become more hazardous. Online sites like OnlyFans have also been flooded with non-sex workers looking to make money, making it even more difficult for sex workers to make a living online.

"It can't be understated how unfriendly the internet is for sex workers. So to transition to having to process our own payments, having to advertise when many of our websites are blacklisted and hidden on Twitter, it is incredibly challenging," Little told Insider's Julia Naftulin in June.

https://www.insider.com/us-highest-paid-sex-worker-sues-nevada-to-reopen-brothels-2020-12

Russia begins vaccinating against Covid-19 en-masse

Russia is starting its Covid-19 vaccination programme, with clinics in the capital Moscow inoculating those most at risk from the virus.

Its own vaccine Sputnik V, which was registered in August, is being used.

Developers say it is 95% effective and causes no major side effects, but it is still undergoing mass testing.

Thousands of people have already registered to get the first of two jabs over the weekend, but it is unclear how much Russia can manufacture.

Producers are only expected to make two million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who announced the programme earlier in the week, said it was being offered to people in the city of 13 million who work in schools and the health service, and social workers.

He said the list would grow as more of the vaccine became available.

An online registration service allows city residents in the above professions aged 18-60 to book free appointments at 70 sites around the city.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55198166

No stimulus checks in latest Coronavirus relief bill

Direct cash payments to most American households were one of the most popular and efficient measures Congress enacted as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, but lawmakers seem to have lost interest in another round of checks.

Legislators this week resuscitated talks over a new coronavirus relief package, which includes new unemployment assistance, money for vaccine distribution and more aid for businesses and state governments. But none of the potential compromise proposals includes another round of stimulus checks.

“We’re sending money out as a relief for people in distress, as opposed to a stimulus. This is not a stimulus bill,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told HuffPost about bipartisan $900 billion legislation he is crafting with other moderate senators.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the Democratic authors of the compromise, said it was more urgent to get a deal preventing federal unemployment benefits and other emergency programs from expiring, but that he did support another round of direct payments.

“Hopefully that will happen when Joe Biden becomes president,” Manchin said.

https://www.aol.com/finance/stimulus-checks-excluded-latest-covid-174539941.html