Author: Newsdesk

Assuming that she is confirmed by the Senate, Yellen will be the first woman to serve as Treasury Secretary in the institution’s 231-year-old history…reports Asian Lite News

US President-elect Joe Biden is poised to choose Janet Yellen as his Treasury Secretary and top cabinet official in-charge of the US economy, as it faces slow recovery from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.

Assuming that she is confirmed by the Senate, Yellen will be the first woman to serve as Treasury Secretary in the institution’s 231-year-old history.

The former Fed Chairwoman has called for opening government spending taps to revive an economy racked by the Covid pandemic and is expected to urge the Congress to pass further fiscal stimulus. Given that most market participants were already expecting the Fed to remain accommodative for an extended period of time, the thought of a Yellen-Powell duo was not quite the gut punch for the dollar or short-dated yields, the report said.

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According to a report by Motilal Oswal, Biden’s move to choose Yellen for the Treasury role will bring a steady hand and a well-known figure to the tiller of the US economy, but her nomination also reflects his desire to finely balance demands from the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party.

Yellen led the Fed through a tightening cycle as the central bank tried to normalize its monetary policy in the latter stages of the recovery from the financial crisis.

The former Fed Chair was considered to be among the more dovish monetary policymakers, but the interest rate rises under her watch were later judged to be excessively hawkish by the US central bank, which found that unemployment could fall to far lower levels before triggering inflation.

Even within the Fed, there was a division between “hawks” worried about inflation and “doves” who insisted that inflation wasn’t a threat in a depressed economy, and that fighting the depression should take priority. Yellen was one of the leading doves — and that some market participants had even termed her the most accurate forecaster among Fed policymakers, the report said.

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Yellen will most likely first look to tighten its coordination with the US Federal Reserve repairing recent frictions though observers say she will be careful to avoid any specific move that could trigger a wave of Republican protests

After winning the Senate confirmation, Biden in coordination with Yellen will be deciding how to proceed with several emergency Fed lending facilities backed by Treasury money and authorised by Congress through the Cares Act, after outgoing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced he would sunset them by year-end.

The Treasury said it plans to move that unspent money into its general account — from where it cannot be released without congressional approval. Congress had authorized those funds to go into the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilisation Fund, over which the secretary otherwise has substantial discretion.

Also read:Biden to name Janet Yellen as US treasury secretary

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel voted 13-1 to recommend these two groups get priority while doses are in short supply in the early weeks…Reports Asian Lite News

Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be the first in the US to get Covid-19 vaccines, a high powered government panel announced late Tuesday.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel voted 13-1 to recommend these two groups get priority while doses are in short supply in the early weeks.

Burden of disease figured prominently in the decision to bring nursing home residents into the ambit early. CDC experts noted that 40 percent of the deaths in the US have been among those in long term care facilities.

The Food and Drug Administration has not yet authorised emergency use of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. That decision is likely to be taken between December 10-17. Both vaccines have shown more than 90 percent effectiveness in large scale studies.

The first shipments of Pfizer’s vaccine are set to be delivered to states within two weeks, CNN reported today, quoting documents sourced from Operation Warp Speed – the Trump government’s vaccine coordination program.

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Healthcare workers and residents of long term care facilities account for a little less than 25 million people out of America’s total population of 330 million.

Between Pfizer and Moderna, a total of 40 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be available by the end of 2020.

The coronavirus has killed more than 270,000 Americans and sickened more than 13 million since it first entered the country early this year.

Also read:Moderna files for US, Europe authorisation for vaccine

Scott Atlas’s tenure was slated to expire this week, but he filed his resignation, effective Tuesday, the official added…reports Asian Lite News

Scott Atlas, US President Donald Trump’s controversial adviser to the coronavirus pandemic, has resigned after serving for four months, media reports said on Tuesday.

In a report, The Hill news quoted a White House official as saying on Monday that Atlas, a radiologist and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, had joined the administration in August as a special government employee, meaning he was eligible to serve a 130-day detail.

His tenure was slated to expire this week, but he filed his resignation, effective Tuesday, the official added

In his resignation letter dated Monday, Atlas said that he had “always relied on the latest science and evidence without any political consideration or influence”.

“I worked hard with a singular focus—to save lives and help Americans through this pandemic.

“As time went on, like all scientists and health policy scholars, I learned new information and synthesized the latest data from around the world, all in an effort to provide you with the best information to serve the greater public good.

Honored to have served @realDonaldTrump and the American people during these difficult times. pic.twitter.com/xT1hRoYBMh

— Scott W. Atlas (@ScottWAtlas) December 1, 2020

“But, perhaps more than anything, my advice was always focused on minimizing all the harms from both the pandemic and the structural policies themselves, especially to the working class and the poor,” he added in the letter.

According to The Hill news report, Atlas attacted controversy “for his influence over the President’s thinking on the pandemic”, while many members of the White House coronavirus task force raised concerns about the adviser or openly disputed his views.

While Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious diseases expert, said earlier this month that he “totally” disagreed with Atlas’s views, White House Covid-19 response coordinator Deborah Birx confronted Vice President Pence about Atlas’s increasing influence, the report added.

Besides repeatedly clashing with other members of the coronavirus task force during his four-month Tenure, Atlas also questioned the need for masks and other measures to control the pandemic, the BBC reported.

He sparked further controversy last month when he tweeted “people rise up” in response to new restrictions imposed in Michigan.

After Atlas’ resignation, Fauci told the BBC that the current situation in the US was worse than at any time since the start of the outbreak.

“The slope of our curve is very steep so that every day it seems we almost break a new record,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering revealed that the country’s overall caseload and death toll stood at 13,536,216 and 267,987, respectively.

The two tallies are the highest in the world.

Also read:‘Don’t talk to me that way’: Trump berates reporter

“The Secretary-General underscored the essential role played by the enduring close co-operation between the US and the UN…reports Asian Lite News

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “looks forward to” working with US President-elect Joe Biden, according to the UN chief’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Guterres “was pleased to speak (over phone) with President-elect Joseph R. Biden today to extend his personal congratulations to the President-elect”, Xinhua news agency quoted Dujarric as saying in a statement on Monday.

“The Secretary-General underscored the essential role played by the enduring close co-operation between the US and the UN.

“He looks forward to working with the President-elect and his team to building on our partnership to address the many urgent issues facing the world today, including the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, upholding peace and security, promoting human rights, and addressing humanitarian needs,” the spokesman added.

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The US media have projected that Biden has won 306 electoral votes in the November 3 presidential election, surpassing the 270-vote threshold for clinching the presidency.

Biden has declared victory and announced the first tranche of his Cabinet nominees, including national security and foreign policy officials.

The General Services Administration has initiated Biden’s formal transition into the White House, but incumbent President Trump, despite having directed his administration to facilitate the process, has vowed to continue the legal fight to challenge the election results.

Also read:Biden names Indian-American as head of inauguration team