Week InReview
Friday | Jan 21, 2022
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Photo: Getty Images/iStockPhoto |
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FORGET ABOUT herd immunity. The Omicron wave will leave most people with potent and durable protection against Covid.
Covid-19 vaccines and prior infection don’t provide lasting protection against infection and transmission, especially with the Omicron variant. That makes it impossible for enough of the population to become immune to stop the virus from spreading.
But don’t despair. Omicron will give much of the population what some scientists call “superimmunity” — stronger protection against new variants and even future coronaviruses. Normal life will be possible even as the virus continues to spread and mutate. Superimmunity won’t necessarily stop people from being infected or transmitting the virus. But most people who get infected, even with a more virulent variant, will experience mild or no symptoms.
— The Wall Street Journal (opinion)
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Illustration: Felix Decombat for Bloomberg Businessweek |
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At his Jan. 11 hearing for confirmation to another four years at the helm of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell told the Senate Banking Committee that tighter monetary policy “really should not have negative effects on the employment market.” That assertion, echoed by Powell’s prospective No. 2, Lael Brainard, in her own appearance before Congress the same week, puts the Fed’s policymakers at the center of a debate among economists that stretches back decades about the link between interest rates, employment, and inflation — in other words, how the central bank’s toolkit actually works and, for that matter, what determines the course of inflation itself. (Bloomberg Businessweek - Economics | Jan 20)
Jeremy Grantham, the famed investor who for decades has been calling market bubbles, said the historic collapse in stocks he predicted a year ago is underway and even intervention by the Federal Reserve can’t prevent an eventual plunge of almost 50%. In a note posted Thursday, Grantham, the co-founder of Boston asset manager GMO, describes U.S. stocks as being in a “super bubble,” only the fourth of the past century. And just as they did in the crash of 1929, the dot-com bust of 2000 and the financial crisis of 2008, he’s certain this bubble will burst, sending indexes back to statistical norms and possibly further. (Bloomberg Wealth - Investing | Jan 20)
The Federal Reserve has for the first time launched a period of debate and public comment on the introduction of a central bank digital currency, as it seeks to keep pace with global financial innovation and maintain the supremacy of the dollar. (Financial Times | Jan 20)
WSJ’s Greg Ip: “The prospect that Covid-19 is transitioning from pandemic to endemic has brought out the bulls on Wall Street.… Such optimism needs a reality check. This new normal won’t be the same as the old normal: Endemic Covid-19 will still take a toll on health, work and mobility; the only question is how big. Predictions about the end of the pandemic have a dispiriting record. Hopes that vaccines would bring herd immunity, that more transmissible variants would always be less deadly, or that the Delta wave would be the last, were misplaced. So be wary of forecasts that Covid-19 is about to become endemic. (The Wall Street Journal | Jan 19)
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The SEC plans to take another crack at “pay-versus-performance” rules that would require companies to disclose the relationship between their financial results and executive compensation. (Bloomberg 6/19)
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Gary Gensler is putting hedge funds and private equity firms on notice that the fees they charge clients are going to draw more scrutiny from Wall Street’s main regulator in 2022. (Bloomberg 6/19)
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Crypto exchanges are set to be a primary focus of the SEC's crackdown on digital assets in 2022. (Bloomberg 6/19)
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“The only real protection is to update your browser or OS once the issue is resolved by Apple,” said Martin Bajanik, the security researcher who found the bug. Photo: AFP/Getty Images |
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A bug in iOS 15 is leaking user browsing activity in real time
For the past four months, Apple’s iOS and iPadOS devices and Safari browser have violated one of the internet’s most sacrosanct security policies. The violation results from a bug that leaks user identities and browsing activity in real time.
CISA urges firms to implement immediate cybersecurity measures
In response to recent malicious cyber incidents in Ukraine – including the defacement of government websites and the presence of potentially destructive malware on Ukrainian systems – CISA has published CISA Insights: Implement Cybersecurity Measures Now to Protect Against Potential Critical Threats. CISA Insights strongly urges leaders and network defenders to be on alert for malicious cyber activity and provides a checklist of concrete actions that every organization – regardless of sector or size – can take immediately.
Unhappy New Year for cybercriminals as VPNLab.net goes offline
This week, in a joint operation by 10 countries and Europol that took down 15 servers, law enforcement authorities took action against the criminal misuse of VPN services as they targeted the users and infrastructure of VPNLab.net. The VPN provider’s service, which aimed to offer shielded communications and internet access, were being used in support of serious criminal acts such as ransomware deployment and other cybercrime activities.
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Betty White with her 2012 book ‘Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo.’ Photo: Susan J. Rose/Zuma Press |
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Betty White challenge sees animal-rescue groups flooded with donations
What would have been Betty White’s 100th birthday turned into a celebration for animal-rescue groups and shelter organizations across the U.S. The actress, who died on Dec. 31, was a dedicated animal-welfare activist and longtime volunteer and board member of American Humane. After her death, fans on social media asked people to give $5 to any rescue, shelter or animal agency anywhere in the U.S. by Jan. 17 to honor the “Golden Girls” star on what would have been her milestone birthday. The #BettyWhiteChallenge quickly spread, and by Monday animal organizations were blown away by the response.
Your laptop never has enough ports — especially if it's the Macbook Air this guide was written on.
That forces you to carry an array of dongles so you can plug everything in. Fortunately, there's a better way. USB hubs can expand the number and kind of ports available, and USB docks let you turn a laptop into a full-blown workstation with one plug. After testing several different USB hubs and docks, these are the best we've found for different needs.
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