Month: May 2020

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CrowdScience - How do I learn maths when school’s shut?

What’s the importance of zero, and how was it discovered? How do scientists calculate Pi’s infinite digits? Why do so many people find maths difficult – and what’s the most difficult thing in maths?

CrowdScience takes on a whole bunch of questions sent in by high school students in Spain. Like many children all over the world, their school is currently closed due to the coronavirus lockdown, but lessons continue at home. So how are their studies going, and can CrowdScience help out?

We attempt to answer some of their trickiest maths questions, with the help of mathematicians Katie Steckles and Matt Parker, and mathematical biologist Kit Yates.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton.

Producer: Cathy Edwards

(Photo: A boy studying. Credit: Getty Images)

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The Gist - Georgia Is a Laboratory

In the Gist, Georgia is opening back up.

In the interview, Mike talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and bestselling author Jon Meacham about his new podcast with Cadence13 - Hope, Through History – a documentary series on confronting and triumphing over crises in America. 

In the spiel, the end of irony?

Email us at thegist@slate.com

Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Margaret Kelley.

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CoinDesk Podcast Network - BREAKDOWN: Money Reimagined… Why the Dollar Has Never Been Stronger or More Set up to Fail

Two of CoinDesk’s most popular series, NLW’s The Breakdown podcast and the Money Reimagined newsletter by chief content officer Michael Casey, come together for a special podcast microseries in the run up to Consensus: Distributed, our first virtual big-tent event May 11-15. The Breakdown: Money Reimagined builds on themes Casey explores in his newsletter to tell the story of key arenas in the battle for the future of money -- from the incumbent dollar to the aspirational DCEP to the insurgent bitcoin -- in the context of a post-COVID19 world. The four-part podcast features over a dozen voices including Consensus: Distributed speakers Caitlin Long, Matthew Graham and more. New episodes air Fridays starting May 1 on the CoinDesk Podcast Network. Subscribe here.

This episode is sponsored by ErisX, The Stellar Development Foundation and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Investment Fund

Even before COVID-19, 2020 was poised to be a big year in the battle for the future of money. 2019 had seen: Fed intervention in overnight lending markets; the launch of Facebook’s Libra; an acceleration of China’s central bank digital currency; growing acceptance of bitcoin as digital gold and more. 

When Coronavirus hit, however, it fundamentally altered the context in which this battle for the future of money would take place. 

In late January, China issued a lockdown for the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province. Over the next few weeks, that lockdown as extended to more than 200 million people. China-based blockchain investor Matthew Graham called living through it “the craziest thing I’d ever seen.” 

Yet despite such a chaotic blow to the economy of the supply chain capital of the world, US stock markets continued to mint new highs, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching an all time high on February 12th and the S&P500 following suit exactly one week later. 

On Monday, February 24th the damn started to break. Caitlin Long, founder of the crypto bank Avanti and 22 year Wall Street veteran said that COVID-19 was “starting to overwhelm the ability of central banks to solve this…You can’t solve a pandemic with liquidity. It’s just not going to work.” 

That week would get messier still. By the end of the week, which completed a 10% drop from just 10 days earlier, crypto trader Scott Melker said “This is a historic drop. This is something we haven’t seen since World War II.”

By the first week in March, the Fed sprang into action, calling an emergency weekend meeting to announce a 50 bps rate cut. Unfortunately, the market did the opposite of what the Fed might have hoped. Delphi Digital macro analyst Kevin Kelly put it this way: “What last week’s rate cut did was confirm to equity investors what they didn’t want to admit to themselves: that this was a real risk and something the Federal Reserve was watching as a real threat to economic activity.”

As true fear crept in to markets, stage was now set for a torrent of action and intervention. 

In this first episode of Money Reimagined, we look at:

  • Why US markets took so long to react
  • How the stock market became a political utility
  • Why, even before the crisis, “increasingly exotic forms of quantitative easing” were inevitable
  • Why the bailouts have some investors accusing our entire market of being cronyism rather than capitalism 
  • What unlimited money printing means for the US dollar. 


The key question explored in this episode is what happens to the US dollar next? On the one hand, monetary stimulus like the world has never seen suggests that at some point, we should anticipate an inflationary environment. On the other, the dollar has done nothing but grow stronger compared to other currencies. How can both of these things be true simultaneously. 

For that, we turn to insights from Matthew Graham, Caitlin Long, Scott Melker, Kevin Kelly, Ben Hunt, Luke Gromen, Travis Kling, Mark Yusko, Anthony Pompliano, Jared Dillian, Dave Portnoy, Michael Casey, Preston Pysh, Peter Zeihan

Music by DJ J-Scrilla "Faith In My Money (Money Printer Go Brrr)" from the new “Sound Money” album.

Produced by NLW and Adam B. Levine. Edited, Scored and Announced by Adam B. Levine with production assistance from the rest of the team at CoinDesk.

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The Intelligence from The Economist - Nature, or nurtured? A politicised virus-origin hunt

Scientists may soon understand how the new coronavirus got its start; that could help head off future outbreaks. In the meantime, politicians are clouding the discussion. America and Europe are taking different approaches to keeping small businesses afloat, but it’s a struggle on both sides of the Atlantic. And tuning in to the global boom in community radio stations. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/radiooffer
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Short Wave - How An Early Plan To Spot The Virus Fell Weeks Behind

In several major cities, public health officials work every year to monitor the flu. It's called sentinel surveillance. And as early as mid-February, the government had a plan to use that system to find early cases of the coronavirus, by testing patients with flu-like symptoms.

But NPR's Lauren Sommer reports the effort was slow to get started, costing weeks in the fight to control the spread of the virus. Read more from Lauren's reporting here.

Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

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The NewsWorthy - Easing Restrictions, Biden Responds & New Travel Requirements – Friday, May 1st, 2020

The news to know for Friday, May 1st, 2020! 

We’re talking about the latest states reopening, “May Day” protests, and the accusation Joe Biden will respond to for the first time.

Plus: new travel rules, Disney’s latest products, and the celebrity singing out his window.

Those stories and more in less than 10 minutes!

Head to www.theNewsWorthy.com or see sources below to read more about any of the stories mentioned today.

This episode is brought to you by www.FunctionofBeauty.com/newsworthy and www.MagicSpoon.com/newsworthy

Become a NewsWorthy INSIDER! Learn more at  www.TheNewsWorthy.com/insider

 

 

 

Sources:

More States Reopen Today: NY Times, WaPo, Reuters, CNN

Michigan Stay-at-Home Protests: NBC News, CNN

Orange County Beaches Close: NPR, LA Times

Most Americans Not Ready to Reopen: Politico/Morning Consult Poll

Latest Unemployment Numbers: NBC News, USA Today

May Day/International Workers Day: CBS News, VICE

Potential SBA Loan Fraud: Bloomberg, 

Biden Sexual Assault Allegation: The Hill, NY Times, NY Post

Drop in Greenhouse Gases: USA Today, FOX News, Full Report

3 Companies to Build Moon Lander: CBS News, The Verge, Business Insider, NASA

Travel Industry Losses: AP, WSJ

More Airlines Require Masks: American Airlines, JetBlue, Delta, United

Airline Donates In-Flight Meals: Washington Post

Disney Face Masks: CNN, Hollywood Reporter, Disney

Call to Unite Event: Forbes, Fox News, Call to Unite

Feel Good Friday - Broadway Star Serenades Frontline Workers: AP, CBS News

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The Daily Signal - The Consequences of a Federal Bailout for the States

As lawmakers debate over a bailout for the states, Jonathan Williams, the chief economist and executive vice president of policy at the American Legislative Exchange Council, has a warning for states.


"Strings that come with these federal dollars oftentimes outlive the federal dollars, as we've found out with the last time we had a bail out of the states during the Obama era," Williams says. "And I think it's just a dangerous precedent to set that the states would look to the federal government to be their solution for problems that they are well-equipped to handle themselves."


He joins The Daily Signal Podcast today to talk about why should states say no to a federal bailout, if federal bailouts affect states' rights and sovereignty, if federal bailouts potentially affect tax rates, and much more.

We also cover these stories:

  • United States intelligence are maintaining that the coronavirus was "not man-made or genetically modified, however U.S. intelligence also announced that they will be investigating whether the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. 
  • Another 3.8 million Americans filed for unemployment last week according to the Department of Labor’s Thursday report.
  • President Donald Trump says that former national security adviser Michael Flynn is “essentially exonerated” after documents have been opened in his case. 

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