Brexit and a smoke-free Britain

 As we know that recent COVID-19 has taken its toll on everyone around the globe but

considering nations like the UK or EU where a number of residents are indulged in unhealthy

activities like smoking cigarettes have eventually caused an increasingly high rate of untimely

death of its dwellers.

We all are well aware of the fact that Brexit had its pros and cons for both nations i.e UK and

EU but considering the life-threatening situation of COVID-19, the inhabitants of the UK who are

highly prone towards smoking weren’t able to fight their battle against this pandemic due to

weak lungs. So the British government has decided to take necessary measures in order to

downgrade cigarette import in the country which will eventually help in dropping the

consumption of smoke. As a result, the government has decided to increase tax rates on all

sorts of cigarettes.

I think this is an excellent initiative by the government to increase tax rates on tobacco

products in order to keep in out of buying capacity for the common man. High tax rates will

eventually decrease in imports of cigarettes which will make the price of common cigarettes

extensively high for the general public resulting in less sales of the product. This will help in

accomplishing the objective of the government which is to make the UK smoke free nation.

https://theconversation.com/brexit-is-an-opportunity-to-stop-britons-smoking-150204

Monoply of Facebook is challenged

Facebook has been sued by many states and the federal government for the alleged abuse of its dominance in the digital marketplace and for being engaged in anticompetitive behavior

The Federal Trade Commission seeks a permanent injunction in federal court that demands divestment of FB assets, including Instagram and WhatsApp.

According to the officials, Facebook's monopoly denies consumers the benefits of competition and the company must be checked for its anticompetitive conduct so that innovation and free competition can thrive.

Facebook bought 2 key services in the social media empire in 2012 Instagram for $1 billion, and in 2014 WhatsApp for $19 billion.

Facebook has its dominance and monopoly for more than 10 years and crushes smaller rivals and competitors.

The state suit calls for a court order binding Facebook to notify state officials before buying any existing brand valued at $10 million or more.

Facebook has prepared well to face the music and presented its narrative that Facebook accepts the regulation but this kind of restriction could risk giving other countries like China a competitive edge in the fast-moving technology sector.

Facebook is not the only company to be taken to court by the US and state government officials. Google and Microsoft had been going through the same kind of allegations in the past. Apple and Amazon have also been probed for potentially anticompetitive behavior.

However, the Government will have to prove in court that Facebook's alleged misconduct led to real-world, measurable harms to consumers or competition.

According to the state suit, Facebook's alleged misconduct harms the consumers.  Internet users have fewer choices. Moreover,  Facebook opens its platform to new app developers and later cut off their access to Facebook's services once Facebook feels them be a competitive threat.

Such cases take years to settle but can greatly impact the market.  Experts credit the Microsoft suite for Google's rise.

Similarly, a court decision to breaks up Facebook or to imposes certain behavioral limitations could have made a place for new products for the consumers.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/12/09/tech/facebook-antitrust-lawsuit-ftc-attorney-generals/index.html

President Donald Trump and US economy in 2020

In January 2017 President Donald Trump started with a healthy economy that continued to grow by leaps and bounds during his first three years in office. The unemployment rate was 4.7%, lowest in 10 years. With the all-time highest corporate profit rates and high stocks, gross domestic product was growing around 2.5% per annum.

 

Each presidency from Ronald Reagan to Trump commenced under different circumstances. George W. Bush’s first year was tarnished by the September 11th attacks while Barack Obama’s started with the Great Recession, a devastating housing crash and a global financial crisis. Despite all these hard times, these presidents have presided over a growing economy during their era. The Trump presidency, however, will be marked by a health crisis and an economic crisis resulted by Covid-19 pandemic. About 15% of Americans lost and Trump ran the elections under the worst job loss in American history.

On the contrary during Obama’s Presidency the job market was up 0.4% and the situation got even better later in his time and as result, Trump started with the strongest job market in American History. The Covid-19 changed the situation and joblessness went 10% higher from where Trump has started, a historical spike in history. 

 

A data released by the Census Bureau in September 2019 around 9% increase from 2016 in the income of an average American and almost 20 states raised their minimum income. The pandemic has definitely reduced those numbers in 2020. The Stimulus checks made a temporary increase in the income of unemployed people but the future of people who had to shut their businesses and who had lost their jobs is still at waters. Economists think that the businesses and workers will not fully recover from this setback for years.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/10/business/us-economy-trump-vs-other-presidents/

U.S. Trade Deficit Widens

 The United States trade deficit has widened 1.7% in October to $63.1 billion. The can be attributed to the trade gap with China and Mexico increasing. The deficit with China rose 9% to $26.5 billion while the gap with Mexico rose 10% to $11.8 billion. This year so far the overall gap in the trade of goods and services with the rest of the world has rose to $536.7 billion which is up 9.5% from Jan-Oct 2019. The thing to keep in mind is that President Trump has vowed to decrease the deficit and it will be interesting to see what kind of trade policy President-elect Joe Biden implements. COVID-19 has not helped shrink the deficit either as it has upended trade in services such as education and travel which the U.S. runs surpluses in. The exports for the U.S. are down nearly 20% this year while trade surpluses dropped $18.3 billion in October. This has been the lowest since August of 2012. Lastly the United States ran a deficit of $81.4 billion in the trade of autos and appliances. Overall, it will be interesting to see what happens once Biden takes office to see what kind of policies he will implement.  

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/04/us-trade-deficit-widens-by-1point7percent-to-63point1-billion-in-october.html

Brexit is an opportunity to stop Britons smoking

 

Even though COVID takes up the majority of the health news smoking remains the most prevailing part of preventable death in the UK. As the UK seesaws on the edge of Brexit they have the freedom to add higher tobacco restrictions. UK has had a high amount of people dying soon after getting COVID but that does not compare to the high amount of people drying from smoking. Many UK adults are smokers and that’s a major difference in life expectancy between wealthy and non-wealthy individuals. The UK laws have a lot of origins from the EU, especially for tobacco. The EU is very much responsible for tobacco-related good supply to the UK. Now, with the decision to leave the EU the tobacco regulations will definitely be affected. Yet, older laws made through the EU still remain just because they are a part of UK law now. Now that the UK is not bound to EU laws, they have a chance to make changes to the tobacco policy. Tobacco control can be made flexible and counter various tactics of the tobacco industry. Even if current regulations are removed public health will improve. A huge majority of tobacco goods still come from the EU. With a lack of trade deal between the EU and UK, the imports will become tariffed starting 2021 which will raise prices and raise tax for the UK. Research shows high prices are the way to lower tobacco use. The UK government is in a strong position after Brexit to turn tobacco-related regulations/laws in their favor. 

What do you guys think the UK should do?

Reference: https://theconversation.com/brexit-is-an-opportunity-to-stop-britons-smoking-150204

The U.S. Economy is going to GET WORSE before it gets BETTER

There is a promise of the vaccine that will be coming out and be effective, but before everything gets to normal, the economy is going to worsen before it gets better. The economy added about 245,00 just last month, with about 60% of those jobs tied to transportation companies. This pattern that we can see here during this pandemic has been compared to the recession in the 2000-2001 recession. 

A separate survey measured the household’s employment rate, which was negative for the first time since the pandemic had started in April. There is labor - market deterioration because we can see that the government’s survey on the households and saw that the number of jobs created each month. During the 2007-2009 recession, the household survey had begun to show a decline in employment 10months before the establishment survey. 

There have been many new cases that have been building up over this week. According to the New York Times tracker, the U.S. counted 216,548 new cases on Thursday and 2,885 set on Friday. 

Do you guys think that 2021 is going to go the same way it did this year?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-u-s-economy-is-going-to-get-worse-before-it-gets-better-11607113936

Online Shopping Faces Top Holiday Test

 Since the beginning of March, when covid-19 was declared a pandemic, it has caused widespread changes in all our lives. One major change is the way we buy things. In shops, buying had reduced to online shopping or e-commerce. This put a huge strain on companies like Amazon and FedEx to deliver consumer goods on time even though they were getting much larger traffic than they could come with. 

An estimated three billion packages will take this festive season through the nation’s shipping infrastructure — about 800 million more than delivered last year.

Whether packages get delivered or not could break smaller retailers who have seen much less revenue due to the lockdowns and traffic in their stores. 

Many brands are trying to deliver before Christmas day and have set deadline days for items to be purchased. For example, Beatrice Bakery has set a deadline of 9th December, and Disney Store has theirs on 10th December.

Shipping companies have expanded their delivery serviced and hired more people to deal with the greater number of deliveries they have to make. “Demand exceeds capacity, no matter what part of the country you are in,” said Satish Jindel, president of ShipMatrix. 

To make up for the increased numbers, these shipping companies are hiring more workers. FedEx is 70,000 seasonal employees, and UPS, 100,000. Amazon, 100 new fulfillment warehouses, sorting centers, and delivery facilities across North America. The company has hired 275,000 full-time and part-time workers since the start of the year and 100,000 seasonal workers. 

Hopefully, all this enough to get packages to arrive in time with minimal delays, and everyone has a great festive season.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/business/ecommerce-shipping-holiday-season.html