Notes From All Over -- The Super-Spreader Edition -- August 2, 2021

PPD: watching homicides surge. Link to The WSJ. Does anyone really care, as long as it stays downtown?

Who's sorry now? Link here.

Inflation watch: apparently the 10-year treasury hit a new low today. If so, not sure what it was. 

Currently, the 10-year treasury is yielding 1.179%. Link here. I'm lovin' it -- makes my dividend-weighted portfolio look pretty good. The risk here, is, of course, the US become nipponized. Of course it won't. But already there's at least one tweet suggesting "deflationary pressure of an aging developed population is too strong to overcome." Apparently the twit is not following Jay Powell very closely nor the Biden surge along the southern border.

Vaccine:

• Florida: 69% of 18+ population has had at least one dose;
• New York: 75%
• Oregon: 72%
• twit: stop with the mis-informed, rather sickening tropes that southerners are ignorant morons that deserve to die.
• twit: what about Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas?

Trucker shortage: a shortage of truckers, not a shortage of trucks. Bloomberg. I probably won't blog much more about the "trucker shortage." Once I understand an issue, I quickly lose interest. Long pdf here; previously posted.

On the other hand:

• Russian natural gas to Europe
• Russia seems not keen on sending additional gas to Europe despite record prices
• this was highlighted last month, but the situation appears to be getting worse;
• link here;
• the amount of natural gas entering Germany at the Mallnow compressor station has suddenly dropped, signaling Russia is flowing less natural gas through the Yamal-Europe link;
• meanwhile, none of the 4Q21 capacity to flow more natural gas to Europe via Mallnow was booked in an auction Monday; link here;
• whenever I can't answer a question, I have two choices: a) follow the money; b) google it. In this case, neither option works, but common sense tells me what is going on.
• winter is going to get very, very uncomfortable. Just saying.

Density and Covid-19, super-spreader events:

• geography
• Obama's home on Martha's Vineyard: 29.3 waterfront acres
• Sturgis: 6.08 square miles = 3,891.2 acres
• Meade County: 3,483 square miles = 2,229,120 acres

• Obama's birthday party
• Michele, Barack, two daughters and 500 invited guests = 504 on 29.3 acres = 17 people / acre
• Sturgis rally: 500,000 / 3,891.2 acres = 128 people / acre
• Meade County: 500,000 / 2.229.120 acres = 0.224 people / acre