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Category Archives: Analysis
Analysis: How The Power Grid Failed In Texas (Video)
Texas had a rough winter in 2021. In mid-February, with temperatures dropping to the single digits, demand for electricity hit a record high throughout Texas. Supply ran short, causing the state’s electric grid operator to implement rolling power outages.
At the height of the crisis, more than 4.5 million customers lost power. The freak winter storm caused neighboring states such as Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas to also impose rolling blackouts. Texas residents shivered in the cold, as outages lasted for days at a time. They lost access to water. Some resorted to turning on their cars in their garages to keep warm then died due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
The historic breakdown was a wake-up call — if the power grid in Texas was so fragile, what about the rest of the United States? The U.S. has faced a 67% increase in weather-related power outages since 2000, according to data from Climate Central. Part of the problem is an aging infrastructure. Most of today’s power grid was built in the 1950s and ’60s, with the hopes that it would last for 50 years.
Video Analysis: How Vaccine Passports Can Kick-Start The Economy
Vaccine passports are likely to become a feature of everyday life as lockdowns are lifted across the world. But as “green passes” kick-start economies, what are the potential drawbacks? Read more of our coverage on coronavirus : https://econ.st/397Mkxq
Biotechnology: ‘Genome Sequencing – Unlocking The Covid Code’ (NY Times)
The advent of commercial genome sequencing has recently, and credibly, been compared to the invention of the microscope, a claim that led me to wonder whether this new, still relatively obscure technology, humming away in well-equipped labs around the world, would prove to be the most important innovation of the 21st century.
And unexpectedly, Covid-19 has proved to be the catalyst. “What the pandemic has done is accelerate the adoption of genomics into infectious disease by several years,” says deSouza, the Illumina chief executive. He also told me he believes that the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of genomics into society more broadly — suggesting that quietly, in the midst of chaos and a global catastrophe, the age of cheap, rapid sequencing has arrived.
Analysis: ‘March Madness’ Tries To Limit Covid (Video)
The NCAA has created a ‘controlled environment’ with an extensive list of protocols aimed at keeping the coronavirus from upending March Madness for a second year. The stakes are high for both the players and the NCAA. Photo: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports
Retirement: ‘How 401(K) Plans Work’ (Video)
Since 1980, pensions plans have been phased out in favor of 401(k) plans. They now represent nearly one-fifth of the U.S. retirement market. So how did 401(k) plans become such a popular form of retirement savings and how should they be used? Watch the video to find out.
Analysis: Will U.S. Stimulus Checks Cause Inflation?
The IRS sent roughly 90 million stimulus checks to Americans in March. WSJ’s chief economics commentator Greg Ip explains why stimulus checks alone are unlikely to spur inflation. Photo Illustration: Carlos Waters
Analysis: The Catastrophic Failures Of The Boeing 777 Aircraft Engines (Video)
A type of Pratt & Whitney engine on Boeing 777s has failed catastrophically three times in a three-year span. Federal investigators are trying to figure out why.
Analysis: Why China Is Dominating The U.S. In Electric Cars (Video)
The global electric vehicle market is heating up and China wants to dominate. The country has invested at least $60 billion to support the EV industry and it’s pushing an ambitious plan to transition to all electric or hybrid cars by 2035. Tesla entered the Chinese market in 2019 and has seen rapid growth.
China sold roughly one million more EVs than the U.S. in 2020. But there are signs the U.S. is getting more serious about going electric. President Joe Biden announced a goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and investments in green infrastructure. Watch the video to find out how China came to dominate the market and whether it’s too late for the U.S. to catch up.
Analysis: ‘Tencent – China’s Most Valuable Company’
Mar.23 — In the space of two decades, Tencent Holdings Ltd. has become China’s most valuable company and Asia’s largest conglomerate. But with Chinese authorities stepping up scrutiny of the internet sector and cracking down on monopolies. it’s not clear if the WeChat owner will still have the same freedom to expand. Bloomberg Television’s David Ingles reports.
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