Joe Biden calls for 'urgent action' on stimulus as US unemployment surges

Joe Biden, the US president-elect, said Friday's "grim" jobs report showed the economic recovery was stalling and warned the "dark winter" ahead would exacerbate the pain unless Congress passed a coronavirus relief bill immediately.

"The situation requires urgent action," Mr Biden said. "Americans need help and they need it now."

A government report earlier in the day showed the labour market slowing in November amid a surge of Covid-19 cases.

Mr Biden, the Democratic former vice president, offered support for an emerging bipartisan package of about $908 billion, which has drawn tentative support from members of both parties in Congress.

But he said the bill would be "just the start" and vowed to press for additional relief once he takes office in January.

The president-elect has focused heavily on the pandemic and economy during the transition, after a campaign in which he made President Donald Trump's mishandling of the coronavirus a central theme.

He is expected to name Jeff Zients, a co-chair of his transition team and a former Obama administration economic aide, as his executive to co-ordinate the government's pandemic response and oversee vaccine distribution, a source said.

This week, Mr Biden unveiled his economic team, led by his nominee for the first female Treasury secretary, former Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen.

Mr Biden's selections for top roles thus far have included some ground-breaking choices, including Neera Tanden, who would be the first woman of colour to run the Office of Management and Budget; and Cecilia Rouse, who would be the first black woman to oversee the Council of Economic Advisers.

Transition spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday that Mr Biden would announce more positions early next week, including members of his public health team.

Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence was visiting Georgia on Friday, where he was receiving a briefing at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centres for Disease Control and Preventionon on the pandemic.

Mr Pence then attended a rally with Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who face January ru-noff elections that will determine control of the US Senate.

Mr Trump, a Republican who has still refused to concede to Mr Biden, is due to lead a rally with Mr Perdue and Ms Loeffler on Saturday.

Pharaoh's curse

British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.

The specs

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Torque: 280Nm at 1,350-4,200rpm

Transmission: seven-speed dual-clutch auto

Price: from Dh209,000

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ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS

- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns

- Margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars

- Energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces

- Infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes

- Many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts

Brief scoreline:

Liverpool 2

Keita 5', Firmino 26'

Porto 0

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”