1. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech to the Senate Banking Committee
2. Yellen: ”It’s an American Tragedy”
3. The UK becomes the first country to approved Covid-19 vaccine

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Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s Speech to the Senate Banking Committee

Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, in his speech to the Senate Banking Committee claimed that the actions of the CB to support a variety of credit markets after the coronavirus convulsed Wall Street last spring had released nearly 2 trillion to support businesses, cities, and states. He talked about the latest economic struggles, unemployment, and vaccination.

‘’ Our public health professionals continue to do the most important work and we are grateful for this. FED, along with others in the government, uses its policies to help reduce economic hardship. Since the pandemic began, we have taken strong steps to ensure comfort and stability, to make the recovery as strong as possible, and to limit the damage the economy is taking. Economic activity continued to recover from its suppressed levels in Q2. The reopening of the economy resulted in rapid recovery inactivity and the gross domestic product grew by 33% annually in the 3rd quarter. However, the pace of recovery has been moderate in recent months.

With so many people returning to work, more than half of the 22 million jobs lost in March and April were regained in the labor market. The pace of improvement in the labor market has moderated, along with the general economic activity. As good as this progress is, we will not ignore the millions of Americans who lost their jobs. The economic collapse did not affect all Americans equally. Those who had the most difficulty in loading this difficulty were those most affected. Especially the high unemployment rate has been devastating for low-wage workers, women and African Americans and Hispanics in the services sector. This economic inequality has adversely affected many lives and created great uncertainties about the future. Our joint actions have provided nearly $ 2 trillion in aid to large and small businesses, nonprofits, and state and local governments since April. This aid has prevented organizations from closing shutters and placed employers in a better position to maintain employment and re-employ workers.

Recent news from the vaccine side is very positive in the medium term. There are currently enormous challenges and uncertainties, including the timing of the vaccine, its production, distribution and its impact on different groups, and it remains difficult to make a confident assessment of the timing and extent of the economic impacts of these developments.

The FED does everything to fulfill its public duty. It is ready to use all our tools to support the economy and recover from this challenge in the most powerful way possible on behalf of communities, families and businesses nationwide. ‘’

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Yellen: ‘’It’s an American tragedy’’

After US President-elect Joe Biden announced his economic team at the Transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, Yellen made the statement.

Janet Yellen, elected as Treasury Secretary by US President Joe Biden, spoke at an event emphasizing inequality, unemployment, food security, and reestablishing America’s global leadership.

In her speech, Yellen stated that this American tragedy not only disrupts economic sustainability but also the system that provides equal opportunities to every person in America.

Underlining that inequality and low wages, especially for those who are not university graduates, constitute a structural problem, Yellen said,

 “Inequalities in salary, job opportunities, housing, food security, and mid-scale loans prevent the asset building of many different communities.

Emphasizing that the economy team will work non-stop to solve all these problems, Yellen said that the infrastructure construction process and the goals of creating new jobs will be realized in an equal and climate-friendly manner for all.

“We will help reallocate America’s global leadership by working in concert with the national security and foreign policy team,” Yellen said, above all, that Biden shares his belief in the American dream.

Wally Adeyemo, elected Deputy Treasury Secretary, stated that:

“I look forward to working with Janet Yellen to reduce inequality in the country, expand the middle class, and rebuild the economy with everyone in mind.”

Saying that we should focus on the critical role of the Ministry of Treasury in ensuring national security, Adeyemo said, “We should make bad global actors accountable by using our sanctions regime, we should collapse the financial networks of terrorist organizations and those who want to harm us.”

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UK Becomes the First Country to Approve Covid-19 Vaccine

The UK government, leaping ahead of the United States, became the first western country to approve Covid-19 vaccine.

The UK approved the use of the coronavirus vaccine, made with the joint work of Pfizer-Biontech.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) approved emergency use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, making the UK the first country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine.

With the emergency approval, the procurement of the vaccine has been paved and a new phase has been started in the fight against coronavirus.

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 10 million doses are expected to be ready by the end of the year.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech stated in November that the vaccine was based on a new technology called ‘carrier RNA’, and in the last test results they said the vaccine had 95%  effectiveness.

According to a statement from the UK government, the vaccine will be available in the UK next week.

It is the fastest vaccine ever to go from idea to practice, taking only 10 months to follow the same steps of development that usually last a decade.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted saying: “Help is on its way. The NHS stands ready to start vaccinating early next week.”