Immediate Action-Items to Address the Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19) Outbreak in New York
Authors: Dr. Megan Coffee, MD, PhD; Evan Anderson, CEO, INVNT/IP
3.18.20
Executive Summary
The situation of rising COVID-19 caseloads in New York City is rapidly becoming a crisis on the level of the current situation in Lombardy, Italy. Such a situation would be disastrous, and can be mitigated by the rapid imposition of shelter-in-place requirements for residents and the immediate increase of ICU bed capacity and staff, and ventilator, PPE, and generic pharmaceutical supplies in order to reduce infection and transmission. In so doing, authorities will not only drastically reduce mortality in the city itself, but prevent an untenable explosion of disease transmission from New York into other areas, thus acting to protect the country and, specifically, the Eastern Seaboard and the capitol.
This week, we’re going to look at the COVID-19 virus story not from the perspective of what we know, but rather – and more important – what we do not know.
Yesterday a (non-technical) friend in the hospitality business asked me what I thought about the virus and its impacts. I told him the virus is like a mirror, with the epidemic(s) showing us things about our countries and ourselves that are both good and bad.
Clearly, a lack of good data would be at the top of the latter list.
While China’s global propaganda machine has ramped into full steam ahead, praising Xi for his leadership, the rest of the world stands back in wonder at the lies, delays, firings, deaths, and overall inconsistency between Chinese states with regard to data reportage. I don’t think our members will find anyone, inside or outside China, who believes the government’s numbers. This lack of data integrity has been the largest impediment to global success in preventing and treating the disease.
As a Partner with Keiretsu Forum, SNS has received a special invitation to invite our members to participate in the upcoming Angel Capital Expo. Accredited Investors are cordially invited to join us on August 22, 2019, at the Angel Capital Expo! Please use the promotional code ANGELPARTNER on the registration page to get 50% off their ticket.
ABOUT Angel Capital Expo is the premier gathering of the angel capital community, bringing together investors and entrepreneurs looking for funding. Angel Capital Expo is organized by Keiretsu Forum, the world’s largest angel investment network, and was created to foster collaboration among angel groups, as well as reach out to the larger investment community.
REGISTRATION Attendees will include over 350 investors. As a community partner, your organization will receive 2 complimentary tickets. To register and redeem these tickets, please register online with the code ANGELVIP. *Please note, this is only for YOUR ORGANIZATION’S 2 complimentary passes; please do not provide this code to your members.*
PRESENTERS The Expo will feature 18 high-quality, diverse investment opportunities in technology, healthcare / life sciences, consumer products, real estate, and funds. Companies that apply to Keiretsu Forum are typically in their A or B rounds having already secured initial funding of $500k to $1.5 million from founders, friends, family, and individual angels. Keiretsu Forum is a global angel investment network and welcomes applications from international companies. AGENDA 07:30am – 08:30 Breakfast and Registration
08:30am – 08:35 Welcome and Opening Remarks
08:35am – 09:00 Keynote Speaker
09:00am – 10:20 Presenters – Block I
10:20am – 10:45 Coffee Break and Booth Exhibitors
10:45am – 11:00 Sponsor Introductions
11:00am – 11:15 Keynote Speaker
11:15am – 12:35 Presenters – Block II
12:35pm – 01:15 Lunch Break and Booth Exhibitors
01:15pm – 01:25 Raffle Drawings
01:25pm – 01:40 Keynote Speaker
01:40pm – 03:15 Presenters – Block III
03:15pm – 03:30 Most Valued Company Overview
03:30pm – 04:00 Most Valued Company Award Competition
04:00pm – 06:00 Wine Reception, Networking, and Adjourn
CLICK HERE TO VIEW/DOWNLOAD OUR EXPO FLYERS AND GRAPHICS ABOUT KEIRETSU FORUM
With over 2,500 investor members throughout over 50 chapters on 3 continents, Keiretsu Forum is the world’s largest angel investor network. Keiretsu Forum membership is comprised of angel investors, venture capitalists, corporate/institutional investors and serial entrepreneurs that provide early-stage capital in the range of $250,000 – $2 million to high-quality diverse investment opportunities. Keiretsu Forum members collaborate in the due diligence but make individual investment decisions. For more information, please visit www.k4northwest.com
We look forward to your attendance and participation in this exciting event!
PRC Steel and Aluminum Strategy A Long-term Play for Global Domination
For nearly a decade now, INVNT/IP has tracked the ongoing economic campaigns run by the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to dominate key global industries. From renewable technologies like photovoltaic cells and wind turbines to semiconductors, telecommunications, chemicals and beyond, the government of the PRC has pursued a system of global market domination that follows a distinct path. PRC government entities and their affiliates consistently follow three simple steps in the process of achieving unlawful domination of global markets deemed high national priorities by the leadership of China and the Communist Party of China (CPC): steal, amplify and dominate.
A simple but effective procedure, this system requires that the PRC government first promote or execute the theft of intellectual property from entities across the Western world, providing Chinese government and government-supported firms with the knowledge required to produce high tech goods without performing the necessary research and development. Once technical know-how has been stolen (or coerced through forced disclosure policies), government-affiliated firms are given funding and legal protection to “incubate” in the Chinese market.
Chosen by the government and carefully protected until they are able to compete internationally, these firms and their products are then introduced into the global market with extreme levels of government financial support. As a result, they are able to sustain below-profit sales at the government’s behest long enough to weaken and destroy their competitors. This domination of global markets is, of course, the point of the effort and expenditure employed in the preceding steps.
Few industries offer a better case study for this process than global steel and aluminum markets.
In 2016, Chinese hackers working for the People’s Liberation Army were indicted for hacking U.S. Steel, Westinghouse, Allegheny Technologies Inc., Alcoa, and the United Steelworkers Union (Solarworld was also a victim). The team obtained cutting edge manufacturing processes and advanced formulas, planning and strategy documents, and passed them to at least three major PRC government-owned firms: Baosteel, Chinalco and SNPTC. These firms, armed with massive PRC government subsidies (illegal by WTO standards), proceeded to sell these products on the global markets at far below the market rate.
In 2017, the United States Department of Commerce estimated subsidy rates of between 63.86 and 190.71 percent on products from a slough of Chinese companies in the metals business in its final determinations on antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of stainless steel sheet and strip from the PRC. Dumping margins from 48.64 to 106.09 percent were determined for aluminum products.
The continuous dumping of steel and aluminum products on the global market have had their effect. The hacks, which spanned from 2006 to 2014, allowed the PRC government to take massive global market share in these key industries. According to the USGS, the PRC produced roughly 27.4% of global primary aluminum in 2006, a number which had roughly doubled to 56.5% of global production by 2017. In 2006, China held 33.6% of the global crude steel market, while by 2016 that number had increased to 49.6%. While finished steel products are highly diverse, output in the PRC has increased vastly in a number of categories since 2006 (in some categories more than doubling) while other major producers worldwide have been stagnant or in decline. According to the US Department of Commerce there were 102 trade remedies in effect against China around the world by March of 2017, while DBS reports that public gross profit numbers averaged -1.4% in China for a list of 24 major steel producers in 2015.
Evan Anderson, CEO of INVNT/IP, said “Steel and aluminum are, without a doubt, two of the most important industries to any industrial power. Without domestic industrial capabilities in these industries, a nation cannot build infrastructure. Without them, a nation has no military.”
While criticism of the consideration of such metals as key to national security is common, Anderson added “I often see trade officials today complaining that these metals shouldn’t be part of any national security considerations, which worries me. We at INVNT/IP believe the inverse: every nation in the G7 should be focused on these metals as critical to national security, and none should be denied the right to secure and preserve their own domestic sources, particularly in the face of hostile attempts to dominate these industries.”
Aluminum and steel both play a critical role in the supply chains of high tech hardware, electric grid, agricultural equipment, aerospace, rail and automotive industries, and military branches across the board. As such, they are key to the national interest of any industrial economy. In the face of the ongoing campaign to destroy production capabilities everywhere outside the PRC, nations who follow international trade norms should act to protect themselves through continued, collective, and collaborative trade action.
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