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The party is running away from Sanders and landing in Biden camps. But the overall is doubtful.

Economy...

More than a month and a half into the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, the country's economy is still largely in lockdown mode.

As the crisis continues, businesses big and small are struggling with the disruption the pneumonia-like illness has caused, with effects reaching across the globe.

Restaurants and stores have been forcibly shut, many with paper seals to prevent owners from covertly reopening. Factory production lines are at a standstill. Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, has twice extended its holiday break, keeping tens of millions at home in an effort to contain the virus.  

"If this [outbreak] drags past March, that really becomes quite bad," says Tom Rafferty, China research head at the Economist Intelligence Unit. "Then you're talking about long-term dislocation in supply chains. You're talking about a negative impact on the consumer sector, which is not temporary. And when you factor all these things and perhaps a cooling housing market, you get some pretty nasty economic data."

The dire labor shortages have been even more worrying. China's factories normally ramp up production right after the Lunar New Year, but this year few workers have returned. Most of China's migrant workers, who number some 300 million, remain cloistered in sealed-off villages and towns. Those who do manage to leave find themselves barred from renting places to stay near their workplaces by landlords fearful of travelers.

In Kunshan, a city that is home to many migrant workers near Shanghai, labor shortages are glaringly evident. The city is home to massive factories operated by Foxconn and Pegatron, the titans of global electronics manufacturing and key suppliers for companies such as Apple.

Go...

Pete Buttigieg, who rose from relative obscurity as an Indiana mayor to a barrier-breaking, top-tier candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, ended his campaign on Sunday.

The decision by the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency — and among the youngest ever came just a day after a leading rival, Joe Biden, scored a resounding victory in South Carolina. That sparked new pressure on the party’s moderate wing to coalesce behind the former vice president.

Pete didn’t endorse any of his former rivals. Buttigieg has spent the past several weeks warning that nominating progressive leader Bernie Sanders to take on President Donald Trump would be risky.

Migal...

Israel is only weeks away from developing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The Jerusalem Post  credited MIGAL (the Galilee Research Institute) for the breakthrough.

Israel got a jump on the coronavirus crisis because researchers had already created a vaccine against avian coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV), which affects poultry, according to the Jewish Press. 

By "pure luck," the MIGAL team  realized it was genetically similar to IBV and that the infection mechanism was the same. 

The new vaccine, which would be orally administered, faces pre-clinical trials and clinical trials before mass production begins. 

Recession...

U.S. equity markets were shoved into their fastest correction in history this week as fears of the coronavirus becoming a pandemic rattled investors and stoked recession fears.

Seven days of heavy selling, including two from the previous week, left the major averages licking their wounds from their steepest weekly plunge since the financial crisis. 

“If we get this into the pandemic stage, we are going to have a recession,” Scott Minerd, managing director and global chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners, which oversees $270 billion in assets.

“Europe has probably already slipped into a recession and China is clearly in a recession at this point. It’s just a matter of how long it takes to hit our shores.”

The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China, has sickened at least 83,694 people and killed 2,861 in 53 countries, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.  

The fast-spreading nature of the virus caused the lockdown of hundreds of millions of people in China, paralyzing supply chains and causing demand destruction for everything from oil to iPhones to automobiles.

Bow-out...

After South Carolina, it is the time for Sen. Warren, if she cares for any one else but herself, or if she can put aside her hate for billionaires,  to withdraw or retire from an activity, role, or commitment. Just a thought.

Caution...

Businesses in Wuhan, China, are temporarily suspending operations and moving out employees in an attempt to limit the spread of a deadly coronavirus that has so far killed 80 and infected more than 2,800.

The city of Wuhan, where the virus first broke out, is one of China's biggest industrial hubs. Several large Chinese and foreign corporations operate there.

Household names including PepsiCo, German conglomerate Siemens, and French automaker Peugeot Citroen all have bases in Wuhan and the wider Hubei province.

Sunk...

Bern...

The Dems are weary of the burn.

Disaster...

As Sen. Bernie Sanders emerges from his commanding victory in last weekend's Nevada caucuses, the Democratic establishment and the party's sizable moderate wing are increasingly anxious over his steady march to the presidential nomination -- yet they lack any sort of cohesive plan to stop him.

No outside group has taken the lead to focus resources against Sanders, and there are still too many candidates left in the race for moderates to coalesce around one standard bearer.

The fear isn't just over how Sanders and his far-left platform would fare against President Donald Trump in the general election, it's also about the effect his nomination could have on down-ballot races, particularly for Democrats running in tough elections in swing districts and states.

Several Democratic presidential campaigns agree with the premise that Sanders' candidacy is bad for the party, but that's where the agreement ends. No candidates are willing to make hard decisions about the future of their campaigns until the South Carolina primary on Saturday and Super Tuesday contests three days later, when 14 states and American Samoa weigh in.