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WSJ Editorial Board on Andy Burnham "wish him well,"  yet  this editorial says "he has wrong instincts." Calls Burnham as being "cipher on immigration," "want government to take lead on housing construction" and "wants greater state control of utilities," are unfounded criticism as shown below- "Cipher on immigration" - Burnham has supported Shabana Mahmood, as Home Secretary, on new action for strict immigration rules, tight control over migration, similar to Denmark.  He "wants greater control over utilities."  WSJ says nothing about how utilities were privatized under the Conservatives for basic services that are necessities for a basic quality of life- water, energy and transportation. It is widely accepted across Britain that the private entities have dismally failed the British people in ways not thought possible. Handing basic services to for profit companies was a fundamental error in Britain as it deteriorated the quality of life of the British people. As Burnham pointed out yesterday in speech to Labour and the British people if one cannot get something as basic as a bus service right how on earth can one fix the larger problems facing Britain? He "wants government to take the lead on housing construction."  When there are shortage of housing affecting the standard of living and quality of life as in the US and Britain the government can make a difference, and its stepping in and doing things correctly can improve the quality of life of the British people. He has the wrong instincts on economy suffocating net zero policies. It is reported in The Guardian that Burnham will support drilling for oil to help bring down cost of energy. The focus now is not net zero goals but making life better, improving the quality of life, achieving some balance which now is leaning towards cost of living affecting the people. He has the wrong instincts for business. In modern economies business is part of and the main driver of the economy. In Burnham's work in Manchester business was part of his plan for the economy, and successfully implemented. For far too long in Britain there has not been an honest reckoning on how policies that were reckless with the quality of basic services that affect the quality of life of the British people, would let Britain down, would fail to deliver for the people of Britain. The country that led the Industrial Revolution deserves something better and should get it in this one bold effort by Burnham. ...

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Andy Burnham of Labour says "I am Ready." He also told Labour and the British Nation: "I have a Plan." Even before he assumes office The Burnham Programme is on the web. Burnham has implemented it in the North in the Manchester Region. He is now bringing it to the whole of Britain. What Thatcher did in Britain had reverberations in the US with Reagan. What Boris Johnson did in Britain had reverberations in the US with DJT. What Andy Burnham does in Britain will have reverberations in the US. At Lyrarc.com we had sections on Renewal America, Renewal Europe and Renewal India from its founding period. The US (and Britain) is on the cusp of a national renewal, so is India among the English speaking nations of the world. Modi's work in Gujarat state for industrialization and modernization is similar to the work for reindustrialization and modernization undertaken by Burnham in Manchester region. Like Modi Burnham can now take it to the whole country. For the countries UK and Britain that led the Industrial Revolution, and for India that adopted all the parliamentary and democratic processes of Britain and the UK, there is new hope amid the rubble of factionalism, corruption, and deindustrialization. ...

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I write this comment as Founding Editor of Lyrarc.com. Lyrarc.com would not have been possible without the work of Neil Kinnock's mentor Michael Foot and his brother Dingle Foot. In the same way that Andy Burnham says he would not have entered politics and would not have joined Labour without the impression on him left by Kinnock, I can say that I would not have founded Lyrarc.com without the impression left on me by Sir Dingle Foot when I first met him in Colombo, Ceylon in 1966. What Michael Foot did for Labour, Dingle Foot did for the whole of Asia bringing forward looking ideas and a passion for the people of Asia that can only be compared to Gen. Joe Stilwell's passion for China and the Chinese people in their struggles in the 20th century since 1900. Sir Dingle Foot is not with us as Neil Kinnock is, but his impressions live on with me from his letters in his own handwriting to me from the 1960's, a period when decolonization in Asia and Africa was still happening. I think of Gandhi and the British agent in Rajkot, Sir Frederic Lely who helped him study in London and gain the knowledge of British ideas that led him to writing "Hind Swaraj" on a steamship from London to South Africa. Today Lely's name cannot be found on the internet but it is there at the Gandhi Museum in Porbandar, India- which means in the world of AI models trained on Wikipedia there are things one will never know that are vital to understand and continue the work of building the Modern World for the US, UK, India and China. Andy Burnham of Labour says "I am Ready." He also told Labour and the British Nation: "I have a Plan." Even before he assumes office The Burnham Programme is on the web. Burnham has implemented it in the North in Manchester. He is now bringing it to all of Britain. What Thatcher did had reverberations in the US with Reagan. What Boris Johnson did had reverberations in US with DJT. What Andy Burnham does in Britain will have reverberations in US, Europe, and the World.    ...

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Andy Burnham's first speech as a Labour leader July 16 2026- historic address to the British people for a time to hope in every corner of Britain for the first time in 40 years. After 40 years of destructive politics, a time when ordinary people would say "Labour is us."

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Bill Frauenhofer the chips Czar in DJT administration, Commerce Secretary Luttnick and Intel CEO Tan, his Finance VP, all work together to put Intel back on top- shares quadrupled in price in 2026 . US gets Apple and Space X other companies to buy from Intel. Intel gets AI orders from Nvidia as CPU demand rises. The US has converted $5 billion in federal grants into stock for a 10% stake in Intel. This is state capitalism in many ways,  imitates China as it rapidly modernized, and this helped  China get a large foothold in chips and EV's.

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Andy Burnham is a different kind of politician because he comes with political experience inthe ministries under Blair and Brown, yet remained an outsider by moving to Manchester as Mayor. His background in English literature and well grounded in his home region gives him the kind of character and humility which would deal with foreign leaders not on the basis of ideology but of mutual respect in what he shares in the best ideals of public service with others. With the US this means sharing with DJT his understanding of how there is common sentiment in how the people left out, the disadvantaged by the effects of world trade and export of supply chains, the communities that were hurt and damaged for decades of neglect by different administrations, how there is acommon bond between these people and their leaders across the Atlantic. This provides a common bond for Burnham and DJT, and charts a path that leaves out culture wars favoring common sense on what makes lives better for the American and British people, sometimes using slightly different approaches for the common good, that were lost to previous administrations including from their own parties. Charles as King of Britain did not approach his visit as monarch, but as a leader for the public good in many ways and many aspirations, which provided a sure bonding with American people and the members of US Congress, and DJT. By following the best ideals of public service of America's founders and the best that Britain has to offer over centuries Burnham can chart a new path for Britain and the US in cooperation with allies in Asia (the India Japan Partnership of 1.5 billion people combining Japanese technology with India's ambition), and allies in the European Union. ...

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Half of Americans under 30 years live with their parents because of the high cost of housing in 2026.

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"If you outsource your learning (your human knowledge then why exist?" asks Nadella, head of Microsoft. After all he says a company is a learning system. We at Lyrarc with our skepticism of the value of  robots and AI by themselves without the driving human component, thoroughly agree with Nadella of Microsoft. Nadella says the best thing is to have as many AI models as companies- hundreds of thousands of companies as learning systems keeping their individual human knowledge bases intact alongside AI supplements. The industry jargon for this is "open weight models" which is to take a basic core of AI and add your own individual learning component for an individualized learning system. To enable this Microsoft is offering multi models including cost effective Deep Seek and Cohere in its Azure AI Foundry, Amazon doing the same with Bedrock and Google following the same path. In an interview with Yash Patil cited in Business Insider, Nadella Explains, saying-  "My simple thing is there should be as many models in the world as firms in the world. Because after all, what is a firm? A firm is a learning system." "I don't want to be locked into any one model. I want to be able to use my own context, my own data — in fact, my own traces to maybe even take a much more open-weight, cost-efficient model or a fine-tuned model." "It can't be, 'Hey, look, I have two frontier models or three frontier models' or whatever, some finite set that have learned everything that is differentiated today in the economy because then it collapses.'" "You can always buy a tool, you can even outsource a task or even a job, but you can't outsource your learning. If you outsource your learning, then why exist?" ...

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Satya Nadella - "we have to get society's permission" for what is done with AI. Nadella has an approach to AI to keep each company's human knowledge capital separate from AI, as its most valuable component of its operations. In the world he visualizes AI frontier models OpenAI, Gemini(Google) and Anthropic's Claude won't just keep saying they will use up all the resources they can use leaving little for education, healthcare and public services or infrastructure, and keep saying it will destroy all entry level and other white collar jobs, and the world will put up with that. His approach is to bring AI at a cost level that is much lower,including incorporating Chinese models for cost effectiveness. And at the same time making AI supplement each company's human capital working side by side so that jobs can be enhanced not destroyed willy nilly, in a careless random, disorganized way whether people like it or not because a few frontier AI models and their companies (Google, Anthropic and Open AI) have decided to do that. Nadella's thinking is worth listening to and reading about as it offers the first intelligent approach to making AI do what we want it to do for healthy societies. After all the destruction in world trade by shipping out supply chains by the US and Europe, after uncontrolled migration, after the loss of manufacturing and the good jobs that went with it, and the decision to reverse this and regain manufacturing and supply chains under both US presidents Biden and DJT, Nadella is right to conclude that society will not tolerate any more losses, and society is determined to retrieve losses from past mistakes. By preserving each company's human capital independent of AI Nadella is calling on individual leaders at all startup, midisized and large companies to have a clear idea of their precious human capital and set up AI independent of it at the company level to work alongside human capital. We at Lyrarc think this will give better results than no conscious approach that allows willy nilly the AI frontier models to shrivel the company's human capital and do what they are clearly incapable of doing in our view, which is to run companies or the principal functional areas of societies such as healthcare, transportation and public services. That even though Nadella does not say this is going to look good at first, then lead the company to catastrophic consequences of losing control of its own individual company's future and lead it to make huge mistakes that will be costly to correct and cause much damage to the Nation and its people. This is anew proposition that Nadella makes and should be grasped for a new approach, and constructive confrontations on this issue of how to incorporate AI at each company's level for hundreds of thousands of companies, alongside separate and supplementing the core strength of human capital, not displacing it to cause huge problems in future years. A company bereft of its human capital is a company bereft of what gives it life and vitality. ...

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In WSJ 2026 survey about 40% of Ameircans see themselves as middle class, 22% upper middle class and 31% working class. Census Bureau also provides insights into income of Americans and where they fall in income terms. Census Bureau .has five quintiles of 20% each with the following dollar incomes separating each quintile- $35,000, $65,000, $105,000, $175,000, over $175,000. Cost of living (education, automobiles, housing, food, gas) has risen to the point that $175,000 does not feel like middle class today and makes college education, housing, automobiles less affordable. This is the major issue of 2026.

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Scott Bessent on the economic and national security of the people of America that follows Alexander Hamilton's advice on possessing all the essentials of national supply. This is also about the American Dream that brought so many people across the oceans to this continent for 400 years since 1626- of the promise of land and opportunity, of scientific advancement and new technologies, of manufacturing on this continent and creating opportunities for American workers and families in our industrial landscape.

Scott Bessent said- 

"The primary vision of this Administration, that every decision and policy of the United States Government should serve the American people."

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One example of how the appearance of divisiveness in the media may be misleading is how all sides are coming together on the toughest problems. On housing supply a genuine change has happened. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act biggest bipartisan legislation before the midterm elections is passed in Congress. The most comprehensive and consequential housing legislation in a century as the president DJT calls it, passes both Houses of US Congress by big majorities, in the House by 358 to 32 and in the Senate by 85 to 5. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott from both parties worked together to get it done. It addresses both rural and urban needs for small towns and large cities, creates more funding, cuts approval time, and provides incentives for builders. It also limnits institutional investors in how much of housing they control as this worsened the supply of housing and housing prices in recent years. The extent of the housing supply crisis can be seen by the 54% climb in housing prices since 2020, costing 5 times the median income far above historical standards, according Harvard Center for Housing Studies. ...

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Internal Bank of England data showing Britain inside European Union 6-8% higher GDP and 75 billion pounds of higher exports of goods in 2025. This is the only objective assessment one can accept in judging what would be best for British workers and their families.  Also lost on the 2014 -2016 period that led to referendum on Brexit in 2016 just three years later is that it came after the 2009-2011 period for recovery from the financial crisis, the first entry of Conservatives and sharp austerity cuts in public spending by 2012, and the period of Covid that followed just 3 years after 2016 in 2019. The process of improving productivity and increasing competitiveness that could have happened, is a cost Britain suffered from Brexit becoming topic No.1, skewing priorities from reindustrializing to debate on a non priority item Brexit- with a lost decade as a result in addition to the 8% of GDP and 75 billion pounds that could add to these numbers. In this way UK lost about 10% of its GDP and 100 billion pounds of exports that without the that  additional public investment  did not happen from 2009 financial crisis, from Brexit divisiveness, followed by Covid. The result is 1.5% growth in GDP in UK compared to closer to 3% in the US. The lower growth alone can mean additional losses in exports in 2025 than are seen in numbers, and additional losses in GDP. This is the economic weakness  that hangs over Britain as it tries out a new leader in 2026. Only a bold action plan under a bold leader can reverse this decline. As shown elsewhere on these pages in Lyrarc, this is why a new leader needs to articulate a bold and well thought out plan to execute with the support of the British people. Andy Burnham has the potential to make this happen starting in 2026 over the next 5-7 years. He has to build on the work he did in the Greater Manchester region, and like Modi in India applying the lessons learned in his home state of Gujarat, step by step, year by year, build the industrial and economic capacity of Britain by 2035. It is not a feat for the timid, struggles will abound, yet it can be done with one step following the previous step in a continuous stride. In fact Burnham can now work with India to add about 1% of GDP because of the close trading relationship and centuries long synergies with India to get closer to 3% growth in GDP per year. At that point public spending and investment would rise to propel further growth. It is in the interest of every sector in Britain to pull together, the same in India, to lift these two main countries of the Commonwealth by the bootstraps. ...

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$150,000 or $250,000 income a year does not go far in 2026 when college costs $100,000 per child a year, housing is costly, hotels cost $300 a night and car rentals $100 a day, restaurants $50 a meal. A lot changed over the last 5 years with cost of living taking a sharp turn.

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RFK Jr popular for health agenda MAHA, to make America Healthy Again, supports Republican candidates facing tough elections because of cost of living pressures. Republicans launch an all out effort to keep majorities in the House and the Senate to preserve the DJT agenda on immigration, on world trade, on infrastructure building, and on foreign policy/defense. This includes working to keep Hormuz open, find alternative oil supplies, and reducing the cost of living pressures ordinary Americans feel.

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Stephen Castle of the NYT gives an objective look at Andy Burnham of the Greater Manchester area and Labour party leader. Burnham has said that Britain has been on the wrong path for 40 years and had the courage to prove this by leaving London for his home region of Greater Manchester in the North of England, after serving as chief secretary of The Treasury and Labour minister under Gordon Brown around the time of the financial crisis of 2009. After winning in Greater Manchester he served as Mayor of this important region of Britain second only to London in importance, which after the fall of the British Empire, has led to politics focusing entirely on London. His term as Mayor involved getting transportation out of the hands of the private companies and having the government run it efficiently for the people of Manchester. His term is viewed favorably for improving the economy of the region. Compared to the people Britain has turned out previously- Thatcher, Blair,  Brown, Cameron, Starmer, he has genuine experience running a region and tackling tough problems, which none of the other leaders had, that comes from his hard work for the people of Greater Manchester as head of the local government. He has the skills to bring people together around his vision for the Labour party, similar to that brought by Clement Attlee. At Lyrarc we looked at what  Britannica Encylopedia has to say about Attlee and found that Attlee spent his first 15 years in the difficult working class district of East London, similar to what Burnham has done by moving back to his home region in the north and quietly working to understand the people, their aspirations and how to make them come true. Attlee did this in 1945-51 (setting up the National Health Service NHS and Bank of England, other revered institutions) the way Franklin Roosevelt did in the 1930's to establish the modernization of New York government that he later applied to 51 states as president. This is the kind of task similar to Attlee and FDR that Burnham has the potential to accomplish for Britain. Like Attlee Burnham is self effacing with little sense of wanting public recognition, comfortable with who he is and where he is from. Like Attlee staying away from Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government in 1931, when it failed to find a clear path ahead for Britain, (Burnham concentrated on Manchester away from London), and decided to forge his own way forward with new ideas and being creative- as it was under Attlee that the British Empire was converted into the British Commonwealth of Nations. An enormous feat that has not been fully grasped and will one day be seen as an amazing achievement of the 20th century- India independent and  creating a modernized state the size of the US, European Union or China by 2040/2047. This is our assessment at Lyrarc of the potential Burnham could have for Britain- and possibly for the world again like Clement Attlee in 1945-1951. ...

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 JD Vance as key negotiator of the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran announced June 17 2026 in France at the G-7 Summit in Les Bains, France. Vice President Vance says-about why everything not being put in writing. “There’s a lot of discussion, the MOU, the gentlemen’s agreements, the final deal—words don’t matter, ladies and gentlemen, we’re about verification.” As with the detailed previous agreements the words have little meaning if the intention is to build a nuclear weapon while all the time saying it was for peaceful purposes.  Vance does not mention that in the next 10 years the worst hit from Hormuz are the poor countries Pakistan, India, Arab World in North Africa including Egypt, and even a developing country when it comes to per capita incomes way lower than Europe like China. There will be all these countries backing the US as high oil prices mean economic catastrophe for these countries. This is really what the president DJT means by he did this to prevent economic catastrophe. China has sustained the Iranian economy through this period and China has clearly stated that it expects denuclearization, expects Iran to reverse policy to make a nuclear weapon- as it is the crux of the memorandum's intent. Without it the US would not enter any agreement and there would be no war. Opening up Hormuz is critical for these countries including China to continue their industrial modernization. Vance says- “We have all of the cards." “If the Iranians want the benefit of the bargain they have to give us the things that are necessary to get those benefits.”  There is in Iran itself three groups, one the people, second the elected government of Pezeshkian elected in 2014 to reduce the cost of living and improve living standards, and third the Revolutionary Guard Corps. The entire Arab World, the entire Asiatic Muslim world represented by Pakistan and neighbors find this Memorandum as a lifeline, a step away from the brink of economic catastrophe, which is not shown in the media, all these countries pushing for their very life to get the US to give a chance to two of the three parts of the Iranian people and government (who will ultimately decide Iran's long term course as a part of West Asia as a regional economic development and modernization zone). There are huge stakes here for West Asia and East Asia in this Memorandum of basically intent on the part of the US (consistent with its history and purpose as Nation), and this remains the key guarantor for this opportunity for Iranian people and people of West and East Asia in their progress to modernization and economic progress similar to the path taken by Europe and the US after many struggles of their own (not to mention the Civil War that made the US and two World Wars that made the European Union).    ...

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WSJ looks at one couple in suburban Rochester, New York, who want to age in their own home in their eighties. AARP says about three fourths or 75% of Americans want to age in their own home in their eighties and nineties. And service providers including builders are actively working to help make the changes in homes that would provide a bedroom and full bathroom on the ground floor, and elevators other mobility enabling devices. Some like this Rochester couple are doing it themselves redesigning their homes.

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1940 US Census shows about a third to half of Americans did not have the basics- no flush toilets 50%, no running water 30%, no electric lighting 35%, wood/coal cooking used by 30%, no refrigeration about 40%. Research shows the tremendous progress the US made since 1935 to 1963 both with growing incomes and with taxes and transfers, and again from 1963 to the present focusing on the black American population and backward states in the South with the War on Poverty of LBJ/John F. Kennedy. What it showed to Asian nations that studied the growth of America, Japan in 1950's in war devastated country, China in 1990 coming out poor from the failed Great Leap Forward and Proletarian Cultural Revolutions, India in 2017 after 70 years of failed Democratic Socialist experiments was that this kind of backwardness and poverty could be resolved by learning from America and applying the same principles with dogged determination, clear vision, and careful planning for commiting the large amounts of capital investment, labor education, and technology infusions from the US and EU, and very importantly capitalizing on the goodwill for Asia in America and the European nations. Much of Africa and India today in its efforts can draw inspiration from what was achieved in America over this span and China's effort to do this in just 30 years from beginnings in 1990 when China was mostly a bicycle nation to its complete transformation by 2020.  ...

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Greg Ip argues in the WSJ that DJT jawboning on the US economy and markets has worked more often than not on interest rates, on stock markets, on oil prices, and on cost of living issues.

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Venezuela investment of $100 billion by US for oil and dilapidated infrastructure- how it looks 5 months after Venezuela's new government in place. The US president called for $100 billion in investments. The Washington Post looks at the current talks by Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips with the Venezuelan government. It shows how far and how quickly things have changed with the US Treasury account that has KPMG Audit and is intended for the Venezuelan people funds for reconstruction of the economy. US media speculates on many topics - how the orderly transition can be made, how the oil industry can be revived and how the investments can be made for infrastructure that has been neglected and broken down. The main point to remember says Marco Rubio who with his long association with Latin America was instrumental in setting up the strategy to get Venezuelan recovery and public participation in phases by finding leaders who can do this within the existing setup left by Chavez and Chavismo. Delcy Rodriguez was chosen. The main point is that it is only 5 months of 2026 and a lot has been achieved to set the right direction. Not mentioned in the Washington Post is that Delcy Rodriguez is in India this week on a trip that brought her in contact with many Indian leaders to meet India's petroleum needs. What can India do in exchange? As part of a long term plan Venezuela shares the experience of India through colonial rule, and can emerge as a key partner for development of its infrastructure and economic revival along with the US. This will change the dynamic into something different- the US offers not merely the Monroe Doctrine principle in the Western Hemisphere but also can now show what was never possible since 1821 and president Monroe - the opportunity to tie up with the US expanded relationships in Asia, with India and Japan that are supporting a huge transformation for 1.4 billion people in India. It offers Venezuela a tie up of its energy resources with US oil companies technologies, and the infrastructure technologies and labor of Japan and India, digital transforming tech nologies of India and Japan/Taiwan. This offers the potential for real revival in Venezuela and in Latin America that never before existed and is now being put in place.  ...