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After recovering from the eurozone financial crisis Spain is recovering with low inflation of 1.8%, and growth of 2.4% in 2024, 2.1% in 2025, and unemployment at 11.2%. Even with high unemployment prime minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain sees new immigrant workers aiding higher growth and supporting pensions- Spain's tourism growth also supports this. “The contribution of migrant workers to our economy is fundamental, as is the sustainability of our social security system and pensions.” This makes Spain one of the only countries to continue supporting legal migration to the country- 250,000 are needed both in high skilled jobs in hospitality and construction, and "invisible" jobs in agriculture and other places. 1 million migrants will arrive each year till 2028. Spain will also give legal stats to 500,000 undocumented migrants mostly from Latin America including Venezuela's middle class. ...

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Inadequate infrastructure, mismanagement and damage to pipelines is resulting in a energy crisis in Iran, a major oil and gas producing country. Supply is being continued to homes leading to cuts to about 40% of factories and to electricity producing plants. In Venezuela low prices of gas and mismanagement have led to waste and losses that created an energy crisis in another oil producing country. Lack of foreign investment means aging infrastructure and no updates in technology of production. Socialist administrations find their work backfiring in this way as in Venezuela, lack of experienced managers and people to run the economy leads to dire results including runaway inflation and shortages. Political rhetoric for workers disguises the problems building up in an economy that can tear the economy apart, as good relations with all countries are needed and the country's trained and experienced middle class and technical experts given an important role in development. ...

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The leading Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Elizabeth Warren, says she is eager to work with DJT, Tim Scott and Republicans in Congress to make life affordable for working families and to rebuild the middle class. She says Republicans and Democrats have thir reasons for th housing shortages and hgih costs of housing, and both are right. Republicans pointing to the supply shortage and Democrats pointing to the price fixing and corporate landlords.

On DJT proposing to cap credit card interest rates at 10% Warren says she will work with Republicans to make it happen.

Warren cites personal experience as reason she is at her job. Her dad lost his job and almost lost his home. This is why in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis caused by banks engaging in speculation she says she became Senator and why she is fighting to make life affordable for all Americans.

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Caterpillar is asking workers at its Canadian plant to accept a large cut in wages and benefits. Wages and benefits at Caterpillar's rail equipment plant in LaGrange, Illinois, are less than 50% of the costs at the Caterpillar locomotive assembly plant in London, Ontario. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. manufacturing labor costs per unit of output were 13% lower in 2010 than in 2000. This compares with an increase of 2.3% in Germany, increase of 18% in Canada, and increase of 15% in South Korea. Caterpillar is also asking for more flexible work rules at the Canadian plant. The flip side of this is that U.S. workers are earning significantly less in manufacturing, especially considering inflation, and the middle class is shrinking in the U.S. At the same time wages in the U.S. that are more competitive with wages in Mexico and China with flexible work rules and use of automation and technology, is helping to reverse the shrinking of the manufacturing sector in the U.S....

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The problem facing Africa is whether vaccine supplies will run out before new vaccine supplies come from America, Britain and France. Only less than 1% of African people have been fully vaccinated out of a population of 1.3 billion people. US president Biden said America will provide 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine to poor nations before the G-7 meeting in Cornwall, UK. Britain added 100 million and France 30 million doses. With new more transmissable variants out there Africa is in considerable danger today. The Delta variant from India has been shown to be about 70% more contagious than the Alpha variant from Kent UK. It is already the dominant variant for new cases in the UK. The new variants are now spreading in Africa. Cities such as Johannesburg, South Africa, and Kampala, Uganda are seeing a surge in cases. Another problem in Africa is that governments are increasingly reluctant to impose strong lockdowns because of the economy. Already it is believed that Africa's middle class has been severely affected during the last 18 months. ...

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David Ignatius reports from Syria as poorly armed Syrian students and people from the middle class are left to fight the heavily armed Assad regime.

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Bolivia's economy showed 6.5% growth in 2013 and the portion of the people in extreme poverty has dropped from 38% in 2005 to 24% in 2013. Policies of president Morales are winning praise for being prudent from the IMF and the World Bank. A greater share of the revenues from natural gas production and high natural gas prices, Bolivia's main export products, has enabled the government to build international reserves to $14 billion. This is half the country's GDP, and the highest ratio of reserves to GDP in the world. Morales has adopted socialist policies and at the same time provided fiscally responsible management, showing the two are not inconsistent and can be adapted to local conditions to build a middle class and improve living conditions.

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Thomas Fuller of the NYT cites Thai historian Nidhi Eoseewong about the social transformation taking place in Thailand and the emergence of farmers in the northeast as part of the middle class. This change is a result of Asia's rapid economic growth and brings with it new tensions in the social and political fabric of the country. Suthep Thangsuban, a leader of the Democrat Party, is leading protests in Nov. 2013. Because the northeast Thailand voters form about one third of the vote, the older established Democratic Party- allied to the middle class in Bangkok- has failed to win elections since 1992. The established older middle class wants to see less electoral participation that diminishes its role and is pushing for a Senate with half of the members appointed by civil servants and judges. The party of Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister, the current prime minister, appeals to the northeastern voters who want greater representation. These issues are behind the protests in Bangkok and are not likely to be resolved anytime soon as it will take time to integrate the northeast....

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Hashem Rafsanjani's increasing popularity as he runs for president in the 2013 elections in Iran. This reflects the high discontent of the urban middle class and the lack of alternatives in Iran. He owns Iran's second largest airline and has large business interests. At the same time he has close links to the religious leaders running the country. Economic sanctions have hurt the Iranian economy and the negotiations on nuclear development with the international community have reached an impasse, creating an opening for someone seen as a pragmatic leader who can also help businesses recover.

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The WSJ looks at Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All plan that marks a major shift for the U.S. economy.  Households would see their costs go down by $11 trillion, boosting their ability to spend on other goods and services. Because income and wealth was highly skewed in the past three decades in one direction, the spending capacity of lower and middle income households was pushed down. This and other similar plans would help restore a higher level of spending and with it an essential element of inflation of 2-3% to the U.S. economy which was missing in the last decade. This sets the tone for the kind of broad based recovery that happened after 1950 that strengthened America's middle class and made it the core of the economy, the core of the post World War II recovery in America and Europe. The plan would be paid for by higher taxes on corporations, tax rate of 21% for corporations going back up to 35%, and reverse depreciation schedules in the 2017 Republican tax law. The argument that this would reduce business investment does not hold that much says the WSJ because amid new trade tensions business investment has declined over the last 2 quarters, and has been sluggish overall. The other source for the estimated $13 to $20 trillion cost of Medicare for All plan of Elizabeth Warren is a 6% annual wealth tax on billionaires, in an attempt to have all pay their fair share and reduce wide disparities in wealth. Mark Zandl, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, says his sense is at the end of the day from a macroeconomic view- because $11 trillion in the hands of 80% of households who could boost spending after lagging behind in the last decade- the negative effect on business investment will be cancelled out by the higher consumer spending. The overall effect and today's context is infused in this analysis. Private insurance, premiums for insurance, and out of pocket cost that the public pays would disappear in this new system where all health payments pass through the government. Health insurance premiums paid by employers would convert into a new employer Medicare contribution to the government starting at an amount employers pay now and adjusting gradually toward national averages over time. Smallest businesses are exempted. Mr. Zandl says the most important aspect of this now is that Mrs Warren has shown that her plan's revenue sources match the cost so that the plan would not lead to deficits increasing and pushing interest rates higher, leading to negative effects on the economy. Republicans under Mr. Trump have paid little attention to expanded deficits caused by their tax law, and economists across the landscape have also shown less concern. Still attacks are made if the plans don't add up. For this reason a sound assessment in today's context of depressed consumers and an overall impact becomes essential. The WSJ quotes from a pre- assessment of Warren's plan by Simon Johnson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who co-wrote it with Mr. Zandl and Betsey Stevenson of the University of Michigan. What they point out is that putting cash in the pockets of the lower and middle class for spending makes a lot of sense today, and taking money out of the pockets at the way upper wealthy end,  does not contract the economy at all. Other effects they say are constructive by letting all workers get health coverage from the government instead of employers, this makes it easier to change jobs increasing labor mobility and productivity. A worker getting a better job and better utilization of skills could then shift without looking at the employer health care plan. Warren says there would be a five year transition so that workers in health care insurance industry can work in other insurance fields and in Medicare, no one would be left behind. The important thing being to build America's middle class again. ...

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Jaapanese companies like Nissan and cosmetics maker Shiseido moving to lower priced products to market to price conscious Japanese consumers and to growing middle class in other Asian countries.

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Uki Goni writes from Buenos Aires, Argentina, describing the chaos and poverty of the years 2001-2003 following Argentina's default on its debt. At one point half of the population was below the poverty line. Argentina eventually recovered in 2004 under a new government of Nestor Kirchner, but had already incurred a terrible cost. This was especially hard on the lower middle class who had only their savings to live on and could not access their accounts at banks which were closed. Barter stores were common in those days as the barter currency gained wide usage for exchange of services. It is not clear whether this was due to badly implemented economic policy or defaulting on the debt. Goni says Greeks should seriously consider the cost of such a steep decline in the economy as they consider exit from the eurozone, and carefully evaluate the policies of Syriza politicians who risk a break with the EU.

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This election marks the end of the New Labor vision of a better life for an upwardly mobile middle class in an expanding market economy. It started with Tony Blair presenting his centrist post Thatcherite vision and ended in the storm that took over the British economy during the global financial crisis under the stewardship of Gordon Brown. An earlier generation also experienced something like this when Harold Macmillan, was the Conservative prime minister, and Britain experienced a post war economic surge which improved living standards for an earlier generation. The election results far from creating a new vision of Britain, put Britain in a muddle as one observer put it, with all parties short of a majority, and the Liberals ending up with fewer seats.

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Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winning economist points out an astonishing fact about the 2016 U.S. presidential election- U.S. television networks nightly news devoted only 32 minutes in 2016 to all policy issues combined. And these networks devoted 100 minutes to Clinton emails. He calls this "disgraceful."  For weeks at a time in September and October the main television networks lacked the integrity and courage to ask questions and persist on the major questions facing the country of the economy, correcting income distribution that has been skewed away from the middle and working class, infrastructure rebuilding, education and healthcare, and what the policy proposals of each candidate would do for the country. Krugman does not mention this but the media devoted hardly any time to the economic plan devised by Trump that respected economists and economic analysis showed would increase the deficit by $5.3 trillion, and lead to a short term temporary increase in growth followed by a sharp decline. The worst thing that could happen to middle and working class families struggling to recover from the blow to their finances from the last recession.  The cyber hacking of a U.S. presidential election by a foreign power never received the unanimous rejection that it deserved from the television networks, not just Fox News as Krugman points out, but by all the networks. The future landscape of the media needs assessment to bring in new ideas and new entrants to bring constructive improvements, and for older media organizations to rebuild after the loss of confidence among young people. Only about a quarter of young people in the U.S. have confidence in the large media organizations news coverage according to surveys done recently. There are other pressures coming from the tech world that make it imperative to do this. Many experts point to the destructive effect of social media in spreading rumors or information disguised as facts, which are spread instantly by Twitter and Facebook, without any obligation to check the facts. This is also dangerous with a public that is now divided between better educated and less educated along political lines, older more settled in their views people, and younger people quicker in looking for the facts and checking things out before believing them. ...

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See Tim Walz's full speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 21, 2024 in his video from CBS News. Lyrarc has selected excerpts from Tim Walz's speech above showing what the Trump Republican party plans to do that will gut Social Security and Medicare, and kill the Affordable Care Act, gut efforts to lower exaggerated cost of medical drugs and healthcare. This excerpt shows what Harris will do to build a better life for workers and families and people across all 51 States, in education, childcare, healthcare, cost of living, and housing costs- "We’ve got something better to offer the American people. It starts with our candidate, Kamala Harris. From her first day — as a prosecutor, as a district attorney, as an attorney general, as a United States senator, and then our vice president — she’s fought on the side of the American people. She’s taken on the predators and fraudsters. She’s taken down the transnational gangs. And she’s stood up to powerful corporate interests. She has never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives. And she’s always done it with energy, with passion and with joy. Folks, we’ve got a chance to make Kamala Harris the next president of the United States. But I think we owe it to the American people to tell them exactly what she’d do as president before we ask them for their votes. So this is the part — clip and save it, and send it to your undecided relatives so they know: If you’re a middle-class family, or trying to get into the middle class, Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes. If you’re getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take on Big Pharma. If you’re hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable. And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead, because that’s what we want for ourselves, and it’s what we want for our neighbors."       ...

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Trade in services is not enough. Services won't build ships for the US Navy. Services don't provide jobs for factory workers. Trade in services won't rebuild the US manufacturing base. It won't rebuild the middle class. Trade in services won't make pharmaceuticals Made in America that are available always, including in times of war, pandemics and disruptions. Bottom line as DJT pointed out in a Cabinet meeting on April 10 is that the US could no longer be a world power without its industrial base, it's manufacturing base. Americans companies doing the outshoring are really the targets of the Tariffs because they are at the heart of the mechanisms causing the destruction of the industrial and manufacturing base of America, vital for it's security and for it's leadership of the free world and western civilization. It started with Apple in 1998 and I witnessed this as a consultant seeing the production line at the Apple Colorado Springs plant in 1997 with rework and defective product before Steve Jobs returned to Apple. By 1998 Apple started shipping it's entire production base to China. DJT told the Cabinet meeting on April 10, 2025, all previous presidents had to tell companies firing all their workers and outshoring their machines was- "there will be a tariff of 50 or 100% on your products imported into the US."  And these companies would never have fired all their workers and sent their factories to China or some other country. Economists and experts who have turned their backs on American workers see the $1 trillion deficit countries have with China and the loss of their industrial and manufcturing base with one excuse or another. Trade in Services in which the USA has an advantage does not do much for American workers, or for the 5 million manufacturing jobs lost and tens of thousands of factories that have been outshored.  National Security and Jobs, the Middle Class, factory communities across all 51 states are all at stake. ...

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Citigroup's CEO Pandit sees growth in its Asian and Latin American businesses in 2012-2013. He cited growing investment in infrastructure and the needs of middle class customers in these countries.

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This report in the WSJ confirms other commentary and reporting in different media sources that the Republican Tax Law lacks popular support. It cites the latest WSJ/NBC poll showing deep skepticism about the law on whether as Republicans claim the middle class benefits from this tax cut. More than two thirds in the survey, including 68% of independents, see the law as giving tax cuts mostly to the wealthy and corporations. This is higher than other polls taken before the bill was passed. As little as 17% say their family would get a tax cut. A previous poll showed this at 25%, showing that as Americans look at it more closely it is raising more questions about fairness. This makes Republicans face a steep climb as they try to convince people to the contrary.

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau comes out of a playbook of one party that supported no changes in the Financial system in the US and no consequences for financial wrongdoing in the mortgage and banking speculation financial crisis of 2009 that upended the world's financial system. The Obama administration did little to tackle the root causes of the crisis and no serious consequences for financial wrongdoing. With financial interests vested in the structure of both parties work in the financial business could go on as usual with minor changes such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and financial settlements of no serious consequence. Along with this rural areas, farmers and agriculture were given less priority than Silicon Valley during the years of the Obama administration 2008-2016. The passion for a serious overhaul stems from the sense of injustice suffered by rural America and by tens of millions of middle class Americans who took the first blows with patches of period of less work or parttime work at low wages in a battered economy in the aftermath years of the global financial crisis caused by irresponsible bankers in the years 2010-2014. This strained finances and savings only to be followed in 2019 by the Covid pandemic imposing more strains on finances of American middle class and working class people. ...

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In the third and final debate of the 2016 U.S. presidential election Hillary Clinton shows she has mastered the techniques used by Trump to use short jabs and comments to unsettle her opponent, yet doing it in a meaningful way to make a point about how she is better qualified and her program helps the middle and working class.

On taxes she added to her plan about not increasing taxes for people making more than $250,000, with the comment that it would increase her and Trump's taxes provided she said Trump hasn't "figured out how to get out of it." It also was meant to draw Trump's response about not revealing his tax returns and plans to give hugely disproportionate tax cuts to higher income people. Trump called her "a nasty women," in response, which was a point cited by media reports as a negative for women voters.

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Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, in meetings with bankers and business leaders says Britain should remain in the single market 2 years after exit from the European Union, according to the Sunday Times. Theresa May plans for Britain to exit the EU in 2019. The reason is that this would protect business as it adjusts to leaving the single market, a kind of transition or Brexit buffer period. This period "really informs what businesses need to do because you transition and restructure during that window," Carney told a House of Commons Treasury Committee. About the changes in the politics in the U.S. and Europe Carney has said about basic fairness in bankers language- "market fundamentalism can devour the social capital needed for capitalism" to work, referring to the moral failures in operations of the banks by 2009 and how it hit the middle and working class incomes and wealth.

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Jim Tankersley of the NYT is the author of the book- The Riches of This Land- The Untold, True Story of America's Middle Class. He is NYT's White House Correspondent with a focus on economic policy, and has written for more than a decade on the decline in opportunity for American workers. Here he tells readers why president Biden's plan to invest in human capital as well as the tangible capital of infrastructure building is so badly needed in America today. Human capital is found in education of children and college students, in support to women to get back into the workforce during this pandemic to bring their skills and talent to the workforce. This means financing education pre K through college, and paid leave for caregivers who are mostly women. Also part of the plan is investment in a rapid transition out of this period of dependence on fossil fuels and in the nation's scientific and technological capacity to come up with new solutions.   ...

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Linda McMahon was head of the Small Business Administration during the DJT first term. The president of the American Council of Education says she is a good pick as she has experience in workplace education programs. She aims to encourage apprenticeship training modeled on countries like Switzerland. More money will be funneled to appreniceship training, technical education, as a separate pathway from 4 year college degree to help the middle class. Linda McMahon says- “Our educational system must offer clear and viable pathways to the American Dream aside from four-year degrees.” Linda McMahon is chair of the America First Policy Institute which supports technical education. It also supports more transparency with parents knowing about their child's education in school, and teaching American history in a positive patriotic way. She is a graduate with degree in French from East Carolina State University and ran for the US Senate from Connecticut. She and her husband ran a small business Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment. ...

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UAW's Shawn Fain's support of US 25% auto tariffs April 2, 2025. Fain says-“We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades.” US president Biden supported the UAW, even standing in a picket line to support UAW negotiate a contract for fair wages for workers with the three US automakers, Ford, GM and Stellantis. For decades workers in the US faced the threat of outshoring to Mexico to reduce wages. This action on tariffs will increase depressed wages for American workers in the same way that president Biden's action helped negotiate better wages. In this sense both Biden and DJT are on the same track. In fact president Biden 2020-2024 decided to keep most of the tariffs put up by president Trump in 2016-2020. It is likely that a future Democratic administration will continue DJT tariff policies to achieve domestic goals such as fair wages for American workers, and for rebuilding American manufacturing in the way president Biden has done. This is in fact one of the singular achievements of the Biden administration for building the working class and middle class neglected by Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. On this issue both Biden, Trump and any future US president will be on the same page, because it is about fair trade, to even the playing field, and is right by American workers and American values. History will show that this required courage and persistence on the part of Biden and DJT, and was done not on whim as is falsely portrayed but on the advice of people who had the experience, wisdom and sought the best for America such as Robert Lighthizer ,the US Trade Representative in 2016-2020 and his deputy Jamieson who is the USTR in 2025. Lighthizer is notable because he handled the unfair trade with the Japanese in the 1980's as Deputy USTR under Reagan, and knows fair trade and how to get it to build a strong American economy. ...

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The US supreme Court has to decide whether states can block access to treatments for transgender to persons under 18 years. This was an issue in the 2024 elections. Parents unease at not being informed about children at school and the social trends that add to the social tensions for a middle and working class already beset with cost of living concerns and childcare.