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Biden delivers a rousing speech at the State of the Union to the US Congress yesterday. He touches on every aspect on every issue that is important for ease of living, for improving the lives of workers and families, for ordinary Americans, in every state of the Union. NYT says he made his case vigorously and unrelenting throughout the address, leaving no point in doubt on every issue of the action needed and the path to be taken for the American people and for America's leadership in the world.

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President Trump says he will reconsider his decision not to join the Trans Pacific Partnership. Trump says he will look for a "substantially better" deal that the one negotiated by president Obama. Trump added that the U.S. already has bilateral trade deals with six of the eleven nations in the TPP and negotiations are taking place with Japan a country with which the U.S. had difficulties in trade. This change of mind comes as Republicans in Congress and other groups including farm exporters are calling for using TPP as a way to pressure China. Wheat exporters in the U.S. say joining TPP would give them a level playing field with Australia and Canada for exports. This means reopening the negotiations with Japan conducted by the Obama administration and seeking more concessions from Japan. Japan's chief cabinet secretary says Japan has made all the concessions it could.  U.S. president Trump would have to come up with a better deal to justify joining TPP.

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Jill Biden pushes the long neglected US agenda on education. She has talked to teachers and union members in about 21 states. Dr. Biden told teachers in Salt Lake City that president Biden was committed to increased federal funding for schools and to pay teachers competitive salaries. In his speech to the joint sessions of Congress president Biden said " she (Jill Biden) has long said any country that out-educates us will out-compete us- and she'll be leading this effort." One part of this is 2 years of free community college education. Like Eleanor Roosevelt during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930's and 1940's Jill Biden is playing an active role.

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After 3 decades the US is finally offering the scale and scope of infrastructure investment overseas that is needed. President Biden says $200 billion will be invested in infrastructure overseas over 5 years at meetings of the G-7 in the Alps south of Munich in Germany. Along with its partners and with government and private investments the size of the investment will reach $600 billion over 5 years to 2027. This will include projects such as $2 billion for solar energy in Angola, and a $600 million submarine telecommunications cable connecting France to Singapore.

It is a combination of direct government aid and private investment. President Biden sees Build Back Better World as the overseas version of his Build Back Better America for workers and families in the US for which Congress has authorized $1 trillion in infrastructure and climate change initiatives in the US.

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On April 21, 2022, US president Biden talks to Americans in a live television address and says US will send an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine. And an additional $500 million in economic assistance that takes the total economic assistance to $1 billion. He asks Congress to approve additional requests so that an uninterrupted flow of aid to Ukraine can be maintained to deter Russian aggression. He also opens up a path for direct entry into the US for some of the 5 million Ukrainian refugees. He calls attention to the 5 million refugees and to the millions of displaced children. He says about two thirds of the children in Ukraine are displaced by the war which he found to be shocking.

Biden said "you've got to admit- be amazed at the courage of the country, and of the young men and the young women." 

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Concern that the $1.6 trillion aid package could become a bailout for business delayed passage in U.S. Congress, with Republicans trying to allay these concerns. The legislation in Congress would offer $350 billion for small business loans that may be fogiven if firms use them to keep workers on payroll and $500 billion to allow the Treasury Secretary to make loans, loan guarantees or investments to support businesses, states or municipalities. Democrats want less power over the money given to the Treasury Secretary and for money to be directly allocated to the states. The legislation also includes $200 billion for unemployment insurance, and direct payments to households estimated at $300 billion.  Another $242 billion includes appropriations, including money for hospitals and protective gear.  The one time payment to households is $1200 per person and $500 per child, with payments stopping at a specific income level. Unemployment assistane will now be given for 36 weeks instead of 26 weeks. These two items have universal support. It is the $500 billion for businesses with authority given to the Treasury Secretary that is the controversial part. Not so much the money given to businesses and required to go to payroll as the money to businesses in loans and other action with the Treasury Secretary making the decision. ...

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Attacks from Iran on Saudi oil infrastructure leading to a loss of half of Saudi oil production is likely to be a problem for countries such as China, South Korea and Japan that have reduced oil imports from Iran and increased dependence on Saudi supplies. This was a result of tighter U.S. oil sanctions on Iran. India is also affected. About 30% of the lost production will be restored say Saudis.  The U.S. is less dependent on Saudi supplies and as Gerald Seib points out in a video in WSJ the U.S. has 3 reasons not to intervene on behalf of Saudis. The U.S. has increased its oil production from shale oil and is less dependent on Saudi oil. It is also becoming reluctant to engage in Saudi Arabia's wars such as the one in Yemen against Houthi rebels. There is also less support in Congress and in the country for supporting endless wars that originate from Saudi actions. A Trump tweet before his election campaign shown in WSJ makes this point about endless wars and the U.S. needing to be paid trillions of dollars for these wars. The conflicts in the region affect China and India where growth is close to 5% before any impact from oil price increases. Together Asian countries take in 72% of Saudi oil exports and China now imports more Saudi oil than Russian oil by a wide margin- in June 1.88 million barrels a day. Saudi oil makes about 19% of imported oil in India and 33% for Japan. Imports into India of Saudi oil are up 8% this year to 847,000 barrels a day in 2019. China is better situated than Japan with reserve supplies of 644 days of imports compared to 230 days for Japan. This why Japan has played a constructive role in reducing tensions between the U.S. and Iran and urged both sides to negotiate. China and India also have interests that converge in reducing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. As a first step president Trump removed his National Security Adviser John Bolton in preference for reduced tensions.  ...

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Daniel Finkelstein of The Times of London says in this essay that DJT's world view is essentially the worldview that the US has held for much of the 20th century. He cautions Starmer and his Foreign Secretary David Lammy- the better to understand where this worldview comes from than to look ridiculous simply praising this worldview in 2025.  On McKinley as president DJT is more well read than others. Two Roosevelts backed the buildup of the US Navy, TR Teddy Roosevelt and his nephew Franklin Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy. The US Navy emerges for America's role in the Pacific from this time at the turn of the century. Francis Perkins in her book  "The Roosevelt I Knew" describes Roosevelt's advice to Perkins in 1934 about the League of Nations and how Woodrow Wilson's failure to get Congress to understand it on Senators own terms led to the US not becoming part of the League of Nations. The US was not automatically inclined to accept the world role or its role in Europe. Roosevelt tells Frances Perkins  who was closest to him in his presidency- on International Labor Organization membership FDR told Perkins he must get the Senate Foreign Relations Committee members on board. "Remember how Wilson lost the League of Nations, lost the opportunity for the United States to take part in the most important international undertaking ever conceived. He lost it by not getting Congress to participate. They have a sense of responsibility and can't have sincere convictions unless they are given a chance."   ...

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The $42 billion withdrawal on Thursday March 9 from SVB bank is the largest one day withdrawal in US banking history, over twice that of Washington Mutual when it collapsed in 2008, says this report in the WSJ. By concentrating on Silicon Valley, SVB bank went on a growth spree, but its concentration in the Valley proved to be its undoing. The optimism turned awry in 2021 with the decline in NASDAQ of 33%, and tech companies facing layoffs with more scrutiny from the government and the US Congress, efforts to breakup monopolies, the Fed chairman Powell's and president Biden's efforts to focus on the cost of living crisis.

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The $369 billion Biden climate change and tax bill moves forward with renewable energy but also keeps incentives in place for oil and gas drilling for the transition period now that there is an embargo on Russian fossil fuels. US now exports LNG to Europe with the cutoff of gas supplies from Russia and gas rationing in the EU. In this new situation Senator Schumer has come up with a new approach and is preparing to take this through the US Congress. It puts president Biden within reach of his climate goals for 2030 for 50% reduction of carbon emissions by 2030. This bill could accomplish 40% of that reduction.

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Surprisingly very little can be found on the internet on how the relationship between Apple's Tim Cook and Foxconn started and how it evolved over the two decades- a key to understanding the two decade rise of Apple since 1998 when Tim Cook, an Alabama engineer, joined Apple's Steve Jobs to rebuild an almost demolished Apple. It is also key to understanding the rise of China in manufacturing to the point of excluding all other countries, including the US, for major investments. It is also key to understanding how the social relations have been disrupted in the US, how the US workers and families suffered from outshoring on this massive scale never before seen in the US for 100 years of the Industrial Revolution since Lincoln in the 1860's. This has not significantly changed to this day as the US goes into the midterms to elect a new Congress. Mr. Trump ruffled sentiment on this issue but had little action or results to show for it to reverse this. Mr. Biden is making some headway as the US elects a new Congress in November 2022 to take up the tasks to restore American leadership in manufacturing and in technologies that support advanced manufacturing from semiconductors to renewable energy. What happens now depends on many things. Mr. Cook talks about intuition as a main driver along with preparation and hard work in his project which has done little for America and the American people, in the sense of how its communities look like, and how its families live, as they are largely excluded from Cook's Apple project. Even as it employs about 3 million workers of contract manufacturers, for the most part in China with Foxconn. Total employees in the US are 37,000 mostly highly paid engineers and technical workers. The 270,000 working in what it calls its ecosystem are mostly workers in retail stores paid much lower wages. Of manufacturing there is little on the scale in China. Not since the days of Lincoln in the 1960's who fought a civil war so that the rights of labour in the US were protected as seen in his message to Congress in the 1860's, and through the Industrial Revolution for 100 years, has something like this happened in the US. It is not about some manufacturing taking place in Asia, it is the sheer scale that excludes America from significant manufacturing, about 300,000 workers in the US mostly in lower paid retail jobs, and 3 million in China with contract manufacturers that is an aberration from history. It is about delegating an entire supply chain in manufacturing that constitutes this huge aberration.     ...

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The Trump administration has pulled together $18 billion of the funding for the border wall, the fencing that will replace inadequate exiting barriers along 885 mile stretch on the U.S.- Mexico border. This includes the current budget proposal for $2 billion in funding request. The remainder was collected by shifting funds from the military. During the initial request to Congress it was given only $1.325 billion. President Trump made up the difference by declaring a state of emergency in February 2019, allowing funds for military construction projects to be shifted to the border wall funding- $6.7 billion in 2019 and $7.2 billion in 2020. A lot of the construction will happen in 2021, assuming Mr. Trump wins a second term. The Trump administration hopes to have built or under construction 450 miles in 2020. Much of it is concentrated on federally owned land, across vast regions of Texas, because of no legal obstacles from private landowners unwilling to give up land. ...

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COP30 becomes a disappointment in Brazil with no mention of fossil fuels. With even Brazil divided with Lula and Brazil's Congress supporting agribusiness and the oil industry. There is a clear perception that cost of living and development concerns have to be given recognition and balanced with climate change goals. This is true also for the US, EU, India and China. These countries are still moving ahead with climate change goals but realize that they have to strike a balance. On the other side are Saudi Arabia and Russia, other oil producing countries that want to delay climate change for as long as possible. These fossil fuel producers opposed mention of fossil fuels and making a transition out of fossil fuels a major priority at COP30.  

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The U.S. government partially shutdown on December 22, 2018, after members of Congress failed to reach a deal on funding a border wall with Mexico that president Trump has supported. Mr. Trump is seeking $5 billion for constructing the border wall which he sees as needed for securing the border. Two bills in Congress provide $1.3 billion and $1.6 billion in spending. The shutdown comes at a time of Christmas holidays with Democrats and Republicans continuing negotiations for a deal. A House Bill provides $5.7 billion for the wall, but faces a hurdle in the Senate where 60 votes are required and Republicans have a slim 51-49 majority. The border wall with Mexico is part of Mr. Trump's core campaign pledge. Mr. Trump sought to blame Democrats for the shutdown.

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The Washington Post survey of 1200 readers on how the Republican healthcare plan of Speaker Ryan and the House of Representatives looks to them, how it affects them in their lives. Here Somasekhar of the Post gives the stories of 5 Americans. Some see the prospect of losing their insurance under the Republican plan even as they reach an older age, others a smaller segment says the Post, whose premiums jumped under the Affordable Care Act say they faced high premiums and high deductibles. The Post says the large majority of opinions have expressed anxiety over the proposed Republican Ryan House plan for healthcare. One of them is an uninsured poor farmer, Mr. Woosley,  income about $18000 who gained benefit from expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act,  one Mr. Smith, 32 years, a personal injury attorney who faces paying $10,000 if he did not take insurance and $10,000 if he took insurance because of high premiums so a wash either way deciding to do without it, one a tech worker Mrs. Powers, 62 years, income $22,000 on year and $4000 the next, from middle class during the tech boom but facing fewer opportunities and uncertain income from part time work, hit by the deep recession facing fewer opportunities as she gets older and now the prospect of losing insurance without government subsidies, one who is from the middle class who sees little benefit from the Affordable Care Act and is forgoing insurance because of the high premiums yet faces a penalty for not being insured under the ACA, another Mr. Blanchard, 52 years, is from the middle class, a computer programmer who lost his job in downsizing, earns $100,000 as a consultant self-employed, pays $767 in premium a month and relies on the Affordable Care Act which helps him gain freedom from working at a company that could downsize,  another is a middle class programmer Mr Riffle,age 44, and his wife, who does not qualify for a subsidy with a $71,000 family salary from working 4 jobs between himself and his wife- this person finds it too expensive for his salary to buy insurance $900 a month and $14,000 deductible under the Affordable Care Act. His views are worth listening to as they go to the crux of the problem- he says he may not be any better with the Republican plan. He sees the real problem as the high cost of health care in the U.S. and the only way this can be fixed is for members of Congress to be asked to use the insurance exchanges they create. If this sample is representative it shows that there are real problems with both the Affordable Care Act and the Republican plan, that the high cost of health care the problem lurking behind every plan that does not squarely address this, and till that happens and members of Congress experience what ordinary people face, this problem can never by fully solved.   Woosley, Smith, Powers, Blanchard, Riffle, and their personal experience is at the crux of what is right and wrong  with the Affordable Care Act, and also with the new Republican plan of Speaker Ryan and the House of Representatives. For every Woosley, Powers and Blanchard who benefit, there is a Smith and a Riffle who are indifferent or are affected by the high cost under Affordable Care Act and the current system of medical care with its high cost. The Affordable Care Act does not  tackle high cost, for that to happen the culture in America that makes it possible and acceptable to charge high prices must change. Another problem apart from bringing health care costs is that any solution needs to have the whole country behind it. If the notion that all people are entitled to basic health care is to stand, the whole country needs to believe it as they do in countries like France, Britain, Germany and Japan. If this has to be made a workable proposition health care has to be offered at a price that makes this possible to achieve, and that idea also needs the deep and broad sense of support from the culture in America similar to that in these other countries. Until that happens politicians in America will get elected and turned out of office in turns on issues such as health care, based on which side they take and which problems they choose not to face squarely and responsibly. ...

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This editorial in the WSJ commends Congress for the $2 trillion U.S. aid package for households, small business and large corporations to keep workers on payroll, and aid to hospitals. It also commends the Federal Reserve for swift action to maintain liquidity in all corners of money markets. It was important to prevent a run on money market funds and municipal bond funds. The U.S. Senate bill adds $454 billion for Treasury that can support further Fed action if needed. This has also resulted in a recovery in the stock markets. The editors of WSJ caution Treasury from intervening too far up the risk curve to help companies that had overleveraged themselves with risk before coronavirus hit. It makes clear that the U.S. central bank the Fed should only offer liquidity against good collateral to companies that were healthy before the shock. As president  Trump never tires of telling listeners to his daily briefings from the Brady room in the White House- Boeing and the airlines were healthy before coronavirus hit. It was not their fault that coronavirus hit so suddenly. These companies deserve government help, says the president. By making the distinction between otherwise healthy companies and companies that overleveraged themselves on their own, the Fed, Treasury, and the U.S. government can get more bang for the buck. The WSJ editorial also says there is a bit of good news in the behaviour of politicians, media and the public in the way they are ignoring the trivial politics and self-centred behaviours, including indiscriminately being critical of the president, and focusing on the important matters that affect all our lives.  ...

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A whistleblower's revelations in the US Congress on Facebook, and the WSJ Facebook investigation, both show that the social media and news information products have at toxic effect on young women and children. Congress is in a bipartisan mood to take action. One solution is removing algorithmic news feeds, removing the effect of algorithms in information that is put out. Another solution is the breakup of the company and removing the algorithmic feeds. Keeping social media organizations out of the news and information business is an effective solution, as coming up with solutions that accomplish this would remove the social ills that affect American, European and Indian society today. It would restore the situation that existed before the emergence of social media such as Twitter and Facebook that distorted news and media information and improperly took much of the space that long established news organizations had carefully developed for a hundred years.  ...

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Brian Deese and other economists remind us that the government is still not able to negotiate the prices of drugs with pharmaceutical companies something that government was instructed not to do under a Republican administration with a George W. Bush administration rule that has hurt millions of Americans since 2003. In fact December 3, 2003 may be a day of ignominy for Americans who face high cost of pharmaceutical drugs, and actions that send money from the pockets of government that would go into fixing aging infrastructure, and from pockets of ordinary Americans that would go into meeting the cost of living to improve ease of living. President Biden without the needed majorities in Congress was able to only specify certain drugs on which negotiation could take place. There is a need to cut pharmaceutical costs for the American public, there is a need to be like everybody else in the community of nations in Europe and Asia that pay only so much for pharmaceuticals not many times more. Making the US worse off than Indians and Chinese who can access these drugs and find it affordable for most of the people of 3 billion in these countries. The contrast makes one question what is a developed and a developing country as what has happened in the last 3 decades in America has turned this  question on its head- with irresponsible presidents and irresponsible Congress. ...

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Felipe Calderon is President of Mexico till Dec. 1, 2012, when Enrique Pena Nieto takes office. He describes the priorities for the next administration at the Mexican cultural center in Washington D.C. The first is to allow foreign investment in Mexico's oil industry. His efforts to do this were watered down in Mexico's Congress. The renewal of the ban on assault weapons in the U.S. is another priority, as 80% of the 150,000 weapons confiscated by Mexican law enforcement were bought in U.S. gun shops. Calderon's says he worked hard in his term of office to make Mexico "a rule-of-law state."

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Wind and solar tax credits to phase out end of 2027 instead of 2032 under Senate version of US Tax Cuts Bill. This gives less time for renewable projects in solar and wind to get these tax credits and places them in a difficult situation. Senator Tillis of North Carolina who voted against the bill plans not to run again. The 3B Tax Cuts Bill is being considered in Congress this weekend to be placed on president's desk before July 4th weekend. The generous subsidies of the Biden administration are being questioned by the new Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

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Biden gave a passionate and vigorous speech at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Aug 19, 2024 comparable to what he did in the State of the Union message to the US Congress and people in January 2023 and January 2024. Gone was any semblance of the bad day at the debate that came after covid symptoms. The first night at the Democrat Convention brought before Biden's speech speakers Hillary Clinton, Governor Beshear of Kentucky, touching personal accounts of trauma of women who were denied abortion in rape and incest and mother's health conditions, Steve Kerr, US Coach men's basketball team at the US Olympics, and three members of Congress. Steve Kerr said it was the duty of Americans to protect American democracy and the respect for the dignity of people, workers and families, that is part of the values of the American people for two hundred years, values Biden exemplified and Kamala is shaped by. Ashley Clinton reminded people of her father's love for the country and family- telling the country how her father took the train from Washington D.C. to Wilmington Delaware just to see Ashley, Jill and the family for her birthday when she was just seven years, stayed for a few minutes at the station and after blowing the candles headed right back to D.C. Dignity, decency, values, personal sacrifice, courage, these are the values that Coach Steve Kerr said America expected from its leaders. Thes are the values of Joe Biden of Delaware as he went through 50 years int he US Senate, 8 years as Vice President and his term as president. And above all Biden used this experience to pass legislation  for the Renewal of America that makes him many speakers say the most consequential president since FDR. ...

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US Supreme Court Justices fail to grasp the importance of education and education affordability in the rise of America as an industrialized nation in the last 150 years- from a largely agricultural rural country to an advanced industrial economy. Comments by Supreme Court Justices show this clearly. Justice Roberts compares a college education to starting a lawn business, failing to grasp the importance of education and it being affordable for all when he asked yesterday whether it made sense to forgive loans made out by students and not say ones made out to someone starting a lawn care business.  Astonishingly the same lack of awareness prevails among Justices appointed by Democrats. Justice Kagan said- "Congress passed a law that dealt with loan repayment for colleges, and they did not pass a law for loan repayment for lawn businesses. And so Congress made a choice, and it may have been the right choice or the wrong choice, but that's Congress's choice." Kagan shows a lack of conviction about the value of education for the US economy, and the serious crisis with the lack of affordability of education in America in America's ability to compete with China and the European Union, through her words. Reporting in the WSJ has shown in the past year- the lack of college enrollment for young men graduating from high school where lack of affordability makes a college education out of reach, and young men falling behind young women. This is a serious problem that America has not seen in its rise as an industrialized advanced nation. The pandemic has worsened this problem. Reporting also shows federal funding of education remains underutilized today because it is seen as burdening with debt. President Biden seeks to change this perception of education that is deindustrializing America and failing the country in its efforts to compete in the world. Justice Roberts and Justice Kagan have both failed the country.     ...

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Senator Mitch McConnell, the U.S. Senate Majority leader, and Speaker Ryan, achieved a win in the U.S. Congress which is expected to set a new trend of bipartisan cooperation, as the House passed the bill in Dec. 2015 for $1.1 trillion spending with a vote of 316 to 113, and the Senate with vote of 65 to 33. The persuasion on the Republican side was based on giving Speaker Ryan a strong hand in negotiations with the White House in 2016. Ryan secured a lifting of the oil export ban for the Republican side in return for flexibility in spending. Ryan deftly sent the issue of Puerto Rico having access to bankruptcy laws to the committe chairmen to come up with a plan in March to get the needed votes. Democrats had pushed for aid to Puerto Rico. Also included in the bill that passed is giving more voice to emerging market countries China and India in the running of the IMF.

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The effort to impeach US Homeland Secretary Mayorkas fails in the House of Representatives with a vote of 216- to 2014 with 4 Republicans voting with all Democrats. Constitutional experts say there are no grounds for impeaching Mayorkas and no cabinet official has ever been impeached before. The WSJ Editorial Board also says there are no impeachable offences. A Senate bipartisan effort to change asylum and parole laws to end the migrants flow over the US border with Mexico with president Biden's support to close the border the day it is passed is now stalled because of Republican opposition. This also keeps aid to Ukraine and Israel in a bill before Congress in a state of uncertainty.

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After the Biden executive order closing the Mexico Border following 2500 illegal border crossings a day there remains the challenge of increased funding for DHS Border Control for Asylum processing officers and immigration judges, so that the intent of the executive order can be implemented effectively. Making the claim of asylum requires being in the country, a process that provides an incentive to cross the border from Mexico. Bipartisan legislation is required as the duty of Congress to address these immigration problems so that the Border issue does not become one on which all other problems facing the US can be put on hold and not tackled making the US fall behind in development, infrastructure, climate change action, education, supply chain, and health care, resulting in reducing the standard of living in the US.