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Technology is reshaping the world of oil by 2018. The U.S. Permian Basin stretching from West Texas to New Mexico now produces more oil than the UAE and is likely to soon surpass Iran- production is at 3.1 million barrels a a day. There are as many rigs as in 2011 yet the production has tripled because of the use of high tech rigs that can move quickly to new locations over wide areas and with tech that can see hundreds of feet into the rock. By 2019 the U.S. will surpass Russia as the world's largest producer of oil. The drop in oil prices to about $40 a barrel in recent years is a result of Saudi efforts to block shale oil development by lowering prices. This has not worked. Initially some high cost producers exited the industry and the shale industry suffered. Over time the new technologies spurred by lower oil prices have led to the anticipated drop in cost. Shale oil can now be produced by core producers at $40 a barrel and still be profitable according to this WSJ report. All Middle Eastern countries cannot meet budget needs at $40 a barrel. In 2018 oil prices increased back up to $77 a barrel. In the next wave of declining prices the shale industry is better positioned than the OPEC countries.   ...

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Hancock County, Iowa, is one of those rural counties in the American heartland that did not support Mr. Trump in 2016. This county now supports Trump by a large margin because they see his policies benefitting rural America, and see him as a way for the Republican party to be back in power to pursue a conservative agenda. WSJ reports from Hancock County in Iowa. The American voting system gives more importance to states with smaller populations in the Electoral College relative to larger states. States with large farming communities such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa play a larger role in elections in the US than population alone would suggest. John McCormick of the WSJ talks to farmers in this rural county in Iowa with a higher proportion of less educated voters than the rest of the counties in Iowa. One of five voters have a bachelors degree in Hancock County compared to one in three in Iowa as a whole and 38% nationally. The median age is 44 years compared to 39 years nationally and in Iowa. This part of rural Iowa is also in farmland that is many miles away from large cities and urban areas and more isolated and homogenous as 9 out of ten people are non-Hispanic and white. About a fourth of these voters are supporting his candidacy over Nikki Haley because they see it as more likely to win because of polls, even though Haley is according to the WSJ editorial opinion the stronger candidate for Republicans across the suburbs critical for 2024, which are slightly younger, more educated, and less isolated from the rest of the country. Biden and Obama are a sharp contrast when it comes to rural America. Where his own Agriculture secretary felt rural America was neglected by president Obama, Biden truly cares for rural America and has huge investments in rural America as part of the rural infrastructure effort. ...

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China is moving closer to the day when its population shrinks. This would be a sign of a seriously aging population with fewer young people as workers to support the older people and retired workers. The number of births fell for a fifth year in a row. In 2021 births were at 10.6 million dropping from 12 million in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.  The year 1961 the last year of the Great Leap Forward under Mao was the first time in its recent history that China actually had population decline with famine and other problems. This situation of population decline is fast approaching or already happened. In 2021 there were 10.1 million deaths. Women in China are not interested in having children. Typical is this woman in Beijing quoted in this WSJ report- she is 28 and teaches Korean language. She says she doesn't want to spend her savings on kids.  In China education is the pathway to a better life and income. And it is not cheap. Most of the savings of mothers will go into educating their children. Tutoring costs had become so high and the competition so intense that the government to tackle this problem announced that this will from now on be a non profit industry. ...

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Exxon's Darren Woods was shown in WSJ yesterday battling it out with Rockefeller foundation family interests as they fervently opposed his aggressive push for fossil fuel supplies. This WSJ report looks at another side of Darren Woods as he breaks up a potential merger between Hess and Chevron that would give Chevron access to the Stabroek oil block off Guyana's coast for about 1.2 million barrels a day. There is a shrinking pool of investment for fossil fuels during the energy transition away from fossil fuels. There is also a period of 5-10 years that the world economies have to weather through by accessing US+ oil supplies to support easing household spiralling energy costs when Russian oil supplies are no longer accessible. This is leading to a higher value being placed on existing oil blocks such as the Stabroek oil block near the coast of Guyana that Exxon and Hess have developed. Crucial work was done by Hess engineers for the find when Exxon had given up. WSJ looks at the fight between CEO's Wirth of Chevron and Hess of Hess Oil against Darren Woods of Exxon that is shaking up Houston and the banking+ legal advisors involved in the potential merger of Hess and Chevron that Woods has succeeded in ending. ...

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It is not a story that most people grasp or understand- the long term effects of the US immigration surge of 2023 and its source mostly from Venezuela. The  US Congressional Budget Office says labor force in 2033 ten years from now will be larger by 5.2 million people and younger as a result of the immigration surge in 2023 from about 1 million immigrants each year in the 2010's to 3.3 million. About 2.5 million crossed the southwestern border in 2023. Much of it the result of the collapse of the Venezuelan economy and its middle and upper classes leaving the country. This was worsened by the US sanctions on the Maduro government including under president Trump, say experts in an adjoining NYT article on the 7 million people who left Venezuela to go to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile since 2012, then making their way up the Darien Gap to the US. Something that could have happened under a Republican president if the US Congress could not reach bipartisan agreement on correcting asylum and parole policy. As a result of this surge US Gross Domestic Product  in 2033 will be 3% larger. When the large Asian economies are seeing a aging workforce, Japan for the last decade and China now following Japan, the US labor force will be younger than it would be without this unusual surge in immigration of the last 2 years. The federal deficit will be smaller at 6.4% instead of 7.3% in 2033 as immigrants will pay taxes on income. Another aspect of this larger infusion of immigrants is that after the pandemic shut down immigration entirely there were severe shortages in the hospitality and restaurant, construction, healthcare industries. And with the trillions of dollars in investment that the Biden administration is making with more factories - this will absorb most of the immigrant surge by 2033. With some positive effects in the competition with rising Asian economies China and India. Particularly consider with the younger demographic India of 1.4 billion people. It will mean more factories can be built in the US and there will be workers for these factories in the US at wages that keep the US economy competitive years from now in 2033. This is a sobering aspect of the current situation viewed from what will be seen by America's younger generation. And under the bipartisan compromise in Congress correcting asylum and parole policy that was shut down by the former president, Republican senators understood very well that the immigration surge of 2023 would have some constructive effects for the long term, while its effects on the short term would be mitigated by Biden's commitment to close the border in 2024. This did not happen, yet the future for America's younger generation is bright under the Biden plan for massive investment in manufacturing and jobs in the US, and with the millions of immigrants needed to fill the jobs that investment will create by 2033. It will make America with a younger work force than Europe or China, only India having a younger workforce in 2033. ...

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WSJ reports from Pakistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Indonesia and Brazil show the effects of inflation in the price of grains, oil, cereals, other essential food supplies, and oil in these countries. In Beirut the price of flour is up 1000%. In Kenya bread prices are up 40%. In Indonesia the government has put price controls on cooking oil. In Brazil Petrobras increased oil prices by 19%. In Turkey a sharp increase in the price of sunflower oil caused panic buying. In Uganda price of vegetable oil has doubled, and wheat up 25%. Russia and Ukraine supply one third of the cereal exports in the world and 52% of the sunflower oil. Higher fertilizer prices are a problem for farmers as Russia is the largest producer of fertilizer. Increase in wheat prices are an acute problem for Turkey which imports over 80% of wheat supplies and Egypt which imports 70%. Overall World Bank officials say this could be a problem as bad as the coronavirus pandemic itself. ...

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The 65 million Americans called generation X sandwiched between baby boomers and the millenials are one that are also the 401 K experiment generation, and ones that experienced both the 2009 corporate greed and recklessness caused financial crisis and the pandemic. And experience financial anxiety at a different level.  Without the steady pension checks of their parents these Generation X middle aged people with their 401 K's are much worse off. This is the group Biden Harris, and Biden Walz, has to assuage and bring back up. The 2009 financial crisis left many in disarray with loss of jobs or lack of pay increases, or part time work. Many have not recovered after the pandemic delivered another blow to finances and cost of living surprises. Median household wealth of Generation X people 45 years to 54 years old was $250,000 in 2022, 7% lower than that of baby boomers in 2007, the only age group that experienced drop in median wealth. 

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Jens Spahn, CDU leader and minister in Merkel's government says it is OK for Germany to leave the European Commission for Human Rights if it is slow to grasp that refugee status is about protection and also about how many asylum claims the people of a country are comfortable with. Denmark, Poland, Hungary and Austria, the UK and the US, and many Germans now feel this way and feel unease at the high levels of migration asylum, illegal and other that they face. Migration to Germany slowed but has picked up again. Failed states, economic distress, civil wars,  in Africa and Latin America have led to illegal immigration from Syria, Libya, North Africa, Arab world, Afghanistan, Central American countries and Venezuela. Is Asylum automatic? Are there decisions that have to be made in Europe and America if whole states are mismanaged or face climate distress or gang conflict leading to mass migration? These questions have to be debated and not decided by a Merkel at whim or some other leader. ...

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Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post looks at the story of Horst Kasner, Lutheran pastor in East Germany, Angela Merkel's father. In 1954 when Angela was born, her father moved the family to East Germany, then called the German Democratic Republic. The family settled in 1957 near the town of Templin in the Brandenburg countryside. He had an idealism based on the Lutheran faith and believed at the time that it was possible to build a East German Protestanism that reconciled with the professed socialist ideals of the GDR. Over three decades that faith was tested and by 1990 Kasner was known for his dissent to the state repression practiced by the GDR limiting free expression and religious beliefs. He worried about the domination of economic thinking even in the churches after the reunification.   Angela Merkel was close to her mother, Herlind Kasner, who joined the Social Democrats after reunification. Her brother joined the Greens. Merkel joined the movement called the Democratic Awakening in 1989, which merged with the Christian Democrats after reunification. Horst Kasner died in 2011 about 6 years after Merkel became chancellor. Speaking at a church in Templin in 2014, Merkel said what she believes- "God created every human being. We should strive for perfection. But we can make mistakes." To some Merkel remains inscrutable, hard to make out. This may be because she retains some of the thoughtful way her father meditated on what life was about and how best to live it.  ...

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Hotel costs are up and hotels will pay $123 billion in compensation in 2024, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association. This is 20% higher than 2019 because of increase in wages. Average hourly wages in the hotel sector were $18 an hour in 2020, going up to $24 per hour today, an increase of about 33%. This has been passed on to the customers in hotels. The average price of a hotel room was $120 a day in 2019, it is now $160 a day, an increase of 33%. There is also a demand supply factor so that rates can be much higher in peak demand periods.

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Yellen tells the governor of Guangdong that China's huge subsidies for solar, EV and other industries disrupts "the level playing field" America needs. In all previous administrations  of both parties American economic ministry heads stayed silent or said it in a way that they were ignored. A culture of government staying out spread like wild fire under Reagan and "free to choose" advocates such as Friedman who did not realize the grave dangers to American manufacturing and its workers inside America, and to the world's other manufacturing capable nations such as India with overconcentration in one location. It was America's misfortune that economists and business leaders in the US were not listening enabling China to ignore this. By offering huge government subisidized incentives China and Taiwan shifted manufacturing away from the US in semiconductors, solar, EV's. It started with Apple and is still going on with Tesla. Today economists such as Yellen say economic resilience and supply chains are at risk before they said it lowered cost for consumers and failed to wake up when advanced technologies were at stake, as economists never trained in manufacturing had no knowledge of how it works with learning curves and knowhow that is built over decades, once lost hard to regain. The message fellow Americans is that trust your instincts and common sense, and trust observation which is what the Renaissance in the 15th century was all about and which put Europe ahead of Asia, to the great misfortune of Asia. Japan, China, have learned these lessons well, America as an immigrant nation is different from Europe, and must use its good sense to keep open the opportunities for its people and workers, and the people and workers of all nations that are manufacturing capable. Yellen said- "Direct and indirect government support is currently leading to production capacity that significantly exceeds China's domestic demand, as well as what the global market can bear...Overcapacity can lead to large volumes of exports at depressed prices, and it can lead to overconcentration of supply chains, posing a risk to global economic resilience,"    ...

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Shares of Adani Enterprises went up by 3000% over 5 years putting valuations at extreme levels, says this report in the WSJ. This has created a disconnect between valuations and fundamentals say some experts. Hindenburg Research is a American forensic financial research firm started in 2017 by Nathan Anderson in New York City with 5 employees. It has issued a critical report of the Adani Group companies leading to a loss of 18.5% of its valuation. Adani Group companies make up 5% of the Bombay Stock Exchange and are a big part of its renewable energy effort even though the company had major interests in coal in Australia. Adani is trying to make the switch to renewable solar and wind energy and at the same time meet India's continuing need for coal because of its large population. The situation is similar to China and is poorly understood in the US and Europe, the effort to make large investments in renewable energy even as the company provides energy from fossil fuels. Adani set up the Mundra port in Gujarat helping Gujarat become energy sufficient and making it the most industrialized part of India. The London based Financial Times took a look at the Adani Group long before Hindenburg Research in the last 2 years and concluded that Adani Group companies have grown rapidly because India's effort for industrialization requires aggressive investment and risk taking which none of the other companies including India's Tata and Reliance Group are able to do in infrastructure and energy in the same way that Adani has. Reliance Group has invested in 4G and 5G and setup Jio to create low cost access to fast internet in India. When it comes to roads, airports, coal and renewable energy Adani has invested aggressively. This has created the perception that the Adani Group has benefited from its relations with the government. As the Financial Times put it Adani Group was the only private investor willing to take up the challenge of super sized goals needed for India's rapid growth. In this sense a forensic research company based on short selling is up against a company that has already faced skepticism about its rapid emergence as a renewable energy focused company shifting from fossil fuels, a transition neither Exxon or Chevron in the US have been able to do. ...

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The Standing Committe of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist party will have seven members including Li Keqiang, the new prime minister and Xi Jinping, the new president. Most of the other members are close allies of former president, Jiang Zemin, who began the now three decade old the modernization effort after Deng Xiaoping initiated economic reforms. This leaves a clear imprint on the Standing Committee of 86 year old Jiang Zemin. The incoming president Jinping is supported by Jiang Zemin, and this should make it less difficult for him to make economic changes say experts. Hu Jintao, the current president could not get his way in making appointments to the Standing Committee, except for selecting his protege Li Keqiang. Hu was able to select members for the 25 member Politburo who are likely to become members of the Standing Committee in 2017, when many of the current members in their mid 60's retire as required by party rules.

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The US Department of Agriclture reported that the number of Americans who lacked consistent access to adequate food jumped to 49 million in 2008. This was an increase of 13 million. Researchers track "food insecurity." This figure is at 2008 rate of unemplooyment. With 2009's unemployment exceeding 10%, things are much worse going into 2010 when jobless rates will be even higher. The way this breaks down is that one third of these Americans in struggling households have "very low food security," which means that they may skip meals, cut portions at some point during the year. The other two thirds eat cheaper foods, relying on food stamps, and visit food pantries and soup kitchens. The scary part is that 506,000 children faced "very low food security" in 2008 compared to 233,000 in 2007. See the story link to young unemployed immigrants here from Mexico who are getting money from parents in Mexico to put fod on the table.

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Ballmer is not able to answer the question about how by taking 2 companies that are slow moving you could combine them and get acceleration- except by saying that 2 people working on search would now be one person after integrating the 2 companies, and one person is freed to work on aspects of the emerging social media and work with other publishers. Is Ballmer too optimistic about such an integration of Yahoo and Microsoft when he says that we (both companies) have fantastic talent and fantastic assets, and this would just get Microsoft the breakthrough in search and advertising its looking for. The integration alone would take a lot of management time especially considering the different cultures. The comparitive freedom of the search companies and the more structured hierarchical approach, some would say regimented approach, at Microsoft. Could microsoft culture stifle Yahoo culture or would Microsoft end up changing its culture, which may be less likely considering that Microsoft and Ballmer are the ones integrating Yahoo. ...

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The weak dollar and lower unionized labor costs may make exports an attractive goal for US carmakers as the US market is shrinking. After years of shunning export markets US carmakers may finally be waking up to the potential in places like Brazil, China and India. GM is considering export of the Malibu to Brazil, and expects to send 25,000 Buick Enclaves to China because the Buick brand sells very well there. With the new UAW agreemets and lower unionized costs, the US carmakers backs to the wall and open to trying new things and not so America centric, and a cheaper dollar, exports may be one more way in which US carmakers can revive the automobile business in a declinig uS market. It is possible that after this recession the US market may have matured to the point where US sales levels may have peaked like that in Japan and Germany and exports and international markets are the only ways to growth. In this sense the transformation to making the so called Big 3 into global companies has begun in earnest in a true sense, and their company structures and the kind of people who work there will in future reflect this global nature of their business. The UAW is on board in this effort, new wages are at $14 per hour for new hires, and the UAW understands that exports mean additional jobs. In fact the Lordstown, Ohio plant is one location for another GM small car in the future which would be exported, this 42 year old plant once a target for closure could then become an example of renewal in a new kind of business model. Note that the US exported $50.66 billion in vehicles, half of it to Mexico and Canada. It imported $150 billion in vehicles. From now on the shift wold be to export to emerging markets....

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Content Links 1. BASRA BASED SOUTH OIL COMPANY RESUMES NORMAL PRODUCTION FROM THE SOUTHERN OIL WELLS OF IRAQ. Officials from South Oil Company say they have boosted production from 1.65 barrels a day to 2 million barrels a day. The production gains came after older nonproducing wells were repaired and reopened and from drilling new oil wells. Jabar Leaby, managing director of South Oil Company in Basra has plans to raise output to 2.25 million barrels a day by end of 2006. He is negotiating for more administrative and financial help from the Oil Ministry. U.S. military engineers working with South Oil engineers are expected to finish a number of big projects that will boost production. One of these projects is hooking up some 60 wells that were never completed because of a lack of parts and some that were abandoned prematurely. This according to Capt. Michael Sherbak, chief of oil projects for the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers in Baghdad.

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This report in WSJ shows how European countries are maintaining salaries of employees who would otherwise be laid off. Governments have setup programs in France, Britain, Germany and other countries to provide employers with the money for 80-84% of salaries up to 2500 pounds ($3165) in Britain and 5330 euros a month in France. As a result 1 worker out of three in the private sector in France for subsidy applications for 6.9 million workers are already received. For the German program 2.4 million workers will get this benefit. About 1 million companies in Europe retain employees with this program of governments simply sending out the salaries with funds directly to households. This helps to keep out the stress for families, particularly families with children. It is as if the employees are not really laid off but asked to stay at home for manufacturing facilities and work from home in shorter hours where work can be done remotely.  Money is quickly deposited into the bank account of employees in these countries, though it is slower in Italy and Spain. It is as if the European approach is put the whole economy on pause for 2 months and restart it almost like before with only a small dent in employment once the coronavirus is pushed out with lockdowns and strict control actions. This will cap German unemployment at 5.9% compared with 5% last year, only a modest increase. The cost is not that much considering what it accomplishes. 10 billion euros is the cost in Germany where the state fund for this has 26 billion euros. 10 billion pounds in Britain. And 20 billion euros in France.  The U.S. adopts a similar approach also through its $349 billion program which provides loans to companies with less than 500 employees to meet payroll for 8 weeks and pay some overhead. Loans are forgiven based on job retention and employees on the payroll and only if the employees are retained. Another program is for companies larger than this. And a third program targets entire industries such as airlines, aerospace, and companies in other industries so that they do not have to layoff employees. U.S. unemployment insurance is modified to work along similar lines maintaining incomes of employees laid off because of the pandemic. Another program sends checks directly of $1200 to households with lower incomes to help them and to help people at poverty level or without jobs. The thrust of both the European and American efforts is the same, lose as few jobs as possible, keep people's incomes steady, and do this in a way that the economy can pick up quickly to the former level in as short a time as possible. Compared to Europe U.S. unemployment will be higher predicted at 9.8% with the expected rebound lowering the unemployment in 2021. ...

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Ford's efforts in the Asian markets, boosting capacity by 50% in China and 100% in India since 2007. Capacity is 450,000 cars in China in 2010 and 200,000 cars in India. In China Ford is tied for No 11 with Geely and FAW, 2 local companies, VW, GM, Suzuki and others are way ahead of Ford. Suzuki dominates the Indian market with 53% share. To keep up with demand Ford is sourcing heavily locally with 85% of Figo components sourced locally in india and 90% of parts purchased locally in China. The lack of early focussed effort in China is evident from the lack of choices- only Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo and S Max Minivan are available as choices. And one new model choice is to be added each year from now till 2013. Ford is betting heavily on the $7600 Figo for motorbike users who shift to autos, but GM has the Chevy Beat and VW has the Polo in this small car segment. And VW plans to launch seven locally produced models in 2010 and GM plans 10 new models this year. In fact GM now sells more cars in China than in the USA....

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After three years o rock star popularity prime minister Trudeau's popularity has dropped so far that his party could lose the October general elections. This is after Canada's Attorney General resisted efforts by Trudeau and senior officials to let a Canadian company SNC-Lavalin avoid trial. Since then recording of a iphone call taken by the Attorney General with a top government official Mr. Wernick has created an uproar on this matter. Ms. Wilson-Raybould, the Attorney General saying in that conversation that this was going to look like nothing but political interference by the prime minister and everybody else involved in this. Nearly two thirds of Canadians now disapprove of the job Trudeau is doing according to a poll by Ipsos Public Affairs and Agnus Reid Institute.  Rock star popularity can fade quickly. In Brazil Ignacio Da Silva was popular till a crisis with state finances and the Car Wash scandal involving illegal payments led to the loss of his Workers Party in the recent elections. Mr. Trudeau had won support by supporting clean governance and giving women a say in governing. Ms. Raybould was transferred to a lower position after her unwillingness to follow government officials on the CNC Lavalin issue. Now the Liberals Party of Trudeau is trailing the rival Conservatives and Ms. Raybauld is a highly respected figure in Canada. ...

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A wise and astute Susie Wiles, DJT's chief of staff, acts quickly to keep the narrative in place for the first 100 days and beyond.

There are many forms of the Musk Risk Factor in the first 100 days of the DJT administration and Susie Wiles has a sense of what this means.  "Musk Paradoxes" as Le Monde calls it poses narrative challenges for the new administration- investing in America vs investing in China plant for Tesla, the Cultural Literacy that is part of America for the last 200 years and the Movement for Global Literacy at Lyrarc.com vs social media channels that are a risk to cultural literacy and literacy itself in America and the world, and the volatility poor signalling that distracts from the tasks of safe borders and communities that America expects from the DJT in its first 100 days and the next 1000 days. Not to mention the tasks of the economy and of building a safer world. 

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Questions raised in this Hindustan Times report about whether India's participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization makes sense now after the pandemic and the new arrangement in global affairs. New supply chains and trade alliances formed after the pandemic are likely to be very different after the pandemic and formed with dominant consideration of each nation's economic interests including manufacturing in the home country.  India joined the SCO to forge ties with the central Asian countries. But this no longer makes sense as India's manufacturing ties with individual nations such as Britain, Japan, Taiwan and the U.S., European Union may make more sense and build on "Made in India" initiatives than older thinking and approaches. Britain after Brexit, Japan and Taiwan after a realignment of trade relations, are keen on expanding business and trade, investment ties with India. India has many opportunities to pursue for mutual economic benefit with these countries. Germany, France and other EU countries, the U.S. are also keen on expanding trade and investment with India to boost their economies after the pandemic. This is a crucial juncture for India to plan for the next 10 years for a changing world in which India becomes a dominant story in manufacturing. Australia's participation in the RCEP may also not be long term under the prevailing climate of trade relations with China. Australia India trade can be expanded with new efforts.  ...

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How is it that Britain's regulatory agency approved the Pfizer vaccine before the U.S. FDA agency? This report in the NYT says FDA looks at the raw data. Britain's Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency looks at the information provided by the company. It still does the testing batch by batch and has access to the data and looks at thousands of pages of data. What about the European Union? The European Union Medicines Agency meets on December 29. It takes days after it meets to get input of 27 countries so that vaccination cannot start till January. The U.S. president summoned the FDA to the White House to find out how soon the FDA could act. Both Britain and the U.S. are feeling the impact of the second wave of coronavirus.

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The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Republican healthcare plan advocated by Mr. McConnell, Senate Majority leader, is that it would add 22 million uninsured if implemented. That plan ran into opposition from Republican Senators Collins, Capito, Murkowski, Paul, and Moran, and lacked enough support in the Senate. All Democrats opposed it and with the thin majority Republicans were divided. By taking away some benefits given under the existing Affordable Care Act the plan hurt the elderly and low income people, making some Republicans listen to their constituents in home districts and not the Republican leadership. The NYT profiled two in particular who astonishingly in a sign of today's strange politics were the only ones publicly holding townhall type meetings to hear the views of people in their voting districts- Susan Collins of Maine and Jerry Moran of Kansas. Both senators were listening to rural communities and Moran stated his opposition with the words- "I am a product of rural Kansas." With it the nation takes a breather and the message goes out that it is best to listen first and then to seek middle ground, not do what both parties Democrats and Republicans did in 2009 and 2017- rush serious legislation through without support across party lines and without serious discussion.   ...