LyrArc Article Gist
Claudia Sheinbaum's father was a biology professor at UNAM, her mother a chemical engineer. She studied physics at UNAM (Universidad Autonomo de Mexico) and did her dissertation for doctoral work comparing energy use of the US and Mexico at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Berkeley, California. She returned to the faculty of engineering at UNAM in 1995. In 2000 she was appointed energy minister in the Mexico City government by the city's Mayor Lopez Obrador.  From 2018 to 2023 she was Mayor of Mexico City and a close associate of Lopez Obrador who supported her for president in 2024. Mexico limits presidents to one six year term. This period was overshadowed by the migration crisis with the US, building of the Border Wall by Trump, the negotiation of the new trade agreement with the US and Canada, the pandemic and its impact on the poorer classes in Mexico. Obrador attacked corruption in Mexico that had become entrenched under previous parties to bring good governance. Under Obrador Mexico brought millions out of poverty. Sheinbaum's sweeping election win shows that Obrador is one of the most popular presidents in the world. Mexico has an opportunity to bring tens of millions more into the mainstream economy under Sheinbaum. As a neighbor of the US Mexico stands to benefit from a diversifying supply chain for the US that includes Mexico and India that will boost Mexico's manufacturing, create jobs and increase economic growth. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
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. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
2.9 million Americans live in vans for most of the year down 6% in 2023, according to one estimate. It is'nt easy as it means finding places to park for the night and doing this day for long periods. Many as shown in this report are young people, some leave their state for travel, some are photographers, some have decided to explore the world outside after being stuck in one place. Others are people who have difficulty finding housing with costs beyond their reach as this engineer in Brooklyn, NY. 

LyrArc Article Gist
With tumbling popularity of Trump among college educated suburban voters, especially women, elections in suburbs of San Diego, Kansas City, Orlando, Minneapolis and other cities , where Mitt Romney won handily in 2012 are now competitive. This report in the NYT says Trump is so unpopular in these areas that Trump is at risk of losing by double digits in such places.

LyrArc Article Gist
Outdated equipment in nation's aviation system dire need for more air traffic controllers neglected as $400 billion is invested in AI data centers. Congress is looking at $12.5 billion in upgrades to the nation's aviation system. More will be needed.

LyrArc Article Gist
China based appliance maker Haier which owns GE Appliances will invest $3 billion in US factories starting in 2025.

LyrArc Article Gist
Manufacturing could be the bright spot for the U.S. in 2021 and the years ahead. The pandemic has hurt industrial production in the U.S. in 2020. This brings manufacturing in the U.S. to a new low. This report in the WSJ says there is hope today because negative trends are about to be reversed. During three decades since the eighties three trends hurt the U.S.- lack of sustained capital investment, noncompetitive labor costs, degrading infrastructure.  To make the reversal of these trends and raise American manufacturing to what it was after World War II attention is being paid to these negative trends. The response- a quick recovery from the recession,  localization of supply chains, technological advancements to close the gap with competitors. By market capitalization on S&P 500 the U.S. manufacturing industrial sector was 15% in 2000, in 2020 it is 9%. Hope today lies in the determination to reverse the trends in this sector and regain leadership. Even in the aerospace sector the determination and legacy of American manufacturing is strong. Recently the WSJ ran a story on how David Farr, the CEO of industrial company Emerson Electric, which makes automation equipment for factories and aerospace parts based in Ferguson, Missouri, managed his company through the pandemic so that it was posed to return quickly to full production. Against all the hurdles he would not give up and fought hard in each battle with suppliers, governments and the pandemic.This bodes well for American manufacturing coming back on quickly even in tough markets such as aerospace and automation. Other factors WSJ mentions are quick reversal in hit to earnings, robust demand. Consumables have sprung back up fastest, but automobiles are also holding up in demand. This leads us to the localization of supply chains. Companies realize the risks of tensions in the South China Sea and technology theft today in a way that they did not before and this is changing the mood resulting in plans to move production onshore. Warnings from the Trump administration played a role with new tariffs on Chinese imports. Shipping products halfway around the world no longer makes sense, especially in losing control of supplies. Emerson depended on production off shore in China and other countries and panic from the pandemic set in quickly that everything would come to a halt as supplies stopped coming and Emerson could do nothing. The economics WSJ points out are also different today with labor cost inflation in China and labor cost deflation in the U.S. which improves U.S. competitiveness. To make U.S. labor cost competitive with China says Scott Davis in WSJ, one has to make the same quantity of product with half the employees, and this is now possible with automation technologies in 2020. The result is that even at this low point in manufacturing one can see the future is bright for the USA as it moves rapidly to rebuild the strength in manufacturing it had for most of the twentieth century. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
As restrictions ease and the Delta variant makes up 83% of US cases, cases increase in the US. Stalled vaccination rates presents an added problem. On July 20 49% of the US population was fully vaccinated. Two thirds of counties in the US have less than 40% coverage, according to CDC director Walensky.

LyrArc Article Gist
A farming family at Misty Brook Farms in Albion, Maine realizes how suddenly you find contamination from forever chemicals in the soil. You can't see this, can't feel or taste it, say farmers in Maine. Some time in the past sludge from waste water treatment plants in Maine was used as fertilizer for the soil without realizing the danger of toxic chemicals such as PFAS, called forever chemicals. This story in the WSJ shows the damage it is doing to agriculture in Maine and other parts of the US.

LyrArc Article Gist
Eileen Lindner, author of a yearbook on American and Canadian churches, says 100,000 Protestant churches in the US will close by 2030. In the 1940's 76 percent of Americans were affiliated with some church, by 2020 that had declined to 47%. The result is a growing number of churches lacking young people. A large number of young people are not affiliated with any church and church attendance dropped during the covid pandemic. NYT looks at what happens when church space is repurposed for restaurants, hotels, theaters, office space, retail space, mixed use developments, affordable housing.

LyrArc Article Gist
Rachel Sylvester in The Times points out that the Labour Party leadership has no incentive to support prime minister Theresa May in negotiations against the wishes of the majority of its voters, MP's and its own members. Mr. Corbyn is not likely to support May's proposals for a temporary customs union, as that concession means little, coming without support from May's own Conservative party. She says the only way out now is a confirmatory second referendum.

In the local elections the parties that did well are the Liberals and the Greens, who are on the Remain side. The strident pro Brexit side drew votes from the Conservatives. 

 

LyrArc Article Gist
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. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This bridge in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir is at an height of 359 metres, the tallest bridge in the world. It is expected to open by January 2024. Vande Bharat will run across the bridge and Vande Metro trains between Jammu and Srinagar, cutting travel time between the two cities to 3.5 hours. About 28,000 tons of steel went into building the arch of the bridge. Himalayan tunnels need a horse shoe shape of curvature, an elliptical shape that prevents loose soil from causing landslides. India is only now building the kind of infrastructure the region needs as most of this region remains isolated compared to countries in Europe. This is true of Nepal and much of the Himalayan region. The level of infrastructure building is taking on a new pace and vigor as more roads, highways and bridges are being built in the Indian Himalayan states under the Modi administration. This will increase the economic activity in the region giving new life to agriculture and industry in the region, raising incomes and providing a better life for the people in these states. This comes as the region is being connected for access to tap water, electricity, mobility, banking in all villages and towns.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Adam Taylor explains what Brexit is about. What should be added is that Brexit is a child of the time in 2015-2016 when Angela Merkel was ill prepared to tackle the sudden wave of migrants from North Africa from wars and population growth outstripping what little progress was made, making decisions to let in close to a million migrants. Migrants are now being returned back to their home countries and the issue has faded. The austerity policies in the EU with Greece, Spain and Portugal as bad poster childs for the EU are also largely over, with economic recovery in Europe.  As a result confidence is growing in the future of the European Union. What pessimists including Mr. Trump saw as a breakup of the European Union is no longer the case. Britain's long negotiations and divisions for Brexit are now reinforcing an opposite conclusion- that it is beneficial to stay in the European Union. Fully 68% in a Eurobarometer Survey of 27 EU countries by the European Commission in March 2019 think so, only 17% think it is not beneficial. In Britain also a majority now support membership in the EU. The European Union and Britain have a lot to learn from this experience and the divisions generated, which is likely to be part of the acquired experience of a new generation of leaders.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
US Defense Spending charts as percentage of GDP since 1929 startling fact seen in this chart of Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis- that in 2026 we are seeing 1929-1937 levels of military spending to GDP ratio of 2-3% just before it jumped to 45% in 1940 in World War II. It is a cautionary tale not to spend too little (2-4% is a danger point), as lack of military modernization means a lot more spending soon after, almost 10 times that- 10 times 4% or 40%. Message to the US is not what Starmer and company are saying in Europe- it is that don't invite the existential crisis of 1940 again for western (US, EU, Canada, UK) and eastern democracies (India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia) by ignoring costs of military modernization. And 2-4% of GDP for military spending is not going to do this.

LyrArc Article Gist
Shown here and in the adjoining WSJ interview by Ben Cohen of Morris Chang, 1985 founder of Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC), is the story of how as textile and other lower technology industries were shipped to China in the 1990's the advanced technology manufacturing industries that were to replace them for the American workers and their families were also taken away through the back door by companies such as TSMC- leading to the dislocation of the American worker and poorer manufacturing communities across the US. Hille and Sevastopulo in the Financial Times take an inside look at the situation of TSMC as an advanced chip manufacturer that has taken 92% of the world market for advanced chips by using Taiwan's manufacturing advantages in chip yield that was in 1985 about twice that in the US when Morris Chang founded the company. Morris Chang was an immigrant who came to the US after 1949 with the founding of the People's Republic of China. After gaining decades experience at Texas Instruments by age 52 in 1982 he felt he had reached the glass ceiling at the company. See the adjoining WSJ Ben Cohen interview with Chang on this part of his life. He was recruited  by Ki Li, a technology planner for Taiwan to  build Taiwan's first semiconductor company. Chang founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in 1985 and based on his work in the US and seeing the cost advantage in engineering talent coming out of Taiwan and Chinese universities, and the willingness to work long hours in the zealous drive for modernization, he made the bet on Make in China (Taiwan + People's Republic of China.) It succeeded, and succeeded, and succeeded, just as it took advanced manufacturing away from the US, and deprived the US by replacing the cotton mills and textile factories, the less advanced industries that were being shipped to China by being replaced with modern more advanced manufacturing in new technology products, as it was how it was supposed to work. Economists and politicians and business failed to see this for two decades. It left America without both the old industrial manufacturing base and at the same time took away from the American worker the new manufacturing in advanced technology base that was supposed to give him new opportunities to replace the old. It has left America poorer in ways no economist, politician or business person could see when through the benevolent hand of friendship the US advanced a helping hand to China through WTO negotiation, WTO membership and foreign investment in China following the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 1970's that dislocated China's industry. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Opportunity zones touted by the former president have average results in improving lives of minorities, says this report in NYT