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Krugman on raising the Medicare eligibility age and how this affects lower income seniors. The urgent need to rein in health care costs in the U.S. as other countries have done.

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Jessica Todd, a USDA economist, says in a report that about 20% of the improvement in the diets of people surveyed comes from Americans eating out less at fast food places or restaurants. And this particular improvement she says is from an increased awareness on nutrition in picking out food, more choices available, and more nutritional information available to buyers. About one third of U.S. adults or 36% were obese in 2009-2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a large increase from 15% in 1980. Studies show this is now declining gradually with increased public awareness of the risks of poor eating habits, including risks of diabetes.

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This report in The Times shows that from April to October the Tory red wall seats in the north of England have been hit hard by the coronavirus, much harder than the south of England. The infection rates in October are about three or four times in the north of England. The second lockdown came earlier in the north, in Liverpool Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. The result is that instead of levelling up the great disparities in wealth and income that are seen between the south, London and the north of England the gap is widening under the impact of coronavirus. Deindustrialization in the north after their prominent role in Britain's industrial revolution was followed by the same type of decline seen in parts of the American midwestern states. Imports from China and globalization, hit these areas in a sort of second wave, just as America was hit first by the wave of Japanese imports, followed by an even bigger wave of imports from China and complete loss of manufacturing. With it the loss of well paying jobs for workers in manufacturing and the decline of industrial cities. Influx of cheap labor from other parts of the European Union also affected the north. The result is that the popularity of Boris Johnson and the Conservatives with 58% approval rating in April in the north of England is replaced by a rating of about 31% in October 2020. The 40 Tory MP's in the Northern Research Group expressed their serious concern to the prime minister. ...

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Each year the amount of forestedd land that is cleared- mainly for cattle needing pasture land- releases the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions of 600 million cars. Since 1961 methane gas emissions from cattle has increased significantly. This is one of the findings in a report published by 100 climate change experts for a UN body. Loss of peatlands in places like Indonesia is also a problem.  A half a billion people already live in desert. And land is being lost a hundred times faster than it is forming due to changes in weather patterns.  People migrate when weather fails as has happened for central American farmers migrating to the U.S. creating social and political problems in North America. A major issue in climate change is agriculture.  Increasing the productivity of land, reducing food wasted, persuading more people to eat healthy vegetables and less meat, reducing land lost to desertification, erosion and seas, are all actions that can be taken now say these 100 experts from 52 countries meeting in Geneva. The IPCC or Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change does these reports to give people some idea of what actions to take to reduce the impact of warming that threatens livelihoods of millions especially in Africa and India, as well as other parts of Asia and Latin America. Developed countries are likely to feel the impact from migration which is dividing their societies politically and socially. As one expert from Aberdeen puts it people don't just stay where they are when drought conditions hit their areas, they migrate. ...

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Vic Starmer spent the day after Thursday's election night at a race course in Surrey. Her mother introduced her to flat racing and she spent time at the Doncaster race course while growing up. She is a solicitor, ten years younger than Keir Starmer, and works in occupational health for the NHS. Vic met Keir Starmer when he called her about a brief she prepared as a solicitor. Starmer says their first interaction was when she was questioned about the brief and s she put down the phone was overheard saying "who the fuck does he think he is?"  Vic grew up in a middle class home in north London the daughter of a father whose family left Poland in the 1930's who worked as a accountant, and a mother who was a GP physician. She went to Cardiff University to study sociology and law, was elected student union president in 1994. They married when Keir was 45 years. Keir Starmer says about her-      " very sassy, very down to earth, no nonsense from anyone." She was political long before Keir, she understands politics, yet she wants to stay outside politics. On the walls in their Kentish Town kitchen the pictures reflect her space, nothing political, just the Doncaster race course, a familiar space for her.   ...

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Unorthodox cabinet nominees- Kash Patel at FBI, Tulsi Gabbard at Intelligence get nominated. Others where the nominee is supported broadly by moms and parents, and many senators Rand Paul and Ron Johnson who are highly enthusiastic, are RFK Jr. for Health Secretary who still faced questioning from Republican Kennedy and other Republicans. All of them get nominated by Feb 15, 2025. Republicans in Congress stay together, Democrats do the same strangely opposing everything on the other side, including action on obesity and chemicals in food, drug industry practices they have been railing against for years that are RFK's agenda.  By tapping into different ideas just because they are good, make common sense, and not worrying too much about whether it is from the opposing Kennedy clan, and willing to take some risk with Patel and Gabbard, try youngsters such as Pam Bondi at Justice Department, Elise Stefanik at the UN and Kate Leavitt as Press Secretary, a woman Kristi Noem in the toughest job there is today at Homeland Security, DJT and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles have put forward a different set of people highly motivated, more than a bit rambunctious and boisterous, to get things done on immigration zero illegal migrants, zero fentanyl deaths, and zero deindustrializing technology transfers to the Nation's competitors, and zero play except on a level playing field in trade and business. ...

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Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana and chancellor emeritus of Purdue University, reminds Americans of the uses of humor and poking fun at leaders and government to lighten things up and bring a sense of humility to those in power- good for them and good for America. Even a serious fighter for independence for 300 million people (1.4 billion today) as Mohandas Gandhi always kept some room for humor in that fight against the British Empire. Never losing sight of the fact that all are human beings with their vices and foolishness, prone to error. He quotes PJ Rourke of National Lampoon from the 1970's- “It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.” And “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.” After Adlai Stevenson's loss in 1952 and again in 1956 to Ike Eisenhower in the presidential elections he told this story about a boy who stubbed his toe in the dark- “They asked him how he felt once after an unsuccessful election. He said that he was too old to cry, but it hurt too much to laugh.” ...

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U.S. GDP growth in the second quarter was at annual pace of 1.3% for the second quarter, down from the previous estimate of 1.7%, according to the Commerce Department. About half of this or 0.2% comes from the severe drought and drop in farm inventories, with crop production declining by $12 billion. Macroeconomic Advisors now estimates GDP growth of 1.5% for the third quarter of 2012, down from 2%. The drought continues in 65.5% of the U.S., according to U.S. Drought Monitor. Consumer spending and business investment is sluggish. The drought impact is likely to take out one tenth of GDP growth for the fourth quarter 2012 and 1st quarter 2013, through the impact of higher food prices and lower real incomes and wealth.

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As David Ignatius points out in his trip to China, the China of post 2010 is a lot of things depending on who you talk to in China- cocky, scared, anxious. He comes away perplexed by the range of questions that come up in his mind. The wealth of the coastal cities is stunning, and at the same time as the leaders insist China is still a poor country with deep regional imbalances, and what is less mentioned, the rising inequality in society. How to pull it all together to make possible a transition to development that is evened out across all regions and sections of society and to allow freedom of expression, is a challenge for the new leadership of Xi Jinping in 2011.

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Pension deficits at companies as there pension fund investments lose as much as 40% in the stock market. These deficits gaps between obligations and assets will have to be filled, and will soak up a lot of cash of these companies. The last time these companies faced this problem in 2002 it was half as large and it still took 5 years in healthy markets to fill the gaps in the pension funds. In the markets and long downturn expected it make take much longer and companies in the meantime will have to put more money into their pension funds to make up for losses in the equities investments which constitute some 70% of the pension plan for companies like Caterpillar, which is laying off 20,000 people.

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The distinction Walter Lippman had drawn in 1939 between New Dealers who were interested in social reform and making the system work better and the New Dealers interested in reducing the power of private business interests in the economic system. Their different interests made it harder to work out a social peace in which business and government developed an healthy partnership to deal with the crisis. These New Dealers clung to taxes, collective bargaining and labor legislation to reduce the power of business interests and altering the balance of social policy. Whereas the reformers only saw spending as the instrument for a recovery, and as a means of improving the living conditions of the people. How does that compare with today?

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This report in WSJ says China's government faces severely strained government finances. Local government entities sale of land financed 40% of local government revenues in China, and most of these have dried up with the very real loss of confidence in property sector. Government now faces $900 billion in shortfall in revenues says this report. There may be psychological hurdles in China's growth with the effects on mental health from lockdowns in major cities, the revolt in the property sector with home buyers losing confidence in developers, the loss of confidence of foreign investors from US and EU. The dependence on the property sector to carry so large a burden of growth for the last 2 decades in China may now look like an error. The dependence on foreign investment may also be an error as the loss of confidence could mean some withdrawal and a lack of sustained investment.  It could even be said that restraints on both sectors property and foreign investors could have created alternative paths to growth, and reduced the shift of factories from the US and Europe to China that have now caused trade friction and and a reverse shift of investment back to home countries of US and EU. Trade friction has it appears backfired in a way that extends to the overall relationship which could have been prevented by preventing the hyper growth that happened. Greg Ip of the WSJ has argued that compared to Japan's growth in the sixties and seventies from a country of 100 million the hyper growth for a country of 1 billion for 2 decades created a massive impact on communities in US and EU that were dependent on factories that were lost to China. This has alienated large sectors of the public in the US and EU which could have been prevented by restraints on hyper growth in China. Ip says the growth was too large and too fast for the US to cope. It may have permanently damaged the relations between the two countries showing that trade and globalization had unintended effects when left to business which has no comprehension of how the macro developments can affect the relations between the peoples if the other effects in the relationship such as community impacts are ignored which business says is not its role,  and governments staying away from keeping an eye on how it was happening and adjusting for ill effects with restraint and redirection of business policies. ...

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About 7 million people or 10.3% of people living in France in 2021 were immigrants, says national statistics agency INSEE. Compare that with 6.5% in 1968. About one third have acquired French citizenship. What this has done to French society is to shift sentiment away from protecting workers and families struggling with a cost of living crisis by splitting the vote of traditional parties supporting working class families. Shifting some of it to the far right anti-immigration parties that have emerged since 2010. This has added to the fracturing of society that happened from neglect of manufacturing communities across France as more manufacturing was concentrated overseas in  China. Neglect of rural areas and smaller towns, the emergence of tech hubs disconnected from the larger community across France has added to this. This is true of other European countries and a similar situation happened in the US. Denmark's prime minister is very candid about this, saying immigration of this type hurts the working class families in Denmark. Mette Frederiksen of the Social Democrats is the first to have clearly stated this problem and is providing a new way of protecting Danish workers and families from these social and technological changes in society from which they have no protection. President Biden in the US has also grasped clearly the dimensions and magnitude of the problems facing workers and families in the US. The problem is not limited to worker loss of income security, it affects the whole society and the public as a whole in other ways. Opportunistic politicians using anti-immigration appeals without a true commitment to democratic principles and ideas have tendencies that threaten democracy itself. This is the real danger of concentrating manufacturing in one country such as happened with China. And of neglecting rural areas and small towns. For this reason Frederiksen in Denmark, Biden in the US, and other leaders in Europe are looking for ways to send aid and industry promoting assistance to poor countries but restricting illegal immigration. This requires handling cultural issues which have further hit society with care- "with malice towards none, with charity for all," so that the focus can be kept on the real issues affecting workers and families of the cost of living crisis and a better life, better education, health care and public services for all, to improve the quality of living. It requires a new state of mindfulness from leaders in North America and Europe, as well as from allied countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa.  ...

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Getting savy employers to pay attention and getting employees to have a better sense of who they are, provides the topic of this article in the WSJ. It shows that different types of employee behaviour can be seen after two years of the pandemic, and employers need to pay attention to their needs.  There are ambitious employees and work to live types. Work to live advocates have put lifestyle and health as priorities learning from the pandemic. The great resignation and employers facing worker shortages have given them an opportunity to look for more flexibility in work life situations. Related to work to live type are double duty professionals of which women form the larger part. During the pandemic women took on more responsibilities for children with lockdowns and school closures. This also meant a more stressful life. All of these types of employees are now in the workplace. Employers can get better results by paying careful attention to worker needs. The types are not exclusive as double duty professionals also have the drive and the resilience to match ambitious employees in tackling new positions and responsibilities. The double duty professionals also share the aspirations of work to live advocates for a better work life balance that gives rest and relaxation, home and family, the importance it deserves for a full and complete life. There is one more type which is also part of the workplace that is entirely different. It is the disoriented new employee who has been left alone to find out about new responsibilities at work virtually without the necessary human contact. Related to this type is the desperate to connect type which is the type that has lived in relative isolation during the pandemic and is now hungering for human contact. There is also one more type closer to retirement that is the zest for life type that can be very productive in the workplace because of its experience and talent if given the chance. This type is not just there for the paycheck or career progress. Here the zest for life means the desire to connect with others and learn new things. Companies and management can accomplish more and be more responsive to needs of their employees by understanding these types and their different needs. Dorie Clark ,who teaches executive education at Duke and Columbia University ,says this is important for companies to retain talented employees and get the most out of them by understanding early on what motivates them. ...

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After 2 years of the pandemic's devastating effects on health, governments around the world decided to protect ordinary people from the effects of higher prices for staples and food with the increase in inflation. This WSJ report takes a detailed look at different countries and how they after coping with the effects on total debt and debt servicing needs of moves such as subsidies and tax cuts. The situation is exacerbated by the Ukraine war which affects wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia, and the high oil prices as a result of the war. The effects shown by country are- China- consumers are protected from high oil prices by regulated retail gasoline prices. As oil prices keep going up state owned refineries will bear a disproportionate share of the burden of high prices. India- The government has set aside $40 billion in aid as subsidies for oil and fertilizer. This will support farmers and consumers for fiscal year to March 2023. It will make it harder to cut the budget deficit from 6.9% of GDP to 6.4%. Pakistan - A subsidy of $1.5 billion was given for diesel, gasoline and electricity by the Imran Khan government. This did not have IMF approval and talks are taking place on the IMF program between the government and IMF for it to continue. Rampant inflation has led to reduced popularity of the Imran Khan government. Argentina- A new program to refinance $44 billion in debt with IMF assistance is being affected by the subsidies for oil and electricity. About 800,000 tons of grain are being diverted to the domestic market from exports. Agricultural producers such as Argentina have better protection from higher food prices. In Argentina 40% of the people are living below poverty and the country has 50% inflation.  Malaysia and Indonesia- Both countries are exporters of commodities and higher prices could provide additional revenues to meet higher import prices, says the WSJ. Egypt- higher prices for wheat imported from Ukraine and Russia where Egypt gets 70% of its wheat needs have increased cost of subsidies by $1 billion. Kenya- Fuel subsidy costs will increase by $500 million over 2 years. Europe- In France 400 million euros relief package and in Spain 500 million euros relief package for energy price increases. In Germany cash payments to taxpayers, heavily discounted transportation tickets, and price caps on gasoline and diesel.   ...

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"Ram Rajya" is a concept of a just society that serves the needs of the people based on the ancient history and ancient paths of Bharat or India. It is easily understood among the farmers and ordinary people of India. During the long period of colonialism it meant to Gandhi and hundreds of millions in the villages of India a sense of society free of colonialism and colonial rule that did not invest in the country or its people, no matter their religion or caste or language group. In this sense Ram Rajya is all about a just society of governance that meets the needs of all the people, that makes investment in the resources of the country to the benefit of the people. In the modern period in the transformation of rural societies such as China or India or other parts of Asia, Ram Rajya or Buddha Rajya as an extension of the same concept, and about what Abraham Lincoln called society for the people, of the people, by the people, in his call to America for a Just Society. In this sense it has connotations for the world as it struggles to build a style of governance in society that builds the infrastructure, invests in the education and minds of the people, in their health and wellbeing along all dimensions. In this way it is a social concept that is embodied in the best of human society throughout history. It embodies the aspirations of the people of Asia to modernity inspired by ancient tradition, aspirations to science and technology and building modern societies. Of India with Ram and the Buddha, China in its connections to the Buddha, to the people of Indonesia with the connection to Hanuman, and the people in South East Asia and Japan through their connections to the Buddha which were embedded in the ancient society of Ram and the Upanishads in the land south of the Himalayas. No one is too small, no effort is ordinary or small- "I am very small, I am very ordinary, if someone thinks so one must remember the contribution of the squirrel. Remmbering the ocntribution of the squirrel will dispel our hesitation, and teach us that every effort big or small, has its strength and contribution. The foundation of Sabka Prayas (everyone's efforts) will be the foundation of a divine, and capable, just and good Bharat or India for all its 1400 million people."   ...

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Jawaharlal Nehru was leader of the party under Gandhiji which fought for independence in the 1930's. Under the India Act of 1935 India was given the opportunity to setup state assemblies and free elections  for local self-rule that prepared for eventual Dominion status similar to Canada and Australia. Rab Butler as India Secretary fought hard to get it passed through the British parliament. See Rab Butler in the adjoining articles gist. This is very important as none of what happened in 1947 the task of writing a new Constitution and a Constituent Assembly to do this for India would  have been possible without India Act of 1935- the initial training for elections and assemblies. Some good work was done for example in Tamilnadu Chief Minister Kamaraj under Nehru changed that southern state with progress in education, health, and industry over 15 years 1950 to 1964. By the seventies to the 2010 period the progress ran into serious problems first with one party followed by weak coalitions that led to poor governance, corruption and economic progress stalled. After the experience of China's modernization India is attempting a similar effort with Vision 2047 for modernization of infrasructure and development in speed and scale with one difference- the legacy of Rab Butler who no one knows about in India and forgotten in Britain, the simple document Hind Swaraj written on a British steamship from South Africa to England in 1912 by Gandhiji that asked Indians to self-reflect on their part in letting the British in "who made the Company Sardar?", the post 1950's leadership of Sardar Patel who like Rab Butler was also forgotten till 2014, Jawaharlal Nehru who won a third term in 1962 but was followed by a series of weak governments unable to steer economic progress of scale similar to China or Japan, Lal Bahadur Shastri cut short like JFK, and Narendra Modi who is bringing to the task the hard work and discipline that made it possible for first Japan and then China to modernize infrastructure and emerge as dominant manufacturing nations. Like Japan and China India with its own stumbling periods is making its way in the world today. Both Shastri and Modi are in the direct tradition of their Master, Gandhiji, in the words of Shastri "hard work is equal to prayer." ...

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Governor Newsom of California is joining Republican Governors of Montana and Alabama to allow cities to act to limit encampments of the homeless in American cities, taking the case to the US Supreme Court. The Biden Administration is walking a delicate path by supporting rights of the homeless that lower courts support  yet not wanting to see the spread of homeless encampments affect the overall safety and health of cities where homeless encampments affect quality of life in neighborhoods. Homelessness of 600,000 people in the US, with more than half sleeping outside in open spaces and parks is now before the US Supreme Court. The pandemic, the large increase in housing costs in the western states, and the cost of living have pushed many people over the edge, at an alarming rate for four years. Justices ask city attorneys of Grants Pass, and in effect other cities in the US, where are people supposed to go if no other shelter is offered by the city, that they have a right to sleep, and breathe. "Sleeping is a biological necessity- Justice Elena Kagan. "Are they supposed to kill themselves, not sleeping," Justice Sotomayor.  Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts questioned whether judges should be making decision that should be made by policymakers. US Supreme Court is reviewing a lower court ruling upholding rights of homeless people in the US  under the 8th Amendment that is opposed by the city of Grants Pass, Oregon. A small western town of 40,000 people facing a problem of a significant portion of its population, about 8%, having to sleep in parks and in open public spaces because they have nowhere to go. It has only 138 beds from the Gospel Rescue Mission for homeless situations with strict rules. It faces in today's America rising homelessness- affordability of housing affecting people in many states. In 2022 an three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which covers western states Oregon, California, and Washington upheld a lower court decision barring the city of Grants Pass from enforcing a citywide ban on sleeping in parks at night if no other shelter was available with fines ranging $75 -$295. As a result of this decision encampments of the homeless are increasing in the western states because restrictions on public camping no longer play a deterring role. Cities say this increases crime and drug use, disease, and hazardous waste.  ...

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Japanese Dads are taking on a bigger role and changing parenting. BBC Future shows this story about Japanese dads from a new generations that are taking on the joys, difficulties and responsibilities of parenting.  A new kind of superhero in Japanese manga comics is Ikumen, a Japanese term (from ikuji for childcare) for young dads actively spending time with their children compared to an earlier generation of fathers who spent most of their time at work, and rarely took on family responsibilities. During the sixties and seventies as Japan emerged from the wartime recovery and modernized Japanese culture defined men's role to spend most of the time at work, even getting allowance for spending from their wives who controlled the family budget.  In 2010 the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare started the Ikumen project to increase paternal involvement in child caring. This was a major cultural change and was part of the change in culture needed for the Third Arrow of Japan's Abenomics project to get women's participation up to western country levels. Today the women's participation rate in workplaces exceeds that of the U.S. Even in the 1980's men spent on average about 40 minutes with their children mostly during the family meal in the evening and even had to have their wives find their clothes. The common saying was - "jishin, kaminari, kaji, oyaji," earthquake, thunder, fire and father, remote and given respect. Women's reaction was not positive as they postponed marraige for later, then even not marrying at all for the next generation, leading to reduced childbirth rates. The Ikumen project projected fathers in a masculine role of heroes for taking on parenting, like the t-shirt logo "Strength for Society" portraying them as saving society, saving the  country. About 45% now support the idea of "men should work, women should stay at home" compared to 60% in 1992- drop of 15%. The statistics do not quite tell the story because during this period women participation in the workplace has jumped to western country levels as part of Abenomics Third Arrow to revive the economy. The problem that is still being tackled is that of bosses in the workplace who lack awareness and discourage taking paternal leave which has risen from 2% to 7% in five years 2012 to 2017. ...

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Estimates by the Congresssional Budget Office in January 2011 show the federal budget deficit in the US at nearly $1.5 trillion in 2011. The deficit would equal 9.8% of the US gross domestic product. In 2009 the budget deficit was $1.4 trillion or 10% of GDP. The CBO estimates show the debt held by the public increasing from 40% of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2008 to about 70% at the end of fiscal year 2011. Republican senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and John Cornyn of Texas called for a constitutional balanced budget amendment in an op-ed published in Politico.

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India's large deposits of coal and iron ore are in the north east part of the country. In the least developed and poorer part of the country, in and near the states of Chhatisgarh, Bihar and Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. About 85 million tribal people live in the dense forests of this region. State governments have given rights for extracting coal and iron ore to Indian steel companies and some foreign companies. But no arrangement has been worked out so that the tribals can improve their standards of living and have access to education, health care and better living conditions by the companies, and relying on the governments and bureaucracy has proved precarious as they have done little for the tribal people. This has created an opening for a Maoist type violent movement which originated in West Bengal in Naxalbari several decades back. Because of the rapid progress in other parts of the country in the south and north and western parts of India not enough attention has bee given to develop a solution that integrates the tribal people into the progress that the rest of the country is experiencing starting with basic things like literacy, living conditions, sense of ownership and dignity, health care and so on. What this does is slow down the overall process of development as violent incidents take place against mining sites of major Indian and foreign companies. Chhatisgarh state an area with poor control by the government over Naxalite militants is where 23% of India's coal and iron ore deposits lie. India's Planning Commission prepared a special report on the collective failure of social and economic policies in the tribal areas and poorer parts of the country. At this point the government's response has been to respond with security arrangements but better policies and execution of efforts to improve conditions in tribal areas are needed in a timely way....

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Krauthammer says he favors the Boehner Plan because the two stage debt ceiling hike will give time for negotiations and public scrutiny of plans for entitlement and tax reforms. He is critical of the Reid Plan because more than half of the $2 trillion deficit reduction under the plan comes from not continuing surge spending in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 10 years, which he calls outrageous and fictional savings. The lack of Obama's own plan even after setting up and receiving the report of the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission is a sore point for him and other observers, demonstrating a stark failure to lead. Tea party advocates will need a new mandate in 2012 where they control more than just the House of Representatives to push for their plan of aggressive deficit reduction and a balanced budget. Krauthammer sees the Obama stimulus, auto bailouts, health-care reform, financial regulation, and the current battle over deficit spending as a large Keynesian gamble which has failed to revive the economy. A choice on limiting government or a different set of policies should now be left to voters to decide....