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Development of the C919 aircraft by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac). The C919 would compete with the Boeing 737 and the Airbus 320. China accounts for 22% of Airbus's orders and 15% of Boeing's orders. Comac has orders for 90 C919's from state owned airlines and two leasing companies. It also has help from suppliers GE and Honeywell. Says Bob Smith, chief technology officer of Honeywell, which has 4 joint ventures with Chinese companies to supply parts for aircraft projects from flight controls to wheels and brakes: "we are not just here to build an aircraft, we are here to build an industry." Zhang Xinguo, vice president of AVIC, a state owned company helping build the plane, says the government wants to see jumbo jets, regional planes, business jets, helicopters, all made in China by Chinese companies.

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Tyler Owen points out that the innovations that made areal difference in the standards of living and incomes of people in America came in the earlier decades of the 20th century. From 1947 to 1973, this pattern continued with the doubling of inflation adjusted median incomes in the USA. From 1973 to 2004, it rose 22%. Over the last decade it actually declined. The impact of automobiles, airplanes, anitbiotics and new household appliances was huge in the prosperity and incomes of the American people. The personal computer and the internet do not offer the same potential for improvement in incomes and standards of living. At the same time as society ages in the US and healthcare dollars are measured as part of GNP, the increasing GDP from such dollars does not reflect an improvement in the health care people receive.

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The stock market rally appears to have legs with the increase in revenue growth for the fourth quarter. But what supports this other than the Fed's bond buying, which suppresses the true cost of capital, is a question posed by analysts. Add to that transfer payments such as unemployment and other benefits which help sustain consumer spending levels, but are temporary measures. Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research says GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2011 could be more than 5% year on year. The question is whether this is pulling growth forward from later years, so that larger dips could be expected ahead? Brokerage firm LCM Commodities says transfer payments from the government to consumers were 16-18% of personal consumption expenditures between 1995 and 2007. This has jumped to 22% by the end of 2010.

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The U.S. Library of Congress's exhibition, "The Books That Shaped America," in Washington D.C. from June 25 to September 29, 2012. The books include the McGuffey Readers, schoolbooksthat educated people like Henry Ford at the turn of the century, to Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and Dr. Seuss. Even Dale Carnegie. It includes social issue books by Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, W.E.B. Du Bois, Cesar Chavez. Literary works include Emily Dickinson, Thornton Wilder and Tennessee WIlliams. Carl Sagan's book on astronomy doesn't appear on this list. It is a pretty impressive list and a valiant effort to cover the American experience through books that most Americans are familiar with from school or other reading, and books that have conveyed a sense of America in all its struggles and humanity to people in other countries and especially the English speaking world.

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The AKP party loses its parliamentary majority in the 2015 general election. It wins 41% of the vote compared to 50% in the 2011 general election. This gives it 258 seats in the Turkish parliament, compared to 327 seats in the last election. Kurds, liberals and secular Turks were part of the antigovernment protests in 2013. This part of the electorate voted for the Kurdish People's Democratic Party, which won 13% of the vote. The traditional secular party in Turkey won 25% of the vote, giving the opposition to the AKP a combined 38% of the vote. Turnout was 86% for the election. The Kurdish People's Democratic Party is led by a 42 year old human rights lawyer, who told reporters: "As of this hour, the debate about the presidency, the debate about dictatorship, is over. Turkey narrowly averted a disaster."

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Women in a 2011 group studied by Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Monika Hamori and Rocio Bonet of the IE Business School in Madrid, show increasing numbers of women and foreign educated managers in top positions at large corporations. Mary Barra of GM and Satya Nadella of Microsoft are two of the prominent names appointed recently. Women now have 18% of the top positions at large U.S. corporations and foreign educated have 11% in this 2011 group. The numbers would be expected to be higher in 2014 with an acceleration in this trend. On average it takes women 28 years to reach these positions compared to 29 for men. A big dropoff is noticed in the study for women in the corporate promotion track who are middle managers for a few years.

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Mexico, Chile, Columbia and Peru will sign an agreement in Cali, Columbia, eliminating tariffs on 90% of merchandise trade between their countries and set a 7 year timetable for the remaining 10%. Visa requirements for citizens of these countries have been removed and plans are being developed for a common market. These countries have a private sector that plays a major role in their economies compared to Brazil and Argentina where the state plays an important role. The combined GDP is as large as Brazil's in the Latin American region- about 35%. The regional stock exchanges of these countries have created a single bourse. Their is potential for more regional trade- the Economist estimates intra-regional trade in South and Central America at a low of 27%, compared with 63% in the European Union and 52% in Asia.

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Kristof compares Pakistan to Bangladesh. Bangladesh he says has more girls in high school than boys, and compares this with only 3% of women in the Pakistan tribal areas who are literate. He points out that this may well be why Al Quaeda is in Pakistan and not Bangladesh. He asks if its so hard to build schools, then how is it that Greg Mortenson has built 39 schools in Afghanistan and 92 in Pakistan- and not one has been burned or closed down. The Afghan Institute for Learning he adds has 32 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with noen closed by the Taliban. Afghnistan needs nutritional support, irrigation, schools, education, healtcare just as badly as the rest of South Asia where one report says about 48% of the children under age of 48 are malnourished, just more desperately so.

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With housing, credit, the consumer and export markets all going out quickly in rapid sequence the predictions even with the Fed's stepping up to the plate with assets buildup to $5 trillion and the $1 trillion stimulus package Obama plans, it looks like 2009 and 2010 are going to be difficult years. After the 20% decline in 2008, BW's surveyed 45 economists see another 10% decline in house prices in 2009. Inflation sharply lower is expected down to 1.2% in 2009 from the 2.1% of 2008 end. The risks of a worse outcome than the 1973-75 and the 1981-82 downturns are high say economists at Citigroup and Chase JP Morgan, Global Insight. There is just too much happening at the same time and a self reinforcing dynamic that is not going to self correct anytime soon.

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The business model where hedge funds take in short term money from investors for a 2% fee and a fifth of profits, and invest it in longer term bets and sometimes illiquid situations, is breaking down. This happened to the investment banks and ended with the collapse of Lehman and Bear Stearns. With losses approaching 20%, many illiquid investments, and investors asking for their money, this model may lead to a rapid shrinking of the hedge fund industry, which now has about $2 trillion of investor money.

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Young voters 18 years to 29 years, some voting for the first time, including men on college campuses, voted by 14 percentage points in favor of DJT, compared to the same group of young voters giving  Biden a 15 percentage point margin. The total shift this time nearly 30 percentage points in favor of DJT. Young men fight the endless wars and young men are falling behind women in college education and Democrat Biden and Republican Trump were the only presidents fighting to end these wars, Democrats not even sensitive about the crisis facing young men.  For younger women 18-29 years the Harris margin was 18 percentage points down from 32 percentage points for Biden in 2020, a swing of 14 percentage points away from Democrats.  Overall for men and women Harris was only 52% to 46% for DJT a margin of only 6 percentage points.  This bodes well for America to have independent thinking from young people, and the same pattern is observed for Latinos, which also is a good sign for America for the future. ...

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Non Gazprom companies such as Novatek and Rosneft now produce 27% of Russia's natural gas production, up from 10% in 2000, according to IHS CERA. The Russian government is opening up this sector to competition to improve efficiency.

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Opinion polls in late July 2015 showed Syriza with support of 33% from Greek voters, well ahead of other parties. After accepting the third EU bailout following a "no" vote in a referendum in early July, prime minister Tsipras still remains popular in Greece. On August 20, Tsipras announced snap elections to win a new mandate to implement the program of cuts that enabled Greece to get 96 billion euros in the third bailout program. Some members of his own party remain opposed to the bailout, and Tsipras relied on opposition parties support to get approval of the bailout in the Greek parliament.

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This report on Danish wind energy company Orsted, looks at the journey of the largest developer of wind energy in the world from a company sending natural gas from North Sea to Europe to a joint developer with Denmark's Vestas of offshore wind farms. Last year Orsted, pronounced Ehrr-sted in Danish for the O and named after a Danish scientist, decided to invest $57 billion in offshore wind farms by 2027. It was not easy and the path required a bold vision and bold action to invest in wind energy for the long term even as debt piled up from losses in natural gas competing with coal, climate change committments were not yet strong, subsidies were required to make wind energy competitive, and debt was piling up. It would take a decade of hard work and technological innovation to produce wind energy that could outcompete coal and natural gas on cost without subsidies. The year is 2009 with the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The predecessor company to Orsted was losing money in natural gas with lower cost coal energy generation in Europe at the time. Yet the mood was changing governments were willing to invest in renewables. In 2012 a new CEO Paulsen did a review of 12 businesses of this Danish energy company and decided wind energy was the only one with long term prospects. The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference created new awareness for the need to come up with a long term solution for energy that has no negative health effects and is renewable. That Conference set a goal of 20% for renewable energy by 2020 in the total mix for Europe up from 14%. Paulsen saw an opportunity in the crisis at the company then called Danish Oil and Natural Gas. The new company was called Orsted and the old divisions in fossil energy were sold to invest in wind farms offshore. The way Paulsen saw the situation was that the company had to take radical action whether it wanted to do so or not. By 2012 Danish pension funds were investing in large offshore wind farms of Orsted, taking a stake of as much as 50% in the Nysted wind farm. The Danish government which owned 80% of Orsted thought its projects were risky. Hard work with Vestas which builds the turbines in Denmark paid off in developing a huge new turbine that would bring costs down 65% comparing 2020 with 2012.  In 2018 the European Union was spending about 92 billion euros or $112 billion on energy subsidies including to wind farms. Britain also heavily subsidized offshore wind farms such as Hornsea 1 at about $198 a megawatt hour for 15 years double the electricity price in recent years. Windy conditions and shallow waters in the North Sea were favorable. Technology was being developed with Vestas which would reduce the cost each year. By 2016 Orsted was listed in Copenhagen. The remaining oil and gas business was then sold for $1 billion. The returns are less in wind than coal and natural gas- about 7-8% a year but the big thing is that there is certainty in this compared to coal and natural gas which are volatile and uncertain. The lesson companies are learning in renewables is that with solar and wind technology can. bring down costs, a lot of hard work and creative work lies ahead, that crisis can be turned into opportunity for companies that can be focussed enough to produce results. ...

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16.3 million acres wildfires in Canadian West burn in August 2025- the smoke reaches midwest and northeastern US. Wildfires in San Luis Obispo County in California 2025 bring smoke to Los Angeles.

The Air Quality Index in Detroit, Montreal and Toronto reaches levels of 147, 144, and 158, it reaches. On August 4, Cairo was 122, Dubai 107, Kolkata 112. It shows how these fires are affecting air quality in the US and Canadian cities. Northeast New York Boston will be affected by Aug 8 Fri as it eases up with winds in Detroit, Toronto by Aug  6 Wed.

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About half of Conservative voters voted for Reform UK in 2024 election says this Ipsos report in 2024 showing how Britain voted by ethnic, gender and education. This brought Reform UK to 17-19% of voters over the age of 45. More recently reports show three in ten voters saying there are too many asylum seekers in their neighborhood and this makes up 70% of Reform UK supporters as reported by Ipsos. This has brought the UK Reform vote from about 17-19% to double to 34% in 2025 polls. Labour is only at 25% and Liberals at 11% and Conservatives doing poorly.

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Facebook loses 19% of share value on one day, July 26, 2018, following months of publicity about its failure to maintain integrity of news information.

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Prime minister Modi's visit to the US comes at a time when US president Biden is eager to show the US is fully engaged in the Indo-Pacific region with its allies in the Quad 4 countries- Australia, Japan and India. The recently announced Aukus defense agreement brought together 2 members of the Quad 4 the US and Australia, plus the UK. Aukus is designed to strengthen US presence as a naval power in the Indo-Pacific region in the Indian and Pacific oceans around India, Southeast Asia, China, and across the Pacific. After a futile engagement in Afghanistan the US is reorganizing its presence where it is strongest- in the oceans. In a way that Britain once did in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the US is dominant in the high seas. US naval power far exceeds that of all navies in the world combined. This is meant to reassure India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Australia and Japan, which together have close to twice the population of China, that the US has not diminished its presence in any way from that it had in the 1950's following the Second World War. With this new framework India enters discussions that will focus on health to deal with the pandemic and its after effects, with security and rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region, with trade, technology, new supply chain manufacturing structure in which India plays a key role. With this new focus and clearing past engagements made by other US  presidents, including some mistaken policies, the US emerges as a new force in the Indian ocean, China seas and Pacific ocean region.  On September 23 Modi meets Tim Cook for what could be new supply chain arrangements that Apple could be preparing as it and other US corporations build new supply chain structures to rebuild US manufacturing technologies capabilities that were lost to China over the period 2000-2020. During that period manufacturing technology knowhow was shifted out of the US in a mistaken policy that assumed design and invention were sufficient for the US to keep. The first step in this direction was a change of CEO's at Intel Corp with US president Biden pushing for new US technology reclaiming policy. Following that the new CEO at Intel Corp, Patrick Gelsinger, completely reassessed Intel's mistaken policies of ceding its entire semiconductor manufacturing technologies capabilities to Taiwan and China. Intel made a U turn and is now investing all or most of $50 billion in the US instead of in China or Taiwan.  On September 24 Modi meets Mr Biden to discuss trade, investment, defense, and security. On the same day the leaders of Japan, Australia, Mr. Suga and Mr. Morrison join Modi and Biden for the Quad 4 talks. Indian infrastructure capabilities and Indian economic growth would be key goals to strengthen India along its land borders along Tibet occupied region and Himalayas as part of the overall effort to build a new US and allied presence in Asia.  On September 21 Modi attends a Covid Summit that will look at the way forward in the aftermath of the pandemic and ways to vaccinate the remaining unvaccinated population in the world, as well as vaccination passports.  ...

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The close alliance between the CDU and the CSU in Bavaria appears to be unraveling. The immigrants at German borders have dwindled down a trickle, about 11,000 immigrants today compared to the wave of immigrants entering Germany in 2015. The CSU's prime minister in Bavaria Mr. Soder and the Federal Interior minister from the CSU Mr. Seehofer, blame the conflict between the two parties on the 2015 decision by Merkel on immigration. The German ARD broadcaster shows 62% of Germans favor stronger action on immigration. The pressure on the CSU comes from the gains by the anti-immigration party AfD in recent national elections. The CSU hopes that by shifting its own position on immigration to a standoff with the CDU and Merkel's position it can hold off the Afd in the elections in Bavaria in October 2018. The pressure on Merkel comes from members in the CDU and from the SPD leadership, which have accomodated some of the criticism of open immigration to reduce the immigrants at German borders, yet now see the need to meet any challenges to Merkel's authority. This is why the head of the SPD, Ms. Nahles called Mr. Soder's push for a confrontation on the immigration issue as acting "like a bonzai Trump." The CDU party leaders in Bavaria call for a "axis of the willing" joining leaders of the governments in Austria and Hungary. and the newly elected government in Italy to impose immediate controls on immigration at the borders. Merkel says she is open to different points of view within the CDU-CSU alliance, but action should be based on keeping the European Union together, and be taken after EU meetings in Brussels. Will this result in a fall of the government? Angela Merkel has adapted to the changing situation on immigration leading to the small trickle in new immigrants at German borders today. Even if the AfD anti immigration party joins the CSU the percentage of the vote for the AfD is mainly in the eastern part of Germany, and CSU in Bavaria, with 12.6% voting AfD in 2017 elections, and about 7% voting CSU mainly in Bavaria. This compares with the Left at 8.9%, Greens at 9.2%, and SPD at 20.5% for a combined 38.6% of the vote that favor Merkel's new coalition policies. This combined with the 25% of the vote gained by Merkel's CSU party gives it about 64% of the vote and about 489 seats in the 709 seat German parliament. A test of Merkel's authority is not likely to be sustained. By making this a pro-European position Merkel has shifted the issue from one of immigration which is now minimal and one on which Merkel has adapted her policies to a stand on Germany as leader with France of the European Union. At this particularly sensitive time when Germany and France are negotiating with the U.S. on trade and Britain on Brexit, German public opinion is likely to consider the impact of new elections and more uncertainty as not good for Germany. With the SPD, Left, Greens and CSU having 64% of the vote, and the anti immigrant parties CSU, AFD about 20% concentrated in the less economically developed eastern part and in Bavaria, the chances that Merkel's position would be weakened or her authority challenged is very unlikely.   ...

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Cloud computing is a growing $300 billion business, with Amazon a key player having 28% of the market. It competes with Google and Microsoft in cloud computing. Andy Jassy has built the cloud computing business with $51 billion in sales. It generates 10% of sales in the final quarter of 2020 for Amazon but over half the profit. Renting out server space and software to customers is a profitable business compared to online retail. Sales of $12.7 billion in the final quarter of 2020 generated $3.6 billion in profit. And growth a brisk 28% over the prior year quarter.

Satya Nadella ran the cloud computing business at Microsoft before becoming CEO. IBM named a new CEO from this business that revived growth. Now Andy Jassy is promoted to CEO at Amazon in the sequence of new CEO's from cloud computing.

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Defense minister Rajnath Singh says on the last day of Aero India, that India has "great potential to emerge as a global and regional Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) hub, given the cost competitiveness of its manpower resources, the availability of abundant specialist capabilities and geographical advantages."

Between 2016 nd 2019, 138 proposals worth over $37 billion for domestic manufacturing of defense equipment components were approved. Aero components sector is expected to double from 30,000 crore today to 60,000 crore by 2025. Aerospace has a big role to play in reaching the targets of domestic defense production of $25 billion and exports of $5 billion by 2025. India will have moved from defense production of $11 billion to $25 billion by 2025.

This includes the LUH new generation single engine helicopter to be designed and developed by HAL.

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India's ruling Congres party suffered losses in the two major states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. In Uttar Pradesh, the socialist Samajwadi party gained an absolute majority of 224 seats in the 403 seat assembly. The Bahujan Samaj party of Kumari Mayawati lost its majority winning only 80 seats, the BJP won 47 seats and the Congress won only 28 seats. Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party campaigned heavily in the state and the results show that his campaign against Mayawati did not result in Congress gaining enough seats to form a coalition government with the Samajwadi party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav. Yadav has held the position of chief minister three times before, and campaigned for greater rights for lower castes and for a quota in education and jobs for Muslims. His other campaign promises included increasing electricity production, and improving the business climate. In the Punjab state, the Shiromani Akali Dal party won 56 of 117 seats, with the Congress getting 46 seats. National elections will be held in 2014, and the results reflect a repudiation of the Congress party after corruption scandals, slower economic growth, and lack of clear policy direction....

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Following an Indian proposal 2023 has been declared as the 'International Year of Millets.' Millet will be an integral part of G-20 meetings in India. There are about 6000 varieties of Millets cereal crops with varying colors and textures around the world. They are more nutritious than rice or wheat. For farmers it requires less water as millets do well on dry land, and require less fertilizer or pesticide.