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The rotting carcasses of the minks that were culled will be dug up to be incinerated. Environmental inspectors found that some water sources might have been contaminated by bacteria. The 17 million minks in Denmark were the target of culling after fears of coronavirus in minks. The whole issue has shown the problems in some of the Nordic countries that were seen as models for healthcare and public services. Sweden's treatment of the elderly in nursing homes was seen all over Europe as shabby and the king of Sweden called it a "failure.

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Prof. Sonalde Desai questions the lack of fresh thinking on addressing inequalities in India by sticking to reservations policy initiated in 1950 before modernization of the economy. In today's economy education is a critical component for upward mobility and the ability to read at higher level is critical. In India the forward castes do better in class 1 reading for 8-11 year olds with about 70% passing, for scheduled castes this drops to below 50%. Prof. Desai argues that addressing problems at the elementary school level is needed to create a level field for opportunities throughout society.

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Changes to a U.S. visa program so that fewer workers would be given visas at the entry level. Instead favoring the higher of four wage levels to give visas to foreign workers. The idea is to bring in more talented workers to the U.S. with less effect on depressing wages in the U.S. by bringing in foreign workers at the entry level as happened before.

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A good way to prepare for travel to the Scandinavian region is information given by Sean Newsom in The Times.

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A New York hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. finally makes a settlement with the new Argentine government of president Mauricio Macri. It took 15 years and 5 different administrations in Argentina. Eliott gained $2.4 billion 10-15 times the original investment on Argentine bonds made in 2001, but requiring extraordinary persistence from hedge fund manager Mr. Newman at Elliott Management Corp and Mr. Singer. In 2001 the Argentine bonds traded at 20 cents to the dollar, and Mr. Newman who had made large gains on Peruvian bonds saw this as a good investment. By 2008 the bonds instead traded at pennies on the dollar, and the Argentine government later settled with 93% of bondholders at 30 cents to the dollar. The holdouts were three hedge funds, including Elliott. The Argentine government of Kirchner opposed any settlement with the holdouts. The situation changed with the election of Mauricio Macri in 2015, who made resolution of the issue a priority, so that Argentina could borrow in global financial markets and grow its economy. The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected Argentina's appeal of a U.S. District Court ruling prohibiting paying interest on exchanged bonds when payment had not been made to the holdout hedge funds- which led to the settlement with Elliott, and closing a long and difficult chapter for Argentina....

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PM Modi inaugurates 5G service in 13 cities in India. These cities are Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Pune, Delhi, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Jamnagar, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Chennai, Varanasi, and Kolkata. Other cities will be connected in the next few months and other parts of India in the next phase of 1 to 3 years. Jio's Akash Ambani and Mukesh Ambani took the leadership role in pioneering 4G in India. Jio is now playing a key role in pioneering the transformational technology of 5G throughout India.

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A new terminal is taking shape at 41st st and 8th Ave. in New York City. This is the new $10 billion Port Authority Bus Terminal. NYT taks a look at the design of this new terminal that will replace one that had become old and haggard looking. Port Authority officials say the old building was a rundown 1950's era building that was a poster child for a failed infrastructure facility. The NYT says this brick building darkened two full blocks of midtown Manhattan. In its place will be a a brighter open looking space that is state of the art and has 2 office towers. Much of the US infrastructure was built in the period of the 1950's and 1960's. Much of it is crumbling and old, and the investment taking place step by step under the Biden plan for rebuilding infrastructure with trillions of dollars in investment is working. Construction will take 8 years by 2032 with coronavirus pandemic delay figured in. Step by step it will change the way cities, highways, airports, bridges will look in the US in the coming decade. ...

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This report in WSJ takes a detailed look at how the shift to digital payments, and digital badges for covid free designation on smartphones are affecting a part of the population of 60+ years that is notinternet or smartphone savy.  60+ years make up only 10% of the users of internet on age based graph, even though they are a large part of China's rapidly aging population, estimated to be closer to 20% of the population or about 250 million. Elderly people in China are having a hard time with scanning of health codes to access transport and other services. To tackle the covid pandemic China has health codes assigned to citizens which link user national ID and Covid status. These need to be scanned in for access to train and transport facilities and other services, color coded digital badges on smartphones that show one is covid free.  Most elderly cannot handle these smartphone tasks because they lack the skills of young people with smartphones or lack the digital payments having used cash all their life. Other problems are poor eyesight, health problems, but the most severe is a big skills handicap in downloading apps, in typing quickly, and in navigating the internet. The government is taking steps to provide relief for the elderly by prohibiting places of services from refusing to accept cash, and finding ways to make the health codes system work for seniors. ...

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Food inflation in Europe is much higher than in the US, 5-10% in the US, Canada and Japan compared to 15-20% in Europe.  UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt sees further interest rate increases better than the continuing instability and cost of living crisis from inflation in this report in The Guardian. A recent report in WSJ shows how this is a fourth shock in Europe after the supply chain bottlenecks, the jump in energy prices, the labor market shortages. Germany is in a mild recession.

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The Guardian in its Editorial on Keir Starmer on February 10, 2026, says Labour was in the political wilderness for 18 years, and yet it has taken only 14 months for the project which put it into power to implode. It is referring to the project of McSweeney from County Cork, Ireland, and others to put a centrist to replace Corbyn, and selecting Keir Starmer. This was a weakness from the start as a candidate has to emerge on his own merits not be put in place by handlers like McSweeney, as he would not be able to govern on his own thinking and make his own decisions.  McSweeney was a campaign organizer and not successful at that as portrayed as Labour could have taken more than the 34% of the vote it received after 18 years of Tory rule without the likes of McSweeney. The Guardian says "excessive power and influence" was given by Starmer to McSweeney, and that the outsourcing of Britain's direction served neither the prime minister or the country well.  This is aserious flaw. McSweeney did not have the long experience of advisers that backed up Biden in the White House. And even the long experience of Biden group of advisers failed Biden when it came to immigration policy and the Border. And yet the question remains why was there such a lack in the talent pool for good governance for Labour, as it was for the Conservatives, for 3 decades since the 1990's? Similar to the situation with Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama governance in the US, why is there not a good talent pool for effective governance in the UK and the US? The Guardian goes on to question the judgement of Starmer and the clique around him including McSweeney for their attitude towards helping the working class in support payments during a cost of living crisis- what it calls a contempt filled approach of the cliques to the normal priorities of a Labour party. The Editorial concludes that Labour has lost control of the trajectory of events- as more Mandelson emails are expected- and that it is hard to see how this trust can be won back. For Britain having 5 prime ministers over 4 years is a shocking lack of the talent, of confidence, that once prevailed in the nation that once led the world with the Industrial Revolution, and in science and technology. ...

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Skepticism in France, expressed by president Macron, about how the virus originated.

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Spain's Socialist Party emerged as the largest party in parliament with 123 seats in the Spain's 2019 general election. The Socialists increased their share of the vote from 23% in the 2016 elections to 29%. With the help of the centre left Podemos Party led by Pablo Iglesias it has 165 seats in the 350 member parliament, 11 short of a majority. Its leader Pedro Sanchez who called the snap election after a no confidence vote in 2018 brought the Socialist Party to power, said after the win that he would work to reduce inequality, promote co-existence and women's rights. Spain's Popular Party (Partido Popular) which has alternately governed Spain with the Socialist Party since the shift from the Franco era, and which governed Spain till March 2018, won just 66 seats down from 137 in the last parliament.  It lost support to the far right nationalist Vox Party which opposes secessionist sentiment in Catalonia. Vox won 10% of the vote and won 24 seats in parliament. The right parties in Spain are now fragmented with the Ciudadanois party a centre right party winning 57 seats.  A coalition with Ciudadanos is unlikely, and the Socialist party with its ally Podemos party looks for support from other parties. It will try to stay away from secessionist parties from Catalonia because of the general sentiment in Spain opposing the separation of Catalonia from Spain. Turnout was 76% up by 9% from the last election. The Secesionist ERC party in Catalonia has 15 seats.  The right wing parties Popular Party, Ciudadanos and Vox Party fought the campaign saying the Socialist Party supported Catalan separatism. ...

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There are about the same number of borrowers 3.6 million instead of 3.4 million yet over 10 years Parent Plus Loans have grown by 61% or $44 billion to a whopping $115 billion burdening parents and students. Yet no one mentions that it is the colleges that are causing much of this increase with their failure to control costs. The government is now stepping in and it is up to parents to do their homework on school value so that this overburdening with debt that colleges take for granted becomes a thing of the past. If colleges cannot control costs they should feel public dissatisfaction and be ruled out. Colleges and Universities act as if they are not in a market system economy where costs cannot be simply passed on, costs have to be managed or consumers of a service will turn down that product.

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H1-B Visas and the Three Hundred Thousand Indian Engineers, the 3 million they would have trained locally in India to 2030, are a huge loss to India and India's dream of rapid modernization. The 3.3 million engineers in the 51 states of the Union to 2030, born in the USA, will also be lost to America's dream of re-modernization. It hurts the dreams of both nations for modernization of infrastructure and economic growth. 

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In the days when cross border technology flows were limited and the investment in India was small, India's technological capabilities at an early stage H1-B visa program acted as an exchange program where Indian engineers could gain experience and skills, learn new technologies in the US, that would benefit both India and the US taking a long term view. In 2025 when cross border technology flows to India from the US are large and significant, when Indian investment is large India's economy fastest growing and from a much larger base, with ability to absorb talented engineers in expanding Indian business, the H1-B program is one that drains both the US and India. India as a huge brain drain of 60,000 of its best engineers every year to 2030 or 300,000 of its best engineers and the 3 million engineers they would have trained locally through their creative talents. For the US it means the loss of 300,000 engineering jobs to 2030 for locals in 51 states in the Nation. Both make no sense. Business practices once set do not change. This is why an executive order by DJT was signed by the president to impose a $100,000 fee that Tata, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple can choose to pay every year for 6 years if they want to hire someone on H1-B Visas. To call this group of Indian H1-B of 60,000 engineers "dreamers" also makes no sense because 3.3 million engineers knowledge base and skills to India's growth capabilities and modernization could increase economic growth, modernization of Indian infrastructure, to make India a Dream State to live in. And the same number of American born engineers would make each of the America's 51 states Dream States through repowering America's new modernization of infrastructure and power economic growth. ...

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China expands the trading range of the yuan to 1%. The yuan is set by the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, at 6.2879 yuan per U.S. dollar on March 14, 2012 or 15 to 16 U.S. cents to the yuan. The yuan rate is set daily by the PBOC, called the parity rate, and was previously allowed to trade in a 0.5% trading range.

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Larry Saboto, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, and editor of the crystal ball newsletter, www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball says a few states will determine the outcome of the U.S. presidential election of 2012. In the midwest and east the states are Michigan (16 electoral votes), Ohio (18), Pennsylvania (20), and Wisconsin 10), Iowa (6), Virginia (13). In the west and south the states with large Hispanic votes are Nevada (6), Colorado (9), and Florida (29).

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Experts say the artificial sweetmers in Diet Coke increase the risks of stroke or dementia by 3 times. President Trump of the U.S. takes 12 diet cokes a day, according to the NYT report cited here. Some studies even show weight gain from soda with artificial sweeteners even though these sodas have no sugar and less fat. The problem they say is in how the diet soda is paired with food high in carbohydrates or fast foods with poor nutrients. Taking a diet soda with a Big Mac or fast foods is not healthy than if it is consumed alone. Another problem is that more needs to be known about the effects of artificial sweeteners, because new findings and research could come up with surprises. 

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The unemployment rate for young people 16-24 years old is 18% in the USA in 2009, up from 13% in 2008. This has serious consequences, creating a lost generation as happened in Japan in the last decade.

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In an astonishing contrast to other European countries, including neighbors Norway, FInaland and Denmark, the Swedish government decided to not impose a lockdown, keeping bars, restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, primary and middle schools open. Secondary schools, museums were closed, sports gatherings, gatherings of more than 50 people were not allowed. Social distancing was not enforced, and entirely voluntary. Sweden now has 29000 cases according to Statista and its death rate of 358 per million population is higher than in the U.S. which is 267, and Denmark 93, Finland 53.  Critics such as Lena EInhorn, a virologist, say the Swedish government did not set up a broad testing program, and let a problem develop for elder care in nursing homes. She says a 14 day quarantine of household members of a person infected with the virus would have made a difference. Most action we take for granted was not taken in Sweden. Restaurants that were not required to close spread airborne transmission. Einhorn also says that the government officials have denied it but under their breaths they have acknowledged working on a herd immunity strategy. Denmark has opened schools with social distancing and other measures and reopened its economy. Sweden is in reverse with calls for stricter action and an ongoing debate. No reopening as there was no lockdown, yet considerable and nagging uncertainty. The speed of transmission of coronavirus is the biggest danger, as it can let the numbers grow very quickly if the wrong decisions are taken or something is left out. ...

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India's response says Amitav Ghosh is better being like the Spanish response to the Madrid bombings 11-M as it is known in Spanish, than the American response to 9/11. The American response was military buildup and the invasion of Afgahnistan and then Iraq. The Spanish response was says Ghosh was of vigilance, patience and careful police work in coordination with neighboring countries. And in the case of India the added effort to eliminate the terrorists hideouts and safe houses in cooperatation with other countries. Tightened security in all areas and bringing it on par with the security in countries that have addressed the challenge at a much better level.

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The euro providing a safe place for countries like Italy during the crisis. For Britain its very asymmetric shock with the collapse of property and markets, financial sector, and consumption, provides it asafety valve through a decline in the value of the pound and lower interest rates. For Greece, Portugal and Spain which saw large increases in wages by 10-20 percentage points, above the 14% rise in unit labor costs in the EU zone between 1999 and 2007 reported in recent ECB monthly Bulletin, the situation is different. In Spain this means the downturn is likely to be more severe as can be seen in unemployment that is already at 13% and expected to reach 15-18% in 2009 by some estimates.

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Andrea Coombes provides views and assessment of the U.S. stock market in July 2014 of Joe Davis, chief economist at Vanguard Group, David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Russel Kinnel, director of manager research at Morningstar. Joe Davis cautions against timing of the stock market from any surge in volatility, as timing has proven to be difficult. Kinnel says many sectors have performed well in one year and not so well in other years. Utilities, energy and health care have been more consistent in returns providing gains of 17%, 16% and 11% in 2014 respectively, compared to gains of 18%, 23% and 48% in 2013 , according to Morningstar.