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Fears of contaminated infant milk powder in China and distrust of domestic brands. The large demand for foreign milk powder.

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The NYT editorial says budget reconciliation should kick in if by a certain date in the fall bipartisan agreement is not reached. With budget reconciliation, the term for a expedited processs, health care legislation can pass by a simple majority vote. NYT says bipartisan agreement is a good thing, but more important is effective health care reform. And there is little evidence of Republican cooperation so far on any issue.

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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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With fewer and fewer good startup companies and massive amounts of capital wasted on startups that did not produce either jobs or lasting value questions are being raised about the startup culture and role of startups in a growing economy. The coronavirus has speeded up the process- already underway was a lack of quality in startup companies, now these companies that were wasting capital are facing a completely different environment. Reasons given for their situation are the lack of job creation over last two decades from startups. The startup founders being many just out of college or with a few years of experience, lack of accumulated experience in industry of founders, the glamour that had nothing behind it except the search for quick results. Primarily though the reason is that it takes time to build good companies that also create good jobs and add to the country's GDP, and this means additions to technology, bringing experience and building up of experience of founders, that patience and persistence is lacking in today's startup culture and startup companies. There is a bigger problem and this is a problem for all of society and the whole nation in every country. This is the misallocation of capital, the erratic shift away from infrastructure, public services, health services and education, and employment in the national interest, that form the backbone of the economy of any country. It is in this sense that the shift in capital allocation, away from misallocation on a massive scale, has to be made in the national interest, interest of society, interest of the people.  ...

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Sadanand Dhume in WSJ reflects opinion in the US that is wary of handout politics that has been carried to an extreme in India's election. In Venezuela the bad turn for the oil rich economy was when Chavez's successor Maduro ignorant of the problems it would create decided to give oil at almost no cost to all Venezuelans. In India the leading opposition party offered $1 lakh rupees to every woman in the state of Uttar Pradesh. India's federal government under Modi has given free food to about 800 million people and renewed the pledge this year because of the pandemic's devastating the rural economy- about 60% of India is still rural. This is essential for India to advance to build a broad based growth model for India similar to China 1990-2010 and Japan 1890-1915 and 1950-1970 during the transformation of their economies, similar also to the US under FDR/Truman/Eisenhower/Kennedy 1940-1965.  Clean environments Swacch Bharat was essential for basic sanitation and toilets to reduce health risks, cooking gas to shift rural women from firewood and health risks, direct deposit bank accounts for 300 million rural households essential to eliminate leakages, solar energy is planned to cut energy cost  This has brought and will bring the level of income and consumption power of the lower and middle classes to create a 500 million strong consumer base for industry. It is a carefully planned effort based on the success in states such as Gujarat, and looking at the way this was done in China and the US for learning lessons. It is not a reckless effort to win votes such as the offer of 1 lakh rupees to every woman in Uttar Pradesh state with no plan for industrialization and modernization of the Indian economy to make it the third largest ahead of the EU by 2035. Dhume is right to point this out and it is apparent to any outsider who looks at Sab Ka Vikas Sab Ke Saath- prosperity for all, including all parts of society irrespective of caste and religion.  ...

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Christoph Hasselbach of DW.com says the idea of European Union brings so much good for Europe that it should not be diminished by use of pressure or punishment. He refers to the firm opinion in Brussels, of Mr. Juncker and Merkel, that there can be no cherry picking when it comes to remaining in the EU. This led in Jan. 2017 to British prime minister May saying Britain would not go begging to Brussels, and would simply opt out of the European Union and the single market. Hasselbach offers an interesting and plausible explanation for the Brexit vote shifting by a small margin to the exit side. He says rightly that uncontrolled immigration fears were used by the politicians supporting exit. Interestingly he says the worries in the UK were not just for current people but for future citizens from the hundreds of thousands of refugees who would become German citizens in a few years. Would they try to settle in the UK- prime minister Cameron failed to provide a convincing answer, says Hasselbach. He is right to point out as we have at Lyrarc that it is healthy to have questions and even some skeptical views about Brussels, that the appeal of the EU must depend on not being dogmatic about it, but being open and willing to accept questions.   ...

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This WSJ report shows how a record 4.4 million American workers resigned from their jobs in September 2021 alone. WSJ shows map of US with the states where this is happening marked with "I Quit." States with the largest quit rates have large share of employment  in food, restaurant, hotel and entertainment industries- Hawaii, Montana, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, New Hampshire, Louisiana. In the northeastern states the education sector which accounts for a larger share of employment the quit rate has risen at the fastest pace since January as shown in the Labor Department numbers. For years wages, benefits and working conditions in the food, restaurant, grocery store, hotel and entertainment industries, supply chain logistics, lagged behind, exacerbating inequality and widening the income gaps between working class Americans and the professional and other classes. Increases in minimum wages lagged behind the cost of raising families, rent and grocery bills. Professions such as nursing, children's education, critical to the nation's health were also left behind in wage increases as the tech boom rewarded different sectors in outrageous ways worsening the social divide and creating pools of income scarcity and income abundance in indiscriminate ways. The pandemic is changing all this. Workers in states with higher proportion of workers in these sectors of the economy are saying "I Quit," as they seek better opportunities elsewhere and better working conditions. The checks to working class Americans in 2020-2021 as aid for the pandemic, the child credits, investments in affordable housing, child care, early childhood education, and other aid in the Biden Families and Workers plan are giving workers for the first time in decades the right to choose better working conditions and incomes over worse working conditions and incomes that were set without regard to their role and contribution to the welfare of the whole country and people.  After the lockdowns in the northeastern states, States such as New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island,  with higher vaccination rates and rebound in the economy are seeing higher job openings. This is making it possible for workers in the northeastern US to quit jobs in educational services and other sectors  for better paying jobs, better working conditions, remote work options, and improved work-life balance. ...

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Mr. Trump says he will wear a mask on a visit to soldiers at Army's Walter Reed Hospital. Trump says its "a very appropriate thing. I have no problem with a mask." As cases hit 3 million in the U.S., close to 1 million in India and Russia, Mr. Trump joins the movement for masks worldwide. Early on Mr. Trump  took up the issue of transmission from Wuhan by banning flights from China, failed to get WHO and China to respond quickly to the pandemic requests from U.S. by providing information and allowing a team to visit Wuhan quickly in January. A stumbling block appeared within the health ministry in the U.S. with poor leadership which Trump had to overcome by relying on Vice President Pence to lead the stop coronavirus team at the White House.   Trump's reopening decision came under criticism and he says he had to balance the damage to jobs and economic well being that also affected health. Some of the states and young people responded in ways that led to public gatherings that have led to surges in the south and the western states such as Calfornia. The WSJ reported that in Los Angeles County on June 20 half a million people went to bars after they reopened, showing that culturally even counties in states like California lacked what is accepted good sense. For instance Tokyo bars were paid by the Japanese government not to reopen, according to one report. By wearing a mask Trump is simply acknowledging facts about transmission - a German study shows 40% reduction in cases with face coverings. ...

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Longevity and the habits of persistence, prudence, hard work, close involvement with friends and communties, being somewhat obsessive and not care-free. The ability to navigate life's challenges is another aspect of longevity. Having a high level of physical activity, a habit of giving back to community, a career and work that one enjoys, a healthy marraige and good family life, all help improve longevity.

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Sabrina Tavernise writes about vaccine skeptics in the US. She sees it as a problem about gut beliefs. It is prevalent among people of different political views, not just conservatives. The misinformation on vaccines has made people who normally would be open to getting vaccinated a bit leery. Because of the flood of information spread in today's hyper sensitive news environment, including misinformation. Tavernise describes how different people in the US tackle the decision to get vaccinated or not and how this leads some to simply postpone getting vaccinated. Britain tackled this problem of spreading misinformation on vaccine effectiveness or risks early. It also helped that in Britain there is a very high regard for the National Health Service, the NHS. In Germany and also in France there was increasing skepticism in the beginning, yet this is reversible as there is growing recognition of the benefit of taking the vaccine in Germany and France. Much can and needs to be done to create public confidence and limit the spread of misinformation that leads to postponement of vaccination at a time when variants are becoming more contagious. ...

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Fitch raised its ratings on Ford debt to triple B minus from double B plus. GM and Ford ran up losses since 2005 faced with labor costs that were not competitive, high health care costs for retired employees, and underutlization of factory capacity as American buyers turned away. The result was that credit ratings agencies cut their debt to junk status in 2005. In 2006 Ford faced with a financial crisis took out loans of $23.5 billion, putting up all of its assets as collateral including its logo. Ford survived bankruptcy with these loans. By the end of 2011 Ford had $13.1 billion in debt, down from $33.6 billion in 2009. For Ford to have the collateral released credit ratings agencies must now move Ford to investment grade as the next step in this story of disaster and renewal over seven years of an American icon- of toil, sweat and tears back to a rebirth in the eyes of American buyers.

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A survey by GlaxoSmithKline shows that 60% of S. Africans are clinically overweight. A study by Imperial College of London, shows 75% of S. African women are overweight, 43% are obese an increase from 24% in 1980. As a result about 13% of the S. African population suffers from diabetes.

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The figures are huge and it takes the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to do something however small in Japan about smoking. Now the half million vending machines that dispense cigarettes to some 26 million Japanese smokers can only dispense to adults because users have to have a special card called Taspo or tobacco passport that they insert into the vending machine. This will shift sales to convenience stores like the Lawson's chain. In Japan 29.2% of all adults and probably an even higher percentage of men smoke according to OECD data. In the US its about 17%. Like obesity and poor eating habits and the availability of fast food in the USA, smoking in Japan remains largely untouched by any efforts to educate young people and the public about the great dangers, with companies largely uninterested and the government and schools and universities largely apathetic about what are really huge health concerns that reverberate in so many ways across the fabric of society. For example a obese person consumes more health care dollars, a smoker also consumes more health care dollars. And health care dollars are scarce dollars and need to be spread out in better ways than wasted on preventable things like obesity and smoking through partnership in education and other measures between all groups and organizations in society and the government. ...

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The Trump administration is preparing direct aid to Americans and American industries hurt by the coronavirus epidemic. Each check will be based on family size and income, according to a Treasury Department memo seen by WSJ. The direct payments in two rounds will be on April 6 and May 18. This is part of a $1 trillion stimulus program. $50 billion lending facility is being setup for the airlines. Another $150 billion goes to distressed sectors in the economy. $300 billion will go to a small business interruption loan program, which will go to temporarily cover payroll costs for employees. The idea is to put a safety net and support workers who will need help while they are not working. The measures include two weeks of paid emergency leave for a large number of people. Money also goes to additional Medicaid funding, more money for food stamps, and for unemployment insurance program. Congress has passed the bill and president Trump is expected to sign it into law. Other bills will follow in Congress. A third economic package will cover additional needs of agencies of government, with $11.5 billion for Department of Health and Human Services, and Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security. All this is being done in Congress and by the Trump administration at top speed. ...

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Side work earns book royalties of $2 million for Barrett on "Listening to the Law" and Ketanji Jackson $3 million Sotomayor and Gorsuch also have books and royalty advances. This provides the public with a closer view of the Justices on the highest Court in the Nation. It also means Justices live a sheltered life away from the concerns of ordinary Americans about cost of living, cost of health care and pharmaceuticals, cost of childcare, cost of education, cost of fentanyl and other drug trafficking to American families and mothers. During the Depression only three Justices the most prominent of whom were Harlan Stone of New Hampshire and Wendell Holmes of Massachusetts supported New Deal legislation to provide government help with other Justices rejecting New Deal legislation right in the middle of the Great Depression when people were literally without food and shelter, without jobs and in despair. Today there is a permanent exhibition of Harlan Stone in the US Supreme Court for the longest service on the Court. It took till 1940 for FDR to appoint new Justices to get the Court to support the New Deal. Today Justice Barrett is a lone voice among Conservatives willing to listen to all opinions on both sides along with but more than Justice Roberts. This is heartening to both sides. Barrett like Justice Sandra O'Connor before her puts great importance on the Constitution's intent and wording, its pages are in her book. O'Connor from a rural ranch in Arizona carried the Constitution with her at all times and had her own books- the Lazy B about growing up on a ranch on the Arizona- New Mexico border in the middle of big country, big sky, so wide an expanse that she writes about it in her preface to her next book The Majesty of the Law citing Wallace Stegner. ...

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Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) says Glaxo's drug Benlysta for lupus is not "good value for money." The drug is priced at 10,000 pounds a year in the U.K. ($15,600) and much higher at $35,000 a year in the U.S. Benlysta is covered by insurers in the U.S. and some European state run health systems according to Glaxo. NICE also rejected a new multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya, which costs 19,000 pounds a year in the U.K. ($29,700), and $48,000 a year in the U.S.

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The US added 103,000 jobs on net in December 2010, acccording to the Labor Department. The jobs were mainly added in leisure and hospitality (especially the food services and drinking places subsector ) and in health care. Payrolls for other industries show no growth. A different government survey, which is based on how many people are without jobs but are actively looking for work, fell to 9.4% in December 2010 from 9.8% in November. But part of the reason for this is that many people stopped looking for jobs.

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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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The basics that promote health and productivity in the workplace. Kinds of boss behaviour that destroys productive work and relationships- lack of close rapport and face to face discussions, lack of good directions and feedback, loud behaviours and too short responses, not enough time to get the job done right.

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The new Jinping-Keqiang administration is making the initial changes in China by restructuring cabinet ministries. The Railways Ministry is being merged with the Transportation Ministry, separating the operation of the rail system from its regulation. The National Population and Family Planning Commission is being merged with the Health Ministry, in a gradual phase-out of the one-child policy after considering the demographic changes underway in China. The State Administration of Food and Drug is being given new powers to fight contamination of food and drugs. The two agencies that manage the media, the General Administration of Press and Publication and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television are to be merged. The National Energy Administration is to be reorganized to change the way the energy industry regulation takes place. The ministries fall under China's cabinet, the State Council. Mai Kai, secretary general of the State Council, said the ministries remain overly focussed on micro issues. The changes are based on a look at overall development in China and correcting some of the glaring shortcomings in pollution, managing of the rail system, changing demographics, contamination of food and drugs, and other issues that affect the Chinese people in the new industrial and urbanized society....

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Kerala state of 35 million people who speak the language Malayalam, is one of the rare places today that has only 4 deaths from coronavirus, 524 cases confirmed and no community transmission. Here the Guardian looks at the reasons why. The Health minister KK Shailaja started very early on January 23, with a meeting of her rapid response team when the virus was still in China.  She setup a control room and instructed Kerala's 14 districts to do this on Jan. 24. When the first case arrived on Jan. 27 on a plane from Wuhan, Kerala had already adopted the WHO  protocol of test, trace, isolate and support. These passengers were checked for temperature, tested and quarantined. With some at a nearby hospital and others in home isolation. This is all the more amazing considering that Kerala is a state in southern India on the west coast that has a large number of people living and working overseas. Many are in the Gulf countries and the arrival of these refugees could have triggered a second outbreak. This was prevented by careful testing, and contact tracing of clusters.  When one group was evasive and concealed information from an airport surveillance team -arriving from Venice, Italy,  in late Feb- a case was detected back to them.  Contact tracers tracked down all of the hundreds whom they had been in contact with and quarantined them.  By 23 March all flights to 4 Kerala airports from overseas were stopped, including Cochin and Trivandrum. On March 25 India went into lockdown.  Some of the achievements in Kerala include quarantining 170,000 people early. with strict surveillance, which is now down to 21,000. Accomodating and feeding 150,000 migrant workers from other states, before returning them on charter trains to their home areas. A big reason for the success is the high literacy rate in the state. A big emphasis on education and healthcare is a part of the Kerala model. Shailaja is a secondary school teacher, and Health minister. From the days since independence of India in 1947 the state has a strong socialist tradition of taking care of the basics- health, education and public services. It also generates a part of its GDP with income from workers who are overseas.  Another reason for the success in dealing with coronavirus is experience. The state had a virus epidemic called Nipah in 2018 which has become the story for a movie called Virus in Malayalam. There is decentralized public health system in the state and people value their health care facilities, understand and trust the health care authorites. There are hospitals at every level of administration and 10 medical colleges. But trust and education, experience tackling the virus before, are key. Kerala is showing that poor countries can deal effectively with the virus, and create a better life by adopting the right model of creating good societies that value education, healthcare services, better economic structures and distribution of wealth, and  a degree of trust and responsibility found in a state that values public spiritedness. ...

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Having an adequate supply of N95 masks is critical for each hospital tackling the coronavirus pandemic. The lack of enough masks leaves health care personnel without the basic protection and is a grave emergency. Hospitals are resorting to reuse of the masks in this crisis and this is not a good practice as it increases the chances of infection. President Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act on April 2 against 3M. This gives the federal government more control over 3M's operations to ensure that it goes all out to make the healthcare N95 masks that the hospitals need in this grave emergency. This report in the WSJ covers the situation as of April 3 on the supply of M95 masks for health workers and others. N95 masks block 95% of very small particles. Supply in the U.S. is for 50 million N95 masks. Demand in the U.S. is for 300 million N95 masks as estimated by the Department of Health and Human Services. in March- this is how many are needed by health care workers to fight this pandemic in the U.S. The principal manufacturer is 3M. 3M company has doubled its production since January 2020. The trend before this pandemic was to send production over to China and other countries. This is changing now with the pandemic and the U.S. policy shifting to be self sufficient in medical supplies in the event of an emergency. A policy Peter Navarro, who heads the agency in charge of getting medical supplies, says President Trump is insisting be implemented. Hospital buyers supported the earlier trend to keep costs down, but this appears to be a costly mistake, putting health care workers in hospitals across the U.S. without the basic protection they need. Minnesota based 3M invented the first modern disposable masks in the 1960's. Interestingly 3M continued to make millions of masks in the U.S. even though competitors moved manufacturing overseas. The 50 million disposable masks 3M made globally went to workers in industries where it provided extra safety from metal shavings or other substances, and medical workers. Now 90% of masks go to medical workers. 3M ramped up production globally since January 11 when the pandemic first hit to 100 million masks a month globally, and 35 million a month in the U.S. at plants in South Dakota and Nebraska. 3M says that it will import 10 million masks from its factory in China, which earlier this year was restricted from shipping it outside China as China needed masks for the pandemic. About 10 million more masks are made by two other manufacturers Alpha Pro and Louis Gerson Co.  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ordered 600 million N95 masks from 5 companies to distribute to hospitals and build up the national medical supply stockpile. 190 million each of this is from 3M and Honeywell and 130 million Owens & Minor Inc.  3M says it will make 50 million a month in the U.S. by June. Honeywell which had moved production overseas, plans to bring back production to the U.S. by making 10 million masks by May at its Rhode Island and Phoenix plants. There is a company in Singapore that makes one million masks a day in China and other Asian countries, Pasture Pharma Pte, but most of it is committed to government agencies in China.   ...