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This BBC report shows how contact tracing works in Singapore to control the spread of coronavirus. On 4 February 20 Chinese tourists visited a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Singapore. Only 18 coronavirus cases had been recorded in Singapore on that date. That visit to the medicine shop created a new cluster for the disease to spread. Singapore's contact tracing units traced such locations through its well developed and extensive contact tracing programme, which follows the chain of the virus, identifying and isolating people before they can spread the virus further. For about 40% of the 243 cases so far on March 19 the first indication they had was a call from the Singapore Health Ministry.      About 6000 people have been contact traced so far, using a combination of CCTV footage, labor intensive detective work with phone calling. This includes an incident of a taxi ride of 6 minutes in which the person a yoga teacher was identified and contacted by the Health Ministry. Enforcement is done as the person was contacted at her home by three people who showed her a quarantine order, which said you could not go out or its fine time and jail time. With about 8000 people per square kilometre, Singapore is small and densely crowded. It could easily be overwhelmed with hospitals not able to cope and the health system collapsing if this was not done. Wuhan could have happened here, says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Leong at Mont Elizabeth Novena hospital, who advises the government.  Because the crime rate is low the police were given this task of tracing as a priority in addition to hospital units working on tracing. It also included the armed forces personnel helping with tracing so that it could be done quickly without delay. This provides a lesson on how countries that have faced the health crisis have used innovative methods to tackle it with good results. ...

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There are differences between the governors of 10 worst hit states and the president of the U.S. on when to reopen the economy. The seven on the East Coast including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and three on the West Coast including California and Washington, all but one have Democrat governors and want to wait beyond May 1, till it is believed to be safe to reopen.190,000 of the 592,000 infected cases and over 10,000 of 25,000 cases of deaths are from New York alone. This is as though a third of the problem is in one state. The feeling in New York is that it should be the last to reopen, other states can go first in the middle of the country. The position in the U.S. Constitution is for states to maintain public order and safety. This was the basis of the president's position to work with the governors and continues to be the case, though there is pressure from economic advisers to the president to reopen earlier balanced by the opinion of health experts around the president.  Some states are taking action to reopen because the virus has not severely affected these states. President Trump says it is for governors to decide what is best for each state in consultation with the federal government. The U.S. government would step in if a state is taking risky action with the coronavirus. On the issue of whether the president could have acted quickly in February following his decision to stop flights from China and set up quarantines in January, the BBC has this to say. Dr. Fauci, the president's respected health expert was one of many public officials who did not see the magnitude of the crisis evolving with lack of good information from China. BBC North America Editor Jon Sopel cites Dr. Fauci's comments on February 13- that the coronavirus danger is "just miniscule" compared with the "real and present danger" of flu. As it happened the president acted alone in his sense of the danger from the outbreak in China through incoming flights and not relying on others. Here is what the situation of each country on reopening is- India -  has extended the lockdown to May 3. France - has extended the lockdown till May 11. U.S. - has extended the lockdown to May 1. States are taking the responsibility. UK - continues lockdown restrictions till May. The French president Macron had a simple answer to the question " when will we be able to get back to a normal, prior life?" Macron said "Quite frankly, humbly, I have no definitive answer to that." Some nurseries and schools will reopen May 11. Not restaurants, hotels, museums and theaters. By May 11 France will be able to test and quarantine anyone with symptoms and general public masks will be available to all. This is what Dr. Fauci in the U.S. also wants to see before being able to reopen, that testing and tracing, isolating, procedures be efficient and reliable. ...

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Boris Johnson was never for austerity and says this in his new book, yet he failed to make the major investments in the British economy in the way Biden has done in the US, and in some ways has left Labor's Starmer with difficult decisions with the strained budget finances of Britain. Of the investments he protected from John Osborne and his austerity plans as chancellor under Cameron Boris Johnson says- “Those big investments – Crossrail, the Olympic site, the Westfield Centre at Shepherd’s Bush – were fortuitously timed for London: vast counter-cyclical programmes that kept the spades going into the ground and people in work.” This was as Mayor of London in 2016. Of Osborne and Cameron so little is left, and so little came out of the period of austerity other than the failed investments Britain failed to make, simply a lost decade for Britain. And the diversion of Brexit under Johnson not taking Britain to a good place for the standard of living of the British people. Of the intraparty conflicts in the Tories he says Sunak's resignation as chancellor should never have happened calling it "worse than a crime," and a mistake for Sunak, the party, and the country. Johnson says that many days as PM he would come back to No.10 flat, exhausted and working into the evening when he should have been talking to colleagues, MP's to keep them all together. After Sunak's resignation from Boris Johnson's cabinet the Tory Conservatives split further apart, this time in the Boris Johnson faction of the party. Sunak's elevation to prime minister was short lived ending up with the Tories going downhill from there.  On the singular goal that led to the splits- that of Brexit- Johnson has little more to say than that in his travels he had found people wanted more Britain. ...

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Tips from executives for designing home offices which inspire, promote creativity, are energizing, and have the technology to get things done. Here Joann Lublin provides examples of two fulltime commuters, a TV producer and a private equity executive who get a lot of work done from home offices, and a executive who uses the home office for creative work. The space uses the right colors, decor and pieces that bring out good memories, are energizing, and recreate the kind of natural environment the person feels most comfortable in.

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India's Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar tells the 96th Meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi that the word 'Bharat' meaning India from a centuries old expression means a belief and an attitude. "To me, Bharat is actually a belief and an attitude for me, Bharat has an economic dimension. It has a political meaning. It has cultural, social, I would say even personal expressions.. At the end of the day it means don't let other people define you. Try and define yourself. That it has to come from itself because the very term Bharat which is so laden with symbolism actually captures centuries of what we are all about as a people."

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The picture on the cost of living action is mixed. In this report some Easterners in Pennsylvania and New York are shown taking loans to pay for groceries at high prices. In Michigan trips to the supermarkets show a modest increase of 1% in prices and prices coming down. Overall the faster the situation the better it is for working people and a top priority for president Joe Biden. Biden has approached it on a macro and micro level with a range of actions to bring cost of living down for people, from action on student debt for 5 million people, from health care cost cuts setting a ceiling on what health care cost would be, to cutting costs in areas such as housing, groceries and gas through concerted action across the economy.

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Much of this report concentrates on big name schools ignoring the facts about student debt and value delivered, and the shifts in perceptions in companies that see big name schools as not necessarily an asset as inthe past. In this new situation looking objectively at value delivered the US state university system is its strongest asset and the state universities offer higher value for local students without the unneeded debt loads of big ticket institutions with a lot of debt overhang, and little additional value. In the end education is about persistence, hard work, grit and determination. A  Kamala Harris at Hastings in San Francisco can do as well or better than someone from the big name schools. After the Supreme Court decision opposing quotas for affirmative action the first results of enrollment by ethnic group and race are mixed and sometimes confusing. Some colleges and universities are seeing the same enrollment and some are moving in opposite directions for ethnic groups and race. This NYT report says if universities can get to a fair enrollment for different groups without racial quotas then these quotas may not be essential to achieve their purpose. Schools are looking at students from rural areas in ways they did not in the past, and trying innovative approaches to building a better America after the pandemic because they think it is the right way. ...

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General Electric, GE, experienced a steep decline in the last decade. The worst news came in 2018 with the loss of half its share price and market value. One story tells about an employee who was forced out of retirement back to work seeing the loss of value in GE shares in 2018. Rarely has a company of this size seen a fall in stock price this steep, for a stock that was once seen as safe for widows. About 60% of GE business comes from jet engines, electric power generators and wind turbines. GE now plans to sell its health care business and other business that do not relate to core infrastructure in energy, aerospace, and other markets. Under Jack Welch a faulty model of adding diverse businesses that had nothing to do with its core business and expertise in infrastructure were added. A home mortgage lending business was added and GE Capital expanded. NBC Universal was added with little justification in a period when CEO's acted without much consultation. The home mortgage lending unit collapsed with large losses during the 2008 financial crisis and GE's share price dropped drastically to $6.00. Under Welch's successor Mr. Immelt the GE Capital unit was shrunk in size, but losses continued to mount. An oil field service unit was added which also sustained losses.  Immelt's successor Flannery faced a loss of $15 billion from the financial lending unit. Sale of some businesses was not sufficient to meet the loss. Flannery is now taking GE out of all the businesses which were not core business. The NBC Universal television business was sold to Comcast in 2013. GE Healthcare is next. This closes a bad chapter in GE's story under Welch and Immelt. GE's dividend was cut for the second time since the Great Depression. The story of GE is also the story of American business during the last two decades, with icons such as GM, Ford and GE suffering decline, businesses that operated like little fiefdoms of old nobility in Europe, with CEO's operating in a CEO centric culture, not tolerating contrary opinion for informed debate on issues facing the business. Alfred Sloan founder of Genral Motors called constructive debate central to good management. Later Intel CEO Andy Grove coined the phrase constructive confrontation as a way of constructive debate, and the CEO was shown as the first of equals. The CEO centric management ignored these warnings and admonitions in running their fiefdoms.   ...

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Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, is intervewed by Shira Ovide of the WSJ. Compared to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Nadella has a quiet demeanor. Responding to a question about how he made it from heading R&D for the Bing search engine to the CEO position, he says what helped him most was working in different jobs at Microsoft with different contexts and challenges, including a mix of some where success was achieved and some in which it was much harder. The experience of people in his management team is similar. He says his sense of being an outsider while being an insider is something he always had in him, and something he now encourages as a CEO. Reading outside of work is his only rule, and this may help him maintain some distance from work to think like an outsider. His preference is literary reading not common among senior managers- T.S. Eliot's poetry. Taking some off from work for medical leave or other reasons, is something he supports, especially from his own experience needing such leave as a 29 year old at Microsoft....

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The Goethe Institut is for Germany what the British Council was for Britain and the USIS for the US in the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America as well as Europe. A way to interface the world with ideas that contribute to world culture from Germany, and both influence and grow from the interaction. This is how Carola Lentz its new head in 2020 sees the Geothe-Institut on its 70th anniversary. There are 158 Goethe Instituts in 98 countries. The picture that goes with this article in DW.com shows language students from Ghana on the streets of Burnau, Bavaria, with their host family. It started in 1951 in Munich to spread German language and cultural studies in the world. Pope Francis studied German in his early years at the Goethe Institut while staying with a host family in Boppard, Rhineland-Palatinate, when he came to Germany from Argentina. Carola Letz brings an interesting background to this work as a researcher on societies in Africa, and her study of sociology, politics and languages. She believes the true work is to build conversations with other countries and to engage people inside Germany into this conversation for the first time, a task never undertaken before by the USIS or the British Council. As has happened accidentally and also with the sense of "'arrogance" in the US and Europe towards other less industrially developed countries, people inside European and North American countries were far less equipped with knowledge and understanding of world societies than their representatives overseas in post war period.  Lentz, born 1954. who lives in Mainz near Cologne, the home of Goethe, is an ethnologist and African Studies expert. Lentz sees a new approach of conversations with people in other societies, about an approach that is considerate, not arrogant, for developing joint answers to global questions.  A new exhibit opens on the 70th anniversary at the Berlin museum Hamburger Barnhof- "Take Me to the River," on global environmental changes on November 29, alongside another exhibit "Nation, Narration, Narcosis," on the role of museums in the culture of remembrance. This brings Germans inside the country into this conversation for the first time along with  the thousands of visitors from other countries.     ...

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The story of Milkha Singh, India's fastest runner, is told wonderfully here in the Indian Express.

Milkha Singh came through a period of life growing up in a poor part of the Punjab, then partition, and finding a place in post independence India on track and field. He joined the army on his third attempt. Finished fourth in the Rome Olympics, just 0.1 seconds behind Pence and with it missing a Bronze medal.

He said after this - that he was taken for an interview, and he could only say in whatever English he knew, "your son has fulfilled his duty, and I demand this from every youngster in the country." This could be the message to all the youngsters in the country that are volunteering for the PM's effort for 100,000 trained healthcare youngsters to help with Covid work in villages and towns throughout India.

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Professor Patterson of Harvard University has some serious observations on what has happened and what could be the way forward in America as it faces the lack of opportunities for a better life for minority communities trapped in cities with a deteriorating quality of life.  Between 1985 and 2000 a higher percentage of black children, about two thirds of black children, grew up in high poverty segregated areas than in the period between 1955 and 1970, according to a Pew Trust study of 2009. This affects everything from social mobility, life chances, potential for downward mobility. Particularly so because by 2016 the gap between black and white incomes has worsened, says professor Patterson. With this segregation has become worse in America at the level of neighborhoods where people actually meet, he says, citing a 2015 paper by Daniel Lichter of Cornell University.  In some ways segregation says Dr. Patterson is worse than in the 1960's. This could be because of downward social and economic mobility. Events such as the mortgage financial crisis of 2009 with bad decisions by the banking industry disproportionately hurt the black and minority communities. The trade imbalance and shift of manufacturing overseas hurt manufacturing jobs for white and black communities. Weakness in education and health services also hurt poorer communities of all races and color. In some ways the work of presidents Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson in the 50's and 60's may have created more hope and a sense that "a rising tide lifts all boats" in economic opportunities that may have been lost in the work of presidents after Clinton with loss of jobs in manufacturing for ordinary black and white Americans alike. The bad decisions by the banking industry and selling of bad mortgages, worsening health care options with overpricing in the medical field, all compounding the effect on  ordinary Americans. In a separate interview in the Harvard Gazette professor Patterson says de-ghettoization, moving to the suburbs is one way to better opportuntiies in the suburbs. For this to happen more moderate income housing is needed in the suburbs. A cultural change in attitudes comes with a shift to neighborhoods where communities can interact and meet. For this to happen strict zoning laws that prevent moderate income housing in suburbs such as in California and many other states needs to change. As professor Orlando Patterson says here in the Harvard Gazette and in the WSJ more Americans with liberal views need to put their money where their voices are. A stronger economy, education for changes in cultural attitudes in classrooms, cultural literacy, more manufacturing in America to create better middle class wages and jobs for Americans of all communities giving industry a role, and more of the affluent putting their money where their voices are for better integrated living in the suburbs not just for a few, are ways to bring better life for Americans.   ...

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Indian prime minister's speech in the Rajya Sabha, India's upper house of parliament presented the government's ideas behind the reforms in the agricultural farm laws. He made the point that the mandis for minimum support price or MSP will always be there, so that farmers looking for MSP would always be covered. "MSP tha, MSP hai, MSP rahega,"  his words in Hindi. Some of the main points are covered here in The Times of India. Many governments in India in the past have talked about reforming Indian agriculture. During the administration of Lyndon Johnson after famines and food shortages in India effort was made for the Green Revolution. Lal Bahadu Shastri, prime minister took up the work of the first development phase in 1965 to benefit Indian agriculture. The speech cited the work of Shastri for the Green Revolution that made India self sufficient in food grain production. India benefitted from American scientists mainly agronomist researcher Norman Borlaug. The prime minister cited the words of Manmohan Singh, Congress party prime minister preceding him, who had emphasized how important it was to bring changes to Indian agriculture. "Modi implemented what Manmohan said, You should be proud."   Manmohan Singh had said- "There are several rigidities in the whole market since the 1930's which prevent our farmers from selling their produce where they get the highest rate of return. It is our intention to remove all the handicaps that come in the way of India to become one large common market."  Other parts of the speech said about the new agriculture laws- "There are many laws. every law is amended in a few years. We are not static. Change is tradition. We should talk to the protesters, implement the changes. I will take the abuses. You take the benefit from the new laws. We can move ahead together... There are old people sitting in the cold, it is not right." The government has stated it will hold the new agriculture laws for 18 months and the Supreme Court has appointed a committee on the laws. In his speech Mr. Modi said that there was nobody to look after the small and marginal farmers, and asked who will speak for the 12 crores or 120 million marginal farmers who own less than 2 hectares of land.  In fact it was a call from these small and marginal farmers that led to Jawaharlal Nehru, son of a British trained lawyer Motilal Nehru, to join the struggle for Indian independence. This is shown in his autobiography written from jail in 1934-35.  At the time the British simply used the Indian police trained and run by the British Army to silence farm or agrarian unrest from small farmers. Nehru was asked in a phone call to come to one of the locations of the unrest during the early years. The bedrock of Gandhi's movement for independence was villages in which marginal farmers lived lives without making enough. When Vivekandanda talked about India's hundreds of millions living in poverty he was speaking of small farmers who then were a majority of the population of the country. Charan Singh, a former prime minister in 1970-80,  said that 68% of farmers were small and marginal farmers who owned less than 2 hectares of land. The government crop insurance scheme was changed to make it farmer friendly, PM Kisan scheme to empower the farmer. The Indian Rails initiative is intended to speed agricultural produce to locations throughout India taking produce from locations in southern India to places as far Kolkata. This is opening up new opportunities for farmers to increase incomes.   ...

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Tennis player from Serbia is disqualified for hitting the line umpire with a tennis ball. Djokovic was behind 6-5 to Carren Busta of Spain and lost his serve when this happened. Once before in that match he hit a ball at the stands in frustration. The Organizers of the U.S. Open decided there were clear reasons for him to be disqualified and lose all points he had earned at the U.S. Open. Djokovic had earlier come under criticism for his playing in events where there was no social distancing. Tennis has lost much of the graceful behaviour from the time when players like Althea Gibson, Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver played the game in an earlier era. Too much of the money is focused on prize money, television advertising, star status and number of grand slams won, bringing the game down to a level where the fans enjoying a good game is left behind and focus is all on individual players. The same is true for soccer where so much focus was placed on Barcelona and Messi and the 700 million transfer fee. The message from reality comes from the 7-2 win by Bayern Munich over Barcelona with a traditional approach to the game based on using new players costing far less money, a good dose of common sense and hard work. Coaches at Manchester City and Liverpool, and Real Madrid all attributed their success in the game to hard work and discipline of players, with every player playing for the team and for fans, and not for star status. ...

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The recommendations of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets to be given today by Treasury Secretary Paulson. The Working Group includes the heads of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve bank of New York, and the heads of SEC ad CFTC. The aim is to prevent the kind of crisis in mortgages and credit from happening again. There are other private-sector advisory panels also at work with Treasury with one focusseds on credit rating firms and Congress is working on this also. Much of it does not require legislation and some of it can be implemented immediately. Regulators are asked to work more closely with the Financial Accounting Standards Board to revisit accounting issues and make sure exposures are properly reflected.They are asked to make their independent assessments and not to rely on credit raings firms. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are asked to work on raising more capital and reduce dividends to conserve capital. New licensing standards are supported for mortgage brokers. The question is whether new storms in the economy and credit and financial markets will make this look not enough considering the situation facing the economy and financial markets....

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US president DJT speaks at the Economic Club of Detroit, looking back at a year of rapid action on the US Border, Big Beautiful Bill, Tariffs action, Cutting Cost of Living action on several fronts, and action against drug/people trafficking by Venezuela, Mexico. Highlights of the speech which comes to a state that decided the 2016 election for DJT and which is the center of America's automobile industry started by Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. He had restored the automobile industry to the days when it was the leader in the world and when names such as Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan of General Motors, were the envy of the world, by bringing auto manufacturing back from places like Mexico, Japan and Germany. Back to America after years of reckless outshoring by American business under the Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, on the advice of equally reckless economists and advisors to these administrations. The president did not say this but this restoration continued in a different way for labor under the Biden administration that followed DJT policies but focused on the other side of the coin for the auto industry - protecting worker's wages by Biden standing on a picket line for the strike by unions for higher wages. After these wages were restored from years of outshoring and pressure on wages, the need to do the work of bringing companies back through tariffs on imports as leverage in tough negotiations with Japan, South Korea and Germany was left to DJT and his administration. The president stated clearly that the economists and predictions were proved wrong on tariffs as none of these predictions of tariffs passed on to American buyers have come true. As DJT made certain the companies not to lose their business in the US decided to avoid taking that road and acted to reduce their profit margins and costs. As Scott Bessent, a veteran of Wall Street and now Treasury Secretary who conducted these negotiations for DJT, has repeatedly pointed out the tariffs were a way to get these tough negotiators and their governments from Japan, S. Korea and Germany to cooperate. It is nowhere written in the code of fair conduct of nations that the US should helplessly after decades of letting these countries benefit put its workers out of work and its industries get destroyed, when the US was taking on the additional burden of protecting these nations from hostile neighbors. ...

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BBC News looks at the Judge who will be handling the Trump New York indictment, Juan Merchan. He began his legal career in 1994 after graduating from Hofstra University School of Law. He worked in the Nassau County District Attorney's Office before becoming deputy assistant attorney general for Nassau County in 1999, and assistant attorney general for Nassau and Suffolk counties. He has served as a justice in the New York County Supreme Court since 2009. Merchan is described as a serious jurist, smart and even tempered, and a no-nonsense judge who is always in control of his courtroom.

Merchan has already handled a case against the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg. In that courtroom he is reported to have said that he would not in any way allow anyone to bring up a selective prosecution claim, or claim that this is some sort of novel prosecution, that Weisselberg was somehow being targeted because of his association with Mr. Trump.

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Wasn't immigration from Europe  one of the main reasons for pushing for Brexit by Brexiteers? UK left the European Union on Jan 31, 2020. So how has this changed since Brexit asks The Times of London? It may come as a surprise to know that Poles and Romanians who came to the UK before Brexit to fill low skilled jobs are are now replaced by high skilled Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, data from the Department of Works and Pensions suggests, and cited by The Times. And the numbers are large far exceeding by a factor of 3 the numbers before Brexit. Official data this week says The Times shows net migration hit 700,000 last year 2022 compared to 223,000 at the time of the Brexit vote. Three reasons are given. The first is that there is a surge in foreign students whose lucrative fees support British universities. Second one off schemes enabled hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Hong Kong Chinese to come to the UK. And the third the biggest reason is that the post Brexit regime issued 800,000 visas in its first year. This means that instead of less well off Europeans, more affluent Chinese, Ukrainian refugees, and better educated Indians and Pakistanis made their way to the UK. In any case a high rate of immigration took place, and one set of Eastern Europeans Ukrainians replaced another set from Poland and Romania. Brexit was essentially a serious distraction for Britain leading to three Tory governments. Had Cameron been honest and not used Brexit as a ploy to generate support the Tories could well have been replaced in a tight election after the austerity period. Instead Britain had four prime ministers and constant upheaval Cameron replaced by Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak. Ending up with the Tories and Britain in not a good place in where it matters- the economy, growth, health, education, and cost of living. Britain must now look to Labour for reviving the lives of workers and families, reviving the economy, fighting climate change, creating hope for the future. ...

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Coorodination, forbearance and multilateralism are three ways to keep economic nationalism from disrupting a global trading system that has benefitted all countries. Even the small moves to help home countries like the the move for US steel in the American stimulus projects, and the demonstrations supporting "British jobs for British workers", and other steps that quietly find their way into individual countries efforts to protect their home industries and jobs, can over time build up into something that would exaggerate the size and extent of this economic downturn. Forbearance and leadership from the US government on this issue and by leading developed countries is vital. So is the effort to develop a coordinated effort through close consultation and joint monitoring of progress. And equally important is multilateralism which works to help emerging countries hit hardest, and help prevent millions from sinking back into poverty, thereby destroying the hope and aspirations that had propelled the global progress in improving living standards....

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The crowded sports stadiums for soccer games during early February in the Lombardy region accelerated the spread of coronavirus in Italy by the end of February. The sports stadiums soccer games spread the virus like wildfire in northern Italy. This is why along with nursing homes, sports stadiums pose the greatest threat from coronavirus. The tens of thousands of people from a single game can contaminate as many as 40,000 or 50,000 people as these 10,000 people go on subways, restaurants and other places. This spreads to millions very quickly creating a wildfire effect. Airports and sports stadiums or music venues, theatres have this wildfire spreading effect that is then compounded by the use of public transport and restaurants other close proximity places, spreading it far and wide. These are also not essential activities as work and office, employees working at companies or in manufacturing, which are essential to the economy.  This is why in terms of priority sports and leisure travel can be deferred till a vaccine is developed. Business travel is increasingly being substituted by using videoconferencing and other ways of staying in touch remotely. ...

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Upward mobility in China was weak and income growth for average workers sluggish during the years before the coronavirus outbreak. In this sense China is similar to the U.S. and Europe where upward mobility gains after the second world war were lost in the last 30 years partly from the loss of manufacturing to China. It is much worse now as the effects of the coronavirus lead to drops of as much as a third in income for ordinary workers. Lower income workers, the vast majority of Chinese numbering hundreds of millions now suffer from lost work or diminished wages. Small businesses cannot afford to pay the salaries paid before and as workers dip into savings or increase borrowing the retail spending is taking a hit. As a result economists see a vicious cycle of lower spending and lower incomes for the hundreds of millions of ordinary workers in construction and smaller businesses. Some small businesses could just close down because of weak demand affecting the economy over the long term. Before the coronavirus China went over three decades from being a Communist country with relatively equal distribution of wealth but lack of growth and technological development to a capitalist country with the structure of state control of the economy from the Communist period. The result is that 1% of the people control 33% of the wealth and the bottom 25% having 1% of the wealth, according to a 2015 Peking University study. China's president Xi Jinping, head of the Communist party, tried to reverse some of these trends by attacking corruption and making changes that began the task of reversing decades of unequal distribution of wealth under state sponsored capitalist growth. Investments were made in rural medical care, infrastructure and basic services. This did not have much impact because much of the pattern of growth over three decades continues including the housing bubble.  With coronavirus the trend is set for even more unequal distribution of wealth as many workers at the bottom half of the population in incomes either lose work, or see drop in incomes as businesses that hire them struggle from shoe factories to other retail business. Reports of informal economy and street markets in Chengdu in western China and bringing this part of the economy back by the state are effort to get people work in other ways. Researchers estimate that China's bottom 60% of household in incomes lost about $200 billion in income in the first half of 2020. In May premier Li Keqiang said 600 million people in China earn only about $140 a month. Many who lost income or jobs do not have support from the government as China lacks a program of comprehensive unemployment insurance as in Europe and the U.S. to help people get over bad times. 300 million migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to loss of income and dipping into savings.   ...

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The Athletic talks to mentors Young and Thorne who mentored Chris Eubanks as he developed his skills as a tennis player, reaching the quarter finals at Wimbledon this year. A meeting with Donald Young when Chris was 12 years old was a turning point. It gave Chris the opportunity to practice at Young's dad's tennis centre, the South Fulton Tennis Centre in Atlanta. Young then took Chris at 16 to tournaments around the world to practice and get a feel for the tennis circuit. Thorne helped bring Eubanks to Georgia Tech where he studied industrial engineering and business. Questions of self-belief remained for Chris Eubanks over the years, which he has overcome on his own, by taking time out to work for Tennis Channel. This gave hime a chance to look at the game from a distance, free from the strain of the tennis circuit.

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This report in the WSJ shows American households are acting prudently by building up savings of $1.6 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As much of these savings are not distributed evenly across the population, and coming back from a period after the 2009 financial crisis when savings in the lower classes had dropped to alarming levels, this saving is good for the future of the American people by building a path to sustained growth for the long term. Readers responses to this report show their dismay at calling savings hoarding, dismay at the idea that saving 3-6 months of expenses would be considered prudent when 1-2 years would be a minimum  and 2-3 years desirable would be considered decent protection in times like the last 2 decades of manmade disasters (shipping out American manufacturing, 2009 financial crisis) or nature driven disasters (the pandemic). For the Biden administration the saving also provides hope that the mistakes of the last two decades and the 2009 period can be avoided. By targeting the $1 trillion in infrastructure spending plan to projects that build synergy throughout the economy and generate more growth for every dollar spent in a long term Renewal America project. Recent WSJ reports show this is happening. The $2 trillion Families and Workers Plan works in a similar way to bring hope in improving the quality of life in America through children's education, childcare, paid leave, health care, affordable housing, climate change investments. The public in America is showing equal prudence by aligning the savings to this approach to set America on a path of long term renewal and development that could be sustained to 2030 or 2035. This will also enable the investments needed to build America's role in the world and help its partners in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa take the same approach for sustained and balanced growth into the next decade.  ...

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It is now not just an issue of migrants, a much broader issue of how the people of Britain can have democratic processes and action on the economy work without disruptions and distractions such as migrants. The interests of 69 million Britons and hundreds of million in war ridden countries vs 40,000 migrants put on boats here because of economic conditions in their home countries. The best course of action for Labour is direct targeted assistance to rural schools and rural health care, farmers, in affected countries as they recover from years of war. 20,000 crossed the English Channel in boats in 6 months January to June 2025. Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, areas of war in Middle East are source of migrants crossing the English Channel in boats.  Britain offering weekly allowance of 50 pounds a person and free National Health Service services encourages migrants to make the journey in boats and pay migrant trafficking operators with their life savings. Without a clear goal on migrants and necessary action Britain under Labour sees further destabilization of the social and political fabric of the country by reducing confidence in the two main political parties.  ...

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Lane Forsheim has this interview with tennis player Andre Agassi who won the Grand Slam in The Open era in 2003. Agassi suggests living in the present and avoiding future tripping thinking and solving problems for the future which may not exist. Agassi describes his daily routine. He says pickleball is a great way to exercise without thinking of exercise especially for over 50's. Agassi works for 3-4 hours a day and then plans his daily life around this. He loves the way Alcaraz, Sinner and Medvedev have brought new life into tennis as an exciting game to watch. Agassi talks about marraige- he is married to Steffani Graf, who also played tennis in the top ten. He says know yourself and you can't come into a relationship needing the other to be complete.  For breakfast he has oatmeal with protein or some granola and fruit. Less well known is that Andre Agassi is from Las Vegas, and has a thoughtful autobiography "Open" that is remarkably honest about his survival in the competitive world of tennis after many struggles with parental pressure to win. Yet he comes through having made his own choices. He started the preparatory Agassi Tennis academy for underprivileged children. When Sinner won the Australian Open yesterday he thanked his parents for not putting pressure on him for letting him try different sports. ...