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Diesel cars at the Frankfurt Auto Show.

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The fact that the key American diplomat Bryza is only mid fprties, Saashkavili 40 years, and his defence minister an unbelievable 30 years show how the Georgian government was short on experience in handling the situation with Russia.

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The government criteria for injecting funds into banks discourage lending to banks that are not healthy and unlikely to survive, considering this a poor use of taxpayer funds. This will lead to fewer and healthier banks.

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Hundreds of thousands of American children are missing after the pandemic. Many are not accounted even when increase in home schooling and private schooling is considered. The Associated Press, Stanford University Big Local News Project and Prof. Dee of Stanford show in their study that 240,000 students in 21 states absence from school could not be explained. In 2023 missing students have become more of a budgeting problem to secure federal and state funds. The actual number of missing students is much higher as this study found that public school enrollment inthe US has fallen in the 2 school years 2019-2020, 2021-2022 by 710,000. Much remains to be done to locate these students so that they are not forgotten. Voice of America ran this story on its Learning English site. The WSJ has an editorial on these missing children today.

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Reinhart and Rogoff say it takes over 7 years for the economy to recover completely from financial crises. This is the lesson from other financial crises in the last century. Economic contraction lasts about 2 years. Housing prices from peak to trough takes about 6 years. Unemployment takes longer to heal in developed countries. Unemployment goes up by about 7 percentage points, and increasing unemployment lasts an average of 5 years. And the debt that builds up from lower tax revenues and more spending needed in stimulus acts to slow growth. The big message from other crises studied by the two American economists is that debt tends to go up by about 85% in real terms during the first 3 years of a banking crisis. They says this means an additional $8-9 trillion for the U.S. A key point they make is that restructuring is necessary for the financial system, and the U.S. needs to allow financial institutions to be restructured through accelerated bankruptcy, temporary receivership, and only afterwards recapitalizing and reprivatizing....

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Neil Irwin in the NYT why the U.S. China Phase 1 Trade Agreement is more than a hill of soyabeans as he puts it, more than about all the soyabeans that the U.S. farmers can sell to China. China's economy was seeing the effect of U.S. tariffs. Additional tariffs to cover all imports from China to the U.S. would have worsened this. China avoided this by agreeing to Phase 1. The U.S. had looked for some enforcement mechanism based on China putting this down in a written agreement particularly for avoiding subsidies to state enterprises and improper access to U.S. advanced technologies. China's reluctance to do this led to Mr. Trump saying that China had reversed its position and Trump expanding the tariffs stage by stage. These issues are now set aside for Phase 2 still to be negotiated. Both sides taking what they could get. China relief from the threat of tariffs on all exports. The U.S. under Mr. Lighthizer's negotiating leadership retaining the enforcement idea through the tariffs that are still in place of 25% on half of China's exports to the U.S. The bonus for Mr. Trump is the goodwill China generates by agreeing to buy all the U.S. farmers can produce, farmers having not only stood behind Mr. Trump but also forming a key part of his support base. China will continue to compete in technological areas with the U.S., and the state enterprise model which worked for China as Mr. Xi tells visitors will continue. Phase 2 is just that Phase 2, when and if it can be negotiated between Trump with his negotiator Lighthizer and Xi with his negotiator Liu He. On key points neither side is budging. A key goal for Mr. Trump is to put the trade surplus China enjoys of $300 plus billion a year with the U.S. on a serious downward path, and bring so many of the jobs and manufacturing back home. On this trade data for 2019 and the plan for 2020 of both countries is clear. It should be down each year by 10-20% for the next few years, a major achievement of Mr. Lighthizer, who did the same with  Japan under president Reagan. ...

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This WSJ podcast looks at the U.S. $2 trillion aid plan passed by Congress for businesses and families in response to the coronavirus health crisis.

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Elise Stefanik is the new UN ambassador in 2024.

Elise Stefanik is the youngest person elected to the US Congress. She was elected for the 21st District of New York in 2014. Her background is working for her father's firm Premium Plywood Products, attending Albany Academy for high school, and Harvard University- its Institute for Politics for undergraduate degree. She was impressed by Ted Sorenson, assistant to John Kennedy, in his lectures at that Institute and went on to participate in several campaigns after being assistant in domestic policy for George W. Bush. She helped Paul Ryan in his vice presidential campaign in 2012 with Mitt Romney.  And joined the Trump maga group later by 2019 similar to JD Vance and other younger Republicans.

In 2021 she was made chair of the Republican conference- replacing Liz Cheney. Reelected in 2024 by a large margin from 21st District of upstate New York.

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President Biden has asked for $18 billion for child care stabilization, the children's infrastructure of today. Republican controlled Congress is not responding. Nationwide 16000 childcare providers closed their doors across 37 states in 15 months of 2020 through March 2021. Childcare givers in the US make less than parking attendants, says this story in The Washington Post. Federal grants provided help in Wisconsin and other states, but this money dried up and more childcare centers have closed. This is the soft infrastructure that America needs and is so crucial- for its children and for mothers and fathers. The losses reverberate through local economies. And it disrupts parents, especially mothers ability to work. 

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Jane Perlez of the NYT describes the efforts of China to draw the new South Korean president Moon Jae-in away from close defense ties with the U.S. Moon Jae-In won the South Korean election in 2017 and favors better relations with China and North Korea. China's goal is to reduce deployment of the Thaad missile defense system the U.S. has installed in South Korea, which is seen as reducing China's nuclear deterrance because the system also protects against missiles launched from China. Economic ties are also affected in the dispute as China has promoted a boycott of South Korean cars, televisions and other products, and fewer Chinese now visit South Korea. 

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A company making table tennis tables in Uttar Pradesh, India, gains access to the US market as supply chain reorganization takes place.