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Work requirements is one area in which Biden and McCarthy have a point of agreement in the debt ceiling discussions. Biden says he has supported work requirements in the past. Biden also says he would do nothing that affects health benefits. Under Biden the jobs market is the best it has been for over two decades which makes it easier to have some sort of work requirement for people able to work before they can collect government aid benefits. This makes an agreement possible in which Biden and McCarthy continue discussions with Biden building some form of rapport with a Congressman he has known in the past from his days in the US Congress. An agreement he pulls together would then have the support of most Republicans and be passed with the help of all Democrats. This would meet with opposition from a small faction of the Republican party, opposition that McCarty has become accustomed to including the prolonged voting it took to get himself elected as Speaker. McCarthy and most Republicans are in favor of Ukraine and the EU support for Ukraine at a critical time. They including Mitch McConnell who is present in the negotiations would not want to do anything that spirals America into a financial crisis during a Ukraine counteroffensive with Biden and Scholz's support that could end the war in Ukraine. Biden probably shared the concerns of his G7 counterparts with the Republicans about this. McCarthy and Biden could then simply say they only worked to do the possible and move on to the bigger battle in 2024. ...

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There are about 2.4 million workers on American farms. 44% of them are undocumented workers says the Department of Labor.  They do jobs such as picking the fruits and vegetables that are part of the food supply. Deporting them all will increase prices of farm products as harvesting fruits and vegetables will be difficult. During the Eisenhower administration in 1953 deportation plan large growers in California and New Mexico used seasonal agricultural labor from Mexico, and the nation's food supply of vegetables and fruits depended on these workers. These companies lobbied hard for ways to keep these workers. On the other side were smaller farm owners who used fewer migrant workers. The complication this time 2024 is that unlike in 1953 under Eisenhower mass deportation when the border was otherwise peaceful, in 2024 the US has faced a decade unprecedented in its history of flows of fentanyl and drugs across the southern border. The deportation is about migrants who are not easily integrated culturally into the US, about the dangers of illegal entry in such large numbers that it disturbs the quiet life of the small towns and cities in the US. The US needs immigrants but in a planned way with legal entry, and no flows of drugs across the Border, that protects the American people and serves America's interests.    ...

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In this WSJ report a top American Defense Department official before resigning says- "I have no problem with feeding China or trading with China. I have a problem with arming China." Advanced or sensitive manufacturing technology is still being approved for export to China says this report in WSJ, even as the US perceives this to be a national security threat. Experts say the Commerce Department report approval process needs overhaul and the US needs close coordination with the European Union on this process. Of the total US $124 billion in exports to China in 2020 only half of one percent needed a license Commerce Department data reviewed by WSJ shows. Of that small fraction of one half percent Commerce Department approved 2562  applications or 94%. This even includes array of semiconductors, aerospace components, artificial intelligence technologies that could be added to China's military. This means that even towards the end of the Trump administration with its talk about national security threats, through the four years 2016-2020, nothing much happened in this important field.  The difficulty that the Trump administration faced and America faces is putting company and business interests first or American security interests and retaining competitive technological advantage interests first. American administrations and business have consistently failed to follow what plain ordinary Americans understand by America first. Even when it is clearly evident that America is handing over sensitive advanced technologies with very little in return, and creating out of nowhere competition that poses serious risks for the national interest, business and administrations operate indifferent to the national interest. Even right into the period when this is making the world a riskier and more dangerous place.   This is the state of affairs today, and the situation is not about Congressmen visiting Taiwan or ships going through the seas in that region, or international law. All that is American policy  and is well known and well understood. What is missing is the right action and the right determination behind other action that is sending a different message at the same time -that the US is oblivious to its own interests. That administrations, even those such as the recent Republican one under Mr. Trump, see a higher priority in following American business wherever it goes in pursuit of individual company interests alone, even if it does not accord with the national interest. Lobbying groups distort what policy should be in the public interest and in the interest of both countries, leading to a breakdown in the whole process itself whenever governments surrender their role of protecting the public interest.  Outshoring manufacturing was bad economically at the level of communities across the US, leading to divisions that weakened the country in the last decade, it was also bad for the economy of the country with loss of the best manufacturing jobs, beyond what economists in their ignorance of the big picture sought to show was the consumer- often the same person who lost a job or stopped seeking work- paying less. It was bad also for China as it created the hyper growth that rapidly contaminated land, air and water and created an inherently unstable relationship in trade with destruction of jobs at a pace that America had not faced with Japan and with which it could not cope. Could a pace that worked for both nations have worked? At the root is the notion that business knows best even if it is in plain sight to every plain American that the country's most advanced technologies are being shipped out. Governments do not fulfill their responsibilities and fail when they fail to tell business what rules are in the public interest, as it was never in the first role of business to protect the public interest. That the European Union has simply followed the US in this has created a problem for both the US and the European Union of deviating from what plain Americans or Europeans see as abundantly clear.  Even in plain dollars and cents business and economists fail to grasp the true cost for the whole country or whole people compared to the benefit for an individual or an individual company. The cost of wars even small wars can be be trillions of dollars which are borne by the whole country or people, and most of it by the middle and less economically well off classes in a country. Creating a belligerent competitor in world affairs and the risk of conflict and war is to lose trillions of dollars when the benefit to an individual, groups, or individual companies is no more but a tiny fraction of that trillion dollar cost, not including what all the plain people pay in human lives. It is not that anyone benefits as the people in the belligerent competitor country follow the same pattern of loss that would happen in the US. One should ask is it not a loss for China also? The example of Imperialist Japan is not so far off in time for Americans or Asians including the Chinese and Japanese people who suffered so greatly to forget. Business remains oblivious to the public interest not just for America but for the world, individual companies do not see it as their role beyond that of pursuing individual company interest. Is it not then for the government to set the rules. Is it alright for government to not fulfill its responsibilities? Even when this pushes the world faster to into conflicts as technologies take the place of exercise of wisdom in conflict, and even when there are unmet challenges such as climate change that affect the whole planet.  ...

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A senior Indian diplomat, and former ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale, says China's action in the June 15 clash at Galwan Valley was the worst violence since 1967. He sees it as a premeditated and well thought out action. His view is that India's relations with China will deteriorate further. That this was an action by the PLA to take territory to what it sees as the LAC or border. For small tactical gains he says "China has strategically lost India." This will impact trade and other relations going forward in his view.  Nothing of this sort was expected says Bambawale. All the agreements put in place since 1993, everything for tranquillity at the border, all the mechanisms, have now collapsed. Bambawale has provided a very lucid and clear account of the relations and the border issues. He goes on to say that Chinese observers have given reasons for the Galwan clash with PLA- that India should stay away from the US and other democracies such as the European Union. Some reflection shows that the opposite has happened. And further reflection would show that the same situation was repeated in the period of transfer from British Empire to Republican India, and from Nationalist China to Communist China from the period 1947 onwards. Different perceptions and different leaderships that gave the perception of gaps between the two countries. In the 1950's after the Korean War Chinese perceptions about India could have led to the incursions that brought China to the borders of India in 1950, similar perceptions of gaps in development and capabilities could have led to the conflict in 1962. From 1993 peace prevailed with India after China entered the World Trade Organization under president Clinton in 2001 following a 10 year effort. Because the focus in China was on development after a series of crises, internal sense of a widening technological gap with the US and Europe, disagreements with the Soviet Union, and the experiments with market economy, internal struggles for democracy. With that period coming to a close as the new trading relationship has led to working class losses in factory jobs in the US, China is faced with protecting its economy as it and the US look at changing supply channels and how it affects both countries. It is a critical time for China as it faces governments in US, France, UK and Canada determined to protect their own interests in manufacturing jobs, renewing supply channels, and in technological advancement. The response is similar to that in 1962 when seen from the Communist party perspective as a gap has opened up with India following China's progress in the 30 year trading relationship with the US and Europe. That gap and the difficult situation China faces today with the US and EU in trade and technology has brought forward the Galwan clash and future clashes in Ladakh and at the border.  As Mr. Jaishnkar, India's Minister of External Affairs as well as former ambassador to China,  has pointed out this is a very different aspirational India that China faces. The same kind of grassroots development that happened in China and rapid pooling of capital, human resources and technology inputs for development is taking place in India, and will continue for the next two decades, quickly bridging any gaps in modernization between the two countries. The difference between a youthful population in India and aging population in China and Japan, is likely to add another dimension. China's Buddhist culture that came from India is not likely to go away, more likely is that China will see a revival of Buddhist ideas of wellness and living more as culture than religion. The experience with British colonialism that prevailed both in India and China, and which from its base in India caused so much grief to China during the Opium wars will recede from memory. Extending borders from historical memory of Japanese incursions into border areas in Manchuria could have led leaders after 1950 in China to extend borders to remote areas in the Arunachal region of India and communist theory books may have created the perception of defensive moves. In the context of an aspirational India similar to China, and no real intention on the part of India to extend itself in any way to China's provinces in Sichuan, this extending of borders as a defensive move will be seen as stemming from memories of Japanese incursions in the 1930's, but simply costly and not relevant in any way to China's own aspirational development and progress. ...

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The reduced availability of child care services, longer time it takes to get steady jobs in a slow growth economy, and the "safety trap" of becoming used to a freer lifestyle, areincreasing the average age at which Italian women have their first child. It has moved up from about 30 to 31.4 in 2012. As more women pursue higher education and get university degrees the trend is to focus on jobs and lifestyle. As grandparents get older and the lack of enough preschool centers this makes child care harder, in a nation where 68% of children under 10 are still cared for by grandparents. At present only half of Italian mothers work, according to the OECD, compared to 74% in France. This worsens the demographics with currently 150 people over 65 years for the 100 under 14 years, and the figures increasing with fewer young people to support retirees, according to Istat.

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High unemployment and sluggish growth in hiring-only 1.1 milllion jobs added in 2010 and only 103,000 in December 2010, according to the Labor Department- will restrict profit growth. Industries such as airlines, food, construction and telecom that lagged the recovery, will continue to face difficulties. Airlines face higher fuel prices and labor wage pressures. Standard and Poor's expects profits for the S&P 500 Index companies to reach a 3 year peak in the ist quarter 2011, then move lower for the next 5 quarters. Earnings reached $22.62 a share for these companies, up 29% from one year ago.

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Apple to ship 25 million iphones made in India to the US for the June quarter 2025, meeting 50% of US demand. This will reduce iphone tariff from 20% for China to 10% for India. Apple will take $900 million in added costs for the tariffs for the June quarter and higher costs for future quarters. Apple made 24.8 billion on $95 billion in sales for the 1st quarter of 2025.  Apple will not get the $20 billion payment it gets from Google for making Google search the default search engine on Safari web browser. This is 25% of Apple profit. A federal judge declared this payment illegal on antitrust grounds. Another federal judge has referred Apple's App policies for criminal contempt investigation. Apple has been late to recognize the dangers of concentrating production in one country. Eight years after the 2016 election won by DJT Apple has not corrected this concentration in one country. Apple has focused on proift alone ignoring the potential for education for it's products such as the iPad. The public perception of Tech companies is that Tech is all about profit alone without regard for the Nation, education, investment in American communities and jobs, and other needs. ...

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WSJ reports DJT action on tariffs and Fed's new forecast of slight uptick in 2025 inflation to 2.7% from 2.5%, on growth slowing to 1.7% in 2025. Fed's head Powell says- “That’s really due to the tariffs coming in,” Slowing inflation  “is probably delayed for the time being.” The tariff action is based on reciprocal tariffs, "we charge them what they charge us," and is based on the principle of fairness in world trade that was carelessly sacrificed by previous US administrations under Clinton, Bush and Obama. DJT and Trade Representative Lighthizer highlighted the issue of unfair trade and created a consensus around this issue for creating a level playing field with American action on tariffs that was accepted by the Biden led Democratic adminstration to rebuild American Manufacturing. What happened under previous presidents was ignominous for America and these administrations as they allowed the loss of whole industries first in lower technologies and then in advanced technologies as foreign countries used hidden subsidies. America's textbook economists at Ivy League universities and previous administrations used economic theory that had little connection with reality to allow shipping manufacturing overseas, destroying communities and towns with loss of jobs and public services across the US. ...

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(Article on TSM from NYT, February 22, 2023.) When Morris Chang setup his factories for chip production in Taiwan in the 1980's America was the leader in chip production. He tapped into American technology at MIT and other American research universities. Over decades of support from government subsidies and easy transfers of American technology Morris Chang built up what is TSMC today. Chang now sees the building of a plant in Arizona as a challenging task. Originally from Ninbo, Zhejiang province, China, and having survived the Sino Japanese war and civil war in China he went to Hong Kong in 1949. Without the bachelors and masters degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1953-54 and the first jobs at Sylvania Semiconductor in 1955, Texas Instruments in 1958-83, both pioneers in semiconductor production, Chang would not have been able to found TSMC. Mistaken laissez faire economic theory destroyed America's own semiconductor industry. Texas Instruments invested in Chang for him to get his PhD. degree from Stanford in electrical engineering in 1964 and enabled him to run its worldwide semiconductor business. Without this start enabled by companies at the cutting edge of US technological innovation and institutions such as MIT and Stanford, TSMC would not exist today.  Chang's approach was to price ahead of the cost curve which essentially means taking smaller profits in the short term to gain advantage over the long term. In this way he built TSMC with the help of support from Taiwan's government. About the Arizona plant Chang says it was similar to putting up a plant in Washington State, which he postponed after people, cost and cultural problems. A dream fulfilled became a nightmare fulfilled, he says and postponed that plant. This lack of enthusiasm shows a lack of memory an awareness of the difficulties that Chang himself must have experienced in 25 years of work at Texas Instruments- with cultural, cost and people problems, and the efforts at American pioneer manufacturing companies to assist Chang. Chang is reported to have said on a Brrokings Institution podcast that building a wafer plant in America will be "a very expensive exercize in futility," forgetting that he got his own start in America, with American engineers, American science and technology, and American manufacturing, and American workers. ...

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Jeremy Hunt, head of the Health Select Committee and Health Secretary 2012-2018, says Britain needs to take up mass contact tracing as its next national mission. Britain he says has passed 20,000 tests a day for coronavirus. America has passed 150,000 tests a day. Both more than South Korea. What is missing when compared to South Korea and Taiwan is mass contact tracing.  The app TraceTogether is not enough, as it was used by only 20% of Singapore's population. Only South Korea and Taiwan are able to open up the economy, have workplaces and life function close to normal through extensive testing and mass contact tracing, with feet on the ground. This is the only path that has worked with South Korea successfully out of the lockdown. This means "feet on the street." Making these calls requires skills, getting information, getting cooperation, offering guidance, and ensuring people isolate themselves after contact with an infected person. Sometimes it is by phone and sometimes in person wearing full PPE. They need to be sensitive enough in talking to someone feeling ill and to see how home isolation can be achieved, who else the coronavirus infected person or someone in the chain of contacts has been in contact with. Mr. Hunt says no effort should be spared in doing this as the millions of jobs in Britain, of people without work, the economy, and the need for light at the end of the tunnel of lockdowns, requires a way out. A huge task but a lot of impossible tasks are being tackled in the health services. The resources of Britain, every spare civil servant, every administrator not working, every one who can do this, needs to be enlisted to do this. The same task needs to be tackled in America, and in other countries as a national mission. ...

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Once again the unemployment statistics lie- women's unemployment at 5.7% in 2014 does not reflect the real story. The number of women employed in 2014 is 55.2%, worse than in Oct. 2010. Many women looking for work give up and drop out of the work force, these women have not vanished, they are simply not being counted in the frequently quoted unemployment statistic. This spells bad news for Democrats in the midterm 2014 elections- today the households making less than 30,000 are almost evenly split on whether they vote Republican or Democratic 43% to 46%, according to polls by Pew Research Center, compared to the 2012 presidential election figures of 35% to 63%. Interestingly the reverse is true for voters with incomes over $100,000 where voters are about evenly split for Republican or Democratic choices for Congress. In 2012 presidential elections the Republicans had a 10 percentage point lead for this income group. Democratic advisors Carville and Greenberg advise not even mentioning the word "recovery" for the U.S. midterm 2014 Congressional elections. About 6.7 million people had multiple jobs in 2010, the figure now is 7 million. About 2.62 million people say they had part time jobs because they could not find full time work in April 2014 up from 2.57 million in Oct. 2010. A separate piece in the WSJ May 20, 2014, shows 10 million U.S. households under water on mortgages and another 10 million households having less than 20% equity in their homes in 2014....

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In the interests of a stable government and for rapid development in the state on an unprecedented scale the position of Chief Minister was given to a smaller party with 51 members in the Assembly of Maharashtra. The BJP party the larger party in the new coalition has 106 members in the State Assembly. Mr. Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Chief minister and Mr. Fadnavis of the BJP was made Deputy chief minister based on the understanding of leaders in the federal government in New Delhi on the best way to move Maharashtra forward as a leader in economic and infrastructure development in India. Maharashtra and the capital city of Bombay once the commercial capital of British India has a difficult history of post independence politics. With Nehru's Congress party giving way to George Fernandes trade unionism after 1967 and after 1986 a movement led by Bal Thackeray that sought to give local Marathi youth jobs preference in Mumbai. Lacking the capital, technology and the industrial expertise for development on an American scale, much of this political arrangement has failed to meet the growing aspirations of the young people of Maharashtra and of India. These reasons motivated the federal government to put more emphasis on the "karya karta" or "good worker" principle itself than on the position of chief minister. Much of the rapid development will take place under the leadership of the most competent IAS Indian civil service officers selected for the largest infrastructure projects and the leaders of Indian industry, making the old conception of chief minister redundant. The focus shifts to who can get things done to meet aspirations for Maharashtra 2030 and how it will compare with Uttar Pradesh 2030, or Tamilnadu 2030. How will Metro rail, Bullet trains and Semiconductor Parks, Logistics networks and Exports in the new supply chain the US and EU is setting up in Asia, how will all this look in the 3 states in 2030? This will become clear in 2023 as development accelerates to what India needs. ...

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For years economists and finance people left this hidden and obscured, the common sense understanding that higher interest rates in an economy based on better education with investments in infrastructure and manufacturing as Biden has put in place today would actually stimulate the economy. Why? David Uberti rightly points out this is household wealth growing larger with investment in CD's and savings accounts, dividend paying stocks at higher interest rates. Consider this important fact -Americans have earned $3.7 trillion in the first quarter alone in interest and dividends. This is $770 billion larger than in 2019, according to Commerce Department. In the last quarter of 2023 Americans had the largest wealth ever held in stocks, real estate, and other assets such as pensions, according to the Federal Reserve. Charles Schwab of the brokerage company he founded in 1971 stated this as a major loss for the American people and the economy when zero interest rates were used to tackle the problems created by greed and poor behaviors of banks in the 2009 crisis, Schwab was talking about something real. Hit the country with war burdens for Middle East wars of Reagan, Bush, Obama and Trump by taking away funds from infrastructure and education, healthcare and you have two burdens -2009 financial crisis created by banks and wars that reduce the household wealth and the capacity of the American economy to grow and create needed jobs to reduce standard of life/quality of life in the US. A third burden fell heavily on pensioners and elderly depriving them of interest and dividends with zero interest rates that no economist wanted to talk about for 30 years including  the previous administrations since 1990.  ...

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British budget cuts announced in Parliament by Britain's Finance Minister, George Osborne. About 83 billion pounds in cuts by 2015 were announced. But Joseph Stiglitz, writing in The Guardian, argued that the plan was a big gamble, as declining tax revenues with lower growth, would lead to smaller deficit reductions. The gamble is that the private sector will pick up, and make up for the reduction in public outlays. If this does not happen, this risks sending the economy into a tailspin. Osborne said that 490,000 jobs will be lost over the next 4 years, some from attrition. Payments to the long term unemployed will also be cut for those who fail to seek jobs, saving $11 billion a year. A new 12 month limit will be imposed on long term jobless benefits. Increase in the retirement age will start in 2020, from 65 to 66 years. At the same time free eye tests, prescription drugs and bus passes remain. Premier Cameron promised not to make cutbacks in health care in the period before the election. This was his way of helping the Conservatives make a comeback to power....

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The Conservative Party under David Cameron won 330 seats in the British parliament, securing a majority in the 2015 general elections. The Labor party won 232 seats, losing 26 seats compared to the 2010 election. The Conservatives gained 24 seats. The Labor party lost very badly in Scotland, winning only 1 seat. The Scottish National Party won 56 of 59 seats in Scotland. Opinion polls underestimated the strength of the Conservatives whose campaign theme was jobs created under the Cameron administration. Austerity was a theme for the Scottish National Party and Labor, yet as Greg Ip reported in his column on the British economic recovery the Cameron administration adroitly managed this by relaxing deficit targets after 2012 forecasts on the deficit cutting could not be met with lower revenues. Labor was hit by the sense that the Tony Blair type liberal economics had failed to reverse the decline in real wages and jobs for working class people, and the Conservatives were taking on a tough situation with the deficit and the 2008-2009 recession that started under Labor. This hurt Labor in Scotland and in the rest of Britain. Labor leader Ed Balls lost his seat. The UK Independence Party fared badly winning only one seat and its leader Nigel Farage lost his seat. Prime minister Cameron promised a EU referendum for 2017 during the election, and he will now have to manage this issue as his party favors membership in the EU with some changes. The improvement in jobs was a strong point for the Conservatives, yet Britain faces wage stagnation with low productivity gains which will be a challenge for the new administration....

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Funding for US colleges decreases, fewer high school students graduate in 2025. Fewer foreign students. All this is affecting American colleges. For two decades American colleges allowed tution to get out of control making it unaffordable for a middle class that was already hit by the American leaders who allowed America's industrial base to be shipped out to China. As factory towns dwindled in importance and worker jobs and incomes declined across the length and breadth of America, universities and colleges took little responsibility even as young men opted to not go to college. Tution fees kept rising requiring loans that could not be paid off. Today the rust belt is coming to these colleges as the DJT administration has decided to give low priority to funding these colleges and universities and new career paths are being created through apprenticeships and other vocational education.

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500 million tons of plastics are produced today compared to 250 million tons in 2004. Califonria sued Exxon Mobil in Sept 2024 for overhyping the promise of recycling. In reality says NYT's Hiroko Tabuchi only some of it gets recycled- an astounding low rate of 30% getting recycled- and the rest 70% of 500 million tons or 350 million tons ending up incinerated or in landfills or ending up in the environment on coastlines. The NAPCOR is association for PET resources, PET standing for single use plastic the kind you have in water or soda bottles. It is presenting the promise of recycling and the importance of these bottles for hydrating, without stating that there are alternatives.  All the time this is going on the threat to public health for the people, for us all, gets larger. Note that even developing nations such as India have the prime minister himself take up the campaign against microplastics, plastics bags and bottles, as Mr. Narendra Modi has done in India. A conference in Busan South Korea is discussing a global plastics treaty to end this plastics threat to health and the land we live in. It shows how regulation is needed in a capital-ist economy because companies and jobs at companies of 70 plastics and recycling companies are at stake and so is the public health, our health and our land, its coastlines and waters. ...

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Auto sales for 2010 are expected to come in at 11.5 million, a significant drop from the 17.5 million in 2000. A better job market expected to push the unemployment rate down a bit to 9.7% from 9.8% in November will help, but not by enough. Credit Suisse analyst Christopher Ceraso says each percentage point that the rate is above normal ( about 5%) keeps sales back by about a million auto sales on an annual basis. To get sales back to a 16 million range this would require an unemployment rate of 6%. Economists expect a better US economy in 2011 but the prospects remain uncertain for 2012, bringing unemployment down to about 8-9% if hiring picks up. The other concerns are high consumer debt and a rise in gasoline prices. If gas prices rise and buyers shift back to smaller vehicles, as they did in 2008, this would squeeze margins and profits. This is especially a concern as automobile companies have increased profits with a larger truck and large size vehicle component of sales, in a reverse shift after the shift to smaller cars in 2008-2009. Ford Motor is one example of this. It helps Ford use the extra profits to reduce its debt load but automakers have to be prepared for a sales shift to smaller cars in the face of higher gas prices....

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Are parts of US society including business and the finance community in big urban centers not aware or conscious enough of the way fentanyl flows are destroying America both rural and urban, communities already devastated by the shipping out of jobs and factories.

For example the WSJ says on the front page story on Feb 4, 2025

"to make his point about what he sees as unfair trade practices and other issues such as fentanyl smuggling and illegal border crossings, both the stated motivations for this round of tariffs." DJT is not making a point- there are no points to make- simply stated Fentanyl is destroying American communities for a very long time.

Deaths from Fentanyl                  490,000

Deaths from Covid pandemic.    1212,000

Deaths from Vietnam War              58,210

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Biden goes to Brownsville, Texas, on the same day that Trump goes to the Texas border with Governor Abbott. Biden talks to Border Patrol and Trump visits a barbed wire section of the border with Abbott. The two visits show different approaches to the fight to control border crossings of migrants that reached 250,000 in December, an all time high that requires action and has the support of the president. Biden offered a compromise legislation with Republicans in the Senate which passed 70 to 30 with 22 Republican senators supporting Biden to toughen the asylum policies, add Border Patrol resources, and make it harder for fentanyl to enter the country. Biden has worked out and agreement with China and Xi Jinping as part of an overall economic agreement and cooperation to eliminate the source of fentanyl production in China. Republicans led by Trump hoped to use immigration as an issue in the election in Nov. 2024 and refused to even let the House vote on it, as there is likely a majority in the House that would pass it over Mr. Trump's objections. Republicans now look to president Biden to issue executive orders to get the job done to which Congress offers it deference today. Biden has the State of the Union speech coming up next week.   ...

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Why is this important? Because America needs a future and investing in the future meets investing in new technologies and investing in infrastructure, and in mitigating cost of living for families that are struggling. Mr. Trump's claims on cost of living, oil and gas production, and job losses from electric cars at a rally in Texas and fact check: Oil and gas production is 12.9 million barrels a day compared to 12.3 million barrels a day during the Trump administration- source: Energy Information Administration. Energy costs are up a lot by $2250. (Mr. Trump said). Energy costs per household up $1520 not $2250 according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. $1520 compares 2022 with 2019 as baseline, $2250 uses Jan 2021 as a baseline when energy use dropped because of the pandemic. The Ukraine war and taking Russian supplies off the market pushed oil prices higher which were mitigated by policies of the Biden administration on how shipping of oil takes place in international markets setting a lower price for oil than what the Russians and Saudis were expecting. Autoworkers won't have jobs in 3 years because everything is going electric. (Mr. Trump said).It takes fewer workers to produce electric cars than fossil fuel cars. Yet the world is moving to electric cars and even companies like Toyota that lagged are falling behind. The 146,000 workers at GM and Ford secured a 25% wage increase over several years to meet rising cost of living with the support of president Biden on the picket line. No jobs are expected to be lost in 3 years and America is gaining leadership in electric car technologies to build a healthy automobile industry and well paying jobs for the future.     ...

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The Indian prime minister's choice for heading Indian Railways and the IT Ministry is similar to his choice of Mr. Jaishankar for the Ministry of External Affairs. He selected a person with the drive and conviction as well as the experience to tackle the important job of modernizing Indian Railways so that it provides the convenience and access that is seen in Europe with new investment and advances in technology. The 50 year old Vaishnaw is from Orissa, yet grew up in Jodhpur where he attended engineering school, before doing M Tech from IIT Kanpur. He had an all India rank of 27 in the Indian Civil Services exam. In 2003 he worked as Deputy Secretary in the prime minister's office when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was prime minister. He was private secretary to Mr. Vajpayee in 2004. He then studied for a Masters degree at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and worked for General Electric and Siemens in India in transportation related projects. By 2019 Ashwini Vaishnaw had caught the attention of the Indian prime minister as a capable administrator with a can do attitude in India's modernization efforts. He was nominated for the upper house of parliament. In 2021 July he was appointed to lead 2 important ministries - railways and IT. His first action in the first 48 hours was to ask senior officers in the rail ministry and IT ministry to work two shifts alternately from 7am to 3pm, and 3 pm to 12 midnight so that work can be pushed forward that needed to be done in great speed for modernization. Delivering on the vision of the prime minister for modernizing the country is now the task of this ministry and Mr. Vaishnaw. ...

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Credit Agricole says 4th quarter 2011 losses will be 3.07 billion euros. It is one of three French banks hit hard by the eurozone financial crisis, especially the crisis in Greece, because of investments in Greece. Conditions at the bank reflect the overall restructuring process underway at French banks, as part of an overall restructuring in the eurozone financial crisis. The delaying of aggressive action in reducing Greece's debt to a manageable level by the EU and the ECB, was part of an effort to give French and other European banks time to absorb losses on investments in Greece. Credit Agricole has now increased its provision for losses from Greece to 74% from 60% of nominal value. It has also increased the cover rate for bad loans at Emporiki Bank Greece to 54%. Emporiki was acquired in 2006, only 2 years before the financial crisis. Its total losses in Greece for 2011 add up to 2.4 billion euros, according to the bank. Credit Agricole also made writedowns on its stake in Spain's Bankinter SA for 617 million euros and Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo S/A by 364 million euros. Overall debt reduction planned for the 18 months ending in Dec 2012 is for 50 billion euros, to reduce financing needs and improve capital buffers. The bank's core Tier 1 ratio of good quality capital including equity and retained profit is at 8.6% as of Dec 2011. Job cuts of 2,350 are planned for global operations, including 1,750 at the corporate investment bank, and dscontinuing of equity derivatives and commodities trading. Shares of Credit Agricole lost about half their value in the last 12 months. It is 55% owned by 39 French cooperative regional banks, and it owns 25% of these banks....