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Life for ordinary people in the GDR meant living in a communist state but for ordinary people it also had its good points, as shown in this report on the German Democratic Republic that lasted from 1949 to 1990. Female participation in the workforce was 90%. It was the most developed state in the bloc of countries led by the Soviet Union. Ownership of fridges or refrigerators was twice that of the western nations. Till 1989 the East German state known as GDR was accepted as a socialist workers state even by people in West Germany called the Federal Republic. Its collapse so quickly was not expected and was a result of a chain of events in which eventually no one was in control- a totally spontaneous collapse of a socialist state. For east Germans 33 years later it is still a difficult event to grasp as the collapse of the socialist state led to most of the young population moving to western germany leaving behind an aging population without the economic security for workers that prevailed in the former GDR socialist state. As a result even after billions were spent on integration east Germany never adapted to the change, and still feels separate from the rest of Germany, and people feel looked down upon. ...

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No one in Northern Ireland wants to go back to the sectarian clashes of the twentieth century says one resident of the region. Most people recall the divided barricaded border with watchtowers and helicopters with extreme anguish. All that was dismantled long ago. But Northern Ireland still looks to the outside for help. Will president Biden bring new investment in the region? Can the Sinn Fein and DUP be persuaded to work together with US participation. A new generation has moved away from the sectarian to the economic issues of the cost of living and provision of public services in education and healthcare across the region. This was affirmed by Sinn Fein winning 27 seats the largest bloc in the 2022 election where focus was on economic issues and the quality of life. Because of Mr. Biden's very personal connection to Ireland there is much hope in Ireland for a new chapter to be written again. There is also a different sentiment in Britain with Keir Starmer's experience as human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. Starmer attributes his decision to go into politics to this experience seeing the changes he could make in Northern Ireland from the inside. The switch to a government by Labour could come at a good time for Northern Ireland and for Scotland.  ...

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President Biden launches the US Asian Economic Framework during his visit to Tokyo. Biden's main achievement on his Asian trip is to lay the foundations for the economic framework of the free world democratic countries drawing in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, countries from ASEAN, in addition to the core of Japan and South Korea. India, Australia and New Zealand are now seen as part of the core group in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. By 2030 and 2040 this trip will be remembered for laying the foundations for the new economic relationships and supply chains in Asia, policies similar to that of Harry Truman after the Second World War that set the policies of US for the rest of the twentieth century. It is similar to the US EU Trade and Technology Council in setting a economic union of friendly free world countries in trade, technology, capital and supply chains. Four pillars are set by president Biden- digital policies, climate change action, supply chain renewal action, and transparency plus good governance. These are also the policies pursued by the Modi administration in India, which has set priorities in these four areas. The other aspects of the policies of president Biden are to set policies friendly to working families and set to promote worker incomes and conditions. ...

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Holding tension in any position that does not have dynamic movement is isometric exercise. The British Journal of Sports Medicine has a study with research that shows this isometric exercise done with squatting on the wall (or with a ball against the wall) for support for 2 minutes repeated 4 times with rest periods of two minutes each time for total 4 wall sits, taking 14 minutes, can reduce systolic blood pressure top number by 10 mmHg and diastolic pressure by 5 mmHg. Jamie O'Driscoll the lead author of the study says this is useful for people doing aerobic exercise, and yet could benefit from the use of isometric wall squats. A clinical exercise physiologist at University of Michigan says isometric exercise works because contracting a muscle and holding that position reduces blood flow to that muscle, when you release blood flow increases to muscle tissue. It creates signals that tell blood vessels to relax more and create less resistance to blood flow. To do this wall sit find a wall to lean against and take a couple of steps forward, feet hip width apart and slide your back down the wall and your knees getting to a 90 degree angle gradually. This uses quadriceps, glutes, calves, all leg muscles and abdominal muscles. ...

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The Supreme Court of the US lets stand the ruling of lower courts and the National Labor Relations Board that says unions can organize and represent workers on the docks in container terminal at South Charleston. The Charleston terminal is in right-to-work state South Carolina. It is the fourth largest container terminal on the East Coast after NY NJ Terminal, Port of Savannah Terminal, and Port of Virginia. A new terminal is being built at Savannah on 395 acres to handle addition 2 million containers per year. Savannah, Georgia is another right-to-work state. Georgia Ports Authority now says it is talking to the ILA and the decision for union labor will not affect its plans for expansion. The Biden administration has supported cost of living action through increase in workers wages and helping workers organize through unions after a long period when labor was not able to push for a fair wage and the relationships between labor and employers were excessively drifting against workers. Rail strikes were settled with an agreement, auto strikes were settled with Biden on the picket lines in Detroit for the United Auto workers. International Longshoremans Association labor efforts at NLRB are part of this story of Biden and the changing face of labor in the US.   ...

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Zoom calls in the wee hours of the morning or night, and emails at all hours, the scrambling that happened during 2020 and 2021 during work needs some structuring and laying down of boundaries. The work day got kind of crazy. Here Rachel Feintzberg offers tips on getting back to a healthier and more productive worklife by setting clear work boundaries and hours. The key experts say is to be respectful but resolute. Some tips are to follow boundaries such as a 6.00 pm for last calls you take- to do this 80% of the time and compromise on remainder. If pandemic habits are hard to break try innovative ways, like getting out on sports, cycling or gym routines at 6.00 pm. Its alway good to remember and articulate to peers and bosses that you will be most productive and producing higher quality work when you have time for taking care of your health and healthy living. Its hard depending on the boss but over 6 months it gets you to a better place. German practice of Feierabend actually refers to when you stop working for the rest of the day and is done in Germany. It sets a clear demarcation or boundary between work and leisure hours needed for healthy living. ...

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As Lyrarc would say a new culture is taking hold in America. Call it centrism or popularist, rejection of neoliberal whatever that term means, or any other term, it is basically about following good common sense, one's observation of real life and what is working or not working for ordinary Americans. Republicans and Democrats are shifting to policies that worked under Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, and to views expressed by John F. Kennedy for a fair society that respects the work and dignity and quality of life of all Americans of every class and level of education. And oppose business monopolies, oppose efforts to restrict workers rights. There is a growing sense in both parties that the policies of Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama have not worked for ordinary people in America. These are seen as wasted three decades that plunged America into foreign wars, let manufacturing decline, reduced standard of living, let its infrastructure deteriorate. This is why president Biden has achieved remarkable success in putting together legislation with support from key Republicans including McConnell for chips, science, infrastructure and other investment spending. Leonhardt is hardly alone in seeing that this is the path America will take in the coming decades. What is significant now is that the culture and mental framework itself is being transformed. ...

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King Charles thanked the police and citizens for their role in the riots saying-  he “shared how he had been greatly encouraged by the many examples of community spirit that had countered the aggression and criminality from a few with the compassion and resilience of the many”. The UK riots showed the inadequacy of the Online Safety Act in regulating social media. This is what the public thinks and what the prime minister had to say about this-   YouGov polling published on Friday suggested that 66% of people thought social media companies should be held responsible for posts inciting criminal behaviour, and 70% believed they were not regulated strongly enough. In YouGov poll this week, 71% say they think social media companies did a bad job tackling misinformation during the riots. For social media, Starmer said: “The first thing I’d say is, this is not a law-free zone. And I think that’s clear from the prosecutions and sentencing. Today we’re due sentencing for online behaviour. “That’s a reminder to everyone that whether you’re directly involved or whether you’re remotely involved, you’re culpable, and you will be put before the courts if you’ve broken the law.” ...

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GM's new Cruze to be built in April 2010 in the Mahoning valley area of Ohio hit hard by shuttered steel mills, will give 45 mpg. It will be smaller than a Malibu and larger than a Cobalt, and will be built also in Gm's European and Asian markets, so unlike models from before the car will be sold everywhere and being built on the same platform will share common parts and engineering, which is the automakers are now making their cars. GM will spend $150 million in developing the Cruze and an additional $350 million in building the Cruze plant in Ohio. GM's car strategy is now to increase production of the Malibu which had a sales increase of 79% compared to last July, shut down the Cobalt once the Cruze come in 2010, Cobalt sales increased only by 4% this July over July last year, and have a third shift producing the Impala next year in Oshawa, Ontario. Auto figures from Autodata. GM's CEO Wagoner says he sees small cars making a profit for GM as now the new union agreement helps to reduce GM's costs and he sees customers willing to spend more on small cars. This is evident in the way affluent buyers have signed up to buy the Smart car, once shunned there is now a 1 year waiting list, and Daimler is expanding production at its French plant for the Smart car. See the link to the Smart car. The committment by GM to build the plant in Ohio is seen by the UAW union as GM keeping its part of the bargain to bring new models and new cars with new ideas to capture the next generation of customers to GM plants that were seeing a decline like the Lordstown plant area in Ohio....

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Miller says the whole thing about the super-committee, the polemics between Republicans and President Obama about deficits and billionaires, could end up being a charade with Obama hoping to squeeze by in the 2012 presidential elections and the Republicans equally intent on getting 51%. In the end Obama's poor handling of the debt ceiling, including an unwillingness to go ahead with raising the debt ceiling even if it went to court, says Miller, shows a basic failure of the Obama presidency. In the end he thinks its not that the centre-left is going to be mad at Obama, they will be mad at themselves for believing he was going to be any different.

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Overall America's Infrastructure gets only a C grade- but that is the best grade since 1998 so badly has the Nation's infrastructure been neglected under Clinton-Bush-Obama.  Bridges, broadband, drinking water systems, hazardous waste treatment, inland waterways, public parks and solid waste received grades of C+, C or C–, mediocre condition needs attention. Dams, levees, roads, schools and infrastructure for aviation, energy, storm water, transit and wastewater get grades of D+ or D, poor condition. Ports get a B, Rail gets a B- dropping a notch, and Energy get a D grade in this report on US infrastructure by the US Society of Civil Engineers. It comes out every four years. The shortfall in infrastructure spending- $3.7 trillion. This after the $1.2 trillion Biden Infrastructure bill made a real difference since 2021. Grades have improved on half of the 18 categories this report tracks. “Better infrastructure is an efficient investment of taxpayer dollars that results in a stronger economy and prioritizes American jobs.” Darren Olson, chair of the committee on infrastructure of the Society of Civil Engineers. "The investment levels that we saw under the last administration have really started to move the needle, and we’re looking forward to advancing that conversation as we move into this administration.”- Kristina Swallow, president of the Society of Civil Engineers ...

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This report in WSJ shows that AI or Artificial Intelligence cannot work without human intelligence behind it. As the Facebook Russian episode of inauthentic accounts shows it can lead to dire results. Human have to play a active and constantly overseeing role for it to work. In fact the bigger the AI effort the bigger the need for humans to actively conduct and monitor it and back it up with human intelligence. Truckloads of human intelligence are needed for a primitive AI system to be able to sort out data and process it. The process continues once a AI system is created or it will likely fail with disastrous results. Context is critical. Oxford University experts say hundreds of thousands of people are involved in human intelligence to make AI work.

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The landing of the lunar probe Chang'e-4  on January 2, 2019 makes China the first country to land a probe on the far side of the moon. This follows a landing by Chang'e-3 lunar probe in 2013. A followup mission Chang'e-5 in Dec. 2019 will collect samples of the moon's surface and send them back to earth. The goal is to build a lunar base by 2025 and man the facility by 2030, and in the long run mine the moon for energy resources.  The U.S. space program  has lacked the steady commitment and vision needed to put astronauts on the moon for a second time, and is now being given a fresh boost for challenges ahead.

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How quickly things can change - Italy is now growing faster than Germany or France. The construction industry is booming with energy efficient home renovation. The superbonus 110 is a payment by the Italian government for energy efficient housing improvements. The government pays 65% of the cost to homeowners making better energy efficient renovations plus 10%. As introduced by the Five Star movement government it was 100% plus additional 10%. Giorgia Meloni's government lowered it to 65% from 75% in 2023. This has boosted the construction industry in Italy and revived Italy's growth where it is growing faster than France and Germany. Germany is seeing about 0.3% growth compared to 0.7% predicted by OECD for Italy in 2024. Giorgia Meloni the new Italian prime minister, after Mario Draghi a central banking official, has continued Draghi's policies and provided a measure of stability and leadership to the government.  Much of the capital comes from the $216 billion or $200 billion euros that will be given to Italy from the COVID Recovery Fund. Italy is the largest recipient. ...

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Claire Moses reports for the NYT from Woudenberg, Netherlands, her home country. The 1.6 million cows on Dutch dairy farms are a leading producer of nitrogen emissions in the country. EU and Netherlands laws limiting these emissions would require a much smaller population of cows. To meet the cuts in emissions Dutch dairy farmers will have to significantly reduce their farming operations and number of cows in each farm. Netherlands is a major dairy farming nation with 8.2 billion euros of dairy exports including Edam and Gouda cheeses and 13.8 billion kilos of milk.  Dutch farmers have launched nitrogen protests for 2 years saying their livelihood is threatened. In a nation of 17 million people about 40% supports the farmers, but this support is declining with increasing impact of droughts and fires, impact on agriculture and transportation on rivers, takes its toll on Europe and the rest of the world. Netherlands has set aside $25 billion to aid farmers making the transition to a smaller nitrogen footprint. It also requires the Dutch to shift their diet to fewer animal proteins, to grain and other non animal proteins. ...

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King Charles view that Britain "is not an island" are opposite of Brexiters and Liz Truss who see Britain as an island apart from Europe, says this editorial in The Guardian. King Charles views on Irish issues are well known and the efforts of the Tories to make things difficult for Ireland and Northern Ireland to work within the Peace Accords is seen by The Guardian as a sign that Ms. Truss and Mr. Johnson now find themselves working against the views held by Prince Charles as the constitutional head of Britain's government. Queen Elizabeth and the royal family have worked for decades to build good relations with Ireland, setting history aside. The Tories have said clearly that the monarchy has not just the right but a duty to make its views known, says the Guardian. And Charles has no hesitation in making these views known. Will the Tories and Liz Truss, now work with the Irish government under Michael Martin and take the advice of president Biden to build relations of the two Irelands within the Irish peace Accords, asks this editorial. ...

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Patrick Healy of the NYT says Super Tuesday in 2020 changed the way Senator Joe Biden of Delaware was seen by the country. With wins in 9 states he was seen differently and unified the Democratic party behind him, galvanizing support across the country. The 2023 State of the Union Speech offered another opportunity and Biden seized it talking about Medicare, Social Security, infrastructure and bipartisan work with Senators in Congress for 2 climate laws and the Inflation Reduction Act, cutting pharmaceutical costs in the face of corporate opposition and lobbying in Congress. So feisty was that speech that one has to go back to president Kennedy's first Inaugural in 1961 to see that kind of direct call to all those looking for the nation's future in the face of seemingly intractable challenges of the new Cold War, and of the lack of imagination, candor about problems and lack of action. The State of the Union in 2024 offers that kind of opportunity again and there is little doubt that president Biden will seize it to appeal to his countrymen again. ...

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Turning Open AI into for profit after starting as a supposedly altruistic tendency venture has opened new fault lines in the company with many people leaving. The AI is now becoming a kind of gold rush with companies putting huge price tags on talent and committing some of the nation's limited capital resources into directions that lead to the massive waste that led to economic crises in the 1930's. It is reported that it will put major stress on the grid and on electricity resources and that Tech companies do not want to pay for this. The government needs to act boldly with its own "bold persistent experimentation" to find solutions where the Nation keeps its edge in many emerging technologies yet does not waste resources, or divert resources from other purposes that are vital to the better lives that all Americans aspire to. These needs are in housing (3 million new homes), in small business uplift, in renewable energy and climate change action, in education to lift NAEP scores, in early childhood education, and in healthcare. ...

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DJT and Treasury's Scott Bessent taking a "call" not a "put" on the economy March 2025. Tariffs as short term bargaining chip, primarily domestic policy on CMC (Canada, Mexico and China) tolerance for fentanyl flows into the US. Taking fentanyl, drug trafficking, and migrant trafficking out of the Nation, will revive the spirit of America's neighborhoods across America's vast landscape. It is incumbent on CMC countries, Canada, Mexico and China, to stop fentanyl flows into the US across their borders that have caused hundreds of thousands of American deaths. Tariffs are a last resort for America to get action and save America's neighborhoods from this scourge. Investment in the US manufacturing in the private sector as the long term policies shape the economy, the cutting of waste in spending, have the potential of reviving the economy and leading a second stage of growth led now by the private sector investment after the government led spending under the Biden administration on restoring American infrastructure. ...

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Both presidents Biden in 2024 and Carter in 1980 faced high inflation that reduced their popularity, under Biden over 9% and under Carter 13%. Cost of living became a major issue as wage increases did not keep pace with inflation. WSJ attributes the inflation under Carter to policies of Richard Nixon and failure of the Fed under Miller and Volcker to control inflation. It attributes the inflation under Biden to Covid spending and on top of that the Spending under the Inflation Reduction Act and other bills passed to rebuild infrastructure. Biden and Fed's Powell did bring inflation down in 2024, and it had also to do with supply bottlenecks, opportunistic behaviour by retailers in 2022-2023.  A significant weakness for Biden was the Border and failure to act quickly under Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas, against whom the Republicans started impeachment proceedings. Added to this was the continued flow of fentanyl destroying American lives. Another weakness was the unease of parents with policies on transgender. On foreign policy the Obama policy of funding Iran under the nuclear negotiated agreement increased risks for Israel and emboldened Iran. ...

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Ms. Annegret Kramp-Krarrenbauer, elected leader of the CDU party in 2018 with the support of Angela Merkel, will not run for chancellor in next years election and will resign from her position by the end of the year. She will continue as Germany's defense minister. After losses for the CDU in recent elections and the embarrassment of local CDU leaders in Thuringia supporting the far right AfD, AKK as she is known decided to step down. Angela Merkel has decided not to run for chancellor again. Germany is set to chair the EU in the second half of 2020, and Merkel is no longer seen as a leader of influence. The Nationalist Alternative for Germany AfD has gained votes in recent elections following the 2015-2016 migrant crisis, with large numbers of refugees from North Africa and Arab world landing in Greece and Turkey and walking to Hungary, Austria and Germany. Merkel's handling of the crisis with acceptance of a million refugees in 2015-2016 unsettled European and German politics. Why? One way of looking at it is that in the same way that the U.S. took in Chinese imported goods ending in the Trump tariffs war, at some point it just becomes too big to handle. That ended up at $1 billion a day in imports from China when president Trump called it off and accused Obama Democrats, Bush Republicans, of betraying the country. Putting it into perspective Germany with one fourth of the population of the U.S. took in about twice the number of refugees in just one year 2015-2016 that the U.S. took in 10 years 2005-2015. The U.S. took in 675,000 immigrants between 2005-2015. This is as if the U.S. took in something like 20 million immigrants in a short period of 1 year on an equivalent basis- though the cultural impact is even greater in a nation like Germany that is like Japan an historically immigrant averse nation. All this happened too quickly for Germany to handle for its fragile cultural fabric. Much of the initial outpouring of support and positive sentiment came from the sense of having gone through World War II and the refugees in that and the early post war period, the need to return in the same spirit support Germany had received. Over time it eroded support for the Christian Democratic Union and Merkel. That Merkel could have done this is itself a small miracle. Now the rebuilding has to begin. Adenauer's CDU and the socialist SPD party of Willy Brandt now have less than 50% support, only with the Greens Party do they make up 50%. The question now is can the CDU, and the SPD which has fallen to 14% in elections, make it back and what kind of future makeup political parties will have in Germany, how the social fabric can be restored. AKK's achievement is to mend relations between the liberal Merkel wing of the CDU and conservatives from Bavaria (CSU) over immigration.  Candidates for CDU leadership are Armin Laschet, Jens Spahn, and Friedrich Merz. Laschet premier of North Rhine-Westphalia has Merkel's support. Looking back too much attention was taken up by the euro crisis, and too little was done in the areas of infrastructure, inequality gaps, education, child care, under Merkel's leadership and of the preceding SPD years, much like what happened under Bush and Obama administrations in the U.S. where wars, economic crises led to neglect on issues that affect lives of ordinary working families. ...

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European Union countries reopen for travel this summer. A new travel pass or digital Covid certificate is approved to promote freedom of travel as more people get vaccinated. About a third of people are vaccinated for first shot in France and about 40% in Germany, which means in coming weeks they will have the second shot and enough antibodies to make a return to normal life possible. The EU has negotiated this time with Pfizer for 1.8 billion doses and is building enough vaccine supplies. For the first time governments are stepping up with plans and resources allocated - in India the government now has plans to create supplies of 2 billion doses by the end of the year. This means there is new hope if the vaccination is accompanied by efforts to build booster shot supplies this time planning ahead. Managing the risk of those who are vaccine skeptical remains a problem to be tackled. Masks and other essential precautions also need to be followed in crowded spaces as this was neglected where there was a second or third wave. Public education for this is essential to better manage the pandemic. ...

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Pennsylvania is one of the critical states in the 2020 U.S. election. It is also one of the states hit hard by the coronavirus. Pennsylvania has also seen the impact of layoffs in the vital steel industry during two decades of neglect by previous administrations till the tariffs on steel from China by president Trump began a reversal of this trend. Unemployment is high in Pennsylvania as a result of the pandemic. 51 of 67 counties in the state recorded unemployment rate increases for 2020 that are in the top 20% for the U.S. Pennsylvania and Michigan are two critical states for the 2020 election. Pennsylvania has done much worse than other states including Michigan when it comes to the impact of the pandemic on unemployment rates in all counties. Voters could decide to blame the Democratic governor for lockdown restrictions  that worsened unemployment or president Trump for his approach to the coronavirus. There is also concern among conservative voters about the kind of change they seek between steady improvement in unemployment and a shift to radical changes in the economy. ...

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This essay from the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center which puts focus on preventive medicine looks at the food we eat in a different way. In order to have a real conversation on food it says ignore the latest fads on nutrition on keto, paleo or other diets, and think about how our ancestors ate in a healthy way that both prevented disease and provided the right nutrition. It was mostly plants as meat was not freely and easily available. So much so that the consumption of meat and animal protein may have gone up by as much as 90% today. Processed foods did not exist, and unprocessed plant foods were there in abundance. They were not called low fat low carb or vegan then. It is during the beginning of the 19th and in the 20th century that the production and marketing of shelf stable, nutrient poor, high calorie, high sugar and salt processed foods replaced the normal way our ancestors had their food leading to the public health crisis of today, both in health quality, outcomes and cost.  It says replace meat and where appropriate dairy healthier plant based beans, lentils, whole grains, and vegetables, fruits so that animal protein gets back to the levels of the centuries before the 20th century shift to processed foods. It says use common sense beans including soyabeans and lentil beans replace meat wherever possible and oats with berries and nuts replace eggs. Vegetable and garbanzo beans salad replaces cheese and yogurt reducing the cheese or yogurt to very moderate levels. Focus on wholesome food and eat like our ancestors did and exercize then everything else will fall into place. ...

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G-20 leaders in Seoul endorsed the Basel III regulations, which raise the amount of risk free capital banks have to hold to 7% of assets from as low as 2% now. The rules are to be phased in between 2013-2018, a long period, by which time there could be another crisis.The rules for banks that are "too big to fail" will be written more stringently by the Financial Stability Board. The FSB will need another year to write these rules. Mario Draghi of the Bank of Italy, heads the FSB. He is asking for more resources for the FSB to do its work.