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Ukraine was one of the poorest countries in the European Union in the last decade and was not growing as fast as other countries in Eastern Europe. One of the reasons it was looking to the west, the EU and the US, was to increase growth and boost incomes. A policy opposed by Russia.  This report in WSJ looks at the effort of a 41 year old economist Mr. Marchenko who heads the central bank. Ukraine's revenues only support 40% of government spending. Ukraine needs $3 billion in aid every month. The currency is down 20% in value and the GDP is expected to be 30% lower in 2022. He says every day and night it is a constant headache. The US and Britain were quick to help and provide steady aid. The EU and Germany with internal wrangling have not come up with $8 billion of the $9 billion in aid promised to Ukraine to rebuild the infrastructure that is being destroyed by Russia, and support the war effort to defend Ukraine. Even with $3 billion a month in aid Ukraine depends on printing money and risking further decline in the currency to pay soldiers, war needs, and meet basic spending needs. The plans are not just for 2022 but extend into 2023. Grain a key export is only now making its way out of Odessa with the UN and Turkey arranging the way out for grain ships. ...

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If Morse's thinking holds and crude prices drop to $90 range per barrel (see the link to Morse) then we have another major problem on our hands as the incentives for conservation diminish and there is less money invested in energy conservation, and investment, effort and enthusiasm for new technologies for conservation also diminishes. This risks the environment and carbon dioxide emissions and keeps sending money on expensive oil imports to Saudis, Russia and the middle east which could be better invested in the US for innovation and R&D or returned tothe public. For energy saving conservation technology investors the drop in incentive through a return to cheap oil or expectations of prices that are below $100 for instance can be the worst of both worlds high prices and low investment says Vinod Khosla. He advocates a floor on the price of oil. Stanford Professor Hillard Huntington, executive director of the Energy Modeling Forum, a group of energy experts, says energy saving initiatives could easily take 4 million to 5 million barrels a day of demand off the market in 10 years from the 20 million barrels a day that the USA uses to heat homes, power industry, and fuel cars, trucks and planes. It would be a huge loss for that not to happen. And this has happened before as the oil crisis in the 1980's became a dim memory once oil prices hit a low of $11 in the mid 1980's after conservation kicked in at the time. The idea then is to have some sort of gasoline tax that would keep a floor on the price of oil that Europe already has. And British Columbia has shown how by having a small tax and returning money to the taxpayers with a $100 check refund and in other ways to small business and other txpayers....

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Breaking the norm of jobs requiring sitting down in one place for long hours that is killing us with health problems is desperately needed today. 20,000 NPR listeners joined this study by the Columbia University Medical Center to see if they could break the habit and set a new model for work behaviours. Participants were asked to take a break of 5 minutes every hour. 70% took the break showing that given the right encouragement people are willing to try something new that improves job performance, mental health, and physical health.

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Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University economist, author of the well researched book on the 2008 financial crisis, "This Time Is Different," gives his thoughts on the economic prospects for the U.S under the new Trump administration. He says 4% GDP growth and 3% inflation is possible temporarily for a while with stimulus policies, less regulation, and increased private investment. After 8 years of not investing in much needed infrastructure because of concerns about the deficit, the timing is right for such investments, especially as the economic effects of the crisis of 2008 gradually fade.  This is about taking advantage of ultra low interest rates to invest in infrastructure. He says it helps that Trump policies are pro-business. He sees drawbacks as the stimulus program adds a 25% increase with extra debt, adding $5 trillion over 10 years, but adds that for many years Nobel prize winning economist Krugman and others have said that there is good reason to increase borrowing to invest, and this is now being tried. Inflation remains an uncertainty- if there are large quantities of underutilized and unemployed resources it would raise prices less than its effect to increase output. The reverse would apply if the U.S. economy is closer to full capacity. One factor that would help- increasing confidence for business and increasing investment. Against this what he calls optimistic view or spin, is the idea of mistakes under a Trump administration, errors made and a degree of incompetence which he says is a real possibility. Overall his view is that some risks are appropriate now, and from his deep study of financial crises sees the slow growth of the last 8 years a result of a financial crisis that now begins to fade, creating the possibility of higher growth under prudent policies.  ...

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Annalena Baerbock, 44 years, of the Greens is Germany's nominee for president of UN General Assembly in 2025. She was nominated by chancellor Scholz. As a leader of the Greens and in the coalition government of chancellor Scholz she has tried to show that Germany is a modernizing nation and innovative more than is seen in its political class. As one of the youngest politicians she has presented Germany in a new way as a young face for Europe. DW.com shows the evolution of the Greens as a party since the 1980's. Baerbock joined the Greens at age 25, four years later in 2010 she was head of the Brandenburg state section of the party, becoming a board member of the European Green party. She is still only 44 years old. She studied public law and political science in Hamburg, and gained a Masters degree in international law at the London School of Economics, one of Germany's first leading politicians to study in Britain. She started studies for a Doctorate at the Free University of Berlin, which she left in 2013 as she was elected to the Bundestag. By 2021 Annalena Baerbock was with Robert Habeck co-leader of the party heading into the general election. At one point the Greens were polling 5 months before the 2021 election at 27% with Annalena Baerbock running for chancellor against Armin Laschet of CDU and ahead of the CDU by 3 points in Sonntag poll. The Greens came in at 15% of the vote in 2021 dropping slightly to 12% in 2025. This time the Greens will sit in the parliamentary opposition headed by Robert Habeck. ...

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Steven Hiltner who went as a child to Budapest from Youngstown, Ohio, makes a connection to what he sees as home in this photo journalistic essay on Budapest. This ancient European city on the Danube river in Hungary has much of the architecture of the Austro-Hungarian period from the 16th century. Hiltner takes one through a nostalgic visit to all parts of Budapest and its history, from Buda across the river to Pest, medieval bridges, St. Matthias Church, amazing historical architecture libraries, Castle hill. He isn't fazed by the current opinion about Mr. Orban and the politics of Eastern Europe. He sees the richness of culture in Budapest absent in the homogenous suburbs of Ohio, and a land beyond time.

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The European Union has adapted well to a cutoff of supplies of Russian gas. Alternative sources were quickly pulled together in a matter of months after the invasion and cutoff to tackle the winter of 2022-2023. Conservation was moved into high gear, renewable energy investment expanded, and alternative sources for gas established. Germany sought supplies of LNG from the US and Qatar and built gas terminal at Wilhelmshaven in record time of less than 6 months. Norway increased gas supplies to Europe and now provides one third of Europe's gas needs. German industry changed the way they used gas supplies to reduce usage and make it efficient.

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The Indian prime minister has ordered that a million job vacancies be filled in the next 18 months. About 21% of job openings in the Central government have not been filled says this report in The Indian Express. According to the Annual Report of the Department of Expenditure 21.75% of the 4.1 million sanctioned posts were vacant as of March 1, 2020. It is these and other additional jobs that will be filled in mission mode. Jobs are vacant at all levels of the different departments and ministries and regions.  About 92% of the positions are in the departments of Railways with 40%, Home Affairs with 30%, Civil Defense 11%, Postal 6% and Revenue 3%. Of the employees Indian Railways had 1.25 million on March 1, 2020, and 1.20 employees on March 1, 2022. The pandemic had the effect of restricting hiring of people needed. With the expansion of the economy the hiring for government has not kept pace. In the Armed Forces, for the Army no hiring took place in 2020 and 2021 recruitment years says this report in Indian Express.  There are calls at public meetings including at Defense Minister Rajnath Singh's rallies for "sena bharti chalu karo" to start recruitment drives for the army, navy and air force. The government is responding to the public's demand for recruitment to begin as the needs of the government grow and the economy grows, to keep pace with it. ...

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The impact on families of thousands fentanyl deaths in America each year for the last decade. NYT looks at one such family and the turmoil and struggles of this family in 2025.

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The former UK Home Secretary for Tories under Sunak and Truss, Suella Braverman, joins the Reform UK party and appears at Reform UK event with Nigel Farage. She says the Conservatives saying they would have UK withdraw from ECHR (European Convention for Human Rights), which makes it difficult to conduct a rational commonsense policy on migrants because it was poorly designed or ECHR writers lost their way on common sense, is a lie. For example there is no ECHR type rules for migrants entering China or India or any major country in the world, one that says nations have to take in migrants from anywhere in the world, and provide benefits costing billions of dollars that cannot go into services for the local population. And where migrants can pose a risk for women hesitant to go out in their own neighborhoods- something chancellor Merz of Germany has spoken about recently after incidents in Germany. ECHR has somehow got it wrong.  Labour and Conservatives have pondered this but not acted quickly enough in becoming trapped in a cultural guilt for the colonial era, when ordinary Britons simply want to get on with their lives in their neighborhoods as they did before migrants, and as did their parents and grandparents in Britain. For most of British history colonial policy was decided by a small upper class and the India Office, colonies policy by the Colonial Office, and the lives of working people in Manchester's cotton mills went on with no connection with the Empire. A fact even India's Mohandas Gandhiji quickly recognized and grasped, and whose support Gandhi sought against the India Office of the Empire. ...

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US shipbuilding in 2025- US nuclear submarine built for South Korea by South Korea's Hanwha at PhillyShipyard in Philadelphia. South Korea is investing heavily in shipbuilding in the US under the new DJT effort to rebuild the US Navy. This happens when shipbuilders UK and the US who led the world in shipbuilding have ceded places to Japan, South Korea and China PRC. The once mighty shipbuilding industry in places like Glasgow and Philadelphia now makes less than 5% of the world's ships. South Korea is the only nation with the shipbuilding capacity and technologies that competes with China. Much of the world's shipping logistics and port networks are now controlled by China. It is not even the situation where Teddy Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt as Secretaries of the Navy build  America's shipbuilding industry before World War 1. The situation today requires a resolute effort to build up the shipbuilding industry that was neglected by the shortsightedness of a generation of American business and managers who mesmerized by financial markets failed to see the importance of essential infrastructure. ...

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Eric Schmidt describes activity on board the U.S.S. Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, a critical part of the U.S. navy's air capabilities in the Iraq-Syrian war. Aircraft from the carrier are helping cut supply lines of Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria in 2014-2015.

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Tata has a couple of things going for it to make a car at a price under $2500- a different vision behind it and a longer term idea of the market and its opportunities for Tata Motors. This is a personal vision of Ratan Tata, the last in the series of Tata family members who have run a company that was at the leading edge of industrialization in India since British times in the closing years of the 19th century. He sees this as a way to bring a car that is affordable to millions of Indians, the average Indian, just as his father and great grand father were pioneers in India's early steps towards industrialization. This also will serve another purpose. It will provide momentum to India's manufacturing base by putting India's auto industry on its way to sell cars by the millions in the next ten years. The cost was a challenge to Indian engineers ingenuity. It would help them develop something from scratch from a clean slate, and as he hoped reinvent the car if possible. The cost also was doable in India because of the wages paid to Indian engineers and workers are different. The entire cost structure with suppliers like Bosch providing the engine also and internet purchases of parts coming under a completely different way of doing business, again a reinvent of things. And the skimping on a lot of basics like a radio is possible in the Indian context where the inital target market is the scooter family of which in India there are millions. People who would simply be waiting for such a bare bones car, not see it as such because it is a great advance over a scooter even in terms of safety. What most people who have never been to India would not be able to grasp is that a whole family of four can be seen riding on a scooter or motorbike in India on weekends in Indian urban areas. Tata's idea of the market potential is the way it can ride the next stages of increasing incomes in India. Once it has come up with this car it can come up with enhanced versions with an airconditioning and radio and so on, and still price it way below competitors with Tata's quality and brand name and innovative design. As long as Tata can sell all the cars it makes it can expand production rapidly. Tata's costs for engineering a top selling model may be only 20% of the $350 million it costs western companies, according to Alix Partners, with savings of $300 to $1000 per car right there. Labor costs are about $1.20 per hour in India, less than what auto workers make in China, this provides more cost savings. Tata plans to supply kits to dealers who will do the final assembly in small workshops. This distribution strategy will save Tata another chunk of costs, as about 20% of the car's cost is in distribution in the USA. ...

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Hungary's Orban hopes to keep access to Russian energy supplies and still keep Hungary out of the Ukraine conflict in the tight elections in Hungary in 2022.

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The broad leeway for vaccination in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. is leading to the outbreak of a disease that was seen as wiped out twenty years ago. A measles outbreak has taken place in Washington state. 50 cases are reported from this area according to CDC.

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Lee describes the problems the Russian economy faces with the depletion of the Reserve Fund following collapse of oil prices. Finance minister Siluanov says the Reserve Fund could run out by 2017. The National Wealth Fund hols $73 billion and is used for infrastructure projects and bank bailouts, and pensions. The defense budget is expected to decline by 5% in 2016 as the military buildup slows from a slower economy. The World Bank predicts a poverty rate of 14.2%. The 50% decline in the ruble has hurt imports. The lack of access to international capital markets has also hurt growth, even though Russia has only small debt.

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Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister of Iraq, on his vision for Iraq after the American withdrawal in 2011. Iraq's role as one of many democratic countries in a new Middle East and a new Arab region. He sees combining and expanding the powers of the provinces, while preserving unity of Iraq, as a way around the demands for more autonomy in the provinces. He also sees a policy in which Iraq turns down foreign interference in Iraq as the best way moving forward. He sees a building boom in Baghdad, as a millon homes are built for low income families and the country draws foreign investment.

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This report by Goodman in the NYT shows that the ANC has lost most of the moral authority it had under Mandela. After 9 years under president Zuma, and after the term of his predecessor Mr. Mbeki from 1999-2008, South Africa remains stuck with stagnant economy, and about two thirds of young people in the townships being jobless. The challenge is how to change the economy to where growth is generated and benefits go to a broader section of the population. Problems the new president Ramaphosa faces are how to change the protections given to conglomerates that dominated the economy under Apatheid, and the patronage network that evolved with the ANC in the post Apartheid era. Growth performance of the South African economy is dismal. According to the World Bank the South African economy in 2016 was about the size of the economy in 2009. Many warnings about the economy and the operation of the state run electric utility appeared during Mr. Zuma's presidency, including one by former president De Klerk. Growth in 2018 is expected to be only about 1.1%. The economic gains by the largely black population have suffered with lack of growth and mismanagement of the economy. Official unemployment is at 27%, with about two thirds of the young people in the townships being jobless.  ...