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Impact of $100-$138 a barrel oil prices from Iran War on US economy is modest - stable unemployment inflation at 2.9% instead of 2.7% and decline by 4 tenths of a percentage point in GDP growth. This is the view of 50 economists at banks, companies and research consulting gorups surveyed by WSJ March 16-18 cited in both the WSJ and her inthe NYT. NYT says unless the prices reach $200 which is unlikely, there won't be a recession. The reason is that the US is self sufficient in oil needs and exports oil and gas to Europe, and now to India and Japan. In fact in the domestic economy oil producing states in the Permian Basin including Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico and state of Alaska will actually see more growth. US will also generate more revenue from oil exports. US will also be able to leverage the situation to bring Venezuelan production with additional investments in upgrading the Venezuelan oil fields from American oil companies. This will be more attractive at higher oil prices and revenue generated will be sent to benefit the Venezuelan people. What it does affect lis ow income people with long commutes to work in the US. ...

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This New York Times editorial says a smaller Wall Street and growing jobs in other fields will be good for New York as well as good for the country. It says New York politicians should focus on finding new ways for New York to broaden its tax base and get new businesses and new opportunites in fields such as media, advertising, entertainment, health care and tourism. Especially welcome are initiatives such as the science and tech campus of Cornell University promoted by Mayor Bloomberg. Tighter financial rules and higher capital requirements are good for the country and for New York the editorial emphasizes, because they help control reckless banking practices that destroy capital and opportunities for growth elsewhere in the economy. It points to Kevin Rose's Nov. 21, 2011 account in the Times showing a healthy culture shift in New York and the country with the status jobs being seen not at Goldman Sachs but at Google, Apple and Facebook. Rose's account shows that in the last 3 years the number of Wall Street employees of ages 20-34 declined by 25%....

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Naomi Osaka emerges as a much improved player in the way she confidently put away Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-2 in the match leading to the quarterfinals with Czech player Muchova at the US Open Tennis in Forest Hills, New York. Osaka took a break from tennis after the pressures and a child led to her needing time for herself. She is back with renewed confidence and athletic ability.

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Richard Levitan, a physician expert on patient oxygen levels treated patients at a New York Hospital, and found this very important fact about coronavirus and its attack on patient lungs. Early detection and treatment, use of pulse oximeter monitoring, are shown to be critical for coronavirus.  Covid or cornavirus pneumonia is different from normal pneumonia in that it attacks the lungs but patients can be low on oxygen without realizing it through shortness of breath. As it turns out and confirmed by this physician expert who has invented intubation techniques and served at a New York hospital to understand why coronavirus was killing patients, the patient simply breathes faster and deeper without knowing it and is not short of breath even though his oxygen saturation is going down. This delays treatment- use of pulse oximeter is therefore recommended, an easy test placed on a finger that shows the oxygen reading. This kind of fast breathing then suddenly leads to the complete collapse of the patient's lungs, which is why so many end up in hospitals late and end up later on ventilators. British prime minister Boris Johnson received this kind of monitoring and early treatment to be able to return to work.  ...

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul halts a congestion pricing plan for New York City saying it would have unintended consequences and hinder New York's economic recovery. It would make it harder for cost of living for families after the effects of the pandemic. The plan was to charge $15 fee to enter New York Manhattan south of 60th Street. It was seen as a way to support a financially strapped MTA subway authority. Hochul said- "Let's be real. $15 may not sound a lot to someon who has the means but it can break the budget of a hardworking middle class household." 

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Closely contested seats in Long Island, an area just east of New York city could decide the control of Congress. Republicans see their messaging on crime and immigration deflected by recent reports for a freshman Congressman in the area. In 2020 New York issues on crime affected control of Congress for Biden. Since then New York Governor Hochul and others have paid strong attention to this and crime is down in New York and across the country in 2024.

Hochul, Walz and Whitmer are some of the governors who have a strong committment to Biden's program for infratructure and investments in industry to create jobs in the Nation.

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The new Mayoral candidate for New York City asks one resident would you support a candidate who orders a rent freeze (when landlords charge exorbitant rents and some do not fix housing), free child care and free transportation, and the answer he gets is -absolutely yes. Zohran Mamdani is a immigrant from Kampala, Uganda, from a Asian community in a African country like many taxi drivers and many residents of poorer neighborhoods, and many small shop owners in New York City. He also has lived in the city and is intimately familiar with the problems of the city's poorer neighborhoods. In any other election with a candidate other than Zohran, and in a city not so pushed to the brink with an affordability crisis and poor infrastructure, a former governor such as Andrew Cuomo with years of experience as former New York Governor, and a comprehensive set of solutions to affordability would have won. In the situation today where the affluent class in New York City can easily afford a 2% wealth tax on everyone making more than $1 million- simply $20,000, and a NEw Jersey level tax of 11.5% that would generate $5 billion. Additonal $1 billion from cutting waste and fraud in spending in city budgets and in tax collection. This money can be put into childcare, free buses, and city run grocery stores. But would rent freeze on "stabilized housing" bring in investment to build 200,000 houses by 2035? ...

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New York Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit against Mr. Trump uses a New York state law that gives the Attorney General wider scope to tackle corporate fraud. This includes inflating the value of assets to get corporate loans on favorable terms. NY Supreme Court Justice Engoron is hearing the case and the judge will decide the case in a bench trial- there is no jury. Justice Engoron made a sweeping ruling against the Trump properties and holdings and said the contours of the case have now changed as he ponders about what further action to take. He cancelled the certificates that the Trump properties need to operate.

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Coronavirus testing is being ramped up in the U.S. as the Food and Drug Administration new regulations allow commercial labs to manufacture and distribute  coronavirus tests. Now many players can now acquire and conduct tests including state and local governments, hospitals, universities, and private companies. so that tracking nationwide distribution is still difficult. Deborah Brx the response coordinator of the White House task force on coronavirus says U.S. has completed 220,000 tests in last 8 days.  In New York the scaled up efforts in a region with over half the coronavirus cases in the U.S., 13,000 were tested on Monday, March 23. Some hospitals in New York such as Mount Sinai expect to do double or triple the tests a day in a scaling up effort by March 30. In Los Angeles a city councilman negotiated with a South Korean company for delivery of 100,000 tests a week, having already secured 20,000 new tests. Additionally swabs and protective equipment are also needed to conduct tests and labs need to process results with speed. ...

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Benjamin Lawsky, a former federal prosecutor, is the new head of the New York State Department of Financial Regulation. He worked as an advisor to then Attorney General Cuomo in the New York Attorney General's office. He played a key role in the ongoing lawsuit against Bank of America Corp CEO Kenneth Lewis, and helped obtain $60 billion in repayments to investors for their cash frozen in auction-rate securities.

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Los Angeles and New York city with about 15% of the workforce in creative freelancing jobs where people work two, three, or four jobs to pay the bills, are being hurt by high unemployment. These jobs have little job protection and require people to leave their homes during coronavirus. This includes performers, production crews, ride share drivers, personal trainers and others. Los Angeles area unemployment has reached 21%.

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The legenday hitter and catcher of the New York Yankees Yogi Berra (1925-2015) dies in New Jersey at the age of 90. His many popular sayings, including the one " It aint over, till its over," and "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." He was born in St. Louis to a family of immigrants from Northern Italy. In his best year with the Yankees in 1950 he had 124 runs batted in and 116 runs scored. He was MVP in 1951, 1954 and 1955, and was part of the team that was the rival for the Brooklyn Dodgers between 1947 to 1956. As a catcher he played Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, the only no-hitter in World Series history, which was played against Brooklyn Dodgers. He became a loved figure in American life with his wit and sayings, his skills in the game, and his integrity. Between 1963-1974 he served as manager and coach for the Yankees and the New York Mets, and later coached for the Houston Astros in the eighties.

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Trend to remote work is cooling off. 80% of employers now say that over 3 years they see full time office work 5 days a week. The new trend is just beginning.

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Watervliet Arsenal in New York state opened during the War of 1812. It is now being revived for manufacturing in the digital age. It turns out components for Abrams tanks. Watervliet is rare says WSJ as an army operated industrial manufacturing location under Tacom.

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Panama Canal ad US control of a passageway through the seas the US build in the 1900's. The New Monroe Doctrine under DJT takes America back to the days in 1900 when president Teddy Roosevelt pushed thorugh the actions neded to build the Canal connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific. TR had the US Army Corps of Engineers start work in 1904 and said the famous words "Let the Dirt Fly." When Colombia refused to make this happen he formed the new nation of Panama. TR realized the importance of connecting the oceans- foresight for the massive expansion of world trade in the 1960-2025 period raising standards of living for the 3 billion people in India/China/Asia and for the 1 billion people of the EU and the US. Never before in history has such ahuge change in living conditions  and hopes and aspirations happened. Today when American ingenuity, invention and sense of purpose is derided or ridiculed, it serves as a reminder of the great endeavors that happened under American leadership and continue to this day into the future. ...

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This NYT report looks at the Kushner family's history including problems the family real estate business has from family troubles over two decades. Jared Kushner, 37 years,  is senior White House adviser. The report says the rise in prominence of the Kushner family in politics has adversely affected the family business because of increased scrutiny and investigations, and deals with China for financing have stalled as a result. A major project of the Kushner family, a 41 story dilapidated Fifth Avenue Tower in New York that was to be replaced with a new structure now lacks financing from Chinese investors as a result of public scrutiny. Only 10 months are left before a $1.2 billion mortgage on this aging property lacking enough tenants comes due for the elder Kushner. 

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Optimism from the Washington Post Editorial Board now that Homan is in charge and law enforcement cooperation between state local and federal takes place. Homan was  briefly bypassed in the team set up by Kristi Noem, Secretary of DHS, and  as a result Border Patrol agents began their own sweeps that were not in accordance with DHS and ICE methods of operation. This was shown in the WSJ reports of the last few days creating unnecessary confrontations with protestors, increasing numbers of agents as a result, and both risking the lives of law enforcement and of protestors. Republican senators in Congress defended the rights of Americans to protest. Local and state cooperation with federal law enforcement was key to maintaining order and peace in neighborhoods, ensuring everyone's safety. This is now taking place with Homan meeting Attorney General Ellison, and state governor Walz. Homan said “certain improvements could and should be made” and that the government had not “carried this mission out perfectly.” Washington Post says Homan acted like a professional when asked about Pretti. “I’m going to tell you to let the investigation play out and see where it goes." The Post says handing over criminal immigrants sgould not be controversial, as Kristi Noem says migrants with criminal records were released onto the streets from jails by local officials. There is a lot of soul searching that needs to happen on the part of all, with less reckless behaviour that only aggravates the work of law enforcement and reduces the safety of streets and neighborhoods, and worse is not in accordance with America's tradition of treating people fairly as long as they are acting with decency. ...

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Keller says that Fox News has contributed to the corrosiveness that has affected public dialogue in the U.S. He admits that the prestigious urban newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times can be condescending and too open to consider points of view that do not have merit. Yet, he says, they are different from Fox News in that they are self-critical and take up different points of view outside their own, an openness that Fox News lacks. A little research shows another side of the Times- during its early years the Times with a scoop of its own helped put the boss of Tammany Hall, which dominated New York politics in the late twentieth century, in jail. The journalists of the Times, even though they have their own screwups, always must carry the added responsibility of living up to a long heritage.

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New York Governor Cuomo proposes to merge the state's Insurance and Banking Departments, and the Consumer Protection Board, into a new Department of Financial Regulation. Cuomo says this is necessary to give New York a more efficient and modern regulatory framework. Governor Cuomo's aides say a single regulator is needed for effective regulation compared to the patchwork of agencies that has existed for so long. The new agency would also be empowered to oversee hedge funds.

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Stephanie Clifford of the NYT provides this exceptional profile of a low profile prosecutor in action on cases ranging from civil rights to organized crime and terrorism. Clifford describes the calm and rigorous style of Loretta Lynch as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York as she handled the case of a Haitian immigrant and the New York Police in 1997, rarely bringing up race and focussing on justice and fairness. Other prosecutions included Pedro Espada, a former Democratic New York state senator from the Bronx, and William Boyland Jr., a Democratic assemblyman from Brooklyn, gang and Mafia cases, and terrorism. Her style is to let others take the spotlight including answering questions at news conferences, getting the job done by involving other colleagues and co-workers in a case.