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The Tories are seen shifting their position from working with the unions during the pandemic and Boris Johnson's position that there would be no return to the period of "low wages, low skills, and low productivity," in this analysis in The Guardian. Faced with risks of higher inflation in Britain the conservatives have shifted to supporting no more than a 3% wage increase for rail workers in the face of 8% increase in inflation in Britain in 2022. Rail airline, other workers,, and the government now are on opposite sides on wages after joining together during the pandemic. Shortages of workers have pushed up wages in some sectors but others are lagging behind including transport workers, leading to the rail strike and other strikes of public sector workers.

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President Biden says he opposed reducing minimum sentences for crimes in Washington D.C. such as carjackings, as proposed by a new law in D.C. Biden says Republican efforts to block that legislation would bring that to his desk and he would not veto the Republican proposal blocking reducing sentences. Crime is up 40% in Washington D.C say police. In the New York election for Congress, and in the recent Chicago mayoral election crime was an issue for Republicans leading to losses for Democrats and for Lori Lightfoot in Chicago. Biden wants to focus on the major issues for workers and families in the country, on infrastructure, jobs, inflation, and the US economy, and not let his plan for America's renewal lose focus because Republicans are able to make crime an issue.

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 The average work has declined in Europe, and increased slightly in America. It is about one day a week less in Europe for the 5 largest European economies, according to the OECD. Shorter work hours set by employers and furloughs are affecting workers in Europe. This is because many European businesses used shorter working hours to avoid layoffs during the pandemic. 

Nearly 2 million Europeans are in furlough programs with governments making up the lost pay.

Working hours are less in Southern Europe because of a lack of full time work. About one third of workers in France and half in Spain and Italy would like to work more hours but cannnot find the extra hours. In Germany one fourth of workers choose to work less than 30 hours a week by choice.

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AP News describes Biden's long association with Irish poets W.B. Yeats and Seamus Haney. In an earlier presidential run in 2008 he said- "I believe with every fibre of my being that we have a chance to make hope and history rhyme." In the 2020 campaign this happened and Biden believes today that this is reflected in the hearts and sentiments of the vast majority of the American people. 

Haney's poem uses these words in a translation of the Greek playwright Sophocles. From Haney's The Cure at Troy:

"History says don't hope On this side of the Grave

But then the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up. And hope and history rhyme." 

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The view presented that Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism was because of frustration that he had agreed to give up his demand for separate electorates for the lowest castes with the Poona Pact that he made with Gandhi in 1932. Gandhi saw separate electorates as one more effort at continuing divide and rule by the British to keep India divided and weak. This report in Indian Express says Ambedkar addressed a huge gathering of Mahars in Bombay in 1936 and advocated conversion to Buddhism. How much this was done to practice Buddhism is not clear. The Four Noble Truths are described as being dismissed from being part of Buddhism. Yet Buddhism as practiced in Sri Lanka, Japan and other countries consider it to be central to grasping the idea of Buddhism.

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Meticulous preparations in France for the Olympics. This report shows Macron at the Olympics Aquatics Centre built at cost of 188 million euros. The budget in 2012 Olympics in London overspent by 200%, France will do it for about 20% overspend, says the Sports Minister. Macron says "Everything is a cause for vigilance and attention, nothing is a cause for worry or paralysis, that is my and our state of mind." When the Olympics open on July 26 this year it will be on the river Seine, with hundreds of flotilla boats. It is a unique effort as even the housing complex was built so that after the Olympics are over the housing could be reused to serve residents of a poorer neglected suburb of Paris. The river Seine is being cleaned up for swimming

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The pandemic is bringing new hope to smaller towns and rural areas in Europe. For decades the migration from smaller towns to cities led to depopulation and decline. With the pandemic the situation is changing and offers new hope. In rural parts of Galicia, Spain, small towns are seeing some revival with enough children now in schools to keep them running. People from cities are moving to smaller towns and rural areas during the pandemic. The housing transactions in smaller towns and rural areas are up by 15% in Spain in 2020. 

In the small town municipalities in Galicia, Spain, town officials are trying to build a new sense of attachment for younger families, in a long term strategy. This WSJ report looks at this trend in Spain and in Europe.

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After the first round of elections Mauricio Macri threw his support to Milei. Macri was president from 2015 to 2019 when pro-market reforms led to unrestrained borrowing from overseas investors. It failed leading to high inflation and turning to the IMF for loan of $57 billion. Any time there is a drought or agriculture in Pampas fails reserves dry up as in 2016 and again recently. Macri was ousted in the next election and replaced by Peronist Fernandez. The problems persist with a return to Macri and Milei who was just elected president turning to dollarization when the country lacks the $9 billion needed to convert pesos to US dollars. Argentina has net reserves of $20 billion, borrowing from China of $17 billion and net reserves of  negative $10 billion. 

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Jonas Vinegaard of Denmark settles the race with a fast time working himself upto near exhaustion and adding 7 minutes to his lead during the trials in the 17th stage of the Tour de France. From 10 seconds in earlier stages of the cycling race in Basque Spain across the Pyrenees mountains and into France Slovenian cyclist Pogacar was only 10 seconds behind Vinegaard. With this time in the trials and putting up a great effort in the Alps near Geneva Vinegaard now has a 10 minute lead over Pogacar, enough for him to make it to Paris without the pressure that would otherwise be seen. Vinegaard shows a new kind of resilience, strength, strategy and skills that has endeared him with a new generation of cycling enthusiasts, with a humility that comes naturally for him.

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This report in the WSJ cite sources showing the advisers that had the most effect on Trump's decision to launch airstrikes in Syria after the chemical attack were Defense Secretary Mattis, National Security Adviser McMaster, Secretary of State Tillerson, and Jared Kushner. Senator Corker calls it a transformative moment for president Trump, as Trump acted decisively once he had talked to his advisers, and after having several options prepared for him, and acting on the same day as he met Xi Jinping at the White House dinner. Trump unlike Obama who let the chemical attack go without a response and had many deliberations that ended up with inaction, acted decisively. Unlike Obama in 2013 after a similar chemical attack Trump also showed emotion that reflected normal human reaction after something of this kind, says this report. 

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John Fetterman Democrat of Pennsylvania has maintained a friendship with Katie Britt, Republican freshman from Alabama, and even turned up in Congress to show Britt's son around the House and Senate buildings. It shows how some senators in the US Congress are taking stances independent of their parties different factions and staying true to their authentic selves about what they see as right. For example Fetterman and Britt are introducing legislation requiring children to be 13 years of age to use social media platforms. Texas Senator Cornyn and other Republicans are at ease talking to John Fetterman. It is the kind of bipartisanship that is emerging in 2024 in the US. Fetterman says he is behind president Biden and is campaigning in 7 states calling Biden "a decent, good guy," and a tough guy.

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The huge task of getting across policies to voters in the US who have been left out either through the presence of social media distracting attention or the busy lives of voters keeping them less informed as they struggle to get by. The message on the White House Biden and Harris site does not get through to these voters. The television and newspapers have only now gone into the policies Harris has announced at Wake Tech community college in Raleigh, North Carolina. This reaches a Democrat audience but what about it reaching the voters who are unaware in rural areas, of North Carolina and the rest of the 51states, in other areas and parts of the country where it is still fuzzy fuzzy with misinformation or counter advertising muddying up the clear picture of Harris policies. 

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If the wording in the Pew Research Survey were to include that only the government can tackle huge problems in climate change, infrastructure, and manufacturing, the over 50% of Americans that support government taking on these responsibilities might just as well be closer to 60-70 percent. The tide is turning as the whole culture since Reagan and the key adopters of Reagan's theory  successive Democratic administrations of Clinton and Obama is being reversed- Democrats and Independents supporting the change to get government to tackle these problems is up 15 percentage points. Another shift is the young people who are filled with frustration by the lack of government taking on a bigger role to solve problems such as climate change, manufacturing jobs in US, infrastructure rebuilding that only the government can do. 

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How trying too hard can mess up your style is shown for bowler Mohammad Siraj. After the failure in the New Zealand series Siraj talks to his old bowling coach on the phone. Bharat Arun tells Siraj he is trying too hard and this is leading to errors. Go back to your original stye. He tells Siraj this will take discipline first concentrate on one wicket, try bowling yorkers to get the wrist behind the ball the original movement. It worked says Siraj in Perth and Canberra. The ball that went to Steve Smith that he edged into for a catch by Pant was one that was Siraj bowling a yorker. Bumrah said trust the process, wickets will come don't fret too much about it. And if you do come to me. 

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A 40 year old sailor from Normandy accomplishes an utterly mind boggling feat- sailing alone from the western coast of France across the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope in 19 days, to the Atlantic at Cape Leeuvin in 29 days, then on to Cape Horn at the tip of Argentina and Chile in 43 days, from there to the Equator in 56 days, and the last leg back up the Brittany coast of France., around the world in 64 days. He wins the 10th edition of Vendee Globe, a non stop non assisted race around the world, and does this for a second time. A heroic tribute to ancestors Cartier and Champlain who sailed to Quebec and to Africa and the east from the coast of Brittany from the 1530's.

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Robert Gordon of Northwestern University shows the optimistic and pessimistic factors in the economy in terms of their contribution to GDP. He says botht he optimists and pessimists ae correct, with the question being the relative strength of the factors. He says the recovery will not be a V shaped recovery , and it will only be half as strong as the recovery of 1983-84, in the range of 3% to 4%, the annualized growth rate between 1982 4th quarter and 1984 4th quarter was 6.4%. Annualized growth according to the Commerce Department was 3.2% in 1st quarter 2010, following 5.6% growth annualized in 4th quarter 2009 In this picture international trade and exports have not played as strong apart as imports continued to rise. Overall personal consumption expenditures held up pretty well and showed +2.55, inventory change +1.57 as companies began to replace IT and other equipment, producers durable equipment and software, federal government +0.11. On the pessimist side residential structures were -0.29, nonresidential structures -0.44, net exports -0.61 showing that exports are not playing the part needed for the economy to recover, and state and local governments are -0.48. The progressively deteriorating situation expected as state and local governments cut back will weigh as aserious negative in this respect says Gordon. And this just as the inventory chnge numbers wind down to a smaller number. The total has to add upto the +3.24% growth for 1st quarter 2010 on an annualized basis as shown in the Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers. ...

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The old NASDAQ in 2000 cannot be compared to the new NASDAQ in 2015 because the companies in the index have changed, and the proportion of tech and health care companies has also changed. Healthcare and consumer companies are now 37% on the index compared to 18% in the NASDAQ index in 2000. Tech is a much smaller component of the NASDAQ, declining from 64% to 43%. And three companies Apple, Google and Microsoft, makeup 20% of the index, with Amazon, Facebook and Intel added making that 30% of the entire 2015 NASDAQ index. Only 3 of the top ten companies in the 2000 NASDAQ are around in 2015 NASDAQ index- Intel Corp., Microsoft, and Cisco Systems. Yahoo, Oracle, Dell, Sun, JDS, WorldCom are no longer the top 10 companies in the index as they were in 2015. The speculative momentum stocks such as Netflix and Tesla make up 0.38% and 0.33% of the NASDAQ in 2015. In healthcare part of NASDAQ 2015 companies such as Gilead Sciences and Amgen are in the top ten.

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Neelman, who founded airline Jet Blue, is now starting an airline in the country where he grew up as achild of Mormon missionaries. The country Brazil is vast with a rickety transportation network, and he feels ideally suited to alow cost airline. At this time 85% of traffic in the air is controlled by 2 airlines which have no incentive to reduce prices. With 12 Embraer planes and the name Azul, Neelman is off to a start, and prices on some routes are lower than acomparable bus fare. The same approach worked to link up cities with low fares in India by pioneer Jet Airlines, though some of those fares in India are up from where they used to be with the losses in the Indian airline industry.

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A neuroscientist writes about the effects of fear. When the fear system of the brain is active, exploratory active and risk-taking are turned off, which is what happens to companies and leaders in business also as fear of collapse makes banks and financial institutions unwilling to lend, and freezes up the credit markets . The same thing occurs as the market for corporate bonds dries up for lack of buyers who also huddle up and try to wait things out. This effect may also acccount for the need for a determined and informed government backed by research and think tanks, like the new Obama transition team, to take the initiative, as the government has the resources to break this logjam and craft new solutions in exploratory and risktaking investment activity and national policymaking.

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In a new twist venture capitalist are moving into buying up distressed assets.

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About one in 5 German workers are in minijobs- about 7.4 million people in May 2013, according to estimates from the WSJ and Germany's Federal Employment Agency. Minijobs are a form of part time work that gets a German worker 450 euros a month free from taxes. Many of these jobs are in retail, healthcare and offer these industries more flexibility. Jobs are done by women, elderly, immigrants without work. The intent was to move these workers into full time work, but this is not happening as most workers in minijobs end up in a deadend status.

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The system of using performance evaluations for "forced" or "stack" ranking of employees started with Jack Welch at General Electric. Microsoft adopted the system under Ballmer till 2013, when it decided that the need for teamwork was more important and discontinued the practice. Welch used it to get rid of "underperformers" or managers who did not conform to his requirements when he became CEO of General Electric. It was his personal style and way of bringing change to GE. The practice of "forced" ranking increases competition inside the company instead of teamwork, say managers, and leaves a lot to the caprice of individual managers. In December 2013 Ballmer facing criticism from his Board for missing some of the disruptive technologies in the information tech business and falling behind Apple and Google, sought the advice of Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company. Mulally had to fight entrenched Japanese competitors and pull Ford out of a crisis in which even Ford's logo had been put up as collateral for loans. Meeting for 4 hours on Mercer Island in Seattle Mulally told Ballmer that he focussed on teamwork and simplifying the way Ford did things. Ballmer phased out the "forced" ranking system as one of the last major steps before he leaves Microsoft. In today's environment for tech companies of intense competition worldwide and disruptive technologies without teamwork and employees looking to come up with new and exciting products the future is surely lost. Having the "bottom" 50% of the employees compete for limited positions can be dangerous or suicidal without the dominant position in markets that GE and Microsoft had. It also makes no sense to substitute internal competition and capricious manager behaviours for teamwork. It is the responsibility of managers to do as much as possible to make good hiring decisions, and then motivate and help employees to achieve their best performance with frequent helpful feedback, and to promote teamwork. This is the lesson Ford learned through its crisis and Microsoft is now learning....

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This story about companies in Australia that have tried a four day week shows employees using two mini weeks working Monday and Tuesday, taking off Wednesday and back to work for Thursday and Friday. It shows employees planning their Mondays and Tuesday miniweek in such a way that they can handle important work and meetings ahead of time. They come back recharged and renewed on Thursday, with Wednesday as the day to break up the work week in two. This has increased productivity at these companies. This is also a useful idea for older employees who work part time and work past usual retirement ages of 60 or 65 years as longevity increases in many countries. This enables retaining the vast experience of older workers in the workplace and promoting the health of older workers by keeping them active. As Japan, the U.S. and Europe and even China become aging societies this is becoming ever more important.  For worker on five day weeks this offers creative ideas to have a four and half day week giving workers a morning off or an afternoon off to recharge with sports or recreation activity or exercize, then coming back to work recharged in the afternoon. Other variations can also be used which promote productivity and employee satisfaction to get more of the most valuable work done more effectively and with enthusiasm, pushing less important work and time wasting out of the way. Employees generally would take charge of their work day and come up with creative and efficient ways of organizing their mini work weeks. ...

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The dire situation for basic education in the U.S. states during the pandemic in 2020 and what this means for children growing up is the subject of this WSJ report. Early retirements and quarantines have forced some school administrators to have parents, even bus drivers to conduct classrooms with children. Asymptomatic teachers are allowed in classrooms. Public school employment in U.S. in November was down 9% from February lowest since 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics. The shortage is compounded by layoffs of support staff such as teachers' aides and clerical workers, leaving the burden to be taken up by teachers.  More than 40 states in the U.S. report shortfalls in math, science and special education. The worse off states include Arizona, where school districts were not able to hire certified teachers for 78% of 6,145 open positions in August, and one third of the positions are still vacant. This report looks at the situation and the damage as teachers handle larger classes of over 50 children, do online and in person classes simultaneously, deep clean their classrooms, and take turns as crossing guards. The result burnout for teachers, more teachers quit, parents are frustrated and students do not make progress. Much of the capital investment allocation in the U.S. has gone badly wrong with capital chasing a tech industry with the industry reaching saturation and diminishing returns in, in speculative ventures, at the neglect of infrastructure, manufacturing, health and education. A recent WSJ article points to dilapidated or outdated infrastructure as one of the reasons American manufacturing has suffered. ...