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This important WSJ report shows how the CDC labs failed to come with the test after contamination of a component and failure of the third part of the three part test components. In the absence of a working test from CDC where delays cost three weeks of February the private labs all over the country and state labs could have developed their own test, yet HHS and FDA required approval for these labs to develop their own test and use it. From Feb. 8 when state and city public health labs detected problems with the CDC test to Feb 29 when solutions were developed including simply excluding the third part of the three component test, and letting labs around the country do their own test, were 3 crucial weeks that let the virus spread out of control. The CDC, HHHS, and the FDA and their managers and heads of departments bear responsibility for these errors. Week after week the delays continued, instead the two component test which detects if the genetic material in the sample is coronavirus material, could simply have been approved at the outset instead of the approval for this given weeks later. The third component of the test checks if the virus mutated, according to this report. There is no explanation why the labs all over the U.S. were not allowed to go ahead on February 9 itself or within a few days after that to develop their own tests once it was clear the CDC test did not work on that day. CDC officials failed to recognize that there was a possibility that they may not be able to fix the faulty third component of the test and the risks if they gave false reassurances. There is also no explanation of why a German designed test was not used once the CDC test failed on Feb. 9, which would be a proper way for action considering that this pandemic had already shutdown parts of China by this time. Alarming also is the mention in this report that on Feb. 22 a FDA official in charge of lab diagnostics  flies to Atlanta where the CDC Respiratory Diagnostic lab which developed the test is located. His boss FDA medical device center director is cited from later information as describing the lab as "filthy" meaning the lab had the potential to contaminate, and going so far as saying that if it had been any other lab it would have been shut down. Considering that investment in public health has deteriorated over the last two decades and that there has been a massive misallocation of capital in the country away from public infrastructure this is appalling. The thought of critical labs for emergency health needs as not being up to high quality standards in the U.S. as a result of two decades of misspending, that this shows, is very disturbing.  This WSJ report is based on interviews with people who know about the testing crisis, and undisclosed emails, correspondence on the issues involved. Community transmission began in January 2020 in the U.S. These delays were costly in February and could have been prevented either by going with the German design on Feb 10 or asking labs across the U.S. to develop their own test, and letting other labs immediately use the modified 2 component test of CDC that worked instead of doing this action weeks later. Mardi Gras on Feb 25 and other places where large crowds gathered in sports stadiums could have been stopped had testing gone forward and shown the true extent of the community transmission in these critical weeks.  First China delayed a U.S. team of experts coming into the country for weeks, and then the CDC, FDA, HHS, failed to get testing started, creating  a false sense of complacency. Two crucial errors outside and inside the country that caused so much damage to America and the world.   ...

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Anthony Hopkins is Pope Benedict XVI in November's Netflix Movie The Two Popes. Hopkins, a Welsh actor, is now famous for the way he talks about not taking himself so seriously. His view of life, just be glad you are alive and have fun doing things while you can, all this talk about getting to the top, once you get up there you find there is nothing there, just nonsense, all lies. For Hopkins it has freed up a lot of energy and makes him come alive at 81 years. Another thing he says keep working thats the only way to live, and not go into decline. So what better way to take on the role of Benedict, a German pope who becomes the first to resign his office, and have his chosen successor follow him, cardinal Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, (actor Jonathan Pryce) succeed him. Just be laid back and fill the role without thinking too much about it. So no intensity, he does not do research, actually a bit clueless, he says. Life is too short to be overconscious about oneself, he was intense once, now since about ten years he just wants to relax. Benedict he sees as an easy role especially with Pryce as cardinal Bergoglio. Fernando Meirelles directs and he is good with that. In the movie a day long conversation takes place, and two people who are from opposite ends of the world and ideologically too, have a sense of lightness about them, talking the World cup and soccer, and Hopkins playing the piano for Bergoglio. Hopkins just intent on having a lot of fun and doing it that way on the set. He sees the to popes as not walking on water, just human beings, and that make it easy for him. The human touches like going along with Bergoglio to watch football, though he nows nothing about it, and having a beer together. When playing Benedict Hopkins tells himself he is just pretending, just kidding, that makes it easy for him. His wife has encouraged Hopkins to relax by taking on painting and playing music. ...

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Only 27 of 249 Republicans in the House of Representatives have accepted that Mr. Biden won the presidential election, the rest refused to answer. And only 32 of these Republicans in the House say they will accept if this is certified by the Electoral College. The Senate is split 50 Republicans to 48 Democrats with 2 runoff elections in Georgia. In one Senate seat a Libertarian candidate too a slice of the vote denying a clear victory to the Republican Perdue for that seat. In the other election for Senate seat with  about 20 candidates running no one could secure a clear win. Mr. Biden with a very thin margin of 13,000 votes in Georgia over Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump contested the election because of the unprecedented nature of the 2020 election with mail in votes allowed in a way and in huge numbers that was not always well organized to be fault proof. With federal elections being run by state officials in 51 states and not by a national election commission as in India, and each state improvising its way of handling mail in ballots there was not a fault proof way of knowing if everything was 100% unquestionably correctly done. A national federal election commission not belonging to any party and unrelated to state or federal authority can ensure an election is free and fair better than the way it is organized in the U.S. Use of electronic machines for over 1 billion voters also ensures consistent way of doing it in India compared to the haphazard nature of the American process of vote ballots and separate counting in each state. This is the second election in which both parties differed on the election and disputed the result. The earlier one was Bush vs. Gore when Mr. Clinton was outgoing president following 2 terms in office. Yet surprisingly there are no calls for setting up a structure like that in India that would organize the vote collection under the authority of a national election commission and the use of modern technology consistently across the nation. ...

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Krugman says that this may be the third time that Obama and Geithner are trying to find ways to let the market and banks come up with a value for these toxic assets and take them off the books of the troubled banks. Each time there is he says new bells and whistles but its essentially doing what the Paulson plans were doing, and are a rehash of the Paulson plan. Now in the latest version on March 23 weithner proposed a complicated scheme in which the government would lend money to private investors, who would then use the money to buy the toxic assets. Krugman's view is that it wil not work. The main idea says Krugman behind all these plans is that the toxic assets are worth much more than anyone is willing to pay now because of the lack of confidence and illiquid markets. If this could be changed then they would be assigned amuch higher value and many of the banks would not be in trouble. The trouble with this approach is that with each passing month things are getting worse, a loss of 600,000 jobs a month, and with more foreclosures and higher unemployment, housing prices are probably going to look alot worse a few months from now. Which essentially means that mortgage related securities will remain discounted by alarge number regardlesss of any number of Paulson type or Geithner type plans to wish the contrary. And in the process valuable time is lost. ...

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Now that the trigger mechanism in the August 2, 2011 Debt Ceiling and Deficit bill is in place- with the trigger calling for 50% of the cuts of $1.2 billion to come from defense spending- thoughts are turning to how and what to trim, and what the overarching framework should be. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense, Joseph Nye, says there is a right way to trim Defense spending. The winding down of the two Bush wars could be used to cut ground forces to 1990 levels, trim the purchases of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, make better use of drones and less costly technologies, and cutting health care costs in defense. This would not affect U.S. national security. What is needed now is also a framework of what the U.S. wants to see happen in its role in the world. Here Nye reminds readers that President Eisenhower decided not to get involved in Vietnam on the side of the French in 1954, saying it was more important to strengthen the U.S. economy. Its important to remember that this decision came only a couple of years after the end of the Korean War. The idea being the U.S. could not police different countries or engage without considering the big picture. In today's context this also means not engaging in nation-building in remote places and in environments that make it not worthwhile to engage precious resources. The U.S. says Nye should consider itself more in Reagan's terms of "a beacon on the hill." Another factor he alludes to is that 70% of the world's military expenditures are now made by the U.S. and its allies. This means there is great potential for burden sharing. Just as the U.K and France essentially combined their resources for achieving overall defense goals of the two countries to accomplish the same things that they did before, the U.S. can do much in combination with its allies. This helps frame policy and solutions for defense. Pearlstein offers policy and solutions for the economy, and Krauthammer offers policy and solutions for deficit reduction in the Washington Post, August 5, 2011, giving an overall picture of what the U.S. and Europe should strive for in coming years....

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The effects of drought on the Colorado river and the dams in the arid west of the US which support 40 million people. This is also part of the fastest growing region in the US. The seven states along the river must negotiate major cuts in water use by mid-August or the federal government has to step in an make the cuts, says this NYT report. Years of overuse of water and climate change have led to this situation.  Lake Mead the US's largest water reservoir is two thirds empty. It is fed by the Colorado river. The upstream states or Upper basin states are Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah. The downstream states or Lower Basin states are Nevada, California, and Arizona. Downstream and upstream states have to figure out how the water cuts will be made. Agriculture use makes up 70-80% of the water use. Then there are the sprawling cities such as Los Angeles and Denver and Salt Lake City. Affected are the Imperial Irrigation District in Southern California, a major agricultural area. Las Vegas has come up with solutions for its 1.6 miillion metro area population by conserving water and staying under its 1.8% of the river allocation even as the population grows. Converting lawns and turf to desert and growing only arid zone vegetation to conserve water is being applied. This is a reality check for climate change and a reversal from the earlier effort in the 1930's to impose brute will on the landscape to build huge sprawling cities and agriculture zones. Now all that has to go into adapting to the landscape and fitting into it, limiting the use of water, recycling it, and conserving water in every way possible. It means adapting in every way, not acting in crisis solution mode but shifting to a whole new way of adapting to the environment that should have been there in the first place with some respect for Nature. ...

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Tankersley points to the broken links between economic growth and growth in jobs and incomes since 1989, which have created a shrinking U.S. middle class. In the postwar period before 1989, a one percent increase in economic growth generated a six tenths of one percent increase in jobs growth during economic recoveries. During the 1992 recovery under George Bush this was down to 0.4%. In the 2001 recovery under George W. Bush this dropped to 0.2%, during the current recovery under Obama this is at 0.3%. Income growth also showed a similiar pattern. Median household incomes declined from 1990-1992 and from 2002-2004, after adjusting for inflation, even with economic growth of 6% during this period. For the 2009-2011 recovery period the economic growth was about 4% yet real median incomes increased barely at 0.5%. By contrast from 1982 to 1984 with economic growth of 11%, real median incomes went up by 5%. The result workers median wages are lower now in the beginning of 2013, after inflation adjustment, than at the end of 2003, and real household income lower in 2011 than in 1989, says Tankersley. Why were the recoveries of 1990 and 2001 for the most part jobless? U.S. Federal Reserve studies show employers mindset had changed, instead of hiring back laid off workers during recoveries, employers did not add many jobs. Automation in factories requiring fewer workers, global outsourcing and supply chains, manufacturing overseas, lack of union-management cooperation on wages and jobs in industries such as the auto industry, increase in temp workers, all played a part in creating fewer and fewer good paying jobs. Some of this is playing out worldwide. In Japan the economic recovery has also come with similiar costs- moving jobs overseas for the auto and electronics industries, increase in temporary worker jobs with lower pay and benefits to about one third of all jobs, and depressed consumer spending as a result lowering the economic growth potential. Even the recent German economic recovery has come with an increase in lower paying temporary jobs and driven by exports to Asia. For the U.S. the situation was worsened by three additional factors- housing foreclosures and the hit to savings from the 2008 financial crisis, high cost of college tution and resulting debt, and the high cost of medical care. The Obama administration's effort to increase the minimum wage would help the poor, but do little to address the broken links between economic growth and jobs growth/income growth. The push for college education does not address affordability and neglects jobs training. Most of the questions raised by the changing patterns remain unanswered, which may be why Obama calls this a generation's task, not that of one administration....

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David Reilly warns that though the U.S. Federal Reserve's stress tests of U.S. banks showed they passed- including approval for dividends and share buyback- except for Ally Financial and Citigroup, this can be deceptive. True, the Fed used 13% unemployment and sharp drop in stock market prices as conditions. The problem is with capital ratios. The Fed used a leverage ratio of 3%. It should not be forgotten that the financial crisis of 2008 was caused by excessive leverage and risk. Tested on this measure the banks fail to achieve safe levels of leverage and risk. Under the Fed's highest stress scenario Citigroup ratio was at 2.9%, Morgan Stanley's at 3.4%, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan at 3.8%- what ths means is that the leverage for these banks was at 26-29 times capital. Reilly raises the question- how is this so different than the leverage used by these banks before the crisis. The stress tests in the U.S. by the U.S. Federal Reserve are lauded for being better than the European Banking Authority's stress tests, but is this a standard by which to judge them? Before the collapse of Lehman in 2008, experts including Anil Kashyap at the University of Chicago, pointed out that for every $1 of bank losses in a deleveraging cycle bank lending goes down at banks by $10, and for investment banks at $20-$30 depending on leveraging- in David Henry and Matthew Goldstein, Business Week, July 16, 2008, How Bad Will It Get on Wall Street? Lehman's leverage ratio was between 24-31 times capital before the crisis. Worse, by saying banks are now safe compared to the situation before the crisis, is the Fed giving the green light to banks for some of the same leveraging behaviour that ocurred before the crisis?...

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The $25 billion mortgage settlement of Feb. 2012, between large U.S. banks and state attorneys general. $17 billion will go to homeowners. Experts say this is good for the banks because it reduces legal uncertainty, and for state attoneys general- it will not be enough to significantly impact the difficult situation in the U.S. housing market.

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Judge Rakoff is interviewed by Adam Liptak as an essay by Rakoff appears in the December 22 issue of The New York Review of Books. Judge Rakoff is critical of the Justice Department for not prosecuting individuals responsible in the 2008-2009 financial crisis and merely offering excuses. He discounts the Justice Department argument that proving intent is difficult or that proving fraud is hard because of the sophisticated counterparties on both sides. He says assistant attorney general in the criminal division Bauer's assertion that you have to prove the individual involved made a false statement, intended to commit a crime, and that the other side depended on this for what they were doing, is misleading. The government is not required to prove that one party to a transaction relied on another party. On the difficulty to prove wilful criminal intent for individuals several layers above those who made and marketed the bad securities, Rakoff says the legal doctrine of wilfull blindness could have been used. Reflecting on why the Justice Department has not prosecuted individuals for wrongdoing the way Milken, Keating and Skilling were prosecuted in prior financial crises, Rakoff comes up with a explanation. He says the government's own role and the role of firms throughout the financial system is suspect in the 2008-2009 financial crisis unlike prior crises. Not only regulators are failing to to do their job. The financial system offers incentives for the packaging of bad debt securities. Fannie Mae has government backing and its management buys these securities to expand access to housing for low income people. The profits made on these securities brings U.S. and foreign banks into this business and leads to a proliferation of these securities around the globe to the point that small towns near the North Pole end up with these securities in their portfolio. This complicates things for prosecutors who in some situations have themselves worked for banks selling these securities. In its slow deliberative way the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and the S.E.C.'s new head, move to prosecute firms during the administration's second term, but not enough is done and tackling individual responsibility for deterring future wrongdoing in the interests of a safe and fair financial system seems a long way off....

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Britain's prime minister David Cameron seeks a "better deal" for Britain before the planned referendum on Britain's membership in the union. Changes Britain is seeking are: restrictions on some social welfare benefits for European migrants for 4 years, guarantees that Britain and other countries using a currency other than the euro would not suffer economic discrimination, and more powers for national parliaments to block European laws. A less tangible change is one that relates to the preamble to the Treaty of Rome, signed in 1957, the founding treaty for the bloc, which says: "Ever closer union among the peoples of Europe." This is similiar to the preample to the American Constitution: "We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union." The euroskeptic wing of the Conservative Party objects to this term "ever closer union," and Cameron will seek a pledge to change the wording. Yet as experts point out the phrase was put in as a result of British requests from the John Major Conservative government in response to a stronger wording from the Dutch government suggesting a federal Europe. Veteran reporters and negotiators at the Maastricht talks, say it is strange that Britain is now objecting to the words. Stephen Wall, a British historian on Britain's relations with the European Union, and a former senior official in the British government, says Margaret Thatcher and other British prime ministers did not object to this. That this issue comes up now is a result says Wall, of Britain's sense of being on the sidelines, of being on the outside to a close partnership between the French and the Germans, and as a result of being outvoted on issues Britain considers important. The president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, says the change would require the approval of all 28 EU members, and an alternative is for a declaration that states Britain is not included in the sense of the phrase....

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After the Epping protests on asylum seekers at hotels- 32000 asylum seekers housed in 210 hotels in UK- disturbing public safety, the UK Home Secretary is  in no mood to let illegal migrants disrupt the entire Labour program for reviving Britain's economy. Denmark is the model where Mette Frederickson has bravely fought the battle against illegal migrants and trafficking by smugglers of people across the Mediterranean and across the English Channel. Labour MP's in the north and northeast of England understand this with the option from UK Reform to end this whole thing about illegal migration altogether. Labour has to do soul searching on why it has taken so long to figure this out and why the plan to house immigrants in hotels was put forward in the first place and tougher action taken by Denmark for the last 8 years not adopted earlier. It shows a complete disregard and disrespect for the British system of parliamentary democracy of the 500 years or going back to Magna Carta itself, when the people of Britain and their public safety, their freedom to live in dignity without illegal migrants in their neighborhoods across Britain, is not respected by local and thenational government. This is something that even the people of India, of China, and other Asian countries, African countries, and Latin American countries who understand the contributions of the British parliamentary system to their own governance can readily grasp and respect- the freedom and dignity of the British people in their own neighborhoods to live in complete public safety. ...

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Toyota makes a sharp rebound after the recall and the tsunami in Japan. Still Takahiko Ijichi, senior managing officer, strikes a note of caution. He says "the latest numbers are not necessarily reflective of our true strength." Toyota has to contend with the slowdown in China, the problems in Europe, and the strong yen in coming months.

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U.S. Federal Reserve policies that focus on bringing down the unemployment rate, with special focus on the long term unemployed. The Fed's view is that unemployment is high across all sectors and industries and not based primarily on structural factors such as mismatch in skills. Structural unemployment cannot be reduced through interest rate or monetary policy.

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This NYT Editorial says now that the debt ceiling agreement is reached between president Biden and Kevin McCarthy of the Republicans it should be passed quickly in the US Congress. It points out the need to consider the use of the 14th Amendment in the future- by getting some idea of how the Supreme Court views the use of this action- to prevent another debt ceiling negotiation like this one in 2025 when this agreement ends.

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Ordinary Americans are better off paying of their credit card debt, delaying mortgages for an house when house prices have surged and mortgage rates once 3% are now about 7%, and not borrowing money for a car, says this report in the WSJ. Savings habits that were popular in the pandemic are needed today because credit card debt is a pre-pandemic levels, and spending habits need restraint for household budgets facing high inflation.

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Commodity prices are surging worldwide. Shortages of potash with cutoff of supplies from Russia and Belarus is affecting fertilizer supplies and agriculture  worldwide. New mines for commodities in much demand will take years to begin production. A mine in the Canadian prairies is expected to be the largest potash mine in the world, yet production will not begin till 2027. The situation is the same for coal  copper, nickel, and other commodities.

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A major factor in the next step in the French presidential election, the runoff second round, is how voters who supported former socialist candidate Jean Luc-Melenchon will vote in second round. He has now asked his voters not to give a single vote to Marie Le Pen. The socialist and Republicain candidates, and Green candidate now also support Mr. Macron in the second round of voting on April 24. 

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This analysis in the WSJ looks at president Trump's handling of the economy during the period before and following the coronavirus. It says a Gallup poll taken in September showed 56% or a majority of Americans thought they were better off than four years ago. The same poll shows handling of the coronavirus that hurt the economy not getting high marks for the president. A lot of uncertainty remains says this report.

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The coronavirus pandemic has a significant negative impact on women as they face job, child care and home responsibilities. One report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis says that without a comprehensive system of support "women will forever be vulnerable to career scarring during any major crisis like this pandemic." This is true not just for the U.S., it is also true for women in countries in Europe, in Asia and other countries.

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The ICC inducts Vinoo Mankad, one of India's most famous batsmen into its Hall of Fame. Mankad scored 72 and 184 at Lord's and bowled 97 overs in 1952. Vinoo Mankad was mentor for another cricketer Sunil Gavaskar.

Gavaskar says one of the lessons he got from Vinoo Mankad was that technique alone was not enough, "you have to be hanging in there and have that self-belief."

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Most people have not heard of Stellantis N.V. First there was Chrysler, then Fiat merged with Chrysler, now Fiat Chrysler merges with Citroen and Peugeot of France. The result is Stellantis N.V. with CEO Carlo Tavares. This group plans an investment of $35.5 billion in electric vehicles through 2025 and have 5 battery plants built in US and Europe. Tougher emissions standards worldwide are pushing car makers to make these investments in electrification of cars.

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Artificial coatings such as shellac and beeswax to make lemons and oranges shiny are seen as totally unneeded by buyers. When one goes to a neighborhood vegetable market for fresh fruits and vegetables one does not see this kind of behaviour, everything is how nature intended it to be. Then why do supermarkets and grocery stores behave in this way? Bad habits were acquired over the last two decades, including overuse of plastic.

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James Marson tells the story of how Ukraine volunteer forces helped defend Kviv from the Russian army in the early days of the war. As refugees spilled out on the roads the regular army did not have the mobility and speed that volunteers organized in small units. Volunteers quickly blew up bridges and dams to slow the Russian advance until regular army units could move into action. This was how Kviv was defended in March 2022.

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Places singer Linda Ronstadt visits in Tucson, Arizona, her home town, are shown here in the NYT. Abbie Kozolchyk herself from Tucson takes us to places in the Sonoran desert type region with Saguaro cactus. These are places which she has known from her childhood- the San Xavier del Bac Mission and the Mission Garden, the oldest European building in Arizona. Then there is the Sonoran Desert Museum. The Arizona Inn and the Barrio Brothers bakery.