LyrArc Article Gist
Efforts to bring better wages and conditions to fast food business  through a law passed by Governor Newsom in California, to bring upward mobility and integration into the mainstream of society for millions of American families and children being opposed by McDonald's and Starbucks. Current wages are $15 a week which would bring a typical fast food worker $30,000 a year for a 40 hour week for 50 weeks. The poverty level for a family of five is $32,470 on the Healthcare.gov site for the USA. Are fast food business corporations saying that children of these families should be kept forever at below the poverty level set by the American government? Why? Are they saying that labor is subordinate to capital? Are they then going to go further to say that upward mobility shall forever be denied to millions of children in these families? On what grounds? Republicans say they are the party of Lincoln. Something more- What did Lincoln fight the Civil war for? The plantation economy of the South also denied labour and children of labour the rights of upward mobility. How did Lincoln win the civil war? By speaking up for the rights of free men everywhere in a land of abundant land and new future. "This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form and substance and government, whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men- to lift artificial weights from all shoulders- to clear the path of laudable pursuit for all- to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of life. Yielding to partial, and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for whose existence we contend." July 4, 1861, Special Message to a special session of the US Congress. "Our adversaries have adopted some Declarations of Independence; in which unlike the old one, penned by Jefferson, they omit the words " all men are created equal."  Why? They have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the preamble of which unlike our  good old one signed by Washington, they omit "We, the People" and substitute "We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view, the rights of men and the authority of the people?"   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Germany is becoming a key partner for India in its rapid modernization. German chancellor Scholz's visit to India following German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's visit is a turning point for India's trade and manufacturing for advanced technologies relationship with Germany. Renewable energy, defense and manufacturing technologies are key areas for increasing cooperation. Baerbock brings youthful energies, enthusiasm, and new thinking to the relationship with India. A recent visit by Baerbock to Africa to return museum pieces to their original country showed Baerbock as something Asia and Africa have not seen in the twentienth or twenty first century from Germany- real spirit and understanding unparalleled in our time. As the German ambassador points out Baerbock had a great visit at the recent G-20 foreign ministers meeting in India.

LyrArc Article Gist
The coalition in Ireland remains in power with Sinn Fein at 21%, yet the combined vote for Fine Gael+ Fianna Fail at 40%. Sinn Fein is the political party of the IRA which is now focused on local issues such as housing, immigration and transport.

LyrArc Article Gist
David Reilly says the Fed's response to the large volatility in the stock market after the credit downgrade of the U.S. to AA+ makes sense. The Fed's Open Market Committee voted 7-3 on August 9, 2011, to keep interest rates exceptionally low till mid-2013. With credit markets working and the financial system having sufficient liquidity the Fed did not need to take drastic action. Coming only a short period after the end of QE II, a QE III could be seen as an over-reaction. Another reason for the Fed's action- more pressure was needed for the U.S. government and Congress to shoulder responsibility for the economy. In an earlier statement the Fed had pointed out that the Fed by itself can only do so much and this is consistent with that thinking. There are important headwinds from housing, large consumer debt, deficits, and high unemployment that the Fed alluded to in that statement that will take time to reverse with policy action on several fronts over a longer period. In the speech made on June 6, 2011, U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, said "monetary policy cannot be a panacea."...

LyrArc Article Gist
This report in the New Yorker provides a good glimpse at the problems of global warming and limiting climate change goal of 1.5 degrees centigrade. Sally Ann Ranney co-founder of the American Renewable Energy Institute answers questions from the New Yorker magazine. Limiting climate change warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2100 is a goal enshrined in the Paris Agreement. In the absence of this the global warming would be 2.7 degrees centigrade by 2100. For this 1.5 degrees centigrade goal to be reached fossil fuel use and carbon emissions have to be cut by 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. 

The ice pack in the Arctic is part of a planetary cooling system and its accelerated melting is a good sign of the danger the planet faces. Ranney answers a number of these questions.

LyrArc Article Gist
Pandemic era child learning setbacks are the subject of this report in the WSJ. The children who were learning to read in the first year of the pandemic have the lowest reading proficiency in 20 years, US national data shows. It is tough to make up for learning loss. It could take five years or more for today's fourth graders to read proficiently unless the pace accelerates. Graduation rate from high school depends on how well third graders can read. Literacy levels at that age are critical. Reading affects the content they absorb in other subjects. Without any guide to tackling pandemic type learning loss its is mostly about winging it with educators hoping getting in more tutoring groups, more summer school will work. This report looks at educators in the Nashville School District and the results they have gained, the work that is being done.

LyrArc Article Gist
German chancellor, Angela Merkel, appeals to members of the Christian Democratic Party to support the European project at a party convention in Leipzig on November 14, 2011. "We live in times of epic change. Our political compass has not changed. But the context is constantly changing," said Merkel. The 2 day convention used the motto: "For Europe. For Germany." Her message was that it will take years of hard work to fix the crisis and yet this has created an opportunity to put the European project on a sounder footing. Finance Minister Schauble put it succintly as he supported Merkel's appeal: "We now need to build the political union in Europe we never managed to build in the 90's." This comes as changes are taking place in Europe with new unity governments being formed in Greece by Mario Monti, a former EU commissioner, and in Greece by Papdemos, another EU official. And it comes as a head of Italy's central bank, Mario Draghi, who had pushed for stricter controls on spending by the Italian government, is now the head of the European Central Bank. Merkel also hit on the theme of a stricter financial union, and the need for courage to change the treaty underlying the European monetary union to allow strong, automatic sanctions for violations of the treaty. She also emphasized that the government had ruled out issuance of eurobonds that makes the EU as a whole responsible for the debt of individual countries. On that point she said: "Everywhere we look we find behaviour that cannot go on for long. Everywhere people are living as if there is no tomorrow."...

LyrArc Article Gist
How inflation is affecting people who thought themselves to be in the middle class like postal workers and teachers and public sector emplyees. Wages are stagnant in many parts of the European economy as inflation picks up and the price of basic necessities like bread and fueling the family car cost more as the year progresses. A study by the German Institute of Economic Research in Berlin finds that the broad middle of the German workforce defined as workers earning 70 to 150% of the median income shrunk to 54% of the population in 2007 from 62% in 2000. Something is clearly going on with wages not keeping up with inflation and it does not look good just as a global slowdown that started in the USA is affecting the rest of the world. In Britain striking teachers closed schools as proposed wage raises of 2.5% were not enough to meet the rising cost of living, with food up 7% and oil up 20% since this time last year. German workers have already staged a series of strikes for a greater share in the increased wealth after years of making concessions and the mood in Germany is that a lot of the senior business people are making too much at the expense of workers who are being asked to sacrifice too much....

LyrArc Article Gist
Although the Russian economy has weathered the Ukraine war with 3.6% growth estimated by Rossstat and 3% by IMF in 2023, this comes with the economy dependent on heavy military spending. Military spending on defense budget increases to $119 billion in 2024, and increase of an astounding 90% from 2021. It has boosted wages in construction and aided certain industrial regions near Moscow and St Petersburg, and boosted manufacturing with more products made at home. The oil and gas revenues decreased by 23% in 2023 over 2022. After 2 years of war and particularly after contraction in 2022 the Russian economy is recovering and has surprised most forecasters. The problem with military industrial complex growth is that it leads to uneven growth with negect of some areas. In Russia the reduced access to western advanced technology is compensated by increase in technological capacity of countries such as China. A bigger problem is the loss of human resources during the war in Ukraine, and Russians who left the country seeking better lives in other countries.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Venezuelan government provides gasoline to people in the country at a few cents a gallon- almost free. Even Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Kuwait which have way better financial balances and dollar reserves do not provide gasoline at such prices. The result is chronic shortages of basic parts and other imports because the government does not have enough dollar reserves for imports. Venezuela devalued its currency by 32% recently, making imports more expensive and pushing inflation up even higher to 28%. The problems it creates are excessive and wasteful use of gasoline, and free gasoline that then provides consumers money to pay for surging cost of everyday imported products. Nullifying any real benefits when shortages, inflation, dilapidated infrastructure and lack of development and jobs, are taken into account. The lack of capital to invest in the oil industry has led to declining production making the situation unsustainable. Yet neither party of Maduro or Capriles in the upcoming April 14, 2013 election, following the death of Chavez, supports ending this subsidy. Efforts to end the subsidy by president Carlos Andres Perez in 1986 led to riots and about hundred deaths in police response, and a coup by Chavez, then a military officer, a few years later. Under Chavez the subsidy was extended to the level at which gasoline is about 4 cents a gallon. Compare this with the price in neighboring Colombia at $4.72 a gallon, and Brazil at $5.40 per gallon. Consumption per capita in Venezuela is excessively high, about seven times per capita than neighboring Columbia. The investment in infrastucture is hobbled by lack of capital, the capital Caracas dilapidated, and no major infrastructure projects taken up by the government. It costs Venezuela 8.6% of GDP or $27 billion to pay for the excessively high subsidy, compared to 3.2% of GDP going to healthcare spending and 5.1% for education. In comparison Indonesia, another developing country, uses 2.5% of GDP or 21 billion for its subsidy for a population of over 200 million. It is not that a fuel subsidy is provided, but the entitlement to free gasoline that makes Venezuela the lone exception. There is a reason why prices in Brazil and China, large developing countries, price gasoline to motorists at over $4 a gallon- to discourage excessive and wasteful use, and release scarce capital for infrastructure development, building dollar reserves for imports of machinery and equipment, and other uses in industrializing economies. Compare Venezuela with Bolivia under the socialist government of Evo Morales. In 2010 Bolivia increased its price of gasoline by 80%. The price in 2013 is about $2.00 per gallon. Morales cushioned the increase by increasing salaries in the health and education sectors, armed forces and police by 20%, and increasing prices of locally produced wheat, corn and rice by 10%. Morales said he did this to reduce state subsidies of $380 million for $660 million in gasoline imports, of which $150 million was siphoned off by smuggling gasoline to neigboring countries. Incentives were provided to oil companies to produce gasoline in Bolivia to reduce imports. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Peter Fisher spent 15 years at the New York Fed and was actively involved in the resolution of the 1998 LTCM crisis. He is amanaging director of Black Rock. Yes interest rates were too low for too long and the Bernanke Fed's shift from the earlier era made the markets take a new hard look at the loose practices in the mortgage market leading to a crisis of confidence. There is only a 60-40 % chance that the Fed will lower rates on Sept 18. Globalization spreads risk but it can also cause the crisis to spread to all parts of the world very quickly.

LyrArc Article Gist
The WSJ's Iliff and Luhnow's interview with Emilio Lozoya, CEO of Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). Lozoya says about the new oil law that allows foreign companies to compete with Pemex, as something that should have happened decades ago. President Calderon of the PAN party pushed hard for this, but failed to get the support of the PRI during his term in office 2006-2012. It made sense for Mexico because President Cardozo (1997-2002) of Brazil already set a successful example by doing this for Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras. The main point is that competition is good for Pemex, and good for Mexico and Mexicans, and Lozoya emphasizes this. Under the law Pemex can keep oil fields it already has and have the first pick in future fields. Pemex is expected to partner in oil field exploration in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico where it needs the technologies of foreign oil companies. Under the new rules Pemex will have 2 years in which to make the transition to a well managed business enterprise. A new tax code works to increase nonoil tax revenues, so that Mexico does not depend on Pemex profits for one third of its budget. It also gives Pemex autonomy and control over its budget, and lowers its tax burden to international levels. This frees up badly needed resources for investment opportunties to increase Mexico's growth rate. Lozoya says the investment budget could be increased from $25 billion to about $30-$35 billion as a result. He gives a list of badly needed projects not taken up by Pemex for lack of funds- developing natural gas from Mexico's large reserves where Mexico imports its natural gas from Texas increasing the cost of manufacturing, building pipelines where Mexico transports fuel by truck which is 15 times more costly, making its own fertilizer and petrochemicals instead of importing it in a country where 60% of farmland is not fertilized. There is so much to be done that Lozoya realizes his main challenge will be execution. Enormous responsibility rests on Lozoya's shoulders to get the execution right. Pemex has 160,000 employees and crude oil sales of $130 billion in 2012. He has a Masters degree in economic development from Harvard and managed investment funds in New York before this position. Cardozo also picked an investment banking professional for the job of recharting the course of Petrobras and attracting foreign investment....

LyrArc Article Gist
The 2010 census reveals significant changes in the population mix in the U.S. The number of Hispanic people increased significantly, especially so in the under 18 age group. The Hispanic population went up by 43%, increasing to 50.5 million in 2010, compared to 35.3 million in 2000. Overall Hispanics make up 16% of the U.S. population of 308.7 million. One of the striking facts in the change is that children under age of 18 make up one third of the Hispanic population compared to one fifth for the white population. Texas by itself added 979,000 people under age 18, with 931,000 being Hispanic. 92% of the population growth since 2000-of 25.1 million- came from minorities of all kinds. And mixed race is another major category with nine million people. Asian American population also increased, especially in major cities such as San Francisco, San Jose and New York. Overall 63.7% of people identified as white, 16.3% as Hispanic, 12.2% as black, 4.7% as Asian, 0.7% as American Indian or Alaska natives. New York and Washington saw black populations decline. Detroit dropped out of the top ten cities replaced by San Jose. Chicago's population declined, New York's went up by 2% to 8.2 million people. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Forever chemicals such as PFAS that breakdown over long periods cause serious harm with contamination of drinking water. The Biden administration has $10 billion allocated under the $1 trillion Families and Workers Plan that was approved by the US Congress to prevention of PFAS contamination. Of this the EPA is using $1 billion for water testing, water treatment plants and to train contractors for corrective action.

Har Ghar Jal, or every home clean drinking water, is a slogan used in India to ensure clean drinking water from taps for everyone of 1.3 billion people. The US faces a similar challenge to get clean drinking water to its nearly 400 million people. The two largest democracies in the world are tackling the basic necessities of life together, with the Biden administration sharing the understanding of the Modi administration of what this means for the people of India and America.

LyrArc Article Gist
Michaelson and Narli show that Erdogan remains popular even in earthquake hit areas in this report in The Guardian from Kahramanmaras, Turkey. A report in the NYT shows Erdogan at rallies in rural provinces and smaller cities across Turkey, citing poetry, invoking God, and staying on the campaign trail. Erdogan won two thirds of the vote in Sivas one of the founding places for the revolution under Mustafa Kemal that made Turkey an independent nation largely out of Anatolian province. The main base of Mustafa Kemal in 1923 the year of the founding of the Turkish nation with the Treaty of Lausanne was in Ankara. This was under the banner of the Republican party which is now in the opposition with the mayors of Ankara and Istanbul from this party. Both the opposition and Erdogan face a difficult time ahead whoever wins as inflation is at 40% and the cost of living crisis remains a difficult challenge for any government.

LyrArc Article Gist
TSMC founder claims American cost of chip manufacturing is an "exercize in futility," because American costs are 50% higher than in Taiwan. This is laissez faire economic theory at work, governments overseas subsidize industries. Laissez faire economic theory that became popular with the Reagan administration means the US cannot compete by supporting its own industry in advanced technologies.  Government of Taiwan covers costs at its Taiwan manufacturing plants through subsidies some of them hidden in cost calculations. As the Oregonian reports here Intel and other US and European manufacturing companies are already competing with TSMC, and the Biden administration now plans to support American chip manufacturing- to make America a leader in chip manufacturing that it was when and obscure student from Taiwan received his engineering degrees from MIT followed by training for two decades at Texas Instruments and Reagan's misguided economic theories allowed American technologies and manufacturing to be shipped overseas. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Costs of climate change include food insecurity and drought, floods and fires. FR24 pictures show 10 figures from the 2021 Report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: code red for humanity.

Shorter growing seasons lead to declines of 6% for corn and soy, and winter wheat 3%, rice 2% relative to 1980-2010.  2 billion people face food insecurity. Costs from extreme weather events in 2020 was $278 billion. 4 million deaths attributable to air pollution in 2019.

Drought leads to migration in Africa and Asia as crops and cattle wither in the heat from lack of rain. The estimated share of global surface area affected by extreme drought for any given month in 2020 is a shocking 19% according to this FR24 report. Also shocking is that until 2010 this figure was rarely above 5%.

 

LyrArc Article Gist
The rule requiring health pass showing one is fully vaccinated goes into effect in France starting July 28 at restaurants, coffee shops, trains, and other public places. For the first week restaurants will not be fined. After this they can be fined 1500 euros for a single violation. The passe sanitaire in France is now required  for all public places where more than 50 people gather, such as events and museums including the Louvre in Paris. It will be extended to restaurants, cafes and shopping centres in August.

French premier Castex says 97% of the 18000  daily average new cases in France, up by 150% since the prior week, are from the unvaccinated. This has made health authorites and the government concerned about the delta variant high transmission rates and the high proportion of people still not vaccinated. For France this poses risk of a new kind of fourth wave, causing the government to take strong action to accelerate vaccinations.

LyrArc Article Gist
The WSJ Editorial Board on the predawn vote on February 14th 2024 with a vote of 70-29 approving US aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. A lot of the investment is in the US in Patriot missiles built in Arizona and defense equipment in Alabama as the president pointed out in his message to House Republicans shown alongside saying history is watching. WSJ reminds readers that Arthur Vandenburg of Michigan helped president Harry Truman setup the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for the defense of Eastern Europe falling into Soviet hands- the danger seen in Greece and Turkey in the 1947 and the Berlin Blockade 1948-49. The Truman Doctrine was announced on March 12, 1947. People forget that Truman asked Congress for $400 million in military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey. With it Greece, the mother of western democracies was able to stave off defeats from Soviet supported forces by 1950.

LyrArc Article Gist
2023 is the year of huge aviation orders. Some even say this may stave off a recession. Biden says this would create 1 million jobs in the US. Modi names about 10 American states that will benefit from India's growing civilian and military aircraft needs. The biggest order in aviation history was one of 500 single aisle planes from Airbus by India's Indigo Airlines. Before this order Air India made an order of 470 planes from Airbus and Boeing. Riyadh Air and the Saudi airline also place large orders. 

WSJ cautions that it takes 6 years for planes on order to be delivered. There are production and regulatory issues. Some of the orders can be pared down. One expert says it is a way to get in line for planes to be delivered by planning ahead as the Indians have done by foresight about rapidly growing demand.

LyrArc Article Gist
Victoria Pendleton, British Olympic medalist in cycling, describes what it was like to be a girl cyclist in the last 2 decades in a male dominated macho culture that had little room for girls cyclists with a broader mind and interests. A lot changed since then and Pendleton had to put up with a lot of the bad in British male cycling culture that got questioned in the last 10 years. Pendleton had moments of deep depression as a result but recovered with help from her family. Here she recounts the events of these years. She feels finally liberated even in simple acts such as eating vegetarian and trying other sports, so stifling was male cycling culture of that time. She felt liberated talking to the coach and girls cyclists practicing for the Paris Olympics and expressed amazement and relief that a lot is different now from the bad days of old.

LyrArc Article Gist
Biden is seen in Ireland as the most Irish president Since John F. Kennedy. Biden's great- great grandfather is Owen Finnegan who lived in Carlingford, Ireland, and left for New York in 1849. Two ancestral towns are preparing for his trip in Ireland, one in the county of Mayo and one in the scenic east coast's Cooley peninsula. Some Irish say Biden's interest in Ireland is very genuine, very personal. Biden quotes from Irish poets. He is the most Irish president except for JFK. There are more than 30 million Irish Americans in America and there is a connection with the island that is not found anywhere else. Mr. Biden invited on member of his family to the White House from Ireland for St Patrick's Day. He is all family they say about Mr. Biden. There is great enthusiasm for his visit in Ireland and for what Biden is doing to keep the Good Friday Agreement signed 25 years ago in 1998 so that Brexit does not affect it and border are soft. The Bridge at the border may be called The Biden Bridge. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
China's Environment Ministry has not released the results of a soil survey from across China. Independent estimates from Nanjing Agricultural University in a 2007-2008 survey showed about 10% of rice in China contaminated by high levels of cadmium. In May 2013 officials found a large number of samples of rice from markets in Guangzhou contaminated with cadmium. Cadmium is a carcinogenic metal that damages the kidneys and weakens bones when unknowingly taken in excessive levels.

LyrArc Article Gist
What is the one thing experts say is most beneficial for health? Improving our minds by building self-awareness. Understanding your feelings, motivations and behaviours in more depth, enables us to make better choices. To do this try journaling, meditating, practicing mindfulness or simply making time for self-reflection at the end of the day.

In doing this also pay attention to diversity in eating plant based foods for as many as 30 plant based foods, incorporating different exercize routines that get you motivated and happy, and get a good seven or eight hours of sleep, say these experts in health and nutrition.