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Much of the talk of risk posed by crypto digital assets when central banks around the world cautioned about crypto digital risk is less heard in 2026 with crypto companies financing of the DJT campaign. Banks remain wary of crypto digital assets and of new legislation supported by Coinbase to legitimize crypto assets. Most banks pay very low interest rates of 0.1% on small deposits and this also presents a problem, though there are options where some banks offer rates of 2-3 percent.

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The Mumbai High Court dismisses petitions to stop work on the Mumbai Metro in Aarey colony. The court calls the petitions frivolous and fines the petitioners Rs. 50000. Ashwini Bhide head of the Mumbai Metro project has explained that the trees cut for the project are a small fraction of existing trees and will be replaced with new trees. She has emphasized that millions of Mumbai residents for decades have put up with long and difficult commutes because infrastructure projects were delayed repeatedly. The WSJ has called this one of the world's most audacious transit projects and timely completion is expected as the culture on infrastructure expectations changes in India.

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 DJT calls the 155 billion euro deficit the US has with the European Union "an atrocity," saying they treated us badly. 

DJT says-

"It might happen with that, but it will definitely happen with the European Union. I can tell you that, because they've really taken advantage, you know, we have over $300 billion deficit.”

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Two women one from Pennsylvania and one from Washington state, one Republican and one Democrat. Opinions did not change. A businessman from Pennsylvania who gave the DJT State of the Union address to Congress an A. Two minority voters, blacks from Georgia call it racist or dictatorial. A small business owner, a Democrat from Dominican Republic, from Pennsylvania calls it offensive to immigrants by describing only the worst of immigrants or migrants. Does not appear to be a good enough sample spread out over the Nation, an unrepresentative with 3 from racial minorities or 43% of sample.

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The point at which pensions begin and retirement begins is thought of normally as 65 years. This is changing. Experts on ageing at Britain's ONS, Office of National Statistics say 70 years is replacing 65 years as the age at which people can work and contribute to society, working later in their careers and doing voluntary work. This would help ease pressure on pension system financing and cost of social service to elders. Because of rising longevity and improvements in healthcare, diet and lifestyles people age 70 had characteristics of people age 65 in 1997, say ONS experts. ONS looks at a new way to measure ageing. Do not use chronological years from birth, work backwards from remaining life expectancy and operate on the basis of 15 years as the marker for old age. Under this method start of old age is 70 for men and 72 for women. As people over 65 years is approaching a fourth of the population this fresh thinking gives more room for pension system sustainability, and helping engage people at work for longer more productive lives. Both for the economy and personally for the individual. ...

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Instead of killing the NAFTA trade agreement Trump and his advisors prefer renegotiating the treaty. Priorities for the Trump administration are reducing the U.S. deficit with Mexico of $61 billion. Trade with Mexico and Canada is worth $1.1 trillion and the complex supply chains works such that product components cross borders more than once to become finished products. Mexico promotes its auto and other industries as duty free access to the U.S. for foreign investment. Special tariffs would reduce the trade deficit with Mexico and firms that moved production to Mexico would pay additional taxes. A provision that allows Mexican and Canadian companies to challenge U.S. regulations would also be removed. Rep. Brad Sherman (Democrat) says he supports the renegotiation so that duties of 4% are imposed to reduce the deficit to $25 billion.

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President Trump says he is considering restoring funding to the WHO, but reduce the overall funding by 90%. He told Lou Dobbs of Fox News he would reduce the funding to 10% of what the U.S. was paying, to bring it to the level China was paying. China pays only 10% of what the U.S. pays and has a much larger influence on the WHO. In this crisis this has affected the normal WHO response to virus epidemics as much of the pre crisis development was missed by the WHO, and the WHO failed to ensure transparency from all its members so that international cooperation could happen very early to prevent the virus from spreading quickly. 

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Iranian public reaction to the air strikes Feb 28 2026 and death of Khamanei- within Iran disconnect with the government policies and economic hardship. Outside Iran a similar situation with open expression unfolds. Iranian diaspora pubic reaction to US strikes on Iran and death of Khamanei March 1 2026 following protests in Iran in February, is covered in the Washington Post. There are about 1 million Iranian refugees in US and Germany alone and another 1 million in Arab countries Kuwait, UAE and Turkey. And half a million in Sweden and Canada, 250,000 in Israel. 

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Sales of Barnes & Noble Nook unit e-readers, tablets, digital content and accessories decreased 12.6% to $311 million for the nine week holiday period of Nov-Dec 2012 compared to same period 2013. Retail sales from the bookstore and website decreased 10.9% in that period. This raises questions about the digital strategy of Barnes & Noble.

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The situation in farms and orchards in the U.S. as growers face shortages of labor to pick vegetable and fruit produce. A special visa program provides U.S. farms for vegetable and fruit produce with agricultural workers from Mexico. In 2019 this program brought in about 268,000 agricultural workers from Mexico.This report looks at the effort of companies to ensure that agricultural workers are well taken care of. This includes delivery of groceries to limit trips to nearby towns, offering food trucks with prepared meals. Problems of overcrowded housing and lack of access to health care are problems that are being tackled. Some companies are reconfiguring field work for health safety, and funding overtime work at local health clinics.

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U.S. naval exercizes in Hawaii (Pacific Rim) which include China, and the naval exercizes at Subic Bay intended to counter China in the Pacific.

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Helen Gao provides this exceptional story of how 544,000 Chinese students studying abroad far from being success stories are facing stress, anxiety, depression to an unusual degree. About 329,000 of them are in the U.S. where the $50,000 to $60,000 college tuition cost is ten times the disposable income of a Chinese family. For working class families study abroad means using up savings. Researchers at Yale in a 2013 survey found 45 percent of Chinese students on campus had symptoms of depression, 29% had anxiety. This is similar to other universities in the U.S., Australia and Britain with large Chinese student populations. Language barriers and cultural barriers pose a problem particularly in student interactions with advisers and professors. Liberal arts studies emphasize critical thinking and other skills that are not found in a results oriented, memorization from note cards oriented system in China, creating academic stress. Worse what awaits students who return is not enough recognition for years spent studying in a different environment- about 80% of Chinese students from abroad earn a mere $1500 a month, according to a Beijing think tank Center for China and Globalization report done with a recruitment agency Zhilian Zhaopin. As she talks about the experience of other students from China, Gao describes her own anxiety attacks during 8 years of study in the U.S. Her father sent pictures after his first visit to the U.S. in 1995 says Gao, with words about how he wanted his daughter to see the U.S. with her own eyes, the beauty of the country and its spirit. Years later Helen Gao of Beijing sees a different America as she walks from one Harvard campus building to another in 2015 during her last year of graduate study, one that brings anxiety, financial insecurity, and uncertainty about the future.   ...

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The uncertain returns from AI is not good for retirees whose funds are invested in AI funded by corporate bonds. With enormous needs for capital how about $3 trillion for Ai investment to 2028 , says WSJ, only $1.5 trillion can come from cash flows and $1.5 trillion has to come from elsewhere such as corporate bonds and annuities retirees purchase. This lowers credit ratings of these instruments as AI returns are uncertain. This is not a good situation for retirees in the US.

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Wang Xiaohong, head of public security joins a team led by vice premier He Lifeng, for China's talks with Treasury head Scott Bessent, and Jamieson Greer USTR. The talks are held in Switzerland and include fentanyl as a top topic. The US has called its tariffs fentanyl tariffs on China for lack of the necessary action to stop flow of fentanyl from China to the US. Progress will depend on action on this issue and discussion of other trade issues that cause the lack of a level playing field for the US in trade with China.

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Jess Phillips,the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley writes about New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern's experience of being knackered- of burnout and having no gas left in the tank. She says women worry about our families, ourselves, and society's expectations, so that it is not surprising when this leads to burnout. It is worse for women in politics, she says, with the constant threat of abuse that contributes to burnout. She calls for the building of support structures in society that will criminalize the perpetrators of this abusive behaviour, and those who make profits from spreading it.