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In this interview with Gerald Seib of the WSJ, U.S. president Obama responds to criticism within his party as he pushes for the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement with Japan and other countries in Latin America and Asia. European nations and India have joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank setup by China, creating pressure for the U.S. to respond to China's influence in the region. The interview shows president Obama taking the criticism from inside the Democratic party personally about his lack of concern for middle class and working class families during his six and half years in office.

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How the state of Maharashtra was formed from Bombay state that included Gujarat, by making language as a basis of state formation offers clues for India's economic and political solutions to the problem of modernizing the country in the way Japan and China have done. The same is true for Gujarat.  Gujarat added the princely states of Saurashtra. The original Bombay state did not include Saurashtra or the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of today's Maharashtra state. Vidarbha and Marathwada were added to create Maharashtra, Saurashtra was added to create Gujarat. Voting patterns have given the party that is pushing hardest for modernization of infrastructure with speed and scale favorability in most regions of Maharashtra except Marathwada regions and most regions of Gujarat except Saurashtra. The Bombay city region that forms a large part of the voting population in Maharashtra came first under the influence of British, then Gujarati business, then trade unions, followed by a Mumbai for Marathis movement, and now an integration of the Marathi movement into one that reaches for leadership for modernization on a national scale.   Bombay city is itself being dug up in a way Tokyo in the 20's and 60's must have been, or Shanghai in the 90's, 1912 sites have been dug up for a next generation Metro system of trains, a bullet train to Ahmedabad and New Delhi and for bridges across the Arabian sea, new expressways. Projects that were stalled for decades because of political stalling inaction are now being pushed ahead to be finished in 2-3 years or half the time. In Japan in the 20's the incentive was Japan's resurgence, in the 60's its recovery from world war. In China in the 90's the rush to modernize after the Japanese invasion and failed attempts in the 60's. In India today it is the rush to modernize after the British Empire's extraction of wealth from the country since 1850, and the failed attempts twice in the 60's and 90's.   ...

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The WSJ responds to president Biden ramping up renewable energy plans and linking Republicans with Senator Rick Scott's plan for sunset provisions on federal legislation every 5 years that Biden says would include Medicare and Social Security. WSJ is critical of Biden's renewable energy plans and calls for increasing production of oil and gas to meet energy shortages and price increases. It is also against a wealth tax, Biden's $2 trillion Workers and Families Plan, and Biden's plan for Medicare to negotiate drug prices. WSJ says real disposable personal income increased $4205 under the Trump presidency 2017-2020, and has since declined by $374 with high inflation depressing purchasing power. The impact of climate change requiring brave choices and strong action is missing in the Republican plan as Republicans focus on attacking Democrats controlling the presidency and Congress on the issue of inflation. The issue of remaking supply chains are on both the Republican and Democratic agendas with president Trump giving more rhetoric against China's role in dominance of supply chains and Mr. Biden taking stronger action in Theodore Roosevelt's style of carrying a big stick and quiet posture in restoring America as a manufacturing powerhouse. The impact of climate change is short term rather than long term as seen by the heat wave in South Asia today, the fires in North America and Europe. Republicans are losing sight of the importance of making the shift on renewable energy quickly with some short term pain, as they push for oil and gas solutions and a less effective program for renewable energy. Mr. Biden is taking on bigger risks in the short term in the midterms and beyond but following a sound policy of aggressively pushing renewable energy. This can also be seen in the importance renewable energy is being given even in countries with a need for coal and natural gas such as India. Modi's plans in India are to buildup renewable energy capacity with aggressive targets for 2030. ...

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WSJ's Andrew Restuccia and Michelle Hackman look at another deportation of about 1 million people of Mexican descent in 1954 under the Eisenhower administration. It looks at the human toll. Many of the people were brought in to tackle the shortage of men to do farm work and harvest crops during the war period 1941-1945.   The alternative proposed by Biden and senior Republican senators McConnell and Lankford and supported by most senior Republicans is the tough immigration legislation drafted by Lankford that president Harris has pledged to sign. In 1954 the US economy was a small fraction of what it is today and struggling from the aftermath of the world war and the Korean War. The US economy would suffer shortages of manpower in construction and farm work that would reduce economic growth by about 1%, from the effects of a 1954 type plan and from the distraction for American focus on chips, science, and manufacturing that is needed to compete in a new world of India, China in addition to Japanese EU competition. States such as Kansas in the midwest feel this shortage, and in the Carolinas in the south, Red states and blue face shortages. Kansas is actively seeking new legal immigrants and welcoming them as shown in the WSJ. This is a different country than 1954 and this must be recognized or we will fall behind China, Japan and India. Cultural literacy is world knowledge and was proposed before by the Exxon Foundation and E. D. Hirsch in 1988. This needs to be revived so that children like Harris who know enough about American history, language and culture to be productive American citizens- as they learn in school and through interaction with fellow citizens in the neighborhood and libraries- can become the norm. There is no reason this cannot be done effectively with the resources committed to this from the federal and state governments in tens of billions of dollars, including to the library system, community colleges, community civic education centers, and to literacy and world knowledge sites such as Lyrarc.com, Wikipedia and Britannica.com. ...

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A sense of how the U.S. Supreme Court Justices viewed key aspects of the Obama Health Care Law after three days of hearings on March 28, 2012.

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Karzai a new man, the Karzai government which Gates has called a "crime syndicate" changing its face in an astonishing aboutface. Pakistan ending its obsession with India, with no change on either side Pakistan or India for a joint focus on economic development in South Asia, and no deep transformation of America's role in South Asia. The things Friedman wishes for so that the Obama presidency does not in his words sink in Afghanistan are asking for things that just don't happen with some sort of troop surge.

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On global wheat, corn and other cereal prices. The effects of the ethanol boom in the US and the record corn crop to meet ethanol demand. How this plays out in emerging market countries like Russia, China and India and Mexico. Will this help farmers especially withthe urban-rural divide and disparities in living standards in China and India. At the same time what do the higher prices do to the urban poor and poor people in general in the emerging countries where the impact of higher prices hits a large part of their budget.

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Dow's 679 point drop on Thursday October 9, 2008, investors lose $8.4 trillion of wealth, which is sure to impact consumption spending coming after a steep drop in house prices and loss of trillions in home values. This will affect countries dependent on exports like emerging markets from Russia, China, Brazil and India to other countries around the world as the US imports less energy, less soyabeans, less from the manufacturing locations in China. This means cutting growth in Brazil, India and China as well as in the US and Europe.

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The difficulties increase for Nokia with decrease in sales in emerging markets as it competes with new models from Huawei at the low end. The launch of the Lumia 900 runs into a software glitch and Nokia offers customers buying the phone from AT&T a $100 rebate until April 21- making the phone free on a two year contract. Nokia's global market share declined from 31% in 2010 to 23% in 2011, according to Gartner Inc. Nokia's dominance in India and the Middle East markets is slipping as low end smart phones with the Android operating system software are replacing Nokia phones. The result is that core mobile phone operations show a 3% negative operating margin in the first quarter, with the outlook for further declining margins in the second quarter of 2012. The Lumia 900 which has Microsoft software has fewer apps than the established Android and iPhone models creating more headwinds for the new smartphone. On April 11, 2012 Nokia shares lost 16% of their value and were down to $4.24.

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The G-7 leaders of US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and Japan along with invitees from India and Indonesia will meet at a resort hotel 62 miles south of Munich. Located in the Alps mountains near the Austrian border it has no air conditioning. The approach is to have as near as possible a natural setting with a stream that generates 20% of the energy and a rustic but refined setting. There are 5 rooms each for every country leader and a separate place for their staff. It was built between 1914-1916 by Johannes Muller, and reclaimed by his family in 1961 after being taken over by the US Army. His grandson Dietmar Muller-Elmau is the current owner. 

Elmau rebuilt the hotel in 2007 after a fire, with a 115 room building The Hideaway, and a separate building the Retreat nearby for the G-7 type gathering.

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The G20 declaration from Indonesia says that it "is essential to uphold international law and the multilateral system that safeguards peace and stability." It called the threat of use of nuclear weapons "inadmissable." It said "most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine." Overall this was a major step forward with meetings between Biden and Xi, Trudeau and Xi of China, and discussions that led to Macron of France announcing his intention to visit China to get China to mediate for peace in Ukraine. It sets the path forward after Covid pandemic for peaceful cooperation in places other than Ukraine and efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to a close. The midterms in the US Congress also set the stage for Mr. Biden to offer a stable US participation after the volatile Trump years in peaceful competition with China, and growth in India, Africa, and other parts of Asia and Latin America.

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Russia has 600 billion dollars in reserves and with oil prices above $100, with the Ukraine conflict lifting oil prices for Russian oil exports, there is little that the US and Europe have done to prepare for this situation. The Merkel years were essentially wasted in building a trade based relationship on cheap Russian gas supplies, and the wasted resources under Bush and Obama in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan only distracted the US from the major issues relating to China and Europe that it now faces. 

The need is for a new overall structure to be built- for social structure supporting all aspects of infrastructure, and stronger supply chains with local manufacturing. And international structures that include India and other nations of Asia and Latin America, Africa, that would be a framework for the future- a broader framework for peaceful relations.

 

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For the regions hardest hit by the coronavirus and its variants- the US, Brazil, India, Europe, Russia, China and Africa, the researchers and the frontline workers in South Africa are doing an incredible job. This report by Stephanie Nolan in the NYT shows the work of researchers at KRISPS advanced medical research center and the frontline workers in South Africa, who are making a difference. Shown are researchers and scientists at KwaZulu Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform in Durban, South Africa on whom the world depends for stepping up the fight against the coronavirus- Dr Tulio de Oliveira, principal investigator of the national genetic monitoring network, and Saleem Abdul Karim, epidemiologist. On the frontline workers who visit patients homes to make sure immune compromised patients have access to their medications is Sizakele Mathe, community health worker. Stephanie Nolan has provided a much needed account of what work is being done on the frontlines to keep us all safe. ...

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Efforts to build air defense systems for Guam, American base 1300 miles east of the Philippines. China has stockpiled missiles that could reach Guam, says this report in the WSJ. There are 150,000 American civilians in Guam, which is an island the size of Chicago. As Guam is entirely American the US can operate from Guam in a manner that it cannot do from Okinawa or other bases in the Pacific, or in South Korea. About 50,000 Americans are based at Okinawa, Japan. US has 22,000 military personnel on Guam island. Guam played a critical role in the early days of the Pacific War with Japan and after it was retaken from the Japanese.

This is becoming important as the US faces the prospect of being able to help protect Taiwan's independence, and protect free navigation on seas in the Indo-Pacific region that extends from Africa to India and Australia and to western US.

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Worldwide coronavirus vaccine development and distribution is covered in the The guardian. There are surprising results in a 2019 Lancet study about how strongly people in each country think vaccines are safe. Only 17% of people in Japan and Lithuania think vaccines are safe. Most of Eastern Europe, some western European countries, Russia and China are shown as countries where about half of the people have doubts about the safety compared to 87% in Bangladesh and Uganda. In India and most of Africa people think vaccines are safe says this report showing the Lancet study results in a graphic.

Vaccines once developed will require cold storage for distribution and adminstering the vaccine. Some vaccines may require ultra cold storage of -60 degrees  or -80 degrees centigrade which may be hard to find in many countries. Most of the cold storage containers available have already been acquired by countries.