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The severe drought in China is affecting the provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei and Shanxi, which produce about two thirds of China's wheat. China's Xinhua news agency is reporting that the drought in Shandong province could be "the worst drought in 200 years." China's retail wheat flour prices were up 8% over the two months to January and up 16% from the same month in 2010. The drought puts at risk the winter wheat crop harvested in June, according to the FAO. The FAO provided figures showing that 5.16 million hectares of a total of 14 million hectares of wheat producing areas are affected. China maintains large stores of wheat, estimated at 53 millon tons in Dec 2010, by Ma Wenfeng, an analyst with Beijing Agribusiness Consultant Ltd. The reserves act as a buffer for shortages.

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Sir Howard Davies, director of the London School of Economics, and the expanded ties of the London School of Economics with the one party Ghadafi regime in Libya. Sir Howard was the first chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the UK's financial regulator, and deputy governor of the Bank of England from 1995 to 1997.

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The pound is weakening now with the dollar at $1.36 British pounds. The dollar may see a similiar situation later this year, according to analysts because of the Fed's increasingly larger moves to add liquidity.

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The bonus issue at RBS bank in the UK, where performance has been abysmal but 1 billion British pounds in bonuses were planned. The public outcry. RBS has been the biggest disaster in British banking or one of the biggest. It has angered Prime Minister Brown for the Government to come up with $20 billion pound injection of capital into RBS recently, yet the current management saw it fit to consider this sizable bonus. Somewhere in all this there is a disconnect between what makes sense and what does not make any sense.

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The UK introduces a new points based immigration system similiar to one used in Australia, which grades workers and students hoping to enter the UK on criteria such as education, age, and need for their skills. Anyone entering the UK on a visa will n ow be fingerprinted, and foreign nationals living in the UK are now required to apply for ID cards they are expected to carry.

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Cecilia Wang is herself a birthright citizen from parents on student visas from Taiwan hence her views reflect her position before the the Court on DJT Executive Order.  She says the admission of Wang Kim in an 1898 case to US citizenship is a 128 American tradition when history shows very little sentiment in the American public and in the US Congress favoring legal immigration of any form from Asia (Japan, China and India). In fact a deal made by Teddy Roosevelt with Japan included an understanding with the Japanese government in the 1900's that Japan would restrict immigration from Japan to the US. Throughout the period 1850-1960 for 110 years one finds very little immigration of Asians to the US- mostly European selectively in phases after 1900 by steamboat as can be seen at the Smithsonian museum exhibits in Washington DC. Thus the Court is taking up a narrative that was never true. It was only JFK and LBJ who changed this by the 1960's- if one reads JFK and his grasp of the events in Indonesia, India, of Asia in WWII from his experiences as a soldier in the Asia Pacific region- not as the narrative suggests as an extension of civil rights for Black people, but for a deep respect and understanding of Asian people's aspirations that he opened up immigration to the US in the 1960's for Asians. This is why it is a stretch of the imagination for Cecilia Wang to say- Cecilia Wang -"your ancestors could be on the Mayflower or be undocumented immigrants but you and I are exactly the same as US citizens." Even after 60 years of reading the speeches and writing of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, TR and FDR, JFK, of Carl Sandburg's volumes of Lincoln, the poetry of America of Walt Whitman, committing Robert Frost poems to memory, there is more a sense of humility and even greater earnest  desire to learn about this Nation, and of the scientific endeavors of Europe since 1600 that eluded Asia, than making statements about the first voyages and the people who ventured out on the Mayflower. One has to look with awe at the sculptures in Geneva, Switzerland, of these brave people in the 1600's who for religious and other reasons made their way in difficult voyages over the Atlantic to America, much less say were the same as them. It is more about honoring JFK's words in appreciation of his opening for Asia, on thinking more about what you can do for your country than what your country can do for you. ...

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VW will move its US headquarters to Virginia from its present location at Auburn Hills, Michigan. This will bring it closer to where its customers are on both east and west coasts. It will also start emphasizing environmentally sound powertrain technologies meaning higher fuel efficiency and less polluting engines as is now becoming very important in Germany and the rest of the EU. Detroit will lose 400 more jobs in the process.

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A new security law for Hong Kong is passed at the end of a weeklong session of the National People's Congress. This gives China's agencies powers to police activities in Hong Kong and removes Hong Kong's autonomous status established by a treaty with Britain that arranged the handover in 1997. 2878 lawmakers voted with one dissent. China says it is intended to control separatism, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong. It bypasses Hong Kong governing authorites and the effect is that it removes the "one country, two systems" basis of the handover by the British.  This sets the stage for the U.S. to remove Hong Kong special status in trading relations. The U.S. is joined by Canada, Australia and Britain in expression of "deep concern," and Japan has also said it is "seriously concerned" and "will address the situation in an appropriate manner." Under the U.S. Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 the U.S. treated Hong Kong as autonomous for trade and economic matters. Mr. Pompeo, the Secretary of State for U.S. says this status will no longer continue. As supply chains are being reassessed during the coronavirus, the end of autonomous status for Hong Kong would mean the beginning of a new period in changing economic relations across Asia and the Pacific. ...

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Max Fisher of the NYT points out the unique approach taken by Canada in the U.S.-Canada relationship - to cultivate a grassroots network of Americans in legislatures, business, and at different levels of government. This has enabled the Trudeau government to build a relationship with president Trump, and at the same time have relationships at different levels of government and with business in the U.S. to tackle issues where the Trump administration has acted in ways unfavorable for Canada. Provincial governments in Ontario and Quebec lobbied against a New York state government provision for Buying American on state contracts worth over $100,000. By emphasizing the $10 billion in exports from New York to Ontario this lobbying persuaded the New York legislature to cancel the provision. Premier Trudeau's popularity helps and the proximity to the U.S. means Canadians can visit quickly and understand the U.S. as a close neighbor. Still Premier Kathleen Wynne of Ontario says Canadian businesses are nervous about the uncertainty from the Trump administration.   ...

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"The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift." The 14th Amendment was a repudiation of infamous Dred Scott decision and stood up for rights of black people, at no time was it intended to bring mothers from Asia or Africa to the US to get automatic citizenship for a child. 255,000 mothers a year with no connections to the US arrive here for automatic bithright citizenship- US Supreme Court rules "no" June 27 2025, and objects to mothers filing the lawsuits for their children when the mother has no legal status. Justice Coney Barrett in a 6-3 decision says the district courts cannot make laws over the decisions of the executive branch for the whole country as they have tried to do till now. This means birthright citizenship executive branch decision cannot be overruled across the nation. Most of the lawsuits are filed in states favorable to this or that approach.  In a few months the Supreme Court will address the automatic birthright citizenship issue at its core. Can a mother come to the US just to get her child US citizenship coming on a visitor visa. Much of the nation sees this as belittling the value of US citizenship.  ...

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Nationally the new Omicron offshoot variant, the XBB.1.5 represents 40.5% of the cases in the US by Dec. 31, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control or CDC. In New England and New York it is about 75% of cases and is a rapidly rising variant in Europe also. Only 38% of persons over 65 years in the US have got the updated covid booster bivalent vaccine shot.

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Paul Davies says the leadership at Deutsche Bank is short sighted and cannot afford more slip ups or missteps following the U.S. New York Fed's examination. The examination revealed serious shortcomings in regulatory reporting and failure to correct them. As U.S. operations represent one fourth of its balance sheet this raises issues for the bank's overall financial position. Deutsche Bank has committed additional $1 billion in systems investment and staff to tackle this. Added problems he mentions are that Deutsche Bank lobbied against the Fed's proposal for foreign bank capital requirements even though it remains undercapitalized. The bank's leverage ratio at 3.4% is low and Davies says changes at the top are needed if further missteps occur.

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Attacks from Iran on Saudi oil infrastructure leading to a loss of half of Saudi oil production is likely to be a problem for countries such as China, South Korea and Japan that have reduced oil imports from Iran and increased dependence on Saudi supplies. This was a result of tighter U.S. oil sanctions on Iran. India is also affected. About 30% of the lost production will be restored say Saudis.  The U.S. is less dependent on Saudi supplies and as Gerald Seib points out in a video in WSJ the U.S. has 3 reasons not to intervene on behalf of Saudis. The U.S. has increased its oil production from shale oil and is less dependent on Saudi oil. It is also becoming reluctant to engage in Saudi Arabia's wars such as the one in Yemen against Houthi rebels. There is also less support in Congress and in the country for supporting endless wars that originate from Saudi actions. A Trump tweet before his election campaign shown in WSJ makes this point about endless wars and the U.S. needing to be paid trillions of dollars for these wars. The conflicts in the region affect China and India where growth is close to 5% before any impact from oil price increases. Together Asian countries take in 72% of Saudi oil exports and China now imports more Saudi oil than Russian oil by a wide margin- in June 1.88 million barrels a day. Saudi oil makes about 19% of imported oil in India and 33% for Japan. Imports into India of Saudi oil are up 8% this year to 847,000 barrels a day in 2019. China is better situated than Japan with reserve supplies of 644 days of imports compared to 230 days for Japan. This why Japan has played a constructive role in reducing tensions between the U.S. and Iran and urged both sides to negotiate. China and India also have interests that converge in reducing tensions between the U.S. and Iran. As a first step president Trump removed his National Security Adviser John Bolton in preference for reduced tensions.  ...

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Iran Proposal that asks $2 million per ship to be split with Oman for opening the Hormuz Straits- April 6 2026. China, Japan can pay this amount to get the 90% of the oil they need from Hormuz, which would go to reconstruction of war damage in Iran. India would shift some of its purchase of oil and gas to the US and so will Japan over 2027-2028. This would result in a shift away from the Persian Gulf dependence to renewable energy and to buying oil and gas from US+Venezuela as more reliable sources. European Union and Britain would also make this shift as shown in the adjoining article by Prof Geoffron of Universite Paris Dauphine in Le Monde. The proposal also requires US and Israel to commit to no future attack on Iran, and Israel to stop its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. The US and DJT call the new regime under a Speaker of the Iranian parliament, an elected president who had to respond to people sentiment in the election, and a grandson of Khomeini, one that is easier to talk with than the earlier regime. The problem remains nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles development that the US has as its sole objective which is what the war is about than Hormuz as the US and DJT say Hormuz is China and Japan's problem where for some strange reason these industrial powers import 90% of their oil from Hormuz and have done this after 40 years of disruptions, a mystery they can solve on their own. ...

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U.S. president Trump pulls back from a threat to pull out of NAFTA trade agreement after calls from U.S. business, and calls from the leaders of Mexico and Canada. Mexico said the threat would hurt constructive negotiations, Mr. Trudeau told Trump it would hurt jobs on both sides of the border. Canada is facing headwinds for growth as business is reluctant to invest under the uncertainty for NAFTA. U.S. businesses lobbied heavily including the American Chamber of Commerce. Trump administration aides say they had used this as an effort to get Congress to act- delays resulting from a 90 day rule and from negotiations not to start till Congress approves of the new trade representative Mr. Lighthizer. Helping the situation was the effort by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross showing Trump the states that had voted for Trump that would lose jobs, and that nothing was to be gained from the action of pulling out when constructive negotiations were possible- and when Mexico and Canada were eager to start negotiations to reach a new agreement. Mexico is also eager to renegotiate NAFTA because president Nieto faces a strong competitor from the left parties in coming national elections. ...

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Large U.S. companies with overseas operations increased their hiring overseas by 4.4% in 2011 compared to only 0.1% increase for hiring in the U.S., according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Two thirds of multinational employment was in the U.S. in 2011, compared to three fourths in 1999. U.S. multinational companies provide about one fifths of all private employment in the U.S.

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DJT plans to sign an executive order making English the national language of the United States of America. It is move that the founding fathers, Lincoln, TR and FDR/Truman would consider basic to the cultural literacy of the Nation. Over the years under Republican administrations from Bush and Democratic administrations under Clinton, Obama, the US has drifted away from the national language to an extent that is incomprehensible and presents an attack on the national language by allowing the proliferation of languages to languages that people have never heard of. It is destroying the cultural literacy of the US that efforts were being made even in the 1980's to restore after it was felt that it was weakening at that time. “We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language. These are languages—it’s the craziest thing—they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.” JD Vance had introduced a bill with Senator Cramer of North Dakota in 2024 for the English Language Unity Act, for conducting all official business of the US government in English, and for a national testing standard for pathway to citizenship. This is parallel to and follows the effort in the 1980's to bring education in line with cultural literacy in schools and education in the Nation, that is becoming more and more relevant to today.     ...