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Zhu Changhong plays a key role in investing China's $3.5 trillion dollars in foreign reserves. He is part of the management at China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange or SAFE, a division of the central bank. He maintains a low profile, yet he has played a critical role in shifting investment into Japanese and U.S. equities and bonds issued by the European Financial Stability Fund, reducing the risk exposure to U.S. Treasury's as the U.S. Federal Reserve changes monetary policy. From 45% of China's foreign reserves invested in U.S. government bonds, or $1.11 trillion, in June 2010, SAFE under Zhu's guidance reduced the allocation to 35%, or $1.14 trillon, in June 2012, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. He has an interesting background. Coming from Anhui province, he studied physics at the University of Chicago, then shifted to life as a trader in financial markets at Allianz's PIMCO investment firm. After spending 20 years in the U.S., Zhu returned in 2009 as chief investment officer of SAFE. He was drawn back to China by another expatriate Yi Gang, a SAFE director who was an economics professor at Indiana University- Purdue University, Indianapolis....

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King points out that trade agreements are not what they used to be as most tariff barriers are whittled down. He says more than 70% of imports come into the U.S. duty free, and the average tariff is about 1.5% declining significantly in the last 2 decades. If all import restraints are lifted it would increase U.S. economic output by less than 0.05% by 2017, according to the International Trade Commission. This figure is also cited by Krugman in the NYT with a column saying the Trans Pacific Partnership(TPP) trade agreement pushed by the Obama administration is no big deal. King also points out that the U.S. already has free trade agreements with Australia, Peru, Chile, Singapore and other TPP countries. Some experts see China's success with setting up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) attracting India, UK, Germany, France and other countries, is creating pressure on the U.S. to come up with its own response in the form of TPP with Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru, Chile and other countries....

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A second survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research shows an increase in the number of people estimated to be affected. The survey sampled people from 70 districts in 21 States in India. Overall prevalence using this method is high at about 21.5%. India has confirmed 10 million cases. Children and young are also affected.

Dr. Balaram Bhargava, Director General of ICMR, says "The message is that large proportion of the population remains vulnerable, Vaccines are necessary, and there can be no complacency with regards masks, social distancing and hand hygiene." India has so far not seen the kind of second wave happening in Europe and the US, yet the risks remain, showing the need for rapid implementation of the vaccine program for 300 million in the first part of the vaccination drive.

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The story of Lee Kun-hee who over 3 decades transformed an obscure electronics parts maker into the company Samsung is today, as a leader in smartphones and electronics. He was born in 1942, during the Japanese occupation of Korea and lived through the war years. He studied at Waseda University in Japan and George Washington University in the U.S. By the time he took on the position of CEO in 1987 from his father Samsung had grown from roots as a small fish and produce trading firm. It had then added after the war with Japan and the Korean War in the 1950's other lines of business such as sugar refining, textiles and diversified later into simple electronics such as radios and microwaves.  He was for change and once said to Samsung employees "change everything, except your wife and children." He was both mentor and inspiration at Samsung, with self-discipline and resolve to make Korean companies match their Japanese counterparts in technology and growth. He was like Konsuke Matsuhita of Panasonic in some ways- keen on learning new technologies and bringing excellence and quality to the Korean peninsula. Companies in India and other developing countries can look to the experience of South Korea in making similar transformations in South Asia and beyond. ...

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Photos of industrial decline in the US with text by Helen Epstein, professor of human rights and public health in The Guardian. This was a period in the early 1980s when America's major industries in steel and other parts of the economy went into decline. Cities and towns across this vast land were left to decline with loss of jobs and with it decline in quality of life, decline in health, education, says Prof. Epstein, as the Democratic Party jettisoned its foundational principles. The term "Reagan Democrats" emerged in the late years of the Carter administration, and again after Clinton, Obama took the shape of the Trump vote. By 2021 the situation has reversed with the Democratic Biden administration putting forward a program for revival with his $1.8 trillion Families Plan for infrastructure and for the benefit of America's workers, students and families. What was a protest vote during 2016 is now taking new shape in the form of this plan for the renewal of America. ...

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Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister, says India's approach to pandemic aid appears to be the right one because it avoided handouts that have in the form of large stimulus packages in the US and Germany, created high inflation. India's focus was on providing food for weaker members of society during the pandemic.  The basic idea behind the approach was to conserve capital, and use increased GST tax revenues in such a way that capital could be concentrated where it would deliver the most in projects that would take India forward in infrastructure and development for 2042. This is essentially the approach taken by first, Japan, then South Korea, then China, in becoming advanced industrial nations, increased revenues and capital concentrated on projects that would deliver in terms of industrial progress such as infrastructure, today in climate change renewable energy, and other actions. Gati Shakti integrates this into a Master Plan for the country for 2042. ...

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Which may not be a bad thing as it would keep inflation in check and shift to a new way of handling the economy with higher employment and wages and moderate to low inflation. The US may be facing inflation on a bumpy path to 2% or more likely stay near 3%. The 2% target of the Fed was from an earlier era when wages were stuck for most factory workers. The increase in wages was needed so that workers could improve their standard of living that was being eroded and after years of stagnant wages. Inflation at around 3% may be where inflation would be in the current environment. This also means higher interest rates on savings which form the most important source of income next to social security for retirees and older workers with larger savings. This also provides an incentive to younger workers to save that did not exist when interest rates were brought to zero to tackle recurring financial crises caused by banks and external events.

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The WSJ calls it a chaotic runup while conceding that the stated purpose was clearly to stop fentanyl and migrants coming across the US land Borders with Canada and Mexico. In reality its purpose is clear and it is the recalcitrant positions of Canada and Mexico and the failure of previous administrations since Clinton-Bush-Obama to act forcefully in the face of such an attitude that was the problem. Of what amounts to indifference from Canada and Mexico to fentanyl flows  and the destroying of America, that made it imperative for America to use all the powers at its disposal to get action to stop fentanyl and migrants.  These powers at America's disposal include economic power tariffs being one, and other powers as necessary, as no nation can long endure such indifferent attitudes to harm done against another for long. It is a lesson for America that what TR called carrying a big stick can be a problem when there is the complete opposite taking place.     ...

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As Germany looks back at the mistakes of the past in failing to get immigrants to integrate and letting ethnic communities form that failed both in terms of jobs and language/culture skills needed to become full citizens, it is now taking a fresh approach to the task of integrating about 1 million new immigrants. For the first time the government is putting this approach into legislation that is sure to pass, offering new incentives, requiring immigrants to look for work and to take jobs in smaller towns and communities. It offers new opportunities and at the same time takes away benefits if this is not done. Chancellor Merkel calls this "a milestone," and said about this legislation- " We are a country that makes a good offer to those who come to us, to those who are fleeing war, persecution, terrorism. But we are also saying very clearly- because we have learned from the past  when we did not provide these integration opportunities- that we're also expecting people to accept this offer." The lessons were learned after large immigration from Turkey in the 1960's and 1970's with ethnic communities being formed that never integrated with the rest of German society. The new law requires refugees to stay in municipalities where they are first assigned when arriving in Germany unless they have a job offer elsewhere. The government plans to subsidize creation of 100,000 new jobs across Germany, in work such as maintaining public parks, helping elderly, an alternative says Labor Minister Andrea Nahles "to doing nothing." The law also makes it easier for private employers to hire people in towns across Germany. The new German approach is for a two way handshake, and to take a pioneering approach. ...

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The concerns over far right parties expelling immigrants in states such as Thuringia has caused a wave of protests across Germany including Berlin and other cities in January 2024. It is also impacting the East where anti immigrant sentiment is based. Germany has a shortage of workers in parts of Germany that formed the Federal Republic before reunification- immigrants fill these gaps. The East has not been the success story it was supposed to be because reunification of the Federal Republic and the GDR (Communist East Germany around Leipzig and East Berlin) led to a flight of young people to the western parts for jobs and opportunities. Leading to a mostly older and retired population in the east -leaving it struggling and feeling unwanted. This is the background of the anti immigrant sentiment in the east where there are far fewer immigrants than in the western and central regions. Resentment about being ignored as settled around the immigrant issue in the east even as Germany has benefitted through some of the middle class educated immigrants from Turkey and from Ukraine, and Syria. Similar resentment has taken place in parts of England in the north which led to fear of immigrants being used by Tories party leading to Brexit. In a similar way in France in the north, and in the US with neglect of rural areas and factory communities in the east and midwest. The communities that were left out that have made choices with far right as in Britain have ended up with leaders from immigrant families that have accomplished little or much in the reverse direction for the English people in the north. The leaders of Germany, Britain, the US, the Nordic countries such as Denmark, and gradually in France have learned that it is right to go back to their roots, that they had forgotten where they came from and are now fighting for the dignity of workers (Schulz), standing in picket lines for the autoworkers (Biden), and following the Biden example in the UK (Starmer). With it comes the realization that this started with the Thatcher and Reagan era that created the conditions and culture that were repeatedly embraced by Democrats in the US, Labor in Britain and Social Democrats in Germany alike leading to financial crises and levels of inequality and lack of educational opportunity not seen since the Great Depression. With it by 2024 comes the unwinding of the economics and culture of the Reagan era. Even in China and India the shift is away from that culture as the economies of these countries with half of humanity are shifted to serve a broad base and to include rural, agricultural and other parts of the population. It shows that the educated parts of the population in these countries have the ability to create the conditions that in Lincoln's words are for the people, by the people, of the people, for a brighter future, if only they will try hard enough for their children's and grand children's sake.  ...

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June's employment numbers in the U.S. from the Labor Department show only 80,000 jobs were added. Job creation dropped in the second quarter to about 75,000 a month from the average of 226,000 in the first quarter 2012. Part of the reason for the higher figures in the first quarter was unseasonably warm weather during that period. Manufacturing added fewer jobs in June, down to 11,000. Healthcare added 13,000 jobs. Of 12.7 million people unemployed, the number of people unemployed for more than 6 months is 42% of the total or 5.4 million.

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A revised pact with Columbia will require that Columbia revise its laws to include specific protections for union leaders, activists and workers trying to organize or form a union, and protect aginst actions that adversely affect fundamental workers' rights. This is meant to take into account a history of violence against labor organizers in Columbia, and to make the trade deal with Columbia more acceptable to U.S. unions. This also makes it possible to move forward with passage of the free trade agreements with S. Korea and Panama.

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It depends- only if you look at it in actual millions of people. In percent of people Voice of America and this WSJ report show that US obesity rate is much higher with 22 states above 35% and the rate overall at about 25%, compared to China's at about 14%. The fact that this was reported in this way is happening as this issue is taken far too casually in the US, when the quality of life is largely dependent on health. And such high levels of obesity in the US, catastrophic levels in some southern and midwestern states, means one is not doing things right and heading for a poorer quality of life. This report in the WSJ cites estimates of obesity in China of as high as 200 million and likely to grow by another 100 million by 2034, about 14% of the population being obese today and obesity increasing to about 20%. In China the demand for weight loss drugs is growing. The government has a program to reduce the intake of salt, sugar and oil and increase health foods in the diet. Meat in the diet has tripled and there is a need for more health conscious attitudes in China, even more so and urgently in the US. Both the US and China are too auto centric in their culture, particularly the US where public transportation has not been given high priority leading to a lack of enough exercise getting to work. ...

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In a 5 to 4 court runling the U.S. Supreme Court gives president Trump the authorization to use $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds for building a border wall with Mexico. This was a campaign promise and energized his election campaign after years of failure to reach agreement between Democrats and Republicans on how to tackle the migration issue. In the court's decision it overturned an appellate court decision.  The Supreme Court stated in its order that the groups challenging the administration did not appear to have the legal right to do so. This indicates that the Court's conservative majority is likely to support the Trump administration in the end.  The surge in migration from Central American countries such as Guatemala through Mexico has revived the issue of migration. President Trump also secured an agreement with Guatemala to cut down on the migration.  President Trump has cited the need to control flow of illegal drugs across U.S. southern border in addition to the migrants from Mexico and Central America. In bringing the case to the Supreme Court the solicitor general, Noel Francisco wrote that the Plaintiff (Sierra Club) "interests in hiking, bird watching and fishing in designated drug smuggling corridors do not outweigh the harm to the public from halting the government's efforts to construct barriers to stanch the flow of illegal narcotics across the southern border."  The dispute between the Trump administration and the Democrats controlled House of Representatives led to court decisions stopping the use of government funds to build the wall. This led to the declaration of a national emergency along the Mexican border by president Trump on Feb. 15, 2019, after a government shutdown during an impasse with Congress on this issue.  Now the Supreme Court has given president Trump access to Defense Department funds to proceed with the wall and meet a campaign promise.   ...

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Bank lending is recovering in parts of the midwest from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Madison, Wisconsin not hit hard by the housing crisis, but lags far behind in California and Florida. Between 2006 and 2011, a WSJ survey using data from Moody's Analytics and Equifax shows bank lending declining in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles by 38%, 44%, and 55%. Overall U.S. consumer loan originations declined by 40% from 2006 to 2011.

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Experts in Germany and the U.S. look at areas adversely affected by free trade and globalization and the increasing support for right wing parties in these areas. David Autor is a labor economist in the U.S. at MIT who has studied these trends. He says trends in free trade have hurt low wage workers. In 2014 he and David Dorn, Gordon Hansen, Jae Song, published a paper showing how trade with China was affecting different parts of the U.S. Lower wage workers, most of them with less education and skills were prone to be unemployed or face lower earnings in areas where cheap imports from China were replacing domestic production. Donald Trump has strong support with the white working class and less educated workers who form this group. He has accused China of "currency manipulation" and proposed a 25% tax on Chinese imports. Experts say there is no strong evidence that immigrants are causing this type of dislocation in the U.S. Yet immigrant bashing is used by Trump and other right wing politicians which is attributed to it being an easy tactic for politicians to appeal to the anxieties of working class voters....

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The longest serving senators as Majority Leader includes Joseph Robinson Democrat of Arkansas who was Minority and Majority Leader form 1923 to 1937 and helped put the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt through the US Congress. That role is also being played by McConnell and now Thune in this period of change in the 2020's with cyber security, tech monopolies, pandemic and cost of living issues.

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Chancellor Merkel's now widely quoted words were made in Munich on May 27, 2017, after a NATO summit meeting in Brussels and a Group of 7 meeting in Italy, in which she was disconcerted by U.S. president Trump's positions on NATO, Russia, climate change, and trade. These words "the times in which we could rely fully on others - they are somewhat over." Merkel added "This is what I experienced in the last few days." After the election of Emmanuel Macron in France, Merkel expressed great relief at the outcome of the French election with Macron winning about two thirds of the vote, setting the stage for the election in Germany after several months of difficult watching and waiting. Now there is new confidence in Germany shaping its own future, with France and the rest of the European Union without Britain. Merkel says she "experienced this" meaning that she had undergone a transformation in these few months, and visibly in the last few days. She was also sending a message to Germans and people of the European Union - "we have to know that we must fight for our future on our own, for our destiny as Europeans." This also complements tactically to form the approach of Germany and France at the leadership of the EU, as French president Macron said at the end of the Group of 7 conference that multilateralism was intact, and the U.S. and EU shared many common goals.   ...

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H-P CEO Apotheker says that to be successful in the business of consumer devices like the PC it would have to invest a lot of capital that could be better invested elsewhere. This capital invested in a low margin business such as PC's coud be freed up to generate the size of capital H-P will need to compete in software and services with companies such as Oracle and IBM. As part of this makeover of H-P the company will take a $1 billion restructuring charge to shut down the tablet and smartphone operations. H-P invested $1.2 billion for the Palm acquisition in 2010 to acquire an operating system for those devices. Apotheker expressed disappointment with the sales of the tablet devices and smartphones. This decision happens 10 years after the decision by H-P to acquire Compaq Computer Corporation for $25 billion. In 2008 H-P acquired Electronic Data Systems for $13.9 billion. With the new strategy Apotheker is focussing on software. Apotheker brings experience in software as CEO of SAP Inc in his previous position and understands the software business. The agreement for the acquisition of U.K. software firm Autonomy for $10.3 billion this week is part of the makeover of H-P under Apotheker....

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The US sends aircraft carrier group of the US 7th fleet with the aircraft carrier USS Reagan and destroyers on a freedom of navigation mission through the South China Sea. What is a freedom of navigation mission and what is the US goal? "Our presence in the Pacific is to demonstrate our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," says commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, Captain Fred Goldhammer. Seen on a map the Paracel Islands are far from China's coast. They lie on the waters further south in the South China Sea closer to the coast of Vietnam and between Vietnam and the Philippines. Till 1974 the Paracel Islands were part of Vietnam. In that year China took control of these islands after a war with Vietnam. The name Paracel is of Portuguese origin on maps in the 16th century. There are 130 islands or reefs with total area of about 3 square miles spread out over about 6000 square miles of ocean in the middle of the South China Sea near the coast of Vietnam. The French had  weather station there in 1932. After independence South Vietnam controlled the islands. In 1974 the islands were taken over by China from Vietnam. The result is that by taking over the islands China put itself in the position it is in Tibet. In Tibet it has put itself right across the Himalayas in a position that interferes with security on the border with India in the Himalayas that for centuries almost going back to Buddhist times 2500 years ago had very little and most of the time no Chinese presence. The passes in the Tibetan region are at heights over 15,000 feet that were mostly inaccessible except by yaks and other animals for transport for most of the 2500 year period. This is true also of the Paracel and other islands in the South China Sea as they are right in the middle of the seas of open navigation used by traders before the coming of the Europeans and for ocean going trade since 1500. Britain and the US have enjoyed free and open navigation in these oceans which connect past the Philippines into the Pacific to the Japanese islands and on to Hawaii and the US Pacific coast. What the US and European allies are saying is that the free and open navigation of the seas has always been the case for the last thousand years in the Pacific. The taking of the islands in 1974 by China from Vietnam now put it up against the US and European allies, and their Asian allies, as it interferes with navigation in the open seas essential for trade and travel between Asia and the Pacific. This is how the Chinese invasion of Tibet and the taking over of the Paracel Islands have put China into the position of interfering in the normally open and free areas in the Himalayas and the Pacific. This is where the Quad group shares a common interest in preserving what always existed in history-  a free and open Pacific and a free and open Himalayas. It brings together the US, Japan, India and Australia which stretch all the way from the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean uninterrupted all the way through Indonesia to Australia and Japan and the US. From the Mediterranean through Egypt into the Indian Ocean all the way to the Pacific and the US keeping free and open seas for trade and navigation. Or across the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean and the Pacific to the US. ...

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The number of countries visa free entry is the wrong way to give passport rankings as learning from other countries and cultures, learning about their scientific advances and manner of thinking is key to the huge changes that happened in Asia- in first Japan by 1900, South Korea and Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, by 1960's, China by 1990's and India by 2010- as the people of these countries interacted with Europe and the US. Interaction with Europe and the US is key for Asian nations.  This happened even earlier as Americans by 1880's interacted with Europe through ship voyages across the Atlantic in 7 days. This brought knowledge of scientific advances and ways of thinking from Europe to the US accelerating pace of industrialization in the agricultural economy in the US in the 19th century.  In 2025 the visa free access for US and EU to some of the advanced Asian nations, Japan and China is key to bringing back knowledge of scientific and other advances to the US and EU.  India and China should be compared. At Munich and other German EU airports China has the kind of visa free and fast track entry that does not exist either for the US or India. The writer experienced this on a recent visit in 2025 with a US passport denied entry to the fast track lane reserved for Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other travelers. India's bureaucracy, and US's lethargy, and the sheer lack of serious effort comparable to China and Japan in getting fast easy access to EU is to blame , particularly for the travelers who are most likely to gain from such interactions, the educated middle class and business people of India and the US. One could go so far as to say that one of the keys to China's advances is its ties to Germany and Hamburg and entry ports in Netherlands to the EU. EU is the source of technologies and of scientific knowledge freely available to China 1990-2025. For this to happen advanced logistics and ship- port building had to take place. India must do the same and much faster than anything that happened before 2025 at a pace as fast as China's if it is to reach it's potential in the world economy alongside the US and EU. ...

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The process leading to the credit rating downgrade for the U.S., including S&P's $2 trillion error in estimating the total U.S. deficit in the next ten years, is causing both Republicans and Democrats to agree on the need for greater public scrutiny of the agencies. Congressmen from both parties in Congress now agree that ratings firms need to play a smaller role in the financial system than they have in the past. It now appears certain that there is no chance that Congress will allow a change in the Dodd-Frank legislation provision that requires regulators to take out references to ratings from their rules. Banking trade groups had been pushing for a change in the provision. Karen Petrou of advisory firm Federal Financial Analytics says this event will also make U.S. regulators look for ways in which changes can be made to international financial agreements that require credit ratings. This includes the capital and liquidity requirements laid out by the Basel Committee. The credit ratings firms say they support efforts to decrease reliance on their ratings in the rules....

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U.S. District Court verdict on August 24, 2012 that finds Samsung infringed 6 Apple patents and awards Apple $1.05 billion. Apple's legal campaign was intended to slow the increasing shipment of Android phones and device makers such as Samsung that make Android phones. In the second quarter of 2012 Android smartphones were 68% of smartphone shipments, and Apple iPhones about 17%, according to IDC research firm. The jury decision gave as patents infringed- three covering the shape of the iPhone and on-screen icons. The ony patent not infringed according to the jury decision was the one on the design of the tablet.

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The issues were the same on Oct 31, 1936 when FDR gave this address at Madison Square Garden, similar to what president Biden faces today in the task "to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people."  FDR said: "On the eve of a national election, it is well for us to stop for a moment and analyze calmly and without prejudice the effect on our Nation of a victory by either of the major political parties.The problem of the electorate is far deeper, far more vital than the continuance in the Presidency of any individual. For the greater issue goes beyond units of humanity—it goes to humanity itself. In 1932 the issue was the restoration of American democracy; and the American people were in a mood to win. They did win. In 1936 the issue is the preservation of their victory. Again they are in a mood to win. Again they will win. More than four years ago in accepting the Democratic nomination in Chicago, I said: "Give me your help not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people." The banners of that crusade still fly in the van of a Nation that is on the march. It is needless to repeat the details of the program which this Administration has been hammering out on the anvils of experience. No amount of misrepresentation or statistical contortion can conceal or blur or smear that record. Neither the attacks of unscrupulous enemies nor the exaggerations of over-zealous friends will serve to mislead the American people." ...

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The rapidly changing demographics as the U.S. becomes more of a multicultural society. For the first time minority babies formed a majority in 2011 with 50.4% of new babies, according to the Census Bureau. The median age of the non-Hispanic White population is 42 compared to 28 for Hispanics. Hispanics are right at the child bearing age. This also raises the issue of how the U.S. will educate the minority population. Today 13% of Hispanics have college degrees, 18% of Blacks and 31% of Whites. High school graduation rates in places like New York City for Hispanics are lagging far behind other groups. The economic downturn after the 2008 financial crisis has worsened the educational prospects for Hispanics and other minorities. The education of minority children is essential to improve the competitiveness of the U.S. in a global economy, as the educational levels in emerging markets accelerates with more opportunities.