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Diet consultant Tallmadge says be careful about reduced fat peanut butter, enhanced water, energy bars and multigrain foods. She says reduced fat peanut butter is worse than ordinary peanut butter because it takes away the nutrients in the oil. Enhanced water can be nothing more than sugary drinks with vitamin added, better to drink clean tap water. Sugar is a major ingredient in energy bars. Better to snack on fruits and veggies and yogurt, or carry nuts and dried fruits if hiking or doing outdoor activity. And watch out for the marketing words saying its multigrain, what you want is whole grain not refined starch. Don't be fooled by the marketing of the packaged foods industry, check the ingredients carefully, because labels such as "low fat," "high fiber," "multigrain," and "natural," don't mean much. Eating right starts with selecting food carefully and diligently, and goes a long way in preventing many of the diseases and problems coming out of poor eating habits.

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The Economist cautions that recovery is nowhere in sight, the hope points to only amoderating of the steep downturn. The 20% rise in the stock market for two thirds of the 42 stock markets that the Economist tracks in the past 6 weeks, can easily fizzle out as has happened before. Between 1929 and 1932 the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up more than 20% four times only to fall back to previous lows, and this crisis has seen 5 separate rallies of more than 10% only to fall back. But toxix assets have not been cleared up at Us and European banks, And consumption in the US, Germany, Japan and China shows no signs of coming back for years especially in the US where saving is increasing. And European banks have about $1 trillion in losses in central and Eastern Europe that have not been recognized, and the slide in the British and Spanish economies proceeds. And developing cpuntries have $1.8 trillion worth of borrowing to roll over this year, with less access to foreign investment. At one point the emerging countries imported capital worth 5% of their GDP, now cautious investors will keep that money at home. In America rising foreclosures and rising unemployment, combined with lower consumption, will keep economic growth down for years. Rising debt will limit future fiscal stimulus in countries like Japan and the US. Chinese growth will be constrained by its overdependence on infrastructure spending and lack of serious changes to its healthcare system which makes consumers save more for medical crises....

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Adjusted for the 35,000 workers on strike at Verizon counted as unemployed, the 38,000 jobs figure in the government report is still considered quite low. Especially striking even as unemployment drops for May from 5.0% to 4.7% is that the drop is attributed to people dropping out of the work force. The average monthly gain for the March through May is 116,000 jobs well short of the 240,000 jobs added on average in 2014-2015. Average hourly earnings were up 0.2% in May and up 2.5% for the year. A widely accepted measure of unemployment that includes workers too discouraged to look for work or working part time because of a lack of full time job was at 9.7%. The labor force participation rate was at 62.6%.

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The Chinese car market is changing fast, with domestic brands making up a larger share of the local market. In 2000 these domestic brands made up 18% of total sales, whereas in 2010 forecasts show this to be about 32%, with the share increasing in future years. In a rapidly growing market this did not make much difference, but with the market growth moderating to 7-8% in the next ten years from the heady 33% of recent years, the foreign brands such as GM and VW will not see the growth of recent years. J.D. Powers projects passenger vehicle sales in China at 19.2 million by 2017, with Chinese brands taking 45% of the share, in one scenario. Under this scenario foreign brands like GM and VW would see sales growth of only 5% in the next 7 years. The foreign brands are not allowed to own more than 50% of local operations. And their partners are making their own domestic brands. If Japan is a useful example, China's automobile companies will like Nisssan, Toyota, and Honda, proceed to penetrate global markets and become a dominant player in their local market. This has implications for GM, VW and Daimler....

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Anand and Fairclough describe the aspirations of millions of young Indians stifled by the last few years of inept governance under the Congress party in India. Economic growth dropped to about 5% as the government did little to increase investment and growth, leaving India further behind nations such as China, Japan and S. Korea. The speed with which foreign investment in plants in Gujarat by the Tata Group, Bombardier and smaller companies such as Germany's Duravit took place, contrasts sharply with the red tape under the federal government of the Congress party and prime minister Manmohan Singh. Duravit's head of its Indian unit says the process was corruption free, fast, and had to be seen to be believed. Tata Group's head Ratan Tata, was a strong supporter of Modi after the Tata Group built its plant for manufacturing the Nano small car in Gujarat. The decisive mandate from the election, including the decisive vote from young people, the strong support of the business community in India determined to move ahead after 3 years of stalled governance, and the low starting point in areas such as electricity development and regions of the country lacking essential infrastructure, gives Modi a unique opportunity to put India on the path of good governance and rapid economic development....

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Peugeot-Citroen Europe's largest car maker after VW is seeingdeclining profitability as sales increases it expected in 2002 did not happen and its running plants well below capacity. Now the company is planning to increase sales by going into developing country markets- Russia, China, India, so on and will design and build small cars for these markets. It sell about 1.7 million cars outside Europe about half its sales of 3.37 million vehicles. Its hoping to add another 400,000 in vehicle sales by 2010. Its also planning to shorten the life of its models to 3 years i 2010 from 4 1/2 in 2006, and introduce 29 new models in the next 3 years to 2010, hoping to generate 300,000 additional car sales by 2010. About 53 ne models or variants of existing model are to be launched in the next 3 years worldwide to 2010. This plus cost reductions in purchasing, logistics, fixed and development costs, capacity utilization improvements, and headcount are planned to improve operating margins to 5.5% from 2.7% in first half 2007. In the emissions area Peugeot-Citroen wants to be a world leader in environmentally friendly vehicles. It will reduce CO2 emissions by having stop-start systems on all cars, and launch vehicles with hybrid diesel engines. ...

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Prices can top $100 a barrel, some reasons why this is possible including depleted old field and lower production relative to demand. Important article by King and Chazan because of the experts from Aramco, IEA, and Schlumberger being all pretty much aligned in their view and reasoning that not much is happening in the way of oil exploration and production is happening to meet the extra demand from India, China and deveoping countries. Aramco expert cites older depleted oil fields with a 15 year production plateau, Saddad Al- Husseini estimates that price will go up by $12 for every million barrels a day in additional demand. Nobuo Tanaka the new executive director IEA thinks supply will not keep up with demand because many oilresource rich countries are not bringing in outside investors, and also because he is not sure there will be enough investment, skilled workers and technology to to get the oil out in a timely manner. Note there have been constraints in engineering and manpower shortages. And Andrew Gould CEO of Schlumberger says that 70% of the oil fields are over 30 years old, amd just in the last four years from 2003 the demand has increased by the production thats generated from North Sea and Mexico....

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VW opens a new plant in Russia to manufacture 150,000 cars in 2009. Russian sales of foreign brands went up by 65% in 2008. The sales there are 2.4 million vehicles. With the number of cars at 180 per 1000 people, compared to 552 in Germany, most cars on the road already 10 years old, and with a population 1.7 times the size of Germany's, the potential for sales in Russia are significant. VW plans to produce the Octavia and Passat models , later adding Polo and Skoda Fabia models. VW hopes to increase sales in Russia from 3.2% to 10% by 2010, to catchup wth Toyota which also opened a new factory near St Petersburg. In 2008 Toyota sold more than twice the number of cars sold by VW. See VW's progress in other areas in the link to Skoda. The Octavia which it will bring to the Russian market is a success story from VW's Skoda operations in Czech Republic.This is a lower cost vehicle compared with VW's other models. VW is one of the fastest growing brands in Europe, ahead of Toyota, and it does very well in Poland and in Eastern Europe. It is the leading brand in China, ahead of GM. ...

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The GM management does not get it , the GM spokesman does not get it, the workers don't get it, says Andrew Sorkin from what he hears them say. GM faces many problems, too many dealerships, too many models and brands, and union benefits and retiree benefits from another world of post 50's economic expansion, that can only be solved by a government sponsored bankruptcy or GSB. GSB is a necessary part of the solution as chapter 11 makes solutions possible without dealerships suing as state laws protect dealerships, unions striking and management insisting on the status quo. In all he sees the 35 plants of GM and Chrysler cut in half, only the Chevrolet , Cadillac and Buick and Jeep brands retained and Dodge Ram pickups merged with Chevrolet, in a GM-Chrysler merger. He cites Deutsche Bank's estimates that reducing the brands to the 3 mentioned for GM would reduce costs by $5 billion annually and reducing the dealerships by another $4 billion. Buick would be retained because its a huge seller in China. The government would setup a warranty insurance fund to insure the warranties of all GM and Chrysler vehicles bought while they are in Chapter 11. And some of the rescue money would go into retraining and helping promote new industry....

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"Progressive" is a misused word, people are just interested in the words "decent," "fairness," and "Christian" from the color of the heart.  It is just how Republicans see the contest for the US Senate  that reveals their sense of priorities for the Nation.The main concerns of Republicans, old traditional Republicans shown here in this WSJ Editorial are that somehow gains on the US Supreme Court could be reversed with retirement of Alito and Thomas in their seventies, and fears of the same policies that set up Medicare and Social Security- following the changes of the Industrial Revolution and dismal factory conditions and wages at the turn of the century- under Republican Teddy Roosevelt  (the incipient changes), Woodrow Wilson an academic from Princeton, and Franklin Roosevelt. A new version of old Tory politics still exists in the US. It is these industrial conditions rewritten with work safety laws, workmen's compensation, first 54 in 1918 after the Triangle Factory Fire,  then 40 hour week, unemployment insurance, worker union rights for fair negotiations on wages, that made the US a strong manufacturing nation and Industrial power, creating the synergies for worker contributions combining with technologies, managerial skills for a decent standard of living that surpassed all other nations. It is this achievement that was put at risk in the 21st century by shipping factories overseas and thoughtlessly sending the technologies with it, which happened under a series of administrations since the 1980's Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama and Trump. Done thoughtlessly and recklessly. And the wars that started with president Reagan in Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan that diverted the two trillion dollars that would have rebuilt America's aging infrastructure. Biden was the first president to have a clear focus on the changes needed to rebuild infrastructure and manufacturing, technologies and science, and rural America, in a concerted push that has made gains that surpass any that exist in Europe or China. Restoring the US economy to No. 1. Harris in her own way offers the pieces of the puzzle to reverse the pandemic induced cost of living increases that complement the work of president Biden in 2024, continuing the work of rebuilding infrastructure and manufacturing for leadership in the world.     ...

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The loss of state support in the 1980's resulted in the gradual withering of the health care system in China as individuals bore the brunt of health care costs. Hospitals and clinics shifted to pay as you go system, with the emphasis on prescribing treatment that would boost income including costly tests.

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China's Ministry of Finance announced the end of a preferential tax break for sale of smaller cars. The end of this tax break is one of the main factors for analyst estimates of sales growth of 10% in the automobile market in China, down from 30% growth in the prior year.

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With an article posted online and a 2 hour question and answer session Medvedev outlined his vision of Russia that attacks the corruption, commodities based economy, and lack of pluralistic democracy. This is the first major effort where Medvedev has repeatedly emphasized the differences between his vision for Russia and the existing state of affairs. He did not rule out running in 2012 for President even though he stated he has ggod relations with Prime Minister Putin.

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Citing Alexis de Tocqueville, the Russian President makes a plea for writing a new page in Russian-US relations, by working together, because he says the world expects the two countries to take energetic steps to establish a climate of trust and goodwill, and not to languish in inaction and diengagement. Medvedev says he was greatly impressed with Obama's inaugural address and its unbiassed assessment of America's problems, the need to change together with the rest of the world. Its a kind of call to action, to restart cooperation and working together, building trilateral cooperation between the EU, the USA and Russia.

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In his second part of the series on Capitalism and Globalization Schieritz says Trump's arguments have backing, and goes back to the studies done by David Autor of MIT on the adverse impact of free trade on communities across the U.S.. Lyrarc has covered this issue since 2006, and the reality is that this issue was brought up long before the Autor study gained prominence. On Nov. 12, 2010 Robert Lighthizer, Deputy Trade Representative under U.S. president Reagan wrote an op-ed in the NYT titled "Throwing Free Trade Overboard," that made a strident and strong case for what Trump says 5 years later, and from no less than a top trade official under Repubican Reagan.Trump comes late to this in 2015 when it was already amply clear what was happening. It is not so much Trump having discerned this, than others who should have paid attention, including Lew and leaders in both parties, and the business community,  who for too long ignored it. Or as Hilsenrath in a recent WSJ report says, simply said we have seen this before with Japan's entry into the American market, not realizing the speed and widespread impact of the changes in trade with China, that are unprecedented in history- evident just from the great speed of urbanization and manufacturing work force growth in China, policy rapidly impacting vulnerable communities across the U.S. The corrective course has to be credible which is why it has to come from a a reawakening among leaders such as May, Merkel and Clinton, who are keen students of change, and capable of designing and executing a corrective course of action, and winning the popular support and patience needed to stay the course which could run for most of the next decade. It would also provide leadership and show the way for societies in Brazil, China, India and other countries facing similar problems.     ...