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According to researchers at AARP and the Economic Policy Institute women over 50 years have a harder time than men of the same age in finding good jobs since the 2008 financial crisis. Older women who were laid off have a very hard time finding employment and steady jobs, as this report by Patricia Cohen in the NYT shows. Age, lack of internet skills, shifting networks, caregiving responsibilities and time off taken to care for children, all have worked against older women over 50 years. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis shows that compared to 2006-2007 before the financial crisis hit when about a quarter of the unemployed for women over 50 years were unemployed over 6 months, by 2012-2013 the jobless women for more than 6 months had gone up to about half of the unemployed women in this age group.

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Spain and Portugal growing at 0.7% in the first quarter of 2024, and Italy at 0.3%  are outpacing Germany and France at 0.2%. Manufacturing has slowed down in Germany and France. Overall US 1.6% growth in matched by the EU in 2024.

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US Vice president JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance and their three children are on a 4 day state visit to India, to New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. Vance said- "There’s a vitality to India, a sense of infinite possibility,”  It’s a striking contrast with too many in the West, where some in our leadership class seem stricken by self-doubt and even fear of the future.” Vance says relationship with India will define the 21st century. India's pride in its thousands of years old civilization dating back to the Buddha in 2500 BC and the Upanishads, its history and culture, Vance says contrasts with Western countries that are critical of India while embracing the “same bland, secular, universal values.”   ...

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Belgium, Denmark, France and Sweden are the only major countries that have enshrined gender equality in laws for the workplace, according to a World Bank report.

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New York Governor Hochul signs legislation that will tax fossil fuel producers $3 billion annually to pay for infrastructure needs in the state.

Specifically it includes the law states -“upgrades to roads, bridges, subways and transit systems,” “preventive health care programs,” “upgrading parts of the electrical grid” and “weatherization and energy efficiency upgrades.”

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Currently Asian-Americans make up 62% of students at top high schools in New York. Mayor Blasio aims to give 20% of the seats to students who almost reach the qualifying scores on an entrance exam for Stuyvesant and seven other specialized high schools. Under Blasio's plan Discovery program for economically disadvantaged students would get 800 of the 4000 specialized high school seats for ninth graders in fall 2020 up from 250. 

Another view is presented by Parenting While Black organization of low income parents and children, who say that more important is to improve the quality of education for the city's 1.1 million students and start at the early grades. They see the high school debate for these 7 specialized schools as taking attention from the real problem to focus on s small sliver of students. The mass of students, the vast majority, they say are left to dangle in the wind.

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Seen as IRA's these accounts in DJT's One Big Beautiful Act with the government investing $1000 of its money for every newborn's savings account is a powerful way to create wealth for the next generation. It is designed to be invested in funds that grow with the S&P 500, will be available in 2026. Lets look at the power of accumulation in a fund that has $3000 invested in it $1000 by the government, $1000 by a grandparent and $1000 by a parent. Over 10, 20 and 30 years. If the child has $3000 invested in it till he is 18 years this would have $54000 of payments made into the fund.   The actual S&P return has averaged 12-13% over the last 10 years 2023-2024. Including dividends it has grown to 249%. Assuming it grows at 10 percent a year ,the power of compound interest is huge- it will grow to $47,000 in 10 years, 147,000 in 20 years, and 349,000 in 30 years. This is 3 times the average IRA of 127,000 in 2025. Fidelity Investments shows average IRA in 2025 as as $127,000, for 30 year olds 104,000. In a good set of years this account alone would triple the retirement savings of ordinary Americans.   ...

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The New York Times agreed to sell the Boston Globe to local owners for $70 million in 2013. In 1993 the New York Times acquired The Boston Globe for $1.1 billion. The value of newspapers has plummeted in recent years as newspapers lost advertising revenue and readership declined. A result of the shift to the internet for access to news and information, especially for the younger generation. The Washington Post was sold to Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com for $250 million, with readership having declined to about 457,000 in 2013. Philadelphia newspapers were sold for $55 millon in 2012, after being acquired for $515 millon in 2006, having lost about 90% of the value in just 6 years. In Oct. 2012 The Tampa Tribune sold for only $9.5 million. Estimates for the newspaper properties of the Tribune Company are about $623 million, according to analysts. This includes The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.

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Dutch New Amsterdam with 1500 inhabitants become British New York in 1664. It is later retaken by the Dutch and exchanged for Suriname in the West Indies. From a neglected outpost for the Dutch it becomes a center for trade under the growing British Empire. The city inherits the Dutch spirit of tolerance, diversity and aggressive free trading.

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With 18% of GDP and 22% of wages coming from the insurance and financial sector, New York state is vulnerable to the downturn and its effects will trickle to all parts of the northeast region. And the pull of this sector which had GDP growth of 4.4% in 2007, for the second largest state in the USA after California and Texas, will be absent as the country faces a severe downturn.

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Michaelson and Narli show that Erdogan remains popular even in earthquake hit areas in this report in The Guardian from Kahramanmaras, Turkey. A report in the NYT shows Erdogan at rallies in rural provinces and smaller cities across Turkey, citing poetry, invoking God, and staying on the campaign trail. Erdogan won two thirds of the vote in Sivas one of the founding places for the revolution under Mustafa Kemal that made Turkey an independent nation largely out of Anatolian province. The main base of Mustafa Kemal in 1923 the year of the founding of the Turkish nation with the Treaty of Lausanne was in Ankara. This was under the banner of the Republican party which is now in the opposition with the mayors of Ankara and Istanbul from this party. Both the opposition and Erdogan face a difficult time ahead whoever wins as inflation is at 40% and the cost of living crisis remains a difficult challenge for any government.