LyrArc Article Gist
Krugman questions the Paul Ryan U.S. budget proposal on several grounds. He says the Ryan proposal depends on projections by the Heritage Foundation for its assumption that the tax cuts would generate higher revenues by creating a booming economy. The Heritage Foundation projection is for revenue increasing by $600 billon over the next 10 years as a result of tax cuts. Krugman cites a different view from the Congressional Budget Office estimate for the Ryan proposal, which shows assumed savings from spending cuts will go not to reduce the deficit but to pay for tax cuts, with bigger deficits in the next decade. He says the spending cuts excluding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid- but including defense- go down from 12% of GDP in 2011 to 6% of GDP in 2022- meaning that cuts in public services will need to cut to the bone. The Medicare part of Ryan's proposal does not say how spending on medical care will be reduced. The voucher or premium support Ryan envisages is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cover only one third of the cost of insurance premiums for Medicare equivalent care by 2030. Krugman cites the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which says the Ryan proposal achieves two thirds of its $4 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade by cutting programs that primarily serve low-income Americans. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
When experts say corporate earnings and balance sheets are healthy this is because they are speaking of the situation in aggregate. Companies that benefitted from the commodities boom like the oil companies and companies like Microsoft and Apple have hundreds of billions of dollars, but this is very deceptive and misleading. About two thirds of nonfinancial companies, 1600 companies, carry a junk rating according to S&P. How does this compare with earlier periods? Its up 50% from the beginning of the last bust in 2000 and 40% higher than in 1990. Also Wall Street hugely expanded the market for speculative floating rate loans with $1.2 trillion raised like this in the last 4 years to 2007, according to Thomson Reuters. And the junk bonds are much junkier. Between 2003 and 2007 lenders financed $194 billion worth of bonds in the bottom tier of non investment grades with B- or below. And that was twice the amount of the previous 4 years. Histoically it should be noted 23% of bonds in this group default within 3 yearsafter they are issued vs just 3% in the top 3% of junk. Which companies are likely to default? Amusement park operator Six Flags, construction products maker Georgia Gulf, trucking company Swift Transportation, and sports equipment maker Easton-Bell Sports. Private Equity owners who have loaded the companies they own with debt also could default. This includes real estate brokerage operator Realogy, newspaper company Tribune and pizza chain Uno Holdings. S&P's estimate that the default rate among US junk rated borrowers will jump from 1% last year to 4% this year but other experts estimate it at around 8%. And if history is any guide it will probably be in double digits. After the 2 lending booms the one in late 1980's for LBO's and commercial real estate and for telcom and tech in the late 1990's default rates reached double digits. And with a recession one expert Fridson of research service FridsonVision estimates default rates of upto 16% for two consecutive years considering the huge amount of debt that has built up....

LyrArc Article Gist
The French government announced a 26 billion euros or $33 billion package as Stimulus spending. Its going into infrastructure projectsand investents by state owned firms like Electricite de France. It also includes aone-off payment of 200 euros for low-income households. Its valued at 1.3% of GDP. Under this plan, France will dig acanal north of Paris, renovate university buildings, and put new metro cars in service, and also fincnace the construction of 70,000 homes, on top of the 30,000 unfinished homes it is buying in 2009. Motorists who scrap thier old cars to buy new fuel efficient cars in 2009 will get a1000 euros bonus. This is aimed at reducing the stock of unsold cars which is at 1 million cars. And small companies will be exempted from social charges when they hire new employees.

LyrArc Article Gist
India's Ministry of Finance predicts GDP growth of between 7 and 7.5% for 2018-2019, after faltering GDP growth in 2017-2018 following action on demonetization and introduction of a national Goods and Service Tax. The IMF predicts growth of 7.4% for India in 2018 compared to 6.8% in China in 2018, with growth of 7.8% predicted for India in 2019.  Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian says there are "robust and broad based signs of revival," though risks remain in rising oil prices and inflation. The level is below what it could be, yet robust considering the policy actions taken by the government for the long term such as the nationwide GST implementation, which was taken up by previous administrations of both parties in government but never implemented till 2017. In addition the government faces the tasks of recapitalization of banks, the issues of job creation as manufacturing in India in the global context is only beginning to take shape, and agrarian distress.  The new Budget takes up the issues facing rural areas of the country by compensating farmers to the extent of 150% of agricultural cost and introducing the largest health care security scheme in the world for poor families. This comes a year before new national elections. The Modi administrations's focus appears to be for taking steps that will generate growth over the long term and learning from errors, yet being bold enough to take the necessary action based on experience.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Best Buy sales increase by 3.4% in U.S. stores for the nine weeks of the 2014 holiday season through Jan. 3, and online sales increased 13.4%, with the improving U.S. economy. Sales were higher for newer flat screen televisions and smartphones as customers made replacement with new models. The outlook for 2015 remains uncertain because of volatile exchange rates and declining electronics prices.

LyrArc Article Gist
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) acquires U.S. mobile advertising firm Amobee for all cash deal of US$321 million. SingTel is majority owned by Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings. It has over 434 million subscribers in 25 countries. SingTel is being restructured into 3 divisions- Group Consumer, Group Digital L!fe, and Group ICT. SingTel's overseas stakes are in India's Bharti Airtel, Indonesia's Telkomsel, Thailand's Advanced Info Service PCL, Pakistan's Warid Telecom, Philippines' Globe Telecom, and Pacific Bangladesh Telecom. A stake in Optus in Australia was acquired in 2001 for A$14 billion (US$15 billion). A 30% stake was taken in Warid Telecom for US$758 million in 2007.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Dean of Harvard Medical School says the Health Reform bill gets an "F" grade. He say its disingenuous to call this reform, and Congressmen and the White House are deceiving the public if they attempt to pass this off as reform. What it will do is accelerate health care spending in the US, and the bill has simply postponed most of the major health care problems, especially the ones that drive cost including the fee for service system and delivery of health care.There are no substantial efforts to control the growth in health care costs or improve the quality of care, which makes this effort unacceptable as reform. In his discussions with other health care leaders and economists, Dean Jeffrey Flier, says he has found the opinion unanimous on this point, that whatever the final legislation looks like in Congress, it will only serve to accelerate health care spending rather than contain it. On the present system's failings he is explicit- the current system he says promotes fragmented care making it difficult to assess outcomes, the true costs of care are disguised, and competition based on price and quality is made impossible. The new legislation while expanding access to coverage makes a terrible tradeoff of an accelerated crisis of health care costs and merely continues the current dysfunctional system. The experience of Massachusetts, where access to care was expanded but spending went up, is that this won't work. He points to the Special Commission on Health Care Payment System in Massachusetts recommendation, that the health care system there must be changed from a fee for service system to one with "capitated" payments. So what is really disingenuous about this whole affair? Congressmen making it look as if reform has happened and congratulating themselves on increasing access to health care, when many of the serious problems of funding health care, skyrocketing costs, and a dysfunctional system, have only been kicked further down the road for some future legislators to tackle. With the national debt about 12 trillon dollars when this plan is factored in, this is cause for serious concern. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Progressive caucus in the US House of Representatives led by Pramila Jaypal, a first time Indian American Congresswoman defeats an attempt by Josh Gottheimer of the Problem Solvers caucus to separate much of the president Biden's agenda in health, education and social policy and risk it being defeated by Senators Manchin and Sinema in the US Senate. Without the efforts on child care, education and health, climate change and social services part of the Biden Workers and Families Plan much of the Biden agenda would remain unfinished and Democratic party promises not kept. This also means that Manchin a Senator from West Virginia with a population of 1.8 million and Arizona with a population of 7.2 million, both conservative leaning Democrats could sink the entire agenda of president Biden to support American families and workers for a population of 331 million people. That two states with a population of less than 3% of the American population could sink the entire agenda of president Biden shows how fragile a situation has been created within the Democratic party to support workers and families even during the pandemic following the leadership of Carter, Clinton, and Obama Ms. Jaypal, a three term Congresswoman from Seattle, Washington state, was first elected in 2016 with an endorsement from Bernie Sanders who was the Democratic Party's leading candidate for president till the late stages of the 2020 US presidential primaries. Bernie Sanders says of Jaypal- "I think she is doing an extraordinary job. And I think the Progressive Caucus is doing an extraordinary job." Sanders founded the Progressive caucus after getting elected to the Senate from Vermont 30 years ago. Even though it is hard to imagine the Democratic party being the Democratic party without bold policies in climate change, affordable housing, reducing income disparities,  investing big in childcare, education and healthcare, attempts were being made to sink the entire Democratic party and national agenda going back to Franklin Roosevelt. Jaypal is described in the WSJ as diplomatic and firm, saying "I am so proud of our caucus; I have never seen our caucus so strong. And I am a very good vote counter also." Fifty members of the 100 member Progressive Caucus held firm in support of president Biden's original agenda without which the president would have little to show in keeping promises he made to the American people in the election and little to differentiate him from Mr. Trump who also supported infrastructure spending. Separating the infrastructure bill would have risked sinking Mr. Biden's plan for recovery of America from the pandemic and the devastating policies pursued by American presidents in the last two decades. Policies by previous presidents that have impoverished the country, created huge income disparities, weakened America in the world in trade and technological leadership, and wasted resources in foreign wars. There are no centrists or far left- these are just labels. When Ms Japal said "Let's just remember the Speaker (Nancy Pelosi) is a great champion of this agenda. I think she was trying to do as much as she could to get this done," she could have said it is Mr. Biden's own agenda pushed forward with conviction to help workers and families during the pandemic, and build a solid American recovery, restore American leadership in the world. Pramila Japypal is the first Indian American woman in the US Congress, and one of only two dozen naturalized American citizens in the US Congress. That she could play such a critical role for good in the US Congress shows that with the right convictions, determination, experience, much can be done for the common good in America and the world.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Vladimir Putin presents his views on democracy in Russia, on prevalent corruption, and ways to introduce democratic processes through internet referendums on legislative initiatives, the election of governors and local officials. He says democracy cannot be built overnight, that sovereignty of the people of Russia is the true basis of democracy and this was achieved through the fight with the oligrachy and anarchy of the 1990's. Rights that Russians want to see democracy ensure are: right to work, free medical care and education for children. In addition with the development of civil society and the advance of the middle class in Russia democratic processes have to keep pace. But he doesn't see democratic processes working with what he calls " a circus of candidates making unrealistic promises" with "spin doctors and image makers controlling politicians." And he does not see modern democracy limited to casting votes, and calls for internet based democracy and referendum based democracy to be integrated into the overall development of institutions, particularly at municipal and regional levels. He calls for a change in the mindset of Russians away from corruption in public service, saying that as long as the mindset is there one set of thieves are unmasked only to be replaced by another set of thieves. And cites polls that show teenagers aspire to be public servants because of the easy money to be made in public service. To correct this he proposes salaries that are high enough and at the same time have absolute transparency, declaration of expenses and family purchases, residences, vacations etc. Other steps include separating executive power and property and separating executive power from the system of checks over it....

LyrArc Article Gist
Warnings to governments and leaders in industry and pharmaceutical research about epidemic preparedness by Bill Gates were ignored. He spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop new vaccines and create disease tracking systems. But only governments could tackle this problem. He tells the WSJ in an interview that he feels terrible and that he wishes he had done more. His fear that a once in a century pandemic has come true. Governments did respond to the public health preparation needs as reported in France 24 to both SARS and the H1N1, both in Britain and France. It was the disbanding of this effort in the period of the global financial crisis and the eurozone financial crisis that led to the level of unpreparedness that Western Europe finds itself in today. This was caused by irresponsible banking practices. The response was austerity measures in Britain, France, Germany and Spain that led to leaving public health system investment being neglected, without fixing the original source of the problem. Misallocation of capital and lopsided priorities continued through most of the period leading up to the pandemic. There is a lot that Gates and other public spirited leaders could do now do in the new reordering of priorities and shifting the allocation of capital to public services and investments in infrastructure, and supply chain renewal to safeguard national interests. Today he is working with pharmaceutical executives and governments to produce billions of doses of vaccines while they are being tested. His foundation has reserved space in a manufacturing plant so that production can begin quickly once an effective vaccine is found. He says nobody has made 7 billion vaccines so that it will need all the help that it can get and international cooperation.  In an earlier interview with WSJ he told the interviewer in November 2014 that the world as a whole did not have preparedness. France and Britain prepared and then abandoned the effort for epidemic response by 2012 following the global financial and eurozone financial crises. Gates repeated the warning to 2016 presidential candidates in the U.S.  In 2017 at the Munich Security Conference he reminded people- "getting ready for a global pandemic is every bit as important as nuclear deterrence and avoiding a climate catastrophe." One focus of Gates was to come up with faster ways to a vaccine by using ready made components and then customizing it. This is an approach being adopted today by Oxford scientists and by Quidel Corp. in the U.S.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The effort to shift China's economc growth away from the rampant overbuilding in housing and industrial capacity of the past to domestic consumption, and focus on meeting the demand for better medical care, quality of food, education and other quality of life products. China's leaders met at the Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing in Dec. 2015 to work out ways to make this shift so that growth rate of 6.5% and other goals can be met. Plans include reducing industrial overcapacity, dealing with overinvestment and unused inventory in housing, reducing financial risks from high corporate debt to GDP ratio approaching 160% estimated by Standard and Poors Ratings Services. By comparison the U.S. debt to GDP ratio is 70%. A steep rise resulted from the huge China stimulus program of 2008-2009, when the ratio was 98% for China. Experts such as Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute are pessimistic about the prospects of successfully implementing reforms, saying reducing industrial overcapacity was a goal of the new Jinping Li-Keqiang leadership in 2013, but not much progress has been made in 2 years....

LyrArc Article Gist
Alan Blinder, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, looks at explanations for low productivity growth since 2010, and points to the most likely reason- the lack of technological progress with the kind of impact that the personal computer and other innovations had in the period 1995-2005. Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple tech innovation has more impact on consumers than on the industrial economy and production. Lower investment since 2010 with the financial crisis could have added to this, but to a smaller degree, says Blinder. Blinder even points to some hours of work being taken up by workers using Facebook, Twitter and other similiar services. The notion strange to Silicon Valley is supported that tech progress, dynamism and entrepreneurship may have actually declined to some extent. Intel's Andy Grove, no stranger to early innovations supported this notion around 2008, saying he saw less innovation of the type he was familiar with, more refinements than breakthroughs by startups in Silicon Valley. Grove was critical of the decline in manufacturing in the U.S., which is likely to have hurt productivity growth....

LyrArc Article Gist
California Governor Schwarznegger points out that about 80 cents on every government dollar in California goes to public employees compensation and benefits. He says spending on state employees went up three times as fast as state revenues during the last decade. The result is crowding out of other programs such as higher education, parks and recreation. Because of large unfunded pension and retirement health-care benefit committments, California faces $550 billion of retirement debt. Costs of servicing that debt have grown at the rate of 15% for the last decade. The result is that California will spend more on retirement benefits than on higher education in 2010. Schwarznegger points to the fact that most employees in the private sector do not have $1 million in savings, but are in effect guaranteeing a retirement account of $1 million to state employees who retire at 55 years age- with a $3000 inflation protected check for the rest of their lives- as evidence that politicians in the State Assembly have made committments for the future that they cannot keep. And if they are kept they will leave little money for essential programs in education and public services....

LyrArc Article Gist
One in six dollars generated by the U.S. economy goes to pay for health care, almost twice the average for rich countries. It hurts America in many ways; by being a burden on the taxpayer when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid paying for the poor and the elderly, on companies being one reason GM went bankrupt, it eats up federal and state budgets, rising costs make any form of future coverage for all unsustainable, and it robs other priorities such as infrastructure building and other national scale investments. The Economist says that if it had to design a system from scratch, it would go for a system based mostly around publicly funded health care. For the uninsured the solution of an employer mandate is now well accepted, so this is not an issue. What is an issue is how to make the new system affordable? Here the Economist says that whether in stages or in one move, the tax deductability of employer paid health insurance, which is costing the U.S. government $250 billion ayear, has to go. It is necessary to remove this deduction, and its something all interests involved will have to swallow, as other savings are smaller and will not be adequate. The deductability of insurance makes the true cost of insurance transparent, so it supports gold plated insurance. This does not make cost control the pressing priority it needs to be. So the deducatability of employer paid health insurance hurts both ways. The other necessary action is in the area of moving out of the current culture where most doctors work on a fee-for-service basis, where the more tests they prescribe or procedures they perform the greater their incomes. This acts as a perverse incentive, and has aruinous effect in mushrooming health care costs in America. Cutting back on unnecessary tests and procedures, and prescriptions , would save 10% to 30% of health costs says the Economist. And it says this has been proven with the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Kaiser Permanente in California showing that cutting back doesn't hurt care and outcomes., so much so that cutting back would occur along with improved outcomes. But Americans with employer paid insurance just take things for granted as its not much out of pocket expense for them. THis creates the lack of a force for controlling costs even as employers are shouldering abigger and bigger burden, and the employee who thinks he is doing fine actually is seeing more of his salary dollars going to pay for his health insurance. In a way the consumers of health care are stuck with the perception that they are not somehow paying for these mushrooming costs and too manytests, procedures and prescriptions. This perception leads them a false sense of comfort with the system they are in, and a fear of something new fanned by the medical lobbies, that any change will impact users negatively. This makes the whole discussion on health care or the process of finding solutions to become an exericize in which terms like "rationing" and "choice" play a distorting role. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Iraq's oil ministry wants to move ahead faster in developing its oil fields and will let foreign oil companies bid for contracts to develop 6 oil fields and 2 natural gas fields by end of 2008. About 40 foreign oil companies from USA, Europe, Japan, China, Russia have been approved for bidding on contracts. According to BP PLC statistics Iraq produces 2.5 million barrels a day, up from 1.9 barrels a day last year, but far below the 3.5 million barrels a day produced in1979. The Iraqi goal is to produce 1.5 million additional barrels a day, but obstacles are the lack of a hydrocarbon law which is not moving quickly, and the Kurdish region signing its own deals, and this announcement may be an effort to go ahead and not wait till a hydrocarbon law is passed and sign agreements which would be technical service agreements for foreign expertise for a fee. Oil revenues are helping stabilize Iraq and as security improves oil can be a big stabilizer with increased production and financing development and job creation and building infrastructure damaged during the war and infrastructure that never existed....

LyrArc Article Gist
Britain's National Health Service IT initiative failed because of a top down emphasis and focus on procurement. The project was started by Labor in 2002 and budgeted for 12 billion pounds. Lohr talks with Dr. David Brailer, and Dr. David Blumenthal, who headed the program for health IT in the Bush and Obama administrations, and with Richard Alvarez of Canada Health Infoway, which is the nonprofit corporation setup for conversion to electronic health records in Canada. Dr Brailer says the program in the UK was forced top down on doctors and nurses, and seen as a procurement program, ignoring the human aspects related to doctor preferences. Dr. Blumenthal empasized the need for collaborative effort all the way with doctors and nurses in a program of this kind. The confrontation that resulted from the lack of participation by health care professionals led to failure. Britain's new Cameron government ended the program.

LyrArc Article Gist
Toyota is reducing its dependence on the US market by growing in China, Russia and the Miidle East and with plans for growth in India with a lowcost car. The market in China and Russia has grown by 40% for example and this should mean there is room for overall global growth even with the slowdown in the US. In China Toyota is falling short of demand as its consistently underestimated the growth in the market. When Toyota thought the Chinese market would hit 8 million vehicles by mid 2007 it actually hit 8.5 million. So in many countries like China, Russia and the Middle East and India Toyota may be scrambling to meet demand in the future which suggests that in the long term Toyota may be less affected by the ups and downs in the US market. The US manufacturers like GM are following a similiar strategy. Competing with Toyota overseas the US makers have none ofthe liabilities they face in the US market, years of sloppy service and image, pension and health liabilities, union rules and restrictions, and they are moving some of the best technology and design into overseas markets so the competition there should be on more even ground....

LyrArc Article Gist
The former Surgeon General of the U.S., Vivek Murthy, has tackled issues such as the opioid crisis, obesity and poor health outcomes. In his new book "Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World," Murthy looks at the loneliness he says is pervasive in the new culture of iphones and social media that have perversely reduced not increased social connection and the feelings coming from good relationships and social concerns.  A 2020 Cigna survey shows 61% of American adults are lonely, up from 54% in the 2019 survey. It is not about having a lot of people around you, it is about feeling a genuine connection and the quality of relationships. Murthy finds this lack of genuine social concerns and social connection as fairly pervasive from his conversations with people all across the country. Normally it is felt in the fifties as life changes, and in the eighties with loss of mobility. Today the tech devices and what is called scoal media that appear to have increased communication have actually reduced the level of quality connections and interactions. Dr. Murthy suggests volunteering, and service in the community or larger communities worldwide as a way of breaking this. Capitalizing on informal day to day contacts, including with people one has not known before, is another way. This shifts the focus to the people around us and brings a new dimension and quality to our lives.  Saying hello often and smiling genuinely, says Murthy. Improving the  quality of time in day to relationships is another. This can also give us the confidence to connect with people on a regular basis.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
U.S., UK and Swiss regulators charged UBS AG with conspiracy to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate or LIBOR. LIBOR is the interest rate at which large banks lend to each other and is determined from daily reports made by 16 banks to the British Banking Association, giving the rate at which the bank borrows from its peer banks. This rate helps determine the rate for trillions of dollars in securities, home and auto loans, swaps and derivatives. A tiny movement in LIBOR can affect trading profits, and it influences perceptions of a bank's health particularly in a crisis such as the 2008 financial crisis. Every day a 16 bank panel reports this rate to British financial authorites. UBS took full responsibilty and pleaded guilty to criminal fraud. UBS settled the charges for $1.5 billion. Barclays PLC, a UK bank, settled charges for LIBOR manipulation in mid 2012 for $450 million, ending in the departure of the bank chairman and CEO. Britain's regulator the Financial Services Authority, FSA, says in its report that rigging the rate was "routine and widespread" at UBS in order to increase trading profits, done with the knowledge of senior managers, and included cash awards or trading opportunities to employees at other banks to participate in manipulating the LIBOR rate. During one period of 18 months UBS paid 15000 British pounds to a firm of outside brokers every 3 months. FSA says LIBOR and versions of it are "at risk of being improperly influenced " between Jan. 2005-2010. What this means is other large settlements with other banks can be expected. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have lost $3 billon from this manipulation of LIBOR, according to an internal report from the inspector general of the Federal housing Finance Agency, which also says Fannie and Freddie should sue the banks responsible. The whole issue of LIBOR came to light after an article was published in the WSJ, April 16, 2012, and a WSJ study on LIBOR using credit default insurance to track LIBOR rates, on May 29, 2012....

LyrArc Article Gist
A detailed breakdown of the the waste, fraud and improper payments in federal spending is shown in this WSJ report. . Of $4.1 trillion, a big chunk of the $6.7 trillion the US had in federal spending in 2024 according to CBO, 3.7% is self identified by agencies as improper payments or $149 billion. 90% of improper payments are overpayments. It reached a high of 7.1% of federal spending in 2021 during the pandemic when loose controls led to more improper payments. Only $22 billion was recovered for 2024. Outside agency control including state and local control where the federal and states are running programs is the single most difficulty in getting improper payments back. Top government programs with improper payments are: Health and Human Services Medicare $31.7 billion Medicaid   $31.1 billion Medicare Advantage $19.1 billion Medicare Prescription Benefit $3.6 billion Treasury - Earned Income Credit $15.9 billion Agriculture- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance $10.5 billion Social Security Supplemental Security Income $6.5 billion Labor- Federal and State Unemployment Insurance $5.1 billion ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Greece's New Democracy party and Mr. Mitsotakis wins about 41% of the vote in Greece's elections. Syriza come is second with 21% and Pasok left party at 12%. Mitsotakis has increased Greece's growth to twice the eurozone rate, and cut migrants by 90% in line with EU policy. New Democracy party gets 145 seats in a 300 member parliament. The first round was conducted under proportional representation, only 60% of voters cast their vote. Mitsotakis will go for another election by July because in a second round the winner gets additional seats and this could let it form its own government. It sees this as needed to maintain policies of economic growth that have led to GDP growth at twice the rate of the eurozone. A surveillance scandal appears not to have affected the election results as Greeks opted for stability and growth. Mitsokatis himself put it this way- "This is not the time for experiments that lead nowhere." Greece was almost out of the eurozone when Syriza conducted referendums on the debt repayment that led to a chaotic situation, and then moved in the opposite direction in callous implementation when the Eurozone held firm. Mitsotakis said Greece needs to achieve an investment grade rating to lower borrowing costs. Worldwide the policy of delivering on growth is key to success in elections in democracies and in countries that are catching up after the colonialist phase. This is true for delivery of infrastructure and public services such as water and electricity, modern rail in India. It is true also for winning enough public support in countries like China that run parliamentary representation under one party the CCP. Strict immigration controls since 2015 reflect a similar policy pursued recently by Italy. Migrants have dropped by 90%. This is popular among Greeks. Looking back Merkel made a serious error in letting in migrants coming in from Hungary and Austria at the beginning of the migration inflows into the EU in 2015. Merkel came from former East Germany, the communist led GDR, and had no understanding of how harmful this would be for the European Union. In just one year by 2016 the misguided open migration policies of Merkel had led to her CDU party getting less votes than an anti immigration AfD party in her home state of Meckenburg. It led to anti-immigration movements in Europe that were used by parties in a self-serving way including in Britain that led to exit of Britain from the EU. It also led to a decade of austerity and a lost decade for the European Union as it permanently sidelined parties to the left such as Social Democrats that unknowingly or unwittingly ended up with the blame for the public's discomfort with lack of borders and migrants upsetting borders. In balance the right way to tackle this was to build stronger economies that supported workers and families in the EU, that then invested significantly in developing countries of Africa and Asia to help them catch up with modernization. Another failure in policy was the Bush-Obama Merkel policies in failed states such as Iraq and Afghanistan. There it was fundamentally important not to get involved in any way that committed US or EU's precious resources.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Seen in a larger context, the Biden tax pledge seen from the southern and midwestern and less well off states is not about taxes, it is about federal revenues that build the infrastructure and services in these states that increase the standard of living. This happened in the 1930's and 1940's under FDR and Truman, in the 1950's under Eisenhower, in the 1960's under Kennedy/LBJ. And is happening again under Biden today. Lets not forget that president John F. Kennedy says in his speeches that these regions in America in the 1860's under Lincoln were in development close to what prevailed in the 1960's in India, Ceylon, Chile, Turkey or China. The Biden pledge not to increase taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 is significant because it grasps the situation in America where extraordinary gains in wealth since 1980 have gone only some of it to the top 1-2% in midwestern states and southern states, and most of it to the top 3-5% in coastal states population in the east and west, New York and California, where the finance and tech industry are based. In Michigan and Wisconsin only 2% of households make more than $400,000, in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Florida 3%. WSJ shows a map of the US showing this for individual states. The core southern states have 2% of households with incomes over $400,000- including Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, with Mississippi less than 1%. It is only segregation in the late 1960's and culture issues such as abortion that have turned them from Democratic states to Republican states as they were the largest beneficiaries of taxes diverted into investment in these places since FDR/Truman and John Kennedy/LBJ. It was JFK who came up with the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats" when he opened federally funded projects in Arkansas. Seen objectively the large investments made under Lincoln, FDR/Truman, Kennedy/LBJ from tax revenues are what changed this region from conditions that prevailed in less developed countries that John Kennedy points out in his speeches, true for the midwest, parts of the west, and the southern states alike.  President Kennedy said on Feb. 25, 1963 to the American Bankers Association Symposium on Economic Growth: "Today, many Americans tend to think of developing underdeveloped countries in terms only of faraway nations. But in 1863, even measured by 1963 dollars, our own per capita income--and this should be a source of encouragement to many who are laboring with the problem of underdevelopment in far-off countries--our own per capita income was less than $1 a day, approximately the same as Chile's. Nearly 60 percent of our labor force was engaged in agriculture, the same percentage as is today engaged in the Philippines. An estimated 20 percent of our population was illiterate, the same percentage of the population of Ceylon. Only one-fifth of our 34 million people lived in towns or cities of over 5,000 in population, as is roughly true now of Turkey. In 1863, this Nation had fewer railroad tracks laid than India has today, and its children had a shorter life expectancy than a child born this year in Thailand or Zanzibar."   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Sri Lankan economy, jobs and growth are affected by economic relations with India, loans and assistance from India, and from investment from India in the 2025 period. USAID plays very little part in jobs and growth. This is true of other countries.  In the past the USAID was seen as part of the activity of the State Department overseas yet kept separate so that aid would not be based on US diplomatic activity. Over time it became a place which supported what critics call bureaucrats pet projects in developing countries. Many developing nations have advanced in their development and no longer need USAID projects, this includes India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Brazil, Chile, and parts of Africa. Because development aid was at one time critical as in the period when John Kennedy came to office in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, many nations in Asia and Africa were just becoming independent there was a sense from that time that its acitvity and budget was somehow both independent of the State Department and sacrosanct. As a result it became a target of critics and did not advance the US interests overseas as the US Information Service, the VOA Voice Of America and other agencies have done. A country's development no longer depended on USAID. Why does it need to be separate when it should advance US goals and interests around the world which are benevolent- consider that it is the US that helped build up the Chinese economy and still provides it with a large market. ...