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A Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile attack on Kviv is repelled with all missiles shot down on May 16, 2023. For the first time in the war the missile attacks are causing far less damage than in the early days of the war. A DW.com German reporter in Kviv on German television says the whole attack lasted only 15 minutes before things were back to quiet over Kviv with missiles exploding in the sky not on the ground.

This week Mr. Zelensky visited Berlin, then Aachen for the Charlemagne Prize as a symbolic acceptance of the Ukrainian people into the European community of nations with Zelensky speaking in Aachen in Ukrainian. He then went to Paris and London. Next week the G7 meet in Hiroshima, Japan. The war that followed a pandemic enters its 64th week in 2023.

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The European Union is drafting a ban on oil imports from Russia, says this report in the NYT. The European Union now pays Russia about $1 billion every day for oil imports from Russia. Under chancellor Merkel Germany actually increased its dependence on Russian natural gas from 36% during Russian annexation of the Crimea to 55% today. In this way creating some of the conditions that emboldened Russia into its invasion of Ukraine, creating over 4 million refugees and immense destruction. Oil revenues of this magnitude of about $1 billion a day from the European Union help finance and prolong the invasion with enormous cost of human life. The longer the war lasts it affects a grain producing region in Ukraine that would lead to world food scarcity and famine.

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Britain faces the most acute housing crisis in living history says Angela Rayner, Secretary of Housing. The shortage of homes- 4 million. Private rents have jumped, eroding living standards and creating homelessness. Rayner has introduced a plan to build 370,000 homes a year. This is the first time in decades that this problem is being tackled on this scale, after Tories neglected to do much to address this problem. A similar situation of rising rents exists in the US putting 25% of apartment renters into a situation where over 50% of the household income goes to apartment rental. US president Biden has called for price increases for home rental to be limited to 5%, and Harris has plans for the government to help families where the rental exceeds 30% of household income.

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Sharing the waters of the Indus river system means— the ‘Eastern Rivers’, namely Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, for India, and the ‘Western Rivers’ of Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab for Pakistan. Indus Waters Treaty changes proposed by India include bilateral not international arbitration for Indian dam building plans, and using water storage optimally on its side for the western rivers.

The western rivers have four times the water as eastern rivers and dam building technology has evolved over 75 years. The Indus Water Treaty was written by civil engineers but its international arbitration and three levels need to be replaced with bilateral settlement so that India can go ahead with dam building for development without Pakistan simply stalling everything, which serves no purpose for modernization.

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Comparative effectiveness research will be conducted to evaluate what is the best treatment for any ailment or disease or health problem under the $1.1 billion allocated for this in the Stimulus Plan. What are the alternative methods of treatment, what is the effectiveness of each treatment, what are the comparative costs and so on. Is it better to treat neck pain with surgery or acombination ofphysical therapy, exercize and medications? If there is ablockage of arteries in the lower leg and leg pain, how does drugs and watchful waiting compare with surgery? For chronic heart failure how does home monitoring of blood pressure and weight and exercise in addition to medications provide an alternative route as opposed to just medications. Dr Fisher of Dartmouth Medical School cites these as examples of questions that can be asked in comparitive effectiveness research. The money will be available to the Health and Human Services Department and will be used over several years. About 15 federal employees will form a council to coordinate the research and advise President Obama and Congress on how to use the money. In 2007 the US spent $2.2 trillion, or 16% of GDP, on health care, and the Congressional Budget Office says it will grow to 25% of GDP at the rate its growing by 2025 if left to its own devices. ...

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Only 28% of the people in Portugal between 25 and 64 have completed high school . This compares with 85% in Germany, 91% in Czech Republic and 89% for the U.S. Portugal's high-school dropout rate is 37%, one of the highest in Europe. Its reading scores lag behind the OECD average, even after improvements in the last decade. The military dictatorships that ruled Portugal did not emphasize education, and education was neglected for several centuries before that. Even after efforts by the democratically elected governments in recent decades there is a huge gap between Portugal and countries like Ireland. This becomes important for Portugal to build industries and have the technical skilled workers to support these industries. Without this Portugal's financial condition can only get worse. With a technical skilled workforce such as that in Ireland, analysts estimate the growth in GDP would be 1.5% higher. Sharp cuts in education spending are going to make the situation tougher. Portugal lacks industry, yet at the same time cumulative deficits with the rest of the world are over 130 billion euros after years of cumulative deficits. This highlights the problems facing the euro currency countries with vastly different educational systems, industry structures and economic management....

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The Hispanic vote counts for crucial vote margins not only in the southwest but in places like Pennsylvania and Virginia where they are 5% of the voting population. About 10 million Hispanics voted up from 7.8 million in 2004 accounting for 8% of the voting population. That is an increase of 2.2 million voters and abig part of grass roots efforts to get them to register both by Hillary Clinton, and Obama. This grass roots effort was crucial. And mobilized by immigration policies of the Republicans and by the economic downturn and by a new generation of younger latino voters they voted nationally 66% to 32% for Obama over McCain. In Florida the older generation of Cuban Americans were eclipsed by new younger Cuban American voters and South and Central American immigrants giving Obama 57% to 42% edge over McCain. In Colorado the Latino vote was 17% of the vote with 73% of Hispanics voting Obama. Newly registered voters were 35% in Colorado, 34% in Florida.

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France's unemployment rate for youth 15-24 is over 25%. France's president Hollande has a plan to get companies to hire young workers on a permanent contract. The "generation contract" gives small business 4000 euros a year for three years to hire a young person on a permanent contract a the same time committing to keep an employee over 57 years in age. Companies with over 300 employees are required to set targets for hiring younger workers and keeping older workers or face sanctions. The program would cost France $1 billion a year and the government estimate is to generate 500,000 jobs in 5 years. A think tank OFCE sees this as generating about 100,000 jobs, because many companies would have hired anyway. The German approach is focussed on state sponsored apprenticeships and vocational training, which some French companies says is the right direction for France. German youth unemployment is 8.1%, with 2.6 million students at vocational schools, and 1.46 million apprentices. Beginning Jan 2013, Germany will support youth from other eurozone countries with language courses and travel costs to work in these programs in areas of Germany with shortages of workers....

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Chrysler's sales are dropping the fastest of all the car companies . April 2009 sales dropped 24% from March 2009. Ford sales are doing better than Toyota, as they declined in April over same month prior year by 32%, compared to 42% for Toyota. It appears that the Buy American factor may be helping Ford Motor more than the other American car companies, and that Chrysler also suffers from the lack of new models with new technology and investment in new features. At GM the situation is better at Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC, where sales in April 2009 declined by 29%, over same month prior year, which compares with a 55% decline in sales, of Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, and Saturn brands which are likely to be dropped. See the related link on same day on steep fall in Chrysler sales.

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U.S. president Trump approved tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods. The U.S. Trade representative is expected to announce the goods subject to a tariff of 25% on June 15, 2018, and publish them in the Federal Register next week. China's Foreign Minister Wang met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Beijing, saying at a joint news conference that  if the U.S. went ahead with the tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods China has made preparations for tariffs of its own on American goods. The biggest targets for China are aircraft and soyabeans. Separately the Tax Foundation shows the tariffs on Chinese imports, coming on top of tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, would lower GDP in U.S. over long run by 0.06% and reduce employment by 45,000 positions. Other reports also confirm the impact is not significant enough and the U.S. sees its strategy as one of reversing the trade imbalance in the way it acted in negotiations with the Japanese after a similar trade imbalance with Japan. In some ways the trade imbalance with China is more severe in its impact on manufacturing in the U.S., hollowing out some sectors, and the size of the imbalance at about $ 1 billion a day much larger. This is also the position taken by U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer, an experienced negotiator who negotiated with Japan during the Reagan administration. There is also the added issue today of intellectual property losses for the U.S. that the U.S. is seeking to address in the negotiations. ...

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For the 100,000 employees of Vodafone the pandemic has lessons for creativity, flexibility and innovating in work habits. In 2 weeks 95% of the employees worked remotely. Now Vodafone experts say that individual projects and tasks make up 60% of work which can be done remotely. Only 40% of tasks require working in a team setting with other people. The 60% done individually can be done in a remote setting making it necessary to to adopt a flexible approach for best results. Here Nick Read, Vodafone CEO, says because of London's unique setting and exceptional access to the talent pool this will always be a good office location as a central office. Yet the new concept is for hubs all over the country so that Vodafone can tap into talent across the nation in diverse parts of the UK. Mr. Read looks at the views of employees and says this period has shown enhanced productivity with remote working. The additional challenge of balancing family and work can create some stress, and Vodafone has taken some steps to tackle this. It provides guidance to employees on how to handle work in a remote setting, limits meetings to 20 minutes with long separation between meetings. Vodafone is now designing offices in European locations based on what it has learned during the pandemic. In the Netherlands it is splitting the office and remote work 50-50 based on Vodafone's new understanding of the value of remote work. The expansion of the work day as employees handle other tasks, has to be handled well with some structure. The German idea of Feierabend, or end of working day, calling for a set time to disconnect the work day and do something else cycling, exercizing, something fun and relaxing to disconnect, is shown in Lyrarc. Other articles on working remotely in Lyrarc show that limiting intense concentration work to 4-5 hours is a good way to be at your best in productive work. This is because an 8 hour work day at the office has many distractions, meetings and interactions. The office work day has much shorter stretches of concentrated work than we think. ...

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Debate in Germany over whether there should be exception to the minimum wage agreement of 8.50 euros per hour. The head of the federal employment agency, Heinrich Alt, says a universal minimum wage would reduce incentives for young people to join vocational training. The new labor minister, Social Democrat Andrea Nahles, says "there will be no exceptions, notwithstanding all the escape fantasies." The Social Democrats insisted on the minimum wage to win support from rank and file working class members after losing support in its own base with the increase in the low wage sector in Germany. Unemployment in Germany is less than 5%, but this comes with an increase in lower wage workers as part of the reforms under the Social Democrat Schroeder administration when unemployment was close to 10%. Economists say the increase in wages would increase weak consumer spending in Germany and increase imports from other eurozone countries. In 2011 the share of the German population making less than the new minimum wage of 8.50 euros an hour, according to the German Institute for Economic Research, is- for former East Germany 27%, for former West Germany 15%, for ages under 24 years 44%, for ages 25 to 60 years 15%. This does not affect the manufacturing sector in East Germany as wages in the sector are above 8.50 euros. The other problem is that wages appear to be declining in Germany, with wages decreasing by 0.3% in October 2013, according to the Federal Statistical Office. ...

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With coronavirus spread out over wide parts of each country and with so many people infected it is very difficult to do the contact tracing and isolation that was tried during the first wave. In Germany during the first wave efforts for contact tracing and isolation worked reasonably well. During the second wave in November things have changed. In Germany authorites do not know in November where 75% of the people testing positive for coronavirus got it. In Spain this figure is 93% for the last week of October. In France and Italy it is at 80%. In New York it is over 50%. Other problems are the increasing number of cases where the coronavirus is spread in an home setting, the lack of restaurant data collected on who visits, and the delay in getting test results. In Germany frequently people say they cannot remember where they were. Researchers from the German version of the FBI, the Pasteur Institute in France and the Koch Institute in Germany are getting involved in November to understand in what settings the virus spreads most. ...

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This report in the Washington Post points out that more than half, about 12,000 homes, needing lead free pipes in Flint, Michigan, are still waiting. This 4 years after lead contamination in Flint water was shown to be over 800 times more than the approved levels. In parts per billion 13,000 compared to 15 ppb upper allowable level. 

About 12,000 children in Flint from the poorest families were exposed to lead contaminated water when this was discovered in 2014. 

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

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Susan Jaccoby brings up a major issue facing healthcare in America from personal experience. A third of the Medicare budget, she says, goes to the last year of life, and a third of this goes to the care in the last month. At the same time public opinion polls show Americans see the problem being too much medical intervention rather than too little. Especially when there is no hope except to prolong life for the patient with an highly deteriorated qulaity of life for a few months or a year, doing no service to the patient or future generations who may see their basic services cut when they most need it as a result of the unaffordable spiralling cost of Medicare. A Pew Research Center poll in 2006, shows 22 percent say a doctor should not always make efforts to save a sick person's life, and 70 percent believe that patients should be allowed to die in some situations, when it only prolongs life for a few months for instance and patients live in pain. The problem only gets worse in future years as an estimated 8.5 million Americans are expected to be over 85 years in 2030 with these same choices facing patients, their families, Medicare and the country....

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Milei wins 41% of the vote in Argentina midterm Congressional elections in October 2025, with one third of Congress to support his economic programs to fight runaway inflation. About one third of the people live in poverty, as Milei resorted to tough action to fight over 100% inflation. It is  now down to 30%. Argentines are determined to find a way out of this inflationary crisis that happens once every decade for the last 70 years. The US plans to provide $20 billion in loan assistance, and another $20 billion from private funds. The IMF has a $55 billion program to support the economic programs that cut the number of people in the state sector companies and government, cut economic subsidies and social assistance, in a desperate effort to rein in inflation. Only when all members of society pull together, particularly young people, can a nation get its economic act right. Argentina must find a way. A rainy day fund has to be set up as happened in Brazil and Russia, financial prudence exercised by leaders, and the young people stepping up to change the country's future, change the trajectory forever. ...

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What does fast growth in the world's fastest growing economy, that is a key part of America's and the European Union's and Japan's supply chain look like. It is based on people inclusive development called Sab Ka Vikas Sab ke Saath, Gandhiji's idea of the last person in the line ever present and watchful of the task at hand. This Powerpoint of the blueprint of the Indian Budget  for 2024-25 from Nirmala Sitharaman and the Finance Ministry shows a visual of what the growth looks like for the farm, industrial, housing, health, education and other sectors of the economy. It is a journey just beginning under Vikshit Bharat with a target date of the 100th  anniversary of independence 2047. Here one can see the target of increasing capital expenditures for infrastructure and various development schemes by 11.1%. GST (one tax one country) tax revenues are expected to increase by around 12% which support this budget. Strengthening financial sector to bring investment back on track after the pandemic is one of the support pillars, so is deepening and widening tax base through the GST a uniform federal tax for the whole country. Another pillar is proactive inflation management- the story of how India tackled the cost of energy by accessing from different suppliers at the best price is told this week in Feb 2024 in the WSJ. Foreign Minister Jaishankar told the Munich Security Conference with Blinken and Baerbock in the panel that India with 1.4 billion people's future at stake should be seen as done the right thing, the smart thing. Inflation has been kept at about 5%, and key economic growth projected at 7-8% over the next decade with goal of becoming the third largest economy in the world. ...

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An alarming rise in mental health condition about 50% higher than before the pandemic is causing a surge in UK Disability Benefit costs. Wes Streeting, Secretary of Health and Social Care says there is overtreatment for mental health in hospitals and clinics. An overmedicalizing of everyday problems, is how The Times describes it. Streeting says- “Definitely … over diagnosis” and people being described as mental health patients when benefit can be gained from training in “resilience and coping skills”. UK Disability sickness benefits jumped from 46 billion pounds to 65 billion in five years from 2019 to 2025. By 2030 it could reach 100 billion pounds. Labour's reforms intend to tackle this with savings of 5 billion pounds setting a new direction for Disability benefits. Already there are 1 million more claimants than in 2019 in Britain. There are 3.3 million claimants in 2025, projected to go up to 4 million in 2027. ...

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Simon Nixon points out the problems investors had with UBS before the Oct 2012 decision to drastically reduce the size of the investment banking operations. UBS had three fourths of its capital engaged in investment banking earning only about 5% return. Private bank and wealth management businesses earned far better returns of 25%-40%. Under the new plan core Tier 1 ratio on a fully applied Basel III basis would be 13% in 2014. And return on equity under CEO Ermotti's plan would increase to over 15% by 2015. UBS would put emphasis on the private bank and wealth management businesses under the new plan and shrink the investment banking operations with large job cuts.

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The 64 mile highway known as the Gardez-Khost Highway has cost $121 million upto this point. The final cost is expected to reach $176 million. At $2.8 million a mile the cost overruns on this projects are over 100%. Parts of the road run through Taliban territory and may never be completed. Security for the project has cost $43.5 million, according to USAID officials. This involves among other things payments to a local figure named Arafat. The road connects two provinces, Paktia and Khost, and runs through rugged mountain terrain at 9000 feet. At the original estimate of $69 million it was considered a good investment for linking these areas to Kabul.

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November 2012 light vehicle sales of cars and light trucks shows sales up significantly for Honda at 39%, Toyota 17%, and sales at Ford up 3%, GM 6%. GM decides to reduce production and not reduce prices with incentives that match competitors. VW sales increased 29%, Audi 24%, Daimler 13%, and BMW up 45%. Experts expect the better conditions in the U.S. auto market to continue especially as many cars that reach a life of 11 years need to be replaced. Light vehicle sales reach 1.14 million in Nov. 2012, up 15% over the prior year, and seasonally adjusted auto sales of 15.5 million are the highest since Jan 2008, according to Autodata Corp.

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Food, medicine, cash, pensions, delivered on a massive scale by India Post's 400,000 workers in the world's largest lockdown of 1.4 billion people. Indian Railways 1 million employees are active in delivering essential supplies and transporting food, essential cargo. With over 150,000 branches and reaching out into every corner of the country, India Post is the largest postal network in the world. The post office has started a special service to deliver medicine. As a bank India Post has over 500 million accounts, many of these accounts having direct payments deposited by the government. Postal workers wearing masks and rubber gloves and with multiple hand sanitizers are shown on Indian television helping citizens in inspirational video of India Post. India has another advantage in being able to get money to the tens of millions in each state, and directing it to areas of the economy that have the largest need- 60% of the banking system is state owned. During the first term the government of prime minister Modi launched an effort to get every Indian a bank account in every part of the country, so that money could be directly deposited in each account. A national ID system was implemented that took the digital information of each Indian. The government is now able to get money directly into these accounts. ...

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The variant first identified in India called the Delta variant is 60% more infectious than the Kent variant found in the UK. The Delta variant is now the dominant variant in the UK. There is concern that this could lead to another wave just as the UK is reopening in the summer. There are over 6000 daily cases in the UK this week. The estimated R number is now 1.00 to 1.2 following the number being 1.00 to 1.1 in the earlier week. A R number over 1.0 suggests greater spread of the coronavirus. An R number of 1.1 suggests the number of cumulative cases is taking off meaning that the UK is at risk of a sudden surge in the coronavirus in June or July 2021. India faced a wave from the new variant's higher rate of infectious spread. leading to a sudden surge in May 2021 to 400,000 daily cases before it was brought down by June 1 to about 100,000 The number of hospitalizations in such a wave is estimated to be higher in UK than the previous waves, requiring the government to be more vigilant today. Restrictions on travel from Portugal are being put in place in UK as a precaution. After repeated waves as a consequence of complacency with the coronavirus the lesson now is to take steps early and take aggressive action in advance. ...

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The mirage of progress presented from Silicon Valley in the form of FTX crypto exchange ends with $8 billion in losses to investors and a 25 year sentence for the founder in 2024. More proof of the excesses of the "free to choose" post-Reagan era with misallocation of capital leaving the vital needs and priorities of America unfunded, underfunded, or totally neglected from infrastructure, health, education to climate change action. An aversion to government taking action where it is needed that goes back to the 1930's when Franklin Roosevelt said in the State of the Union speech to Congress in 1935- "We have, however, a clear mandate from the people, that Americans must forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through excessive profits, creates undue private power over private affairs and, to our misfortune, over public affairs as well. In building toward this end we do not destroy ambition, nor do we seek to divide our wealth into equal shares on stated occasions. We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable leisure, and a decent living throughout life is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power."   ...