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DJT says- “We have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money, and look stupid." 

Zelenensky of Ukraine agrees that the US should get something back for the billions it has send to Ukraine. There is agreement in principle and this is something of an achievement as access to rare earth is something the US needs- Ukraine having extensive rare earth resources.

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Mr. Pascal Soriot of Astra Zeneca says his company has signed agreements for production of 2 billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University. He says manufacturing is starting now because "we want it to be as fast as possible." One of the deals is with Serum Institute of India, the other is with Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for $750 million for CEPI and GAVI organizations which he supports. Mr. Soriot says the licensing agreement with Serum Institute is to supply one billion doses for low and middle income countries, with 400 million doses ready by end of 2020. He says Astra Zeneca is building supply chains across the world and so far has secured manufacturing capacity for 2 billion doses of the vaccine. Mr Soriot tells BBC that manufacturing vaccines on this scale is not an easy thing to do. He says that Astra Zeneca will not make a profit in production of these Oxford University developed vaccines. The U.S. has secured 300 million doses of the Oxford vaccine, and the UK 100 million doses.   ...

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Baxter State, Park Adirondacks Park and other State Parks in the US. Adirondacks Park in upstate New York is huge 6 million acres with 3.4 million acres of private land and 100 small towns, 2.6 million acres of public land, 3000 lakes and 46 peaks over 4000 feet. It was set up as "forever wild" by the state constitution in 1892. Nearby is Maine's highest peak Mount Katahdin at 5300 feet in Maine Baxter State Park.

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Grady Cash is an active runner at age 71. A sports hernia sidelined him at age 50 but he has found his way back into running. After a 2 year hiatus he returned to the track. He entered his first national track and field competition in 2004, and by 2015 eleven years later he was running in the 200 metres at the 2015 USATF Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships. Here he cam in last and had a revelation. Most of the runners were shaped differently than the long distance 1500 metres runners. These people were V shaped with tiny waists, broad shoulders and big leg muscles. From this he learned to do weightlifting at a local gym in Nashville and hired a trainer. After his retirement from financial planning he set up his own routine. He runs with a group at the Vanderbilt University track two afternoons a week ages from mid 20's to 76. A typical workout is eight repetitions of 200 metres that are sequentially faster. He does easy recovery runs on the trails. Mot important he tries to remain injury fee in the kind of routine he selects and listens to his body all the time not to overwork it and run  injury free the next day.  ...

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On April 21, 2022, US president Biden talks to Americans in a live television address and says US will send an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine. And an additional $500 million in economic assistance that takes the total economic assistance to $1 billion. He asks Congress to approve additional requests so that an uninterrupted flow of aid to Ukraine can be maintained to deter Russian aggression. He also opens up a path for direct entry into the US for some of the 5 million Ukrainian refugees. He calls attention to the 5 million refugees and to the millions of displaced children. He says about two thirds of the children in Ukraine are displaced by the war which he found to be shocking.

Biden said "you've got to admit- be amazed at the courage of the country, and of the young men and the young women." 

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G-7 leaders meeting in Italy agree on a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using interest on $300 billion of Russian assets that are frozen in the EU.

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Something that Bernanke has studied for adecade and has spent time preparing for. He took the step yesterday to proceed with a $300 billion purchase of Treasurys by the Fed. The idea is to reduce long term borrrowing rates on consumer loans to corporate bonds that are benchmarked to Treasury bonds. By reducing the yields on Treasurys the Fed hopes to keep borrowing rates lower, now that it is clear from the jobless numbers of 500,000-600,000 a month that slack in manufacturing capacity will keep inflation down and risk deflation. The Fed will purchase Treasurys of 2 to 10 years maturity. THe Fed also increased its ceiling on purchases of mortgage backed securites guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie to $1.25 trillion from $500 billion previously laid out. So far Fed has purchased $69 billion of mortgage backed securities and committed to buying $148 billion more. It will increase the amount of Fannie and Freddie debt that it buys to $200 billion from $100 billion. So far to March 11, it has purchased $48 billion of their debt....

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Prof. Patrice Geoffron of Universite Paris-Dauphine writes in Le Monde what is on everyone's minds- on how oil geopolitics and fossil fuel price volatility and price uncertainty what he calls fossil fuel chaos, is creating a new demand for renewable energy in Europe in 2027 to 2031. Business and industry in Europe see the value of renewable energy not in comparison with low fossil fuel prices anymore but with a fossil fuel price that can jump at any time to the $100 a barrel for some geopolitical event. Compared to this fossil chaos European business and industry can depend on a known price and known conditions for solar energy. The same thinking will be going on in business in Asia- in China and established leader in solar, in India an aspiring solar power, and in Japan. Modular nuclear reactors are also a new way to go. This means even under DJT with his skepticism for renewables the technology and production of renewables will continue and pick up pace. People will also ask whether its worth all the trouble to get fossil fuel supplies at levels that make no sense through waters of Hormuz straits- China and Jpan getting a makes no sense 90% of their imports from Hormuz, and India nearly 50%. Their are moral considerations also whether a morally conscious China, Japan and India, South Korea with much of the industrial base in the world can justify missile attacks on the scale of tens of thousands in the region and bombing just to clear Hormuz. ...

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The European Union would accept extension of the deadline on Brexit of March 29, and a second referendum could take place. Theresa May could go over the heads of her squabbling MP's and call a second referendum or a general election, says this report in The Guardian. 

A British request for extension of the deadline is seen as inevitable because it is impossible to pass the necessary pre-Brexit legislation before March 29. Conditions could include a second referendum and allowing the UK government to appoint national parliamentarians for the EU parliament as EU elections are in late May 2019. Because there is no majority for a second referendum just yet, and because the only way to get support in parliament is to have in place the customs union rejected by far right Conservative MP's, extending the date is the only viable option.

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Vox.com shows 10.9 million unique visitors in October 2014, according to comScore. Vox Media closed a 46.5 million round of financing with General Atlantic, a New York investment firm, in Nov. 2014. which values it at $380 million.

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The jet stream in the upper atmosphere is cutting flight times over Atlantic from US by 1 hour. 

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Coach Jitendra Singh who coached Hardik Pandya from his childhood days talks about the way Pandya has matured over the years since the Karan Johar chat show episode. Coach Jitendra Singh says Pandya told him- "Coach you won't hear any negative things about me after this." The death of his father who took his two boys to Baroda to prepare at a cricketing academy has affected Pandya.

In the recent IPL final Pandya showed his captaincy skills and his skills as an all rounder with 3 wickets for 17 runs including that of Butler of the Rajasthan Royals and 34 runs batting at a critical stage for a over 50 run partnership with Shubman Gill. Pandya is seen as very close to players and encouraging David Miller who took the Gujarat Titans to win the game with superb batting.

Here the Indian Express calls this a Kapil Dev moment for India as Kapil Dev is the only cricketer in Test history to have scored 5000 runs and taken 400 wickets.

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Wisdom and common sense made Michael Boskin to suggest that trade between India and Pakistan should increase in 2012. Boskin was the elder Bush's chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and helped setup the NAFTA, North American Free Trade Agreement. Boskin says in this WSJ article on April 15, 2012 that trade between India and Pakistan of $2.7 billion was only two thirds of the trade India had with much smaller Sri Lanka. In 2020 OEC data show it to be less than $300 million for trade between India and Pakistan,  and in the Pakistan floods year of 2022 with a third of the country below water the smooth flow of goods and products over borders never made more sense. Boskin said in the WSJ in 2012 that normally bilateral trade follows the "gravity model" of being proportional to the countries GDP and inversely proportional to the distance between them. He then cites estimates of Amrita Batra of Nehru University and Mohsin Khan of the Petersen Institute that show bilateral trade should be 20 times the $2.7 billion in 2012. This would be $50 billion in 2012 ten years ago. In 2020 this would be over $100 billion, not one three hundredth of that at $300 million in 2020 an alarmingly low level of trade between neighboring countries.   ...