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After Mohandas Gandhi one of the main leaders of modern India is one who came from the untouchable castes, the lowest caste in India's caste system which had declined over centuries. Babasaheb Ambedkar comes from Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra from a family that had gained its way out of the caste constraints by working for the British East India Company. He later studied at Elphinstone College in Bombay, and went to Columbia University on a scholarship. He finished Masters degrees at Columbia University and later at the London School of Economics, in economics and political science.  Returning to India he wrote "Annhilation of Caste" in 1936. Mohandas Gandhi was at this time working on his own movement to get rid of the untouchability that over centuries made its way into the original caste system and weakened the foundations of Indian society. To understand this one has to know that in many upper castes it was seen as becoming an outcaste even to travel overseas, which by itself may have led to the decline that India experienced in the period 1500-1950, and which Gandhi personally experienced and fought his way out of. By 1942 even the British recognized Ambedkar's efforts and he was Minister of Law and Justice in the war cabinet. In 1947 Ambedkar was chosen to lead the team that would write India's Constitution. In his latter years Ambedkar became a Buddhist and has written several books on Buddhism. By 2015 Ambedkar day was recognized as a public holiday by the new government and his memory is enshrined in the efforts now underway in India's largest state of Uttar Pradesh to bring modern ideas, and modernization through next generation infrastructure, and opportunity for Dalits of which caste Ambedkar was one, and the same for all of the 250 million people of Uttar Pradesh, almost the size of America. ...

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Increasing college enrollment for women in the US shows no sign of changing. Women now make up 60% of college students for the 2020-21 college year, men 40%., according to National Student Clearinghouse. Another alarming piece of information is that there are 1.5 million fewer students at colleges and universities in the US, and men make up 71% of the decline. 3.8 million women filled college applications compared to 2.8 million men for 2021-2022 college year in the US, according to Common Application. The enrollment rates of poor and working class whites show alarming decline with rates of enrollment less than people from Black, Latino or Asian income backgrounds. Decline in male enrollment is highest for community colleges with family finances the main cause. The pandemic has accelerated this negative trend that is bad for America. 700,000 fewer students were enrolled in college in 2021 spring than 2019 spring, according to a WSJ analysis.  During the pandemic millions of women left jobs to stay at home with children. Many turned to sons for help, with some young men quitting school to work. Some examples shown in this report show parents having gone to college and sons deciding the skyrocketing costs of education make it too risky to take out loans that cannot be repaid. Many just feel lost, doing work landscaping for $500 a week or packing boxes at Amazon warehouses at $15.50 an hour. With so much going wrong in the way America is investing in its future generation, issues like wars in distant lands fade into insignificance, and president Biden's decision is surely "a wise decision." As is his effort to make community college at no cost given to young Americans. The $3.5 trillion investment in workers and families that Biden plans could not have been developed at a time of greater need than today. ...

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Not much will change in Italy's place in the European Union, says Maria Ferraresi, editor of Italy's Domani newspaper. Italy expects 200 billion euros of solidarity aid from the European Union that is dependent on following EU rules. And coalition partner Berlusconi says he will drop his support if Meloni adopts any anti EU rules positions. Meloni's Brothers of Italy party with 26% of the vote has roots going back to the Social Movement in Italy in the 1930's. To attract support she has remained in opposition even when Matteo Salvini of the League and Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia parties joined Mario Draghi's unity government during the pandemic. She has turned to a pro EU stand from a EU skeptical stand. Meloni is also forming one of seventy Italian governments since 1945 such is the pace of government change in Italy making every government dependent on fickle political sentiments that shift quickly. The Italian economy has fallen into a stagnant situation with growth less than 1% in 2022, and the main concern of voters and the elected governments is the economy and standards of living, so that EU aid acts as a critical part of rejuvenating the economy. The Eu solidarity aid of $200 billion in coming years is critical for Italy's economic revival. It also shows the European Union in action after the years following World War II when it was realized that some sort of sound European economic framework was needed for the common good. Ferraresi also points out that Italy has also gone through an EU led effort to make the judiciary fully independent and able to function similar to the judiciary in France and other EU nations. Italy also has a very de.centralized government with state and local governments playing a major role in administration. This reduces the impact of changes in the capital Rome.  ...

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This WSJ podcast looks at the Fedspeak, the language, the use of specific words that telegraph the US central bank's carefully thought out message to markets. Th topic is inflation. Is it persistent or transitory? Fed chairman Powell's word for it was "transitory." Then transitory" but longer than we thought, because our Fed models did not include supplychain bottlenecks.  In reality every new variant brings new lockdowns and slows the rise or reverses the increase in gas and fuel prices that are a main driver of inflation. Wage increases are a good thing after decades of lack of leverage of workers and economic distortions from this, this may be termed constructive inflation.  Supplychain bottlenecks are likely to ease and not be permanent so that the Fed could be right on that point. A less noticed aspect of the Fed's decision to raise interests without careful thought is that this will impact the ability of poor and moderate income countries to afford medicine and food as exchange rates make their currencies worth less. At the time of variants this is both a practical and a human consideration. What are called emerging markets in finspeak (financial language) are really countries that Stephanie Nolan is writing about on the frontlines of the pandemic in the NYT- South Africa, Zambia. Then there are other poor or moderate income countries- Brazil, Mexico, Russia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia. Today the Fed needs to think about them also. How much vaccine, medicines, or food imports can they afford with weakening currencies as the Fed raises interest rates? At the same time some accomodations for inflation are necessary, but carefully thought, with a lot of thought given to the current state of the world with new variants and weakened economies and no stimulus payments in large parts of the world to offset weakness. ...

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"The NHS is on its knees," says Starmer, one more reaon to ban outdoor smoking. Labor in 2007 put the ban on indoor smoking. Sunak had a plan for the Tories to ban smoking. Starmer is now following this to reduce the burden on the NHS and improve public health in the UK. The bill would gradually ban smoking for people born after 2009, an idea proposed by Sunak and the Conservatives. The bill would place new restrictions on outdoor smoking, including outdoor spaces at, and pavements outside, clubs and restaurants, as well as at universities, children’s play areas and small parks. Asked about this during a visit to Paris, Starmer said: “My starting point on this is to remind everybody that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking,” he said. “That is a preventable death, it’s a huge burden on the NHS and, of course, it is a burden on the taxpayer. So, yes, we are going to take decisions in this space, more details will be revealed, but this is a preventable series of deaths and we’ve got to take action to reduce the burden on the NHS and the taxpayer.”  The prime minister said-“It is important to get the balance right, but everybody … who uses the NHS will know that it’s on its knees.” Dr Layla McCay, the director of policy at the NHS Confederation, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is absolutely the health challenge of our time. It’s the leading cause of preventable illness in the UK, so we are heartened to see that progress is being made and that the intention is moving forward to really address one of Britain’s main drivers of health inequalities.” ...

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China is slowing infrastructure projects after loaning $30 billion to Venezuela. As Venezuela's economy declined under Maduro Venezuela is paying this off with oil exports in what is called a creditor trap. Both Russia and China are intent on trade with the US, Russia to open up business and trade and China to preserve it's trading and business relationship for its exports at a difficult time for it's economy. This tacitly preserves the idea of US direction in a beneficial way for the western hemisphere that was part of the message in 1823 by president Monroe to Congress. In the Mexican War, through Manifest Destiny during the administration of James Polk in 1843 this was still the accepted idea when Ulysses Grant a future president and civil war general on the side of Lincoln fought in that war. This brought slavery free, Spanish feudalism free, democratic processes and modernized economies to California, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado, much of the West and the Pacific shoreline. Russia hopes to get the US to accept it's aspirations to be a modern Northern power in Europe. The US DJT Republican administration has shown it's respect for Russia in its zone of influence, with it's main objection to Russia in Ukraine being the massive invasion of a neighboring country. When compared to Mexico it was the US replacing the Spanish who had invaded the Aztec tribes in Mexico setting up feudal regimes, not the US invading a neighboring country. The European Union and Germany now bear the burden of defending Western Europe as a European power. The situation is similar in Asia where China has it's area of influence and India, Japan, Australia as Asian powers sharing zones of influence in Asia with China, so that the US can maintain good relations with China including fair trade that brings back it's manufacturing. The US would continue to support Taiwan as an independent country. This balance can ensure peace in the Americas, Europe and Asia as nations modernize and choose better governance under governments that relate to their history and geography, as opposed to Communist and anti-communist or democratic or anti-democratic, when they meet the aspirations of their people.   ...

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Brazilians writing about Brazil in the Brazil Report. Brazil Report says Brazil has carefully avoided Chinese debt where it involves taking on debt that has risks for repayment. Brazil has not joined the BRI Belt and Road Initiative and it staking out its own debt free path to development like India. Xinhua in a recent article calls the "debt trap" a rhetorical trap set by the US and EU, arguing with World Bank figures that debt of Ecuador, Brazil, and Argentina is 6.8%, 0.6% and 1.2% of GDP for these countries.  Here are the projects China has financed in Latin America using its technologies and manufacturing, $15 billion of greenfield investment in 2019, $12 billion in 2020-2022. Monterrey Metro and tram, Bogota Metro, Panama Canal fourth bridge Chancay megaport Peru Brazil- BYD EV plant, Santos port terminal, Curitiba 5G City, Cauchari solar plant Las Mambas copper mine, Lithium mines Argentina     ...

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WSJ talk of "reverse Nixon" shift of Russia from China Feb 2025- reminscent of how China moving away from Russia in Mao's last years by 1971- with DJT overtures to Russia. This report does not say that Lt. Keith Kellogg has said clearly and many times the main reason- it is a senseless war that is costing an entire generation of young men from Russia and Ukraine with loss of about 1 million young people in war zones including civilians. All coming after a pandemic has taken away millions of people of an older generation from China, India, US and Russia. PM Modi has also described it in this way.

Europe sees this but has become so entrenched in a view that there will be a winner in this war when there are no winners. America as a beacon of hope in the world takes a position that is in the interests of India, China, EU, Russia and the US.

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Mahathir Mohamed 92, wins the 2018 general elections in Malaysia with a commanding majority, leading to the fall of the government of prime minister Najib Razak. Razak led the United Malay National Organization UMNO after Mahathir Mohamed's departure from politics.  Unlike Mahathir, Najib was not fluent in Malay, was educated at top British schools and unable to connect freely with the Malay popular base. His main connnection was through his father Tun Abdul Razak who was the second prime minister of Malaysia. The United Malay National Organization serves the interests of the Malay people in the country. After decades in government the party has deteriorated and is now steeped in patronage, with the corruption in the Najib government leading to the 1MDB money laundering scandal. This led to the return of Mahathir Mohamed to politics to cleanup the government.  For several years the Najib government was seen as acting with impunity following the 1MDB revelations of corruption which were investigated by prosecutors in Malaysia and the Justice Department in the U.S. The Attorney General of Malaysia was fired for his investigation by Najib Razak, leading to the return of Mahathir Mohamed to politics and the elections of 2018. The investigations into the 1MDB scandal are now likely to proceed as this has aroused popular sentiment in Malaysia for clean government. ...

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Jennifer Hassan reminds readers of the significance of the date June 8, election day in Britain. On this day 104 years earlier Emily Wilding Davison lost her life running in front of the king's horse in the Epsom Derby, a desperate act to gain support for women's right to vote. In response women voted in large numbers leading to a turnout above 69%. 200 women were elected to parliament. Preet Kaur Gill, a Sikh woman became the first Sikh woman in parliament, representing the Labor Party in parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston.

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The Gallois Report commissioned by the new government in France to restore France's manufacturing competitiveness. Louis Gallois is the former head of aerospace firm EADS. It calls for a 30 billion euro cut in payroll taxes to help French companies compete in global markets. Gallois proposes 22 main measures to "stop the slide and support the economy." He called this a "competitiveness shock." Gallois points to France's 70 billion euro trade deficit in contrast to booming German exports. The cost to the economy was 2 million French jobs over 3 decades, says the report. Unemployment today is around 10%. Measures suggested include the payroll tax cuts of 1.5% of GDP for salaries upto 4900 euros a month, and employee representatives to sit on board of directors of French companies similiar to Germany.

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Jet Blue came to Boston in 2004. At the time it had one gate and 30 employees at Boston's Logan International Airport. The airline now has 2300 workers and 17 gates in Jan 2012. It now has 104 nonstop daily flights to 44 locations in the U.S. and Caribbean, with plans to reach 150 flights by 2015. As American and Delta pulled back to focus on their main hubs, Jet Blue expanded quickly. It started as an airline for vacation travellers, but soon attracted business passengers for the cheaper cost of flights, especially for cost conscious travellers after the recession hit in 2008. Jet Blue also offered better service and more leg room for business passengers. Jet Blue's CEO, Dave Barger, says 30% of traffic into and out of Logan now is for business travel.

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George Rathmann, is the scientist at Amgen who pushed for development of EPO, a hormone which stimulates red blood cell production, when the bio-tech venture company was struggling in the mid-1980's. After approval by the EPA in 1989, Epogen became Amgen's main product with sales of $2 billion in 2011. Rathmann graduated from Northwestern University, and received his PhD. from Princeton University in physical chemistry. He helped develop Scotchguard at 3M, and later headed the R&D department at the diagnostics division of Abbott Laboratories. He built Amgen from a staff of four in the early days in 1980, and it was his intuitive sense that Amgen should focus its entire effort on EPO development in the mid-1980's that led to its success.

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This WSJ editorial summarizes the main reasons Republicans and many others object to increase in U.S. contributions as the IMF increases its resources under a new plan. The reforms increase the influence of Brazil, China, India, Turkey and other countries in the IMF governance. Also at issue is European influence that the U.S. sees allowing risky loans to countries such as Greece, where rules were relaxed under EU influence during the eurozone crisis. This topic of IMF reform will be coming up in the G 7 meeting of central bankers and finance ministers in Dec 2014 at Sydney, Australia, with the new U.S. IMF representative defending U.S. interests. The case for the reforms was presented in WSJ by Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, and is part of the link.

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Brenner of McGill University and Fridson of S&P say the Bernanke Federal Reserve in the U.S. is doing what President Truman and Treasury Secretary Snyder did in the war and postwar years- paying down the U.S. debt as cheaply as possible by inflating the money supply. There are no new monetary insights here, and even though the policy is maintained outwardly as one to promote economic growth and employment, the main focus is to keep the cost of paying down the debt as cheaply as possible with low rates. This hurts savers and retirees earning very little on savings. They cite Bernanke's writings that show he is imitating the policy of the war years when the U.S. held down interest rates and succeeded in doing this for a decade.

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Erich Scwartzel's exceptional account of Dreamworks going astray as its CEO went in a hundred different directions- a smaller studio trying to get into multiple platforms and industries, and trying to compete with much larger Disney in China- provides a unique insight into what happens when a CEO, especially one with creative talent, loses his primary focus. Extensive interviews by Schwartzel with insiders shows the creative people at the studio struggling to get Katzenberg's attention as he made many of his frequent trips to China. DreamWorks Animation CEO's effort to get into several related businesses, television, publishing, theme parks, children's toys, and enter the Chinese market in a big way to compete with Disney, has led to a loss of focus in its main business of feature films. The result is large impairment charges and several films from the "Rise of the Guardians" in 2012 to "Penguins of Madagascar" recently, that did not cover rising production costs at the box office. Four of six films since 2012, before the recent film "Home," failed at the box office since 2012. Katzenberg now says he realizes pursuing different directions led to spreading resources too thin, and he intends to make producing 2 or 3 good feature films every year his No. 1 priority. Restructuring underway and some box office flops led to 4th quarter loss of $263 million from $17 million profit the prior year. About 20% of the workforce or 500 workers will be laid off, a Northern California operation will be closed, and the Glendale headquarters sold and leased back to improve cash flow. DreamWorks shares were at $22.68, March 27, 2015, down from $44 Feb 2010, and IPO day close of $38.75. ...

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DW.com has this exceptional story on the elections in France through the pictures drawn by cartoonists in French newspapers. As polls show Macron with over 60% of the vote, cartoonists reflected on the situation of a new president with little experience and his "en marche" movement only one year old, looking at it with skepticism. Cartoonist Antoine Chereau shows a common person reflecting on the situation, with the title Macron leads in the first round, the person says that after being deceived by the right and the left, the French are now choosing to try out deception from the centrist. Loic Secheress shows Macron at the steering wheel of a car, with the title the second round Uberized, two passengers in the back saying they do not want to go right or left, and Macron saying- then alright we are going straight into the wall. On the Socialists splitting the vote between Hamon with 6% and Melenchon with about 20%, instead of putting up one candidate and heading into the runoff,  cartoonist Plantu shows Hamon and Melenchon riding one bike in opposite directions, with the title - the losing machine. Cartoonist Soulcie drawing for Le Monde shows a tour guide in front of the Louvre museum pointing to the pyramid architecture in front of the museum and saying- here are the last remains of the socialist civilization. Allan Barte's drawing looks at the elections as another disappointing experience for voters. He shows two voters in front of posters of Marine Le Pen and Macron, one saying I hadn't realized what the expression really meant until now, and the girl next to him says "election piege a cons," meaning "elections are a trap for idiots" used in the May 1968 street protests in France. ...

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This article by Saeed Shah and Syed Hasan describes the Taliban factions from the tribal areas that control parts of Karachi, Pakistan's main commercial city on the Arabian Sea. It provides a detailed map showing the outlying areas around the city centre, especially the shantytown areas and the areas with Pashtun majority population controlled by Taliban with roots in the tribal areas. The Taliban charge taxes and adminster law in the areas they control. A major operation was launched since Sept. 2013 by the Sharif government to free this key city of Pakistan from Taliban control and the wave of kidnappings, extortion and other violence from Taliban members. About 168 police officers have been killed in the efforts to control the city, but areas under Taliban control are still hard to patrol by government police and special Ranger force. Karachi anxiously awaits the result of peace talks of the Sharif government with Taliban. If the talks fail and an operation is launched against Taliban in tribal areas the repercussions will be felt in Karachi. Shah and Hasan provide a excellent picture of the tribal loyalties, religious extremism and entrenched culture of violent activity that extends from the border tribal regions of Pakistan into the commercial centres such as Karachi that is a vexing problem for the Sharif administration, police, business and ordinary citizens....

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Attorneys for homeowners describe the foreclosure process as a mass production line, and efforts to avoid foreclosure as a fight against a machine. In most cases a person would be needed to read what they file, but in many mortgage firms no such person existed. They describe the problem as industry wide and pervasive- and involving loan servicers, law firms, docment processing companies and others. The big mortgage companies, including government bailed out Fannies Mae and Freddie Mac, were eager to get bad loans off their books so they imposed penalties if the process was not speeded up.

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Efforts to cut costs by new Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr have led to pilot strikes in Dec. 2014, with flight cancellations and 160 million euros of lost earnings in 2014. Intense competition and high operating costs are leading to this determined effort to bring costs down. Lufthansa and other major airlines such as Air France have seen the market change with about 40% of the intra European travel market having gone to Ryanair, EasyJet and other low cost carriers. Lufthansa's profit has declined to 300 million euros in 2013 from 1.2 billion in 2012, giving urgency to CEO Spohr's effort to remain competitive. For 2012 and 2013 Lufthansa cut costs by about 1 billion euros, and the target is for another 500 billion euros in savings for 2014. Most of this was done by job reduction of 3500 jobs, and by shifting low cost flights outside the Munich and Frankfurt hubs to a separate lowcost carrier, Eurowings, based in Dusseldorf. This has echoes of the strategy pursued by Air France for Transavia low cost carrier, leading to strikes by the pilots unions and flight cancellations. The Eurowings carrier will use a different pay structure with about 30-35 percent lower pay and benefits than the main Lufthansa carrier, done by separate agreements with pilots, maintenance and cabin crews unions. Critics say the focus on a separate low cost carrier is not the right strategy as it would remain a small part of Lufthansa group. Spohr, a company executive with 20 years in various Lufthansa positions says this is only part of a larger strategy and other changes to make Lufthansa competitive. Just as at Air France, pilots unions of Lufthansa see this as a step towards reducing in future the pay structure at the main airline operations. Labor costs are about a fifth of 30 billion euros in annual revenues at Lufthansa in 2013, with 118,000 employees worldwide....

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Shell reported a 60% drop in profit for the second quarter of 2013, after taking a $2 billion writedown on the value of its liquids rich shale assets. Excluding the charges, Shell's profit was $4.6 billion, declining 20% on the prior year quarter. Shell has the largest investments among oil companies in unconventional sources of oil and gas in the U.S. It is producing 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from unconventional sources, including 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from shale at end of 2012. Shell expects the exploration and production division for the Americas to remain at a loss during the second half of the year because of current oil and gas prices. Shell is now conducting a strategic review to sell around half of its main nine unconventional oil and gas assets in North America.

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This Journal editorial points to the 3 page letter from Gen. Dempsey that make a U.S. response in Syria seem difficult and laborious, cost $1 billion a month, and endless. Gen. Keane points to the Syrian air force operating from just 6 main air strips and with about 50 aircraft out of 100 operational, using this to terrorize the opposition and the countryside indiscriminately including civilian population. Taking these out with cruise missile and other strikes is all that is needed, not even a no-fly zone says Keane. Short of a proper response the U.S. and the Obama administration could only end up leaving the Assad regime in place for longer, says the Journal. Aid to rebel groups that can then do the work of completing the transition is the right strategy, says the Journal.

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Iraqi production now up to 2.5 million barrels a day according to International Energy Agency, helping to ease some concerns about supplies worldwide for winter. About 2 million barrels a day in the southern province by South Oil Company is fairly stable. Its in the north where a lot of the supply has been erratic because a pipeline that carries the oil through Turkey to the Mediteranean has faced repeated sabotage. As security has been beefed up along the pipeline production in the north has reached 500,000 barrels a day. Poor oil field maintenance and lack of security and underinvestment are the main problems. For example even though about $2.4 billion is set aside for capital investment for 2007 only 30% of it has been spent so far. And the $2 billion allocated for 2008 is way short of whats needed.

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This piece in the NYT goes over the record of John Malone in building the cable industry. Malone built TCI and sold it to AT&T for $48 billion in 1999. He later built a collection of media companies satellite radio provider Sirius XM, QVC shopping channel, and large telecom companies in Europe under Liberty Global. Malone values privacy and has always worked in a low key manner. In 2011 he invested in a minority stake in Charter Communications and took a seat on the board. Malone has a keen sense of the direction of a business and opportunities ahead, confidence in his vision, and the quiet determination to pursue the opportunity creatively, say analysts. In May 2015 when the Charter Communications acquisition of Time Warner Cable was announced Malone kept a low key profile. One of Malone's companies Liberty Broadband owns the stake in Charter, and the move is based on Malone's vision of the expansion in the internet broadband business. A Charter- Time Warner deal would lead to a new company New Charter, which would rival Comcast in the cable and broadband industry. Here Gelles describes Malone's passion for acquiring pristine land in Colorado, New Mexico, Maine and other places- about 2.2 million according to Land Report magazine. This also shows his independent style, valuing the openness of the Rockies and the pioneer style. It shows his great reluctance to engage in talk with politicians in the capital, preferring to let his sharp insight and business skills do the work....