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House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp says the implicit subsidy on "too big to fail" financial firms needs to be addressed. His proposal is for a quarterly tax of 0.035% on assets over $500 billion. The tax would raise tax revenues of $86.4 billion over 10 years. The tax does not go into some bailout fund, which is one reason it does not address the problem adequately, says the WSJ.

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The Economist describes the odd situation where only 17% of Republican voters voted in the presidential election primaries with the television media talking about huge voter turnout. Donald Trump wins a series of primaries by March 2016 with about 35-40% of the vote, securing less than 8% of eligible voters and headed for the Republican presidential nomination. In the fall 2012 election in the U.S. voter turnout was 54% and 129.1 million Americans voted, just to get an idea of how things change in the fall of 2016.

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Fuel efficiency standards were left way below the rest of the world, just look at the graph showing Japan and Europe way above the US in fuel efficiency standards, and the US lagging behind badly. Europe and Japan with standards close to 40mpg vs the US below 30 mpg. Any sharp business person can tell one that if there was too big a gap, it would be a cause for serious concern, because the Japanese for instance would also have developed the technologies and manufacturing facilities to support the fuel efficiency standards. There were some serious dangers in falling behind. That is what has happened as the Japanese carmakers have take market share from the US in the American car market.

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Netflix is expected to lose 2 million subscribers in the current quarter. It has reached its ceiling at 212 million subscribers worldwide. Netflix has followed a subscriber paid commercial free model. Passwords are being shared with an additional 100 million homes including 30 million in US and Canada. During the period of heady growth not much attention was paid to password sharing.

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Poorly capitalized Indian banks and financial institutions with large percentage of bad loans contiues to hurt the Indian economy. Shortage of credit is leading to problems in retail and auto sectors. The government is using $21 billon from the central bank, the RBI, for stimulus and to recapitalize banks. Higher infrastructure spending is needed to make up for a drop in consumer demand.

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UK cabinet ministers say Boris Johnson will risk the Queen firing him if a new unity candidate is found who commanded support in parliament. This report in The Times says Boris Johnson is prepared to squat in 10 Downing Street if the European Union rejects his proposals on replacing the Irish backstop, and parliament passes a vote of no confidence in his minority government.

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Stuart Broad's remarkable achievement of 500 wickets as England beat West Indies in the Third Test at Old Trafford. He joins Glenn McGrath and James Anderson in an elite club of bowlers. He was made man of the match and of the 3 Test series after taking 10 wickets in the Third Test and hitting a quick 62 runs. 

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Fiat CEO Marchionne's tells Fiat managers to focus on export markets and to look beyond, Italy and the European market. In a presentation to prime minister Mario Monti he emphasizes the capacity utilization at Fiat's Italian plants of 40% in 2012.

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Higher oil production in Saudi Arabia in 2012 as the Saudis support U.S. sanctions against Iran.

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The cost of social stability in OPEC countries is changing the attitude of countries that advised moderation in pricing in the past. Saudi Arabia has committed itself to $129 billon in new spending for public sector jobs, pay increases for state employees, and allowances for the unemployed, to preserve social stability after the democracy protests in the Middle East. This is happening throughout the Arab world and in most OPEC countries. Algeria and Iran have also increased social spending. The oil price that Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget and pay for this is going up from $68 a barrel in 2010, to $88 in 2011, and $110 in 2015, according to the Institute of International Finance. Merrill Lynch says it is $95 a barrel for this in 2011. This is bringing the moderates like the Saudis and the hawks like Iran and Venezeula together on price issues. In the second week of April 2011, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, said the Saudis had cut production by 800,000 barrels a day in March because of oversupply in the market. A consultant for Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation which reflects Saudi and OPEC views, says: "OPEC members spending pattern is expected to bear on their oil price preferences and production policy behaviour." The only restraint on price will be that price at some point will affect the global economic recovery and lead to lower consumption and growth, something the Saudis have paid attention to in the past....

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It is not enough to think highly about work life balance of people around us, one has to free oneself from the constraints that make it hard to achieve that balance. As shown by studies in Finland about entrepreneurs, 40% of people in one study crossed the line from workaholic to work addict. Worse making the addict a role model is damaging to the younger generation. Tesla CEO Musk is not a role model for a young generation that values work life balance. It is also essential for healthy living.

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A lot has been written about inflation in car pricing. This is true also of airlines and hotels this summer. Dawn Gilbertson in the WSJ says the 2023 travel rush continues, hotels and airlines have pricing power, and inflation is squeezing budgets. The solution is to have Plan B destinations, shorter trips, and plan airline reservations in advance looking at different alternatives based on airline and alternative destination choices. Average daily hotel rates have jumped to $180 this year in the US, up 10% since 2022 and 15% since 2019.

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WSJ points out that the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in America pay only 8.2% in taxes on federal individual income taxes between 2010 and 2018, not the 3% it says president Biden has said. The average income tax rate in 2020 was about 14% says the WSJ. For higher incomes it was about 25%. All this happened while infrastructure, education and health remained woefully underfunded, with Tech companies egregious behaviour in not paying their fair share of taxes and massive misallocation coupled with low productivity of capital invested compared to infrastructure. 

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The port of Los Angles has a more than 25% decline in the number of containers that are moving through the port. The Port of New York and New Jersey has now overtaken Los Angeles as the main port of entry for shipping containers to the US. Ports that are gaining include Savannah in Georgia, Houston, and Charleston in South Carolina. Bottlenecks, supply chain disruptions and fears of a dockworkers strike in the west is leading to changes in how goods imports enter the US. 

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There is a big jump in working parents taking parental leave after new legislation is passed in different states. In the 12 months through February 2022 406,000 working parents were taking parental leave, a 13% jump from 2021. The share of workers with access to paid parental leave was 25% in 2022 compared to 19% in 2019. Seven states now require employers to provide parental leave. Four more states may join by 2026. The US still remains the only major advanced economy without nationally mandated parental leave.

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China's retail sales were up 10% in March. The economy expanded 4.5% the first quarter of 2023 over the prior year and is dependent on consumers spending in the domestic economy. Over the prior quarter growth was 2.2%. Investment in buildings, fixed assets and machinery declined by 0.2% over the prior month, in real estate over the prior quarter it declined by 5.8%. The recovery is a rebound from three years of weak consumer spending during the pandemic as Chinese people went out- traveled and went out shopping. 

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This WSJ Editorial Board article appeared on Feb. 28, and says that the world owes a great debt to the heroic people of Ukraine. A too complacent Europe says WSJ, is now learning what it means to fight for freedom. It says Ukraine deserves more support with arms, the toughest sanctions, and global ostracism. It says Congress should approve the request this week for another $6.4 billion in humanitarian and military assistance. The stakes of the war are high, says WSJ, including for American interests.

 

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Hard as it is to believe average leisure time in developed nations declined by 10-15% in the 2010's. After achieving the 8 hour day the burdens of childcare and blurring of the boundaris between work and leisure have led to this situation. This has led to the idea of "time poverty." 

For women who bear the greater share and burden of child care in normal times, and heavy burden during the pandemic, this is a situation that brings with it mental health issues.

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Awesome pictures of the lunar eclipse in the night sky on Wednesday, May 26, 2021. It combined a supermoon, lunar eclipse, and a blood moon. Blood moon refers to the reddish hue as light filters through the earth's atmosphere. In native American cultures this is referred to as the flower moon. Lunar eclipses happen when the Earth passes between sun and moon, blocking the sunlight that normally illumines the moon's grayish white cratered surface. The next one is on May 16, 2022.

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The US Labor Department will now require not just 401(k) administrators but also advisers for retirement plans called IRA's to follow the higher fiduciary standards of the 1974 ERISA law that aims to protect American retirees. When workers leave a company or retire they rollover their money into IRA's. This retiree money will now be protected with a high fiduciary standard as it should have been all along. In 2020 alone the IRS estimate is that $620 billion was rolled over to to such IRA's.

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On Gandhi Jayanti a look at American president FDR's contribution for Hind Swaraj. It could be said that Cordell Hull's speech (full text here) on July 23, 1942 on Roosevelt's clear direction was a form of declaration of independence for India by the US in 1943. This is also why there was nothing different Clement Attlee could do after winning the British election in 1945 except send Mountbatten to India to prepare for a Free India. 

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FR 24 looks at the life and work of Annie Ernaux who had the courage to write about life's most difficult experiences facing women coming from a working class background. Her writings reflect that social mileau of forgotten working class people and changes the boundaries about what is discussed and the language used from a different place is always there. She is honored in 2022 with the Nobel Prize for Literature in a year that saw the working class in France assert itself in the 2022 election.

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An excellent midlife health test for checking physical health, mental health and cognitive health. This can be done by anyone at home and is fairly simple to take. Also suggested are exercises that may help in each of 9 categories of the test. This includes the well known standing on one leg in yoga pose, press-ups, sitting and standing from a chair, linking fingers behind your back, calf raises. And for mental health drawing a clock face with the numbers, jotting down fruits and vegetables you can in 60 seconds.

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That the Indian Navy had not replaced the St George's Cross on its flag till 2022 would come as a surprise to most Indians. In the B. Gita it is written in chapter 10 on the glimpses of divine glory- "of words I am the one syllable Om, of immovable things I am the Himalaya, of bodies of water I am the ocean, of water beings I am Varuna." It is Varuna that is revered in the symbols of the Indian Navy today.