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Republicans reached agreement for the final tax bill. The top individual tax rate will be set at 37% lower than the 39.6% today. The corporate rate is set at 21%. The corporate alternative minimum tax will be discarded. Sen. Collins opposes lowering the top individual tax rate, and Senator Rubio says not expanding the child tax credit for low income families is an issue for him.

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Mexico's former president Enrique Pena Nieto, 54 years, is being investigated for corruption. The former head of the oil company Pemex  Emilio Lozoya, 45 years, was arrested in February in Spain and is said to be cooperating fully with the authorites. A wide ranging inquiry was ordered by president Lopez Obrador.  Mexico's Attorney General says that Mr. Lozoya testified that he was asked to give two bribes of over 3 million dollars each to Pena's election campaign and to bribe politicians to pass legislation to open up the state sector to private investment. The money was sourced from Odebrecht a Brazilian construction company that paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to build ports, bridges and stadiums all over Latin America. This shows how quickly the reputations of leaders in Latin America have changed from Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Peru. In every case it is corruption or mismanagement of the economy or both. The failure to consider the needs of people in Latin America, the hype and the pretense, show how much good sense, wisdom, hard work and honest leadership is needed.   ...

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Declan Walsh describes the role of the military in Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan which has marginalized political parties and democratic process. The shift in Pakistan towards a democratic state shows the limits of the military's role in politics. Throughout Asia and Latin America, beyond just the Arab world, S. Korea, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, the movement is towards democratic processes of government. As political parties mature a more centrist position was adopted in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Islamist parties in Turkey, a similar trend is likely in the rest of the Muslim world as political parties are able to mature and deliver in economic terms and improving living conditions. The Saudis and UAE may be able to deliver in economic terms because of oil prices and supplies, each country and the people in the region has to determine how it will tackle its economic problems and move forward or fall behind in a rapidly developing global economy. Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and India are no exception....

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Sheryl Sandberg offers some advice based on experience on raising kids after the loss of a spouse. She points to this concept called "mattering" in sociology, that is important in helping children build resilience. It begins with the parent showing that the child matters and is important, and creating a nurturing environment where the child feels that she is important for the world around her, that she matters, and that people care for him or her, and also rely on the child. Children feel emotions while growing up and in daily interactions at school and social life, and this includes negative emotions that can bring them down. It is important to have these coping skills and feel strong at that time to deal with these emotions and situations that give rise to a range of emotions, some even with destructive tendencies. The coping also includes keeping memories of the missing parent alive through videos and audio with memories of the missing parent.

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The median income in the US in 2024 is where it was in 2019 before the pandemic at about $83,000 with the upper 10% of the population making about $200,000 having a 5% increase. Median income means 50% of the US population makes above $83,000 and 50% below that. In 2024 compared to 2023 slight increase of about 4% for men compared to women, no change for white households, a drop of 3% for Black households, gains of 5% for Hispanic and Asian households, Census Bureau Report shows.

Overall cost of living prices at grocery stores, for automobiles, and housing rental, is what is impacting people the most and has left people in the lower half of the population with considerable anxieties about making ends meet. At $100,000-$150,000 incomes in the upper third of the population there is saving for colleges that have costs going through the roof and cost of child care that is causing anxiety.

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Judge Jeremy Cook at Southwark Crown Court in London, England, hands out a 14 year jail sentence to Tom Hayes for Libor benchmark rate manipulation while working at UBS and Citigroup. He says the sentence is meant "to send a signal" to the banking industry. Cook's message to the UK banking industry- "Probity and honesty are essential, as is trust."

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11 Pacific Rim nations form the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2018. The Obama administration supported the trade pact alienating supporters in its union base particularly in the midwestern states. Mr. Trump opposed the TPP in his election campaign and made it a significant issue for swing voters in midwestern states after job losses in the auto industry. With the opposition of president Trump the U.S. decided to withdraw from TPP.  The 11 nations agreeing to join a revised agreement are Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. So far six countries have formally approved the deal, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, New Zealand and Japan, setting the stage for two rounds of tariff reductions starting December 30, 2018. Agricultural products duties will be duty free within 3 to 7 years including for Japan and Mexico. Australia, New Zealand, Canada are major agricultural exporters. Japan supported the deal as a way to counter China's influence in the region. In the U.S. the gains would be in intellectual property rights but losses for workers in the auto and manufacturing industries, a point Mr. Trump recognized in his election campaign as he campaigned in the midwestern states. Mr. Obama pursued TPP over objections of workers organizations and unions including auto workers union, with his advisors suggesting this as a way to counter China's influence in the region. By 2018 the Democratic party support base fractured on this as one of the major issues.   ...

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This Guardian report looks at the Post Office Travel Money City Cost Barometer, a travel survey of cost for 35 European cities. Nazia Parveen does a good job of comparing many cities across Europe showing what the cost comparisons are for a city break this year. While other European cities cost of hotels and restaurants are up steeply Athens and Lisbon, Porto, Lille, Bordeaux, Budapest, Zagreb, Warsaw,  remain good destinations for the cost conscious. Amsterdam, London, Geneva, Berlin, Venice Florence, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Edinburgh and Dublin are costly destinations. In general smaller cities as in Germany cities such as Dresden, Leipzig, Bremen and Cologne, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Weimar, Erfurt, offer culturally very rich and yet less costly destinations. 

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PM Modi opens the Vidya Samiksha Kendra, Command and Control Center setup by the Gujarat state Education Department in Gandhinagar. 

This center uses modern technology to monitor the work of 55,000 secondary schools, 400,000 teachers and 12 million students in the state. The aim is to improve learning outcomes, making certain teachers are conducting the classes, and tracking students if they migrate, looking out for possible dropouts. 

In the past it was seen that poor monitoring of teachers was leading to absenteeism and lack of seriousness. Dropout rates are also a concern and each child is tracked under the program, schools he or she has attended, tests taken and areas of the test where the student did not do well and should get help.

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Steven Hiltner who went as a child to Budapest from Youngstown, Ohio, makes a connection to what he sees as home in this photo journalistic essay on Budapest. This ancient European city on the Danube river in Hungary has much of the architecture of the Austro-Hungarian period from the 16th century. Hiltner takes one through a nostalgic visit to all parts of Budapest and its history, from Buda across the river to Pest, medieval bridges, St. Matthias Church, amazing historical architecture libraries, Castle hill. He isn't fazed by the current opinion about Mr. Orban and the politics of Eastern Europe. He sees the richness of culture in Budapest absent in the homogenous suburbs of Ohio, and a land beyond time.

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Efforts in Utah by Governor Cox to limit the damage to children's mental health from overuse and addiction to social media outlets including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Utah governor Cox says in answer to the question why now, the better question is why didn't we do this 5 years ago. "If this was child cancer or car accidents we would be losing our minds about this," he says. New laws in Utah would put time restrictions and give parents access to messages and posts. Utah and other states will file lawsuits to make tech companies accountable. The CDC found 3 in 5 American adolescent girls had mental health issues in 2021, this has increased every year since 2011.

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It was a Labour government in 2005 that inroduced the rule that allowed a migrant who remained inthe UK for 5 years to be able to apply for leave to remain and to have path to citizenship. It is now 20 years since then and this has done  a great deal of damage in the UK as it faces divisions in society that affect the plans to improve lives of the people and invest in building infrastructure. European Commission of Humnan Rights also drafted these rights in wanton fashion not accepting the rights of any people in any nation to live in their own neighborhoods without what are called asylum hotels and migrants. Denmark had such laws before 2015. Denmark changed these laws, and the UK finally is set to change these laws that hurt growth and investment in Britain with unnecessary distraction from the task of building infrastructure and investing in public services from migrants illegally entering the country. Under the new rules in Denmark temporary residenc epermits are granted only for 1-2 years at a time, no permanent visas are granted. To gain permanent status one has to have full time job for several years and speak fluent Danish. Shabana Mahmood, the new UK head of the Home Ministry says-  “Denmark shows us how to be firm but fair: removing the incentives that draw illegal migrants to their borders while providing refuge to those in genuine need. “That is why we will follow the Danish model to restore order and control to our borders.” Mahmood's position is supported by Green and Labour voters is shown More in Common polling. This is important for Labour to succeed. She says about illegal migrants and the strain on public services- “The levels of illegal migration are putting immense strain on our country, and our public services – creating division within communities across the country. “Illegal migration is undermining the contract between government and its citizens – eroding support for the asylum system entirely.” ...

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EV makers in US offer about $5000 in discounts to replace $7500 lost in government EV tax credits. The hurdle for electric vehicles is the lack of charging infrastructure and the cost of home chargers, in addition to the limited range in miles. The big jump in inflation centered not just on groceries in 2019-2024, there was a 34% increase in the cost of new cars and 50% increase for used cars, and a jump in maintenance costs. Reducing affordability for young people and making car ownership costlier. This turned into a cost of living crisis with groceries up 31%, that affected people's enthusiasm for climate change action when China was building one coal plant a week (adding 95 GW in 2024)- underlying the need to provide immediate relief to American working families and elderly through tax cuts, benefits and shifting tax dollars from climate change action to working families in the next 4 years. This is the approach taken under the DJT One Big Beautiful Act of 2025. Basically what the DJT side of the story is on emissions- US has only 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, cut this by half to 6% and assuming the EU which has 6% of gas emissions also cuts by half to 3%, the saving just 9%  while the 82% of emitters China, India, Russia and Brazil etc not making the cuts needed the impact on climate change is not significant. If China and India want relief US working families also need relief.  ...

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US Naval Blockade Day 10- US stock markets up 4.1% for 4 months, oil price $95 a barrel, prices at pump $4.02 down from $3.94 a month back. If all the US seeks out of an agreement is getting nuclear material out of Iran to keep nuclear weapons out of the Middle East based on 5 decades of war in the Middle East- Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and now Iraq/ Lebanon- this is to protect the people of the world from nuclear weapons, including China, India, Brazil, Russia, EU and other nations. This was the goal of Democratic administrations also, only the Republican approach is to err on the side of safe and take zero chances on future nuclear escalation while the Democratic administrations were based on trust, trust which is not a sure thing in the Middle East political and cultural environment. Some of DJT comments were bluster, but the basic position is the same- against nuclear proliferation for a safer planet. In this light the Naval Blockade only seeks not to block Iran's path to a prosperous economy and a bright future for its people. Iran's economy is affected in the same way that India's and China's, Africa's is affected, for upwards of 4 billion people compared to 100 million for Iran. Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Indonesia, among the poorest in the world, poorer by far than Iran. The economic impact on this part of the world is not part of Iranian perceptions. The economic impact on Gulf kingdoms an adversary of Iran is by comparison only a small fraction of the impact on the poorest countries. In this situation US is working to support the poorest segments of the Chinese people ( the part of China in the hinterland that is the one third not urbanized) and the Indian people through its cooperation and direct or indirect support. In this perspective the US economy stands as a steadfast support for US policy of fairness and respect for all nations since 1900- US is not one of the colonial powers such as Britain and France who created some of the artificial states Syria, Iraq, out of the remains of the collapsed Ottoman Empire in the interest of their Empires by 1921, and setup regimes in Iran for its oil, that are the source of today's problems and wars. No Empire of Britain and France promised Iran $28 billion as this Nation does today if Iran ships nuclear material out of Iran for a 100 percent shift to a peaceful Middle East that works for the modernization and industrial development of its economies in the interests of the people. ...

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During the coronavirus the market is pushing some buyers out of the market while other buyers are willing to pay higher prices. Limited stock, cheap financing, and low fuel prices are pushing buyers into more expensive models with higher prices. The average new vehicle sold in August in the U.S. was at $35,420 according to J.D. Power. The auto market is following the housing market in this sense where limited supply is pushing up prices. Auto sales declined by 20% in August. Younger buyers are being priced out of the new vehicle market and auto makers are focusing on higher margin vehicles.

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Barcelona has been hit hard by the coronavirus. The city's small bars, restaurants and tapas places depend on the 1 million tourists visiting each year. The Las Ramblas Plaza is mostly deserted in these photos in DW.com, La Boqueria near Las Ramblas plaza is closed, airport traffic has dropped by 75% in summer months, 1.8 million depend on food from food banks with one picture of middle class persons reading newspapers while waiting for food. Many have lost their homes after losing jobs. One third of the city's hostels popular with young people are likely to close.

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Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, calls for fresh elections on September 20, 2021. His term ends in 2023. Trudeau called for elections early as government aid programs have helped Canadians during the pandemic, and Canada has managed to vaccinate 70% of the population over age of 12. The economy is expected to increase by 6% in 2021. Trudeau's party, the Liberals, are popular and Trudeau hopes to increase his progressive base. He currently leads a minority government making it difficult to pass legislation on the government's priorities for child care, clean environment, healthcare, and affordable housing.

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Hilary Mantel describes a year spent teaching English and Shakespeare in Botswana when she was 25. Here she gives a description of a year teaching in a secondary school in Botswana, while living there with her geologist husband in 1978. This is an exceptional and vivid account of what it is like for someone with the rich imagination and empathy she posseses to reach out to African teenagers 12-15 who come to life in a classroom. It is a very human account of the potential and joy for these teenagers in a remote corner of Africa in her classroom, in the midst of apathy and cynicism about learning around them.

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As the coronavirus hits the economy and money markets, not even gold and safe bonds are places people are turning to. The shortest term bonds and cash have become important. Short term money markets are strained and companies are drawing down on their credit facilities while they can be accessed. From the view of small business or big business it is liquidity and cash that matters now. People and businesses need cash to cover rent, fixed costs, other bills. Small businesses have less room for error and need to plan carefully. The dollar is surging against all other currencies. This is the situation on March 18, 2020.

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It is not a story that most people grasp or understand- the long term effects of the US immigration surge of 2023 and its source mostly from Venezuela. The  US Congressional Budget Office says labor force in 2033 ten years from now will be larger by 5.2 million people and younger as a result of the immigration surge in 2023 from about 1 million immigrants each year in the 2010's to 3.3 million. About 2.5 million crossed the southwestern border in 2023. Much of it the result of the collapse of the Venezuelan economy and its middle and upper classes leaving the country. This was worsened by the US sanctions on the Maduro government including under president Trump, say experts in an adjoining NYT article on the 7 million people who left Venezuela to go to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile since 2012, then making their way up the Darien Gap to the US. Something that could have happened under a Republican president if the US Congress could not reach bipartisan agreement on correcting asylum and parole policy. As a result of this surge US Gross Domestic Product  in 2033 will be 3% larger. When the large Asian economies are seeing a aging workforce, Japan for the last decade and China now following Japan, the US labor force will be younger than it would be without this unusual surge in immigration of the last 2 years. The federal deficit will be smaller at 6.4% instead of 7.3% in 2033 as immigrants will pay taxes on income. Another aspect of this larger infusion of immigrants is that after the pandemic shut down immigration entirely there were severe shortages in the hospitality and restaurant, construction, healthcare industries. And with the trillions of dollars in investment that the Biden administration is making with more factories - this will absorb most of the immigrant surge by 2033. With some positive effects in the competition with rising Asian economies China and India. Particularly consider with the younger demographic India of 1.4 billion people. It will mean more factories can be built in the US and there will be workers for these factories in the US at wages that keep the US economy competitive years from now in 2033. This is a sobering aspect of the current situation viewed from what will be seen by America's younger generation. And under the bipartisan compromise in Congress correcting asylum and parole policy that was shut down by the former president, Republican senators understood very well that the immigration surge of 2023 would have some constructive effects for the long term, while its effects on the short term would be mitigated by Biden's commitment to close the border in 2024. This did not happen, yet the future for America's younger generation is bright under the Biden plan for massive investment in manufacturing and jobs in the US, and with the millions of immigrants needed to fill the jobs that investment will create by 2033. It will make America with a younger work force than Europe or China, only India having a younger workforce in 2033. ...

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King points out that trade agreements are not what they used to be as most tariff barriers are whittled down. He says more than 70% of imports come into the U.S. duty free, and the average tariff is about 1.5% declining significantly in the last 2 decades. If all import restraints are lifted it would increase U.S. economic output by less than 0.05% by 2017, according to the International Trade Commission. This figure is also cited by Krugman in the NYT with a column saying the Trans Pacific Partnership(TPP) trade agreement pushed by the Obama administration is no big deal. King also points out that the U.S. already has free trade agreements with Australia, Peru, Chile, Singapore and other TPP countries. Some experts see China's success with setting up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) attracting India, UK, Germany, France and other countries, is creating pressure on the U.S. to come up with its own response in the form of TPP with Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Peru, Chile and other countries....

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US Business has considerable apprehension about the former president in 2024 compared to its willingness to consider Trump in 2016. At the time executives from investment bank Goldman Sachs and heads of oil companies joined the Trump administration. This time US business and corporate interests are apprehensive about becoming the target of a tweet they might find the next morning under a Trump administration. They are not supportive of student loan forgiveness, but when it comes to the CHIPS and Science Act they see president Biden as effective and helping industry. Business leaders have a negative view on the Trump effort through appointment of 3 Supreme Court Justices of overturning decades old rights of women on abortion, and on this issue alone many will support Harris-Walz, overriding other concerns they might have. The visions of Harris and Trump are so vastly different with one calling climate change a hoax and hyping up social issues and infrastructure needs without any record of delivery when in office, and the other a strong position on climate change, wages and income, delivering on infrastructure and CHIPS that US Business. The result is that it leaves US Business with no better option in 2024 than to support the vision  that takes America forward. There are different sections of the business community which have different priorities.  Silicon Valley, and oil, pharmaceuticals because it profits most from light regulation which brings with it social costs is a special issue not addressed here. Other business, banking, automobiles, and a range of other industries have other priorities yet also see the need for the economy and the US to move forward with a different vision than one that simply ignores climate change, and fails to address child care, child poverty, wide disparities in wealth, and other issues facing of wages, cost of living facing most Americans.  ...

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Claire Cain Miller provides this exceptional account of the ways lack of family friendly and maternity leave policies is hurting not just women in America, but America's economic and technological progress. Strangely one hears little about how the lack of paid leave for women for maternity and other reasons, even as it hurts economic growth with the lower participation of women in the labor force. This is being vigorously discussed in Germany and Japan with calls for more family friendly workplace policies and more child care facilities to encourage women to join the workplace or continue working and pursuing careers. This happens when the overall labor force participation rate for women and men in the U.S. is declining, making this an important issue. Equally significant is that this reduces the contribution women can make to technological and scientific progress, and productivity improvements, because 59% of higher education degress are now going to women. The case of a Toshiba research engineer who was able to tackle a problem critical to development of the next generation of television technologies after Toshiba let her continue in her research role with friendly maternity leave policy, is an example of the kind of technical progress lost to the economy without such policy in Japan or in the U.S. See the link for Toshiba. Miller provides the example of Google, where attrition for women employees dropped by 50% with family friendly maternity leave policies. For Google, Toshiba, and other companies with women having advanced degrees the cost of hiring a new employee or making up for the loss of losing valuable women employees is significant. The U.S. is the only developed country without paid maternity leave. Only 59% of workers say their employers offer them paid maternity leave. California is the first state in the U.S. to offer paid parental leave. ...

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In parts of Mexico sugary softdrinks are easier to access than clean tap water, says this report in DW.com. This is a problem that existed in Mexico for many years. Amy Guthrie in the WSJ August 28, 2013, described the problem in -Health Problem over Soda Flares in Mexico- which was shown in Lyrarc.com in 2013, showing the US, Chile, Mexico and Argentina with high consumption of sugary softdrinks and high rates of diseases related to this. Mexico's government has made efforts to increase awareness about the risks and dangers of overuse and Bloomberg philanthropy has made efforts to increase awareness. Yet the problem has persisted. The risks are high for countries such as India, China, Vietnam. One ad in Mexico City subways showed 20 ounce sugary softdrink bottle and asked "Would you take 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar?" Mexico passed the US in countries with high obesity rate over 100 million people in 2013. Higher all cause mortality was shown in a European study of 451,000 people for people drinking more than 2 glasses of sweetened softdrinks a day, with data collected between 1992-2000 and supporting public health campaigns limiting the use of such sweetened softdrinks. ...

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These amazing BBC Science pictures of a distant galaxy show a black hole measuring 40 billion km across- a staggering 3 million times the earth's size. More amazing 8 telescopes located in places such as the South Pole and the Atacama desert in Chile were put together to get pictures of a galaxy 500 million trillion km away. Prof. Halcke of Radboud University, Netherlands, proposed the experiment. He says the galaxy called M87 is larger than the entire Solar System, and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. The images show an intensely bright ring of fire surrounding a circular dark hole. The superheated gas falling into the hole gives out more light than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined. The gravitational pull near the edges is so great that nothing comes out. Falcke had the idea from a PhD. projec in1993. No one thought it was possible to take an image until Falcke realized that a certain type of radio emission would be generated close to and around the black hole, strong enough to be detected by telescopes around the earth. After struggling for 20 years Falcke got the European Research Council to fund the project. Others including NSF joined to fund it for 40 million pounds. ...