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Lucy Powell Central Manchester MP elected Labour's Deputy Leader with 54% of the vote in 17% vote turnout. In a sign of the big changes in UK politics and economy Lucy Powell was fired by PM Starmer as leader in the House of Commons as recently as September 2025. Starmer clearly has not led the Labour Party in Britain in ways that would win the confidence of the people of Britain as demonstrated in a recent Wales by-election with Labour having only 11% of the vote after Reform in a previously safe seat.  Lucy Powell says about the lack of listening within Labour to the grassroots people and organization- “I think we often feel like our members and elected representatives are something we need to stand against or not value. They are our strengths. “They connect us to the national conversation. Instead of just telling people what we want them to do, we need to respect, value and include them more, and recognise that debate is not division or dissent, and recognise you have to take people with you and hear from broader voices, not just a narrower group of voices. “They haven’t felt they have been included and connected as they should in recent months, and that’s what often happens when you go into government. “I’m going to really help to do that, to re-engage with the party, and make them feel part of the conversation again. I’ll do that through working with Keir [Starmer], working with government, working right across the party in the leadership roles that I will have.”     ...

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Coal India, is a state run monopoly which is a huge stumbling block for India's economic development. India lags behind Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia in the percentage of the population having electricity. Production methods do not use modern technology similiar to mines in other countries, and the average age of the 333,000 employees is 45-50 years. An eight hour shift at some mines produces as much coal as a mine in the U.S. does in 5 minutes, because of the lack of modern technology. About 300 million Indians lack electricity. The Modi administration's focus is on improving efficiency, introducing competition, and bringing major technological changes to the coal industry. Piyush Goyal, India's Coal minister faces one of the biggest challenges in the Modi administration. His focus is on efficiency, and the Modi administration has set a target of 1 billion tons for 2020, a 15% increase in production each year for the next 5 years.

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An account of the education, influence, political and economic positions of sons, and grandsons of the Communist leaders under Mao-tse-tung from the 1940's and 1950's. This story by Jeremy Page covers Bo Yibo, a veteran Communist leader under Mao, his son Bo Xilai, party secretary in Chongqing, Politburo member and candidate for the Politburo standing committee in 2012, and his son Bo Guagua, a graduate student at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. The salary for aminister is said to be 140,000 yuan or $22,000 a year. Yet because of the power and economic influence of the Communist party leaders and their offspring, and the state run economy, a great deal of wealth and influence is controlled by this group. In 2010 an internet account described the son of a former vice president buying a $32.4 million harbor-front mansion in Australia.

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Paul Tough's detailed and vivid account of the problems in Chicago's South Side in 1987 when Obama worked there as acommunity activist, in 2007 when Obama visited the area and expressed his vision about what was needed for the Roseland section, and in 2012 when Tough visits Roseland to document life today in this part of Chicago. He sees the same problems and a need for an all round approach to help kids of parents without work living below the poverty line to provide not just financial help but the kind of support and institutional help that would help them overcome the disabling effects of growing up in broken homes and counteract the destructive effects of a poor environment surrounding them. He left Roseland with a feeling that the President has not pushed hard to accomplish much of what he started out to do and let opportunities slip by.

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The epitome of massive distortions in the way capital is allocated in capital markets of the last two decades even as healthcare, childcare, manufacturing technologies and infrastructure was starved of captal funding is Masayoshi Sen and Softbank which posted a $23 billion loss in the April-June 2022 quarter. This is one and half times the loss in the first quarter. Heard on the Street in WSJ dismisses Mr. Sen's contrition on these losses as this will continue into the future it says, and is simply the style of these types of extreme speculation funds. It obscures a larger problem in society and in America and Europe of capital markets giving the pass on such wasteful use of capital on huge scale amounting to trillions of dollars and not funding desperately needed healthcare, education, infrastructure, childcare and other needs of the 900 million people in these countries. Even the claims of profits hangs hollow on the necks of these investments, with dubious selection of many projects. Capital returns are insignificant or zero as the WSj says many of Softbanks funds have net zero gains since 2017. Yet extravagant demands for capital are met with extravagant supply where the needs or reasoining are the least credible in today's distorted capital market allocations causing egregious harm to the 900 million people of the US and Europe.   ...

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Of 20 pictures of Shinzo Abe shown in this photo gallery in the WSJ the ones by Kashiyama of Abe on his knees at Iwo Jima recovering remains from the battle in World War II, and by Numata of a safety drill with children in Chiba perfecture where he is seen seated on the ground peeking through metal bars with children, are a must see. Shinzo Abe who led Japan through the 2000-2020 period came from a politically privileged family, but went much beyond that- building relationships with leaders such as Narendra Modi in India and nurturing the India relationship in an act of immense foresight, encouraging an independent minded policy yet working with the US, and defending Japan's position in Asia yet continuing to foster the trade relationship with China and seeking better relations with Russia.  Leaders of US, EU, Germany, France, India, Russia and China, personally felt the loss of Abe in the words they chose to describe the loss. India declared a day of national mourning, showing how far Abe had carried Japan's relationship with India and the number of visits he made to India. ...

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Brazil's growth in 2011 is expected to come in at 3%, much lower than expected. This is a sharp decline from 7% growth in 2010. A modest stimulus of $1.5 billion through tax cuts was announced by the Brazilian government. Brazil's central bank made three successive cuts in interest rates to counteract the slowdown in the economy.

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Panasonic's decision to close a plasma television plant in Shanghai. Panasonic is now focussing efforts on new OLED television technologies with four times the resolution of high definition sets. At one point in early 2011 plasma represented 40% of Panasonic television sales, in the current fiscal year ending March 2013 plasma will be down to 16%.

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China has the largest shale gas reserves in the world. The U.S. Energy and Information Administration estimates this at 1,275 trillion cubic feet. Most of this is deeper in the ground than in the U.S. and will be harder and costlier to recover. China's goal is to reach 3.5 trillion cubic feet of shale gas production by 2020.

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A subsidized lending program which takes off 4 percentage points off interest rates on loans that enterprises take from lenders will be extended to end of 2011. Since its introduction as part of stimulus measures, domestic banks have loaned $22.9 billion. Growth is targeted at 6.8% for the fourth quarter. to give an average of 5% for 2009.

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150,000 homes in Los Angeles region that mostly empty are owned by foreign buyers 2025 who live in China and use it as an investment or asset to use when needed. This is a sore point for people who cannot find housing after losing their home in wildfires. Many of these homes are in the San Gabriel Valley- Pasadena, Arcadia, Temple City and San Marino.  Investors in such homes come from China, Mexico and South Korea, and real estate agents say about 1 in 10 homes are going to foreign buyers in these suburbs. Restrictions on moving money overseas by China's government has reduced the flow of international buyers in recent years.

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Facebook users who share photos on the internet now have less need to print photos using H-P's costly ink cartridges. Revenues at the printing division declined by 7% in the fiscal year ending in Jan 2012 compared to the prior year. Operating profit margins in the printing division have declined to 12.2%. There are questions also about how the floods in Thailand and hard drive shortages could have affected PC sales this significantly.

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Mexican president Lopez Obrador overhauled the way the Mexican government buys pharmaceutical supplies to avoid being overcharged by suppliers. This has led to some shortages.The government says this has led to significant savings. It says the government paid out 58% more for medicines and acquired 38% less in medical supplies under the previous arrangements. The Mexican government first handed purchases of all drugs to the Finance Ministry and then in mid 2020 to a UN agency, the UN Office for Project Services which will handle purchases till 2024. 

The UN agency says it secured 97% of the supplies but only 44% of the medicine has reached hospitals across Mexico, according to Insabi the agency set up by president Lobrador to provide access to medical care to people without social security. This is because of logistical problems.

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The Kristian Anderson memo to Dr. Fauci is the No. 1 story in the WSJ on June 5. This memo written on Jan 31, 2020 shows the initial reaction of the leader of five virologists to the coronavirus genome. Nicholas Wade writing in WSJ cites this memo as having missed the censors marker as the emails to Fauci were released under the Freedom of Information Act. The initial reaction is cited in the Anderson memo to Dr Fauci as seeing "unusual features" in the virus. These were in a small percentage of the genome, "so that one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered." Mr. Anderson goes on to note that he and his team of virologists 'all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory." What does Anderson mean by this important phrase? Anything inconsistent with evolutionary origin has to be man-made is the conclusion drawn by many virologists including David Baltimore, cited here in the WSJ. Virologist later modified their stand saying it was evolutionary because of professional interest in not starting a what WSJ calls "storm of condemnation" over gain of function research, a exotic name for genetically enhancing the pathogenic power of viruses or increasing its transmissibility effect. Nicholas Wade is a Science writer who has worked for Nature, Science and The New York Times. ...

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Jaguar Land Rover is dropping the Land Rover name and will be called JLR with an all electric line planned by 2036. The holding company JLR will have 4 brands- Range Rover at the high end, the off-road Defender made in Slovakia, the Discovery as a family brand, and the Jaguar now priced at the high end. The strategy is designed to cope with stiff competition from Tesla and other EV brands, by moving it upscale- the average price of JLR going to 77,000 pounds from 44,000 pounds.  Batteries will be sourced from a new gigafactory in Europe built by Tata Motors, the parent company. A new Range Rover all electric will come out in 2024. With the new strategy only 330,000 vehicles would take it to breakeven instead of 660,000. JLR turned profitable in the last financial year generating cash flow of $1.3 billion pounds in last 6 months. It will invest 15 billion pounds over 5 years. 29,000 employees out of 40,000 will be upskilled to support the all new electric line to build, sell and service new EV's. ...

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Queen Elizabeth's words on April 5, 2020 during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic will always be remembered, when she said reminding one of of her words in 1940- "We will meet again." "I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humored resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterize this country. The pride in who we are is not of our past, it defines our present and our future." "And though self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths, and of none, are discovering that it presents and opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation. "It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made in 1940, helped by my sister. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor, to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety. Today once again, many people will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know deep down, that it is the right thing to do. While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed- and that success will belong to every one of us. "We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return, we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again."   ...

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The first six years since 2001 were years of short term quick fix solutions for Afghanistan, and policy since then has not been much better. And considering the tribal nature, hostility to outsiders and history of this vast mountainous country, it is not clear what would have worked and what the realistic goals should be.

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The Indian government pushes back implementation of General Anti-Avoidance Tax Rules to April 1, 2013. India's budget deficit was 5.9% of GDP in the year ended March 31, 2012, and is increasing. The current account deficit - difference between exports and imports of goods and services- is about 4% of GDP, and is also increasing.

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The new oline e-commerce site for books from Simon and Schuster, Hachette, and Penguin is called Bookish. The site will launch in summer 2011. Other publishers are expected to join. As the number of bookstores is declining publishers are becoming more concerned about the online sales being concentrated in a few companies like Amazon.

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Comcast buys the remaining 49% stake in NBCUniversal for $16.7 billion in Feb 2013. Comcast acquired a 51% interest in NBCUniversal in 2011 with the option of buying out G.E. in 3 and half to 7 year time frame. The deal was accelerated because it would have cost Comcast more if it waited longer.

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Barton Swaim editorial page writer of the WSJ on Vladimir Putin Weekend Interview with Beatrice de Graaf of Utrecht Uiversity and Niels Drost of Clingendael Institute in The Hague, Netherlands - how Western World missed Czar Peter the Great's World View and its shaping Putin's World View creating vast misconceptions when US thinks Russia thinks like western norms.  Could the US have missed a key component of the thinking of Russian leaders in putting themselves in the line of Russian kings (Czars) since the Enlightenment with belief in nationality, autocracy and Empire of the Enlightenment. “Of course he (Putin) also refers to the Second World War, and he does refer to Stalin—but not that much. Far more often he talks about the great Russian czars.” And the great Czars that was important to Putin, de Graaf counts 3000 statues built in Russia to these role models for Putin. In the early years says de Graaf Putin talked incessantly about the modernization of Russia, Russia joining the Modern World in the years of the Enlightenment, Russia fighting off Napoleon and under the Soviets Nazi Germans. Graaf says he talked about- “Peter the Great and European interests, of Catherine the Great and literacy and the Enlightenment. He spoke of Alexander I and Europe joining to defeat Napoleon." Deep down Putin felt in these talks 11,000 of them on the Putin site which puts up his speeches and talks over a 20 year period, which Niels Grost with his fluency in Russian has looked at. Of these 3000 talks and speeches are in this reference to the great Czars. Even before Ukraine there was a sense of hurt that considering the vast expanse that Russia occupies in Europe Russia had by restoring the old Russia by 2000 found itself in a odd predicament. As de Graaf and Swain point out the US market based economy based on GDP, the US presidents such as Bush and Obama saw Russia as a  middle power based on its exports and imports, its trade, its commerce which was the only way they could see the world. This led to a special kind of shortsightedness says this interview in the WSJ. Putin's key adviser says of Russia's goal - to be seen as a Northern European Power (from WSJ) in 2025.Putin sees Russia as looking for "respect," as a goal.  This is where US business may have got it all wrong- the authors say about China and India- and the US, seeing themselves as Empires not in today's Modern World as with imperialist ambitions, but with a historic sense of regional presence across Asia and North America with their rapid modernization. DJT's talk of Canada as a 51st state, one finds US business as accepting the idea that Canada is part of the US regional influence. And under the Monroe Doctrine of 1824 revived by no less than Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, in its cooperation form by JFK in 1960, the regional influence of the United States in the Western Hemisphere is also accepted by US business and the American public. It is this context that the authors say offer an alternative view of the Russian leader and his policies. Beatrice de Graaf and Niels Drost are the author of "Putin's Czarist Dream" At that point there is in addition to nationality, autocracy and Empire of the czars the ideas embedded in Eastern Orthodox Christianity which are different says de Graaf of Utrecht University in Netherlands, from Western Christianity. This Eastern Orthodox Christian idea is a bit different from St. Augustine's just war and discussion of what constitutes a just war, and the definition of that being given under Russian tradition by Russian Czars or leaders who Putin identifies himself with such as Peter the Great. Peter the Great  created the beginnings of Russia as a modern European state in St. Petersburg during the years of the Enlightenment. In the Eastern Asian tradition the Bhagavad Gita also has a discussion of what constitutes a just war so that it extends to different regions of the world not just European. ...

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The smartphone market is critical for Sony as it makes its way back to profitability in 2013. Sony sees smartphone unit sales growing at 50% in the year ending March 31, 2013, compared to a decline in unit sales of video camcorders of 9%, decline in digital compact cameras of 29%, and decline of televisions of 31%. The Sony-Ericsson joint venture was a world apart from the current Sony Mobile business. Sony Mobile executive vice president, Kaz Tajima, expressed his frustration that Sony was missing opportunities when working at the joint venture. Decisions came slowly as they had to be approved at different levels. Sony Mobile moves quickly on all decisionmaking. Companywide technological capabilities are also quickly available in designing a new product. The Experia Z uses all of Sony's technological capabilities in design, cameras, television and other areas. It now appears that the joint venture was the worst thing that happened to Sony. Sony bought out Ericsson's stake in the venture in 2011. Sony starts with global smartphone market share of about 4.5% and has a lot of catching up to do....

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February 2024 talks between Biden and Speaker Mike Johnson that revived the effort to pass the bill for $61.5 billion aid to Ukraine. This included the efforts of Mitch McConnell to persuade Mike Johnson on the vital necessity of aid to Ukraine. See the adjoining articles on Mitch McConnell and his critical role on what might be similar to what Harry Truman did to assist Greece and Turkey in 1948 to fend off a communist takeover supported by Soviet bloc. Aid was passed through US Congress in 1948 weeks before Greece's democracy was likely to collapse.

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It took Scholz one year after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to visit Ukraine. By comparison new German chancellor Merz visited Ukraine in three days after taking office. Merz in his first speech in parliament said- “In Ukraine, nothing less than the peace order of our entire continent is at stake. In this historic moment of decision, Europe must stand together more closely than ever before.” Starmer of UK and Macron of France had already formed close relations with Ukraine in 2025. Merz, Starmer and Macron now have a clear objective not to let Russia advance its objectives in Ukraine or Eastern Europe.  This report by NYT's Schuetze and Santora from Berlin and Kviv, shows the changing situation in the war. The war is now expected to to go on for another year as the Russian side sees its economic industrial base larger than Ukraine's industrial base letting it prevail over time. Russia has spurned the offer of US peace negotiations or tacitly agreeing to it but continuing the war with large missile attacks on Ukraine. In this situation Germany plans to help build industrial base in Ukraine for war effort and supply arms and equipment, financial help. Ukraine says it needs $30 billion to continue the war effort in 2025.   ...

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U.S. president Trump announces withdrawal from the Paris climate change accords, saying the U.S. will consider re-entering the agreement  or coming up with a new deal. He said "I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris." Trump said he was concerned about the environment, and avoided saying climate change scientific evidence was not correct. He based his concerns on the idea that China and India were getting an unfair financial advantage over the U.S. The U.S. had pledged under the Paris accords to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28% from 2005 levels by 2025. The WSJ's Stokols and Ballhaus point out that president Trump had the option because of the nonbinding agreements committing nations to a broader goal of reducing emissions to combat temperature change of of 3.6 degrees F, to have modified emissions targets and still remained in the Paris accords. For Trump the motivation may have rested more on politics to shore up support in the Republican party which has largely opposed climate change targets.  ...