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Oxford University Wellbeing Research Center has developed Happiness score using Gallup surveys. US score No.10 ranking among 143 countries for older adults over 60 years. Yet it drops off steeply for young people to 62nd of 143 countries. The situation is the same in Canada and to a lesser extent in the European Union. Overall the US dropped out of the top 20 countries  falling from 15th to 23rd. The report is based on Gallup World poll surveys from 2021 to 2023. Young females recording even lower. Normally it starts with youth doing better and higher then in a U curve dropping all the way down during a midlife crisis in 30's and 40's age before rising again for older adults wi have experienced the vicissitudes of life. The US data contradicts this. Why? Jan De Neve of Oxford Wellbeing Center says it could be from social media use and growing health and income disparities. The pandemic also played a role- beginning college or a career in a pandemic was just not the way to start. Housing prices, cost of living, loneliness epidemic, misinformation and social media negative effects add to this. At the same time there is an increase in benevolence among younger people aware of the situation they face and looking for ways to mitigate this. ...

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Just days after the collapse of Francis Scott Key Bridge on the outer harbor of Baltimore, a key part of Maryland's infrastructure and its industrial and shipping jobs, this report in the WSJ shows candidates will not be discussing how they will fix the many problems from infrastructure, to rebuilding manufacturing, and investing in education, healthcare. On the same day March 30, 2024 the WSJ headline was that many other large bridges of this size all over America could collapse including Chesapeake Bay, Verrazano Narrows and George Washington in NY-NJ, and Golden Gate, San Francisco-Oakland in California. On the same day an interview with Morris Chang of Taiwan Semiconductor showed 92% of advanced semiconductor manufacturing was controlled  by TSMC with much of it located in Taiwan and China, under a business model that means advanced technology manufacturing in the US that would take the place of the lower tech textile and other mills sent to China, would also be shipped out. Manufacturers in the US including Apple HP and others agreed, leaving American workers in the lurch, hitting communities all across America without manufacturing jobs and without hope. That model has been around since the 1990's. It is as if the American people, workers and families in the US were never consulted. That story is told alongside this article in Lyrarc.com ...

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President Biden launches the US Asian Economic Framework during his visit to Tokyo. Biden's main achievement on his Asian trip is to lay the foundations for the economic framework of the free world democratic countries drawing in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, countries from ASEAN, in addition to the core of Japan and South Korea. India, Australia and New Zealand are now seen as part of the core group in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. By 2030 and 2040 this trip will be remembered for laying the foundations for the new economic relationships and supply chains in Asia, policies similar to that of Harry Truman after the Second World War that set the policies of US for the rest of the twentieth century. It is similar to the US EU Trade and Technology Council in setting a economic union of friendly free world countries in trade, technology, capital and supply chains. Four pillars are set by president Biden- digital policies, climate change action, supply chain renewal action, and transparency plus good governance. These are also the policies pursued by the Modi administration in India, which has set priorities in these four areas. The other aspects of the policies of president Biden are to set policies friendly to working families and set to promote worker incomes and conditions. ...

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As Kamala Harris offers $25,000 to home buyers to make it more affordable and sets up a $40 million Innovation fund to build more homes, sets a target of 3 million homes to be built, housing and cost of renting or owning is front and center of attention in 2024. Dougherty and Davis of NYT look at the US housing shortage and rising rents for apartments and homes. A look at Kalamazoo, Michigan, as a sort of microcosm of the US housing situation. Around the time of the 2009 financial crisis and aftermath when vacant homes on streets in many cities were being bulldozed and when there was more housing than people needed the seeds were being planted for today's shortage of homes. There was less interest from builders, there were restrictions on mortgages and higher down payments, capital was harder to get for builders, adding up to fewer homes being built. US demand was for 1.6 million units of housing, the supply was about 1.1 million over the next decade after 2009 leading to the buildup of a shortage of 5 million home supply. Covid changed some patters of housing behaviour. More people work from home with remote work. Then by 2022 mortgage rates were up making housing less affordable just when owners of apartments raised rents by 20-30 percent. In Kalamazoo up by 40%. ...

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Children in the US should not be directed to educational content developed by tech companies using writers in Kenya and Philippines who lack the education to do this. A data labeler that hires people in Philippines and Kenya at $8 an hour, hundreds of thousands of low cost contractors, to create content. Some of the content is of such low quality that it had to be redone by Scale employees, says this story in WSJ. It started out providing this to self driving technologies companies needing data labeling, and now does this for AI.  Samples of questions for content are - explain a moon landing to a 6 year old, says the WSJ. Serious questions about quality of content going to AI and the willingness of Tech companies including Google and Apple to not make this a priority.  Education requires a different approach for quality of content and the tech monopolies are not the ones who should be in this role to build the educational content that a team of scientists and faculty envisioned in cultural literacy for the US under ED Hirsch since the 1970's. More than at other times in US history this is important to preserve the Nation the founders envisoned. ...

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Turkish American MIT economist is awarded the Nobel Prize- but not for the work he needs recognition for the renewal of America and US Way Forward. Daron Acemoglu's work is important not just for a new look at countries that experienced colonialism noted by the Nobel folks in Stockholm. Much of his recent work on "Why Nations Fail," and "The Narrow Corridor," cover the United States and why it is important that US policies keep the goal of "We the People" uppermost. George Washington reminded America to be wary of the  "absurd notion that the many are made for the few," in his Draft of the Inaugural Address in 1789. In this sense the Nobel committee and much of the economics profession is far behind the times as the focus has shifted to how countries that were once known as developed have neglected rebuilding their industrial base, neglected their infrastructure modernization investments, and neglected workers and families connected with it, that are the foundations of progress and a better life. This is also an issue in 2024 for the right Way Forward for the US, and for nations in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. ...

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Peter Navarro Trade Adviser to US president DJT says the problem with Germany and Japan is about finished cars, but also about their strategic control of powertrain manufacturing − the engine, transmission and drivetrain components that are at the heart  of a vehicle. These components not only give the highest profit margins, they provide the highest paying manufacturing jobs. The result of their domination of engines as only 20% of the engines in cars made in the US are made in America, the rest 80% are imported from Germany, Austria, Japan and South Korea, is that the US is consigned to doing low wage labor assembly in this script written by foreign manufacturers. He calls this the gut punch from VW, Benz and BMW, from Toyota, Subaru and Hyundai.  Navarro says- "This isn’t protectionism. It’s restoration. Restoration of full-spectrum manufacturing, from bolt to body. Restoration of high-wage, high-skill jobs. And restoration of America’s arsenal of democracy. Let the restoration begin."   ...

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Fed Eccles building (1937) and Martin building (1970)  in Washington DC get $2.5 billion renovation with cost overrruns. Original approved amount was $1.9 billion. The work on the Martin building is underway for 2 years now. Issues include asbestos contamination, toxic waste on site, and design changes. This has become an issue for some Republicans and the US president as he seeks to cut waste in the national budget.

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Astoundingly in America 90 percent of people support universal background checks, yet private party sellers are not required to conduct background checks when selling guns. According to a Pew Research Center poll 67 percent of people support a ban on selling assault weapons to civilians, yet no such ban exists. It has taken this long just for president Trump to come out in favor of background checks. Ironically mass shootings have led to higher stock prices for gun manufacturers such as Smith and Wesson, as DW.com points out.  The National Rifle Association, NRA, has five million members and it lobbies hard to prevent gun control measures being passed in Congress. Members of Congress are even rated A to F based on their support for the NRA. Today an estimated 42% of Americans own guns, with 265 million guns in private hands. The NRA sees gun owning rights as part of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, believing that the right to bear arms is a basic right supported by the Constitution. The NRA over many decades has shown no flexibility in its stance and fierce lobbying has brought down every gun control measure introduced. ...

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This opinion in the Economist magazine says Britain's position in the world has never been this low since the Suez crisis in 1956. With its volatile politics and no sense of direction Britain it says has lost its place in the world. During the Suez crisis Anthony Eden's efforts to restore Britain's position in Egypt was torn down by America. The U.S. pursues its own interests first- so much for the special relationship with America. It is only when the three pillars that sustained Britain operate together does Britain have a role- its relationship with America gives it a special place in the EU, and its relationship with the EU gives it a special place with America and acts as a counterbalance to Germany and France inside the EU. The third pillar is Britain's place with the emerging world which is supported by its being a member of the EU, a 500 million people market. The Economist counts as mere deceptions the idea that British industry is handicapped by being in the EU. It says the Mittelstand has done well with the EU market, so has British industry.     ...

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In his 2019 State of the Union speech Mr. Trump calls for unity but continued emphasis on the border wall and strict immigration. Democrats offered little approval of the speech even when it sounded conciliatory on parental leave and infrastructure. The president continued his criticism of Democratic leaders Schumer and Biden in informal remarks.  The president called immigration a "moral issue," saying "no issue more illustrates the divide between America's working class and America's political class than illegal immigration," that wealthy donors and politicians call for open borders while living behind gates, walls, and guards. This is the first time a president goes into a State of the Union Speech with 37% of Americans supporting him according to a Gallup poll. The only time a U.S. president had less support was in 1983 when Reagan faced a recession and in 2007 and 2008 when Bush faced problems with the Iraq War. Another feature of this House of Representatives in 2019 after the 2018 Congressional elections is that 131 women are now in the House. The president congratulated the women to wide applause.   ...

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Les Moonves, head of Viacom's CBS television network, was an actor in a television show from the seventies called "The Six Million Dollar Man." He moved later to Warner Brothers and headed the studio which developed hits such as "ER" and "Friends" during his period at the studio. Moonves retains the instincts from this earlier period as he helped develop programming that pushed CBS into first place among television networks, beating Disney's ABC, Comcast Corp.'s NBC, and News Corp.'s Fox. He joined CBS in 1995, when CBS was in last place of the three U.S. television networks. At CBS he pushed for developing shows at the network studio level. In 2000 he came up with "Survivor"- the first reality programming, and the police investigatory show "CSI." CBS was hit hard during 2007-2009 as the ad market fell sharply and net income fell 82%, the stock losing 82% of its value. Moonves has diversified away from dependence on ads with revenues from syndication sales of televisions shows such as "CSI," and licensing to Netflix of old shows such as "I Love Lucy." Major problems facing CBS and the other television networks is the decline in the number of people watching television, with competition from streaming online video, digital recorders, and on-demand viewing. Even though CBS has the most viewers in prime time in the U.S., 11.5 million viewers, this is seeing sharp declines. In the 2012 fall seaon there was a 10% decline in viewers compared to the prior year, and a 20% decline in viewers 18-49 years old. ...

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As president Biden signs the biggest Climate Bill in history Jim Tankersley says there is still more to be done. In addition to the work remaining for children, women and families, he mentions the Civilian Climate Corps with financing for $10 billion that is patterned on the Civilian Conservation Corps set up during the Depression by FDR, which is still to be passed. This would form "the next generation of conservation and resilience workers," says Biden. Much like the 3 million people who helped build parks, cut trails and planted trees around the US in the 1930's and 1940's under FDR.

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This report in DW.com discusses the quick rise of Annalena Baerbock, 40 years, to the co-leader role with better known Robert Habeck, 51 years, at a party conference in 2018. In the winter of 2019 she was supported by a huge 97% of delegates at the party conference, with Habeck getting 90%. She has an advantage in foreign policy issues with her education in England at the London School of Economics, where she studied for her Masters degree in International Law. She speaks fluent English, rare in German politics. Baerbock spent 1 year in the US when she was only 16 years old. Very useful now with changes in Europe, the US and India. Boris Johnson in Britain, Biden in the US, and Modi in India, all speaking English.  She has spoken up against xenophobia, and being from Potsdam in the east is able to understand issues facing East Germany. A big change Baerbock says happened in 2019. Then she and Habeck decided to open up the Greens to become a big tent party that welcomes people from all sides. This was a smart choice at the time as Germans moved away from the two main parties- the SPD and the CDU. Dismay from the Schroder years when working class issues were ignored, and dissatisfaction with the Merkel years when investments in infrastructure, social care, health, education were neglected.  AfD support has stalled with the end of the migrant crisis and immigration no longer an issue. Baerbock says today of that 2019 party conference- "What we knew then was that we wanted to open our party up, that we wanted to make policies for a broad society: inviting and with clear objectives. Here today I want to make an offer, for the whole of society, as an invitation to lead our diverse, strong, rich country into a good future." Key changes that could happen in Germany in 2022- Phase out of coal powered energy by earlier date than 2038. No support for increased defense spending. Yet this is not likely to be an issue with the new American Biden administration. Infrastructure and vital investments in health and education would become a top priority similar to the US, UK and India. Careful policy coordination by Germany with the US, UK, France, India and Japan, and other EU nations, as the world shifts into a period in which lessons learned from the pandemic and the last three decades lead to renewal of supply channels and renewal of societies.   ...

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After half a million visitors overstayed visas to US  in 2023 State Department pilot program puts a bond requirement. Countries with high overstay rates will have visitors to put up bonds of $15,000, and no less than $5000 to deter such misuse of visas and ignoring US law.

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Hyundai says it can meet the 35 miles per gallon target for its automobile fleet by 2015 instead of 2020, 5 years ahead of schedule. It can do this without relying too much on hybrids, concentrating efforts in the direction of lighter materials, new engine and powertrain technologies such as direct injection, dual continuously variable valve timing, and eight speed automatic transmissions. And Hyundai can do this, says its head of R&D division, Lee Hyun-Soon, by increasing the price of the automobile by only a small amount. Lee says by increasing the cost of an automobile by a mere $100 or $200 a gain of 10% in fuel efficiency can be achieved. Meanwhile US automakers are arguing that the current requirements in a law signed by President Bush in December 2007 for 35mpg by 2020 is too stringent. The standard this year is 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.5 mpg for light trucks. See the group " Was America asleep at the spigot?"

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WSJ's Jon Emont shows how a combination of environmental activists, the fires in Indonesian rainforests in 2015- that at one point emitted as much carbon as the US hurting investment in Indonesia- and action taken by the Indonesian government to limit deforestation, have led to cleaning up supply of palm oil through deforestation. Maps show the deforestation that took place before 2015 and between 2015-2021, in Borneo and Sumatra, islands in the Indonesian chain. Opaque supplier connections to plantations all over the country made it difficult to trace the supply of oil from suppliers such as Wanda, KPN and others to Unilever for Dove soap, Mondelez for cookies, and other users of palm oil. It was the concerted and persistent effort of Greenpeace, the Indonesian government and of the companies that made it possible to clean up the supply chain. In 2018-2021 palm oil production increased by only 1%, compared to 22% for the period 2015-2018.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch of 1.6 million square kilometres near the coast of California, shown in this video from the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is one of many garbage patches in the world's oceans. It is like a peppery soup of microplastic with larger items mixed in and the peppery soup part is the hardest to cleanup. Cleanup is no easy task- cleanup of just 1% of the Pacific ocean would take 67 ships one year according to one estimate. The best way to tackle this is to tackle it at the source prevent it from getting into the ocean in the first place. Imagine 10 million metric tons of this stuff that end up in the worlds oceans each year because of a lack of public awareness of the risks and dangers of this kind of pollution that over time could pose health risks that are not properly understood today through contamination.

 

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This WSJ analysis shows China giving Huawei a total of $75 billion in subsidies through grants, credit facilities, tax breaks, and other forms of financial assistance. It is this state support that enabled a little known vendor of telecom equipment to become the largest telecom company in the world. This also made it possible for Huawei to offer generous financing terms and undercut pricing of competitors by as much as 30%, according to analysts and customers. The WSJ analysis shows loans and credit lines from state lenders of $46 billion, tax breaks of $25 billion from 2008 to 2018 with state incentives to the tech sector, $1.6 billion in grants, and $2 billion in land discounts.  In the developing countries lacking financing the Chinese state lenders and government financed a project and Huawei built it. In competitive bidding Huawei's bids came with financing from state lenders that made Huawei a much stronger bidder than competitors such as Ericsson of Sweden and Nokia of Finland. With this kind of steady support and its own determined founders Huawei changed from a small vendor when 4G was first introduced into a pioneer and leader in 5G networks in 2019. Lacking this kind of support and without clear focus of the American and European governments American and European companies now lag behind in 5G technology.  This has caused tensions in the U.S. and Germany over loss of technological leadership in key areas. The Trump administration in its trade tariffs and other actions against Huawei is responding to the issues of state subsidies in China, intellectual property of American firms, shift of factories to China, and loss of tech leadership, leading to a loss of American jobs, risks to national security. ...

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Raghuram Rajan, former chief economist at the IMF, and William White, former head of the economics department at Bank for International Settlements, both see the need to raise rates. But expert opinion on the other side sees the need for caution as the economic outlook worsens, and supports ECB and US Fed's efforts to counteract a deteriorating economic situation.

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A 2024 Study by the International Trade Commission predicted that a 25% tariff on imports would reduce imports by almost 75 percent while increasing average prices in the US by about 5 percent.  As US companies have about half of the US auto market this would mean US auto manufacturers now have access to an additional 37 percent of the market by investing in auto plants in the US. US steel and aluminium plants will get additional investment to build these cars in the US. There is nothing new about this the US makers built plants in China. Germans, Japanese and Koreans took the US for stupid by keeping US cars out of their markets and thinking this could go on while by destroying US manufacturing it was  destroying America's middle class. It also gives the Germans BMW and VW, Subaru, the Japanese Toyota and Honda, Nissan, the South Koreans Kia and Hyundai, Chinese makers of EV's the option to Make in the USA and build plants invest in US manufacturing.  ...

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A study group at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy sends a public letter to U.S. president Obama on the Iran negotiations. It says the nuclear agreement negotiated with Iran "may fall short of the administration's own standard of a 'good' agreement." It is signed by some of Mr. Obama's main advisors during the first term. Some of these officials told the NYT that the letter was the result of serious concern that Mr. Kerry and other negotiators were moving towards major concessions that would weaken the international inspections of Iran's facilities, back away from making Iran reveal suspected past work on weapons, and allow Iranian R&D to move ahead with making nuclear fuel once the accord expires. The five Obama advisors from the first term who signed the letter are: Dennis Ross, Middle East negotiator, David Petraeus, CIA director, Robert Einhorn, State Department proliferation expert, Gary Samore, chief advisor on nuclear policy, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman Jt. Chiefs of Staff. Gary Samore is president of the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran. The letter was also signed by President Bush's national security advisor during his second term, Stephen Hadley. Such a large group of advisors to presidents Bush and Obama familiar with the details of Iran's development of nuclear technology and weapons capabilities could give Republicans support to kill any agreement that falls short on inspections during Congressional Review. On this key factor where only vague assurances are made by the Iranian side- such as signing an International Atomic Agency convention giving inspectors broad rights to visit suspicious sites, followed by Ayatollah Khamanei ruling out military sites- the letter is specific. Inspections it says " must include military (including Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps), and other sensitive facilities. Iran must not be able to deny or delay timely access to any site anywhere in the country." Inspections work rigorously done is set as a precondition before any significant relief from economic sanctions on Iran....

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The marketing of the iPhone 6 in the U.S., China and global markets helps Apple widen its lead over competitors in 2015. Apple sales were 47.5 million iPhones in the 2nd quarter 2015, increasing by 35% over the prior year quarter. Apple is also gaining sales from buyers switching from Android phones. Apple's iPhone sales now make up 63% of its sales, compared with 53% in the same quarter in 2014. Sales of iPhones increased 59% to $31.37 billion as the average selling price went up by $100 to $662.42. Apple remained above the fray, and actually increased average selling price to $662, as Xiaomi sold quality Android phones at near cost in China hitting Samsung sales and margins hard, and leaving unsold inventory for Samsung in China. Rarely has a company dominated its business in this manner from the standpoint of profits with only about 20% of the market in smartphones. Apple profits in the 2nd quarter were $10.7 billion, increasing from $7.74 billion in the prior year quarter. The iPad unit sales declined by 18% for the 2nd quarter 2015, the sixth quarter of such declines and fewer customers upgrading. The iPad has also not taken off in the workplace. Mac unit sales were up 9%, even though the PC market declined in units by 9.5% globally for the quarter. Apple shares up 39% in 2015, fell by 6.7% over concerns about slowing China sales....

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The failures in Argentina's management of the economy recurring decade after decade for the last 50 years and with an historical trend, relate to the breakdown in the political process in the country, the failure of society to come to grips with the problems as one community with common interests when fighting inflation as we see in most nations including in the US, Europe and modernizing nations of Asia. As well as countries such as Brazil that have overcome their issues with inflation since the 1970's. The lack of industrialization in Argentina and Chile leaves the countries vulnerable to commodity exports. A bad harvest year can ruin the economy as no rainy day fund exists as was done in Russia after economic crises. Borrowing from the IMF leads to a cycle of repeat crises followed by IMF borrowings, austerity budgets such as Milei's when budgets can be corruption free, disciplined and efficient to begin with for a startand kept that way by the whole of society acting together under responsible political leaders. Asian nations learned from Europe and drafted their economic path, Latin America which is largely populated by emigrants from Europe has failed to do this. The differences are stark. Much of Asia experienced war and strife since the 1930's and the suffering created a dire need for good leadership and programs for modernization and infrastructure by all of society pulling together. In Latin America the failures of political parties across the spectrum has led to drugs entering the economic framework, leading to failed states in other ways, and large parts of Latin America are now affected by this problem. The results are that this affects the people of Europe and the US with illegal flows, a problem unprecedented in the history of the US since 1787.  ...